BY RAYMOND AFRICA

IT should have been launched last August but the PNP is still talking with the defense department’s Office of Civil Defense for the use of its AM (amplitude modulation) radio frequency for a police "reality radio" station.

The OCD owns AM frequency 1170 kHz which the PNP is eyeing for, among others, broadcast of real-time police operations.

It will also provide advisories to the public, receive complaints against policemen and provide prompt responses.

Plans of putting up a PNP radio station were crafted when Oscar Calderon was PNP chief last year, through the efforts of Chief Supt. Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr., former Public Information Office head and now the regional deputy director for administration of the Western Visayas police office.

Calderon, who now heads the New Bilibid Prisons, retired from police service October 1 last year. He had planned to have a 30-minute program at 5:30 a.m. during weekdays.

The PNP radio station targets far-flung areas seldom reached by newspapers and other print media. With its own station, the PNP will also save some money since as it would not have to buy expensive airtime from private radio stations.

The PNP has several radio programs in private radio stations, including the Pulis ng Pilipino at Radio Veritas (846 kHz) which airs Tuesday mornings.

The Armed Forces has dwDD (Armed Forces Radio), an AM radio station on 1134 kHz.

Sources said ranking OCD officials seem to have been changing their minds in allowing the PNP the use of OCD’s radio frequency.

But according to Senior Supt. Nicanor Bartolome, PNP spokesman, "Kinukumpleto lang MOA (memorandum of agreement) with the OCD."

The source said the frequency 1170 kHz is ideal for the PNP radio station because one of the police helplines is "Patrol 117." The other police helpline is TXT 2920.

The PNP radio station, with a transmitter site in Ubando, Bulacan, will cost around P10 million. The studio will be set up on the second floor of the Public Information Office in Camp Crame.