Ramon “RJ” Jacinto: The Guitarist Behind DZRJ and RJ Planet

For someone encountering the name for the first time, “RJ” can seem to mean several things: a radio station, a guitar shop, a live music venue, or a television channel. Behind those initials is Ramon Jacinto, a Filipino guitarist, recording artist, broadcaster, and businessman whose career has connected those activities for more than six decades.

His importance to Philippine radio comes from that connection. As a young musician, he wanted access to records, recording equipment, and an audience. Over time, he helped build the businesses that could provide them. DZRJ became one of the country’s influential rock stations; its facilities later carried the historic Radyo Bandido broadcasts during the 1986 People Power Revolution.

Born on June 3, 1945, in Pasay, Jacinto grew up in a prominent business family. His grandfather, Nicanor Jacinto, was associated with the Philippine Bank of Commerce, while his father, Fernando P. Jacinto, built major interests in steel. Business was part of his upbringing, but music offered a direction he could pursue himself.

One of his earliest musical influences was someone outside that business world. In a 2024 interview, RJ remembered hearing his grandfather’s driver, Onorio, play the ukulele in Baguio. He was about eight when he learned a few chords from him. Around ten, he moved to a guitar bought in Manila’s Raon district. Its strings were difficult to press, leaving his fingers blistered, but he kept playing.

At Ateneo, he formed a band with schoolmates. Initially called Ramon and the Riots, the group performed at a school Christmas event on December 5, 1960. RJ recalled the instrumental music of Duane Eddy, Johnny and the Hurricanes, and later the Ventures as important influences. His composition “Weightless,” released by Dyna Records in 1961, helped establish him as a recording musician.

The next step brought music and enterprise together. While still a teenager, he established RJ Enterprises and developed a recording studio. The company’s history identifies an Ampex three-track recorder as an important early investment. Multitrack equipment allowed sounds to be recorded on separate tracks, giving musicians and producers greater control over a finished recording. The studio became another way for RJ to participate in music beyond performing with his band.

DZRJ grew from the same youthful enthusiasm. Station histories place its beginnings in 1963, when Jacinto and friends operated from his parents’ backyard. In his own recollection, a dressing room beside the swimming pool became their broadcasting space. These beginnings were on AM; the familiar RJ 100.3 FM identity developed later.

For a young listener, a station could provide something a record collection alone could not: the feeling of discovering music alongside other people. DZRJ developed that connection through its presenters and programming. Its identities as “Boss Radio” and “The Rock of Manila” became associated with a dedicated rock audience.

Meanwhile, Jacinto’s responsibilities expanded in another direction. After graduating with honors in economics from Ateneo de Manila University, he joined the family’s steel business and rose to senior management at Iligan Integrated Steel Mills. Industrial management and music would remain overlapping parts of his working life.

DZRJ’s influence also depended on the people who developed its sound. Station manager Alan “Double-A” Austria and program director Emil “Charlie Brown” Quinto were important figures in its early programming. The program Pinoy Rock ’n’ Rhythm, associated with presenters including Bob “Bob Magoo” Lopez-Pozas and Dante “Howlin’ Dave” David, gave airtime to Filipino rock recordings and submissions from unsigned musicians. Acts such as the Juan de la Cruz Band and Anakbayan reached listeners through this environment.

That mattered because airtime could help turn a local recording into something listeners recognized and requested. RJ supplied the platform; programmers, presenters, musicians, and audiences helped give it a distinct identity. His broadcasting legacy includes that network of people as well as the stations carrying his initials.

Martial Law interrupted his life in 1972. Jacinto’s radio stations and family business assets were taken under government or military control. He remained abroad and spent the succeeding years in exile, returning only after the fall of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Music continued during that separation. His official biography recounts recording “Muli” and “Don’t Let Go” in San Francisco in 1977 and sending the recordings back to the Philippines. A musician cut off from his home audience could still reach it through a song.

In February 1986, DZRJ acquired a different place in national history. After military action disabled Radio Veritas’s main transmitting facilities, June Keithley continued broadcasting through DZRJ. The broadcasts became known as Radyo Bandido. Elizabeth L. Enriquez’s research documents how the station’s technicians helped listeners find the broadcasts and how provincial stations relayed their coverage.

Keithley’s voice, the technical staff, and the people who kept the operation running were central to that achievement. Jacinto was still abroad during the uprising. DZRJ’s place in his life story rests on the station he had founded becoming a crucial communications platform during a national crisis.

He returned to the Philippines in March 1986. By June, DZRJ had been transferred back from military administration. Its return created an opportunity to rebuild, and Jacinto pursued a musical direction centered on familiar records from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The young rock enthusiast was now addressing listeners whose favorite songs had become memories.

The same audience helped sustain a new venture. Bistro RJ opened on July 25, 1986, combining a restaurant and lounge with live bands. In a September 2026 interview, Jacinto recalled its beginnings on Pasay Road and the relationships formed among its customers. Radio and the venue complemented each other: listeners could enjoy familiar music on air, then hear musicians perform it in person.

His guitar business grew from a practical concern with sound. Working with Filipino luthier Rudy Discipulo, Jacinto pursued instruments that could deliver the different tones he needed while performing. RJ Guitars subsequently expanded into manufacturing and retail. The partnership illustrates another important relationship in his career: a performer’s requirements meeting an instrument maker’s skill.

The wider enterprise also developed television, recording, production, and music education activities. RJ TV began broadcasting in 1993, extending the group’s reach beyond radio. Today, these businesses are presented together through RJ Planet, the group’s website and public-facing identity. Rajah Broadcasting Network is its broadcasting arm.

For radio listeners, two services are especially relevant. RJ 100.3 FM is the music flagship, promoting “The Greatest and the Latest.” The group describes its approach as mixing established favorites with newer music rather than restricting the playlist to a single genre. DZRJ 810 AM, identified as Radyo Bandido, provides a separate platform for discussion and public-affairs broadcasting.

The distinction helps explain why the same initials can evoke different experiences. One listener associates RJ with familiar songs; another remembers its place in political history. The broader group brings those strands together while also giving musicians places to record, perform, learn, and obtain instruments.

Jacinto has also worked in government. Under President Rodrigo Duterte, he served as an adviser on economic affairs and information and communications technology. In 2020, he was appointed a Department of Information and Communications Technology undersecretary, followed later that year by an appointment as presidential adviser for telecommunications. These are past appointments, separate from his continuing music and business career.

His personal life includes his marriage to Frannie Osorio Aguinaldo; he was previously married to Marilou Tuason Arroyo. Across his professional life, the people who shaped his work range from Onorio, who introduced him to a few ukulele chords, to his schoolmates, station programmers, broadcasters, and instrument-making collaborators.

RJ remains publicly identified with performance as well as ownership. His official biography lists RJ Sunday Jam, broadcast on radio and television, and regular live appearances at RJ Bistro. A September 2026 profile continues to identify him as founder and chairman of the RJ Group of Companies.

The thread connecting all these activities is music. A boy learned some chords, a school band found an audience, and a young enthusiast helped establish a radio station. The station’s history then became larger than his own, shaped by Filipino rock musicians, memorable broadcasters, and a revolution. That combination of personal enthusiasm and shared history is what gives the RJ name its lasting place in Philippine broadcasting.