Robert Stewart

Also known as: Robert "Uncle Bob" Stewart · Uncle Bob Stewart · Robert La Rue Stewart — full legal name · Uncle Bob — the on-air persona

Media

Definition

Robert Stewart — Robert La Rue Stewart, born November 19, 1918 in Tucson, Arizona; died April 5, 2006 in Phoenix, Arizona — was the American war correspondent, entrepreneur, and broadcast personality who founded Philippine radio station DZBB in 1950 and, from it, built the company that became GMA Network. He came to the Philippines in 1943 as a war correspondent for United Press, stayed after the war, married Loreto Feliciano, a widow from Pampanga, in 1949, and on March 1, 1950 organized his broadcasting venture as Loreto F. de Hemedes, Inc. — his wife’s name — which signed DZBB on from the Calvo Building on Escolta that same day and was renamed the Republic Broadcasting System in 1963. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — DZBB-AM, Wikipedia — GMA Network) On October 29, 1961 he put its television sibling on the air as DZBB-TV, RBS TV Channel 7, the country’s third television station — the founding pair from which the modern network grew. (Wikipedia — DZBB-AM, Wikipedia — GMA Network)

To generations of Filipino listeners and viewers he was “Uncle Bob” — the on-air persona of The News with Uncle Bob (from October 30, 1961) and of Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club, the first live television show for children in the Philippines, which ran from November 4, 1961 to April 30, 1994 with his puppet sidekicks Spanky the elephant and Pancho the worm. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart) The ownership that ended his control was political: after the September 1972 martial-law shutdown of his stations, the 1974 ban on foreign ownership of Philippine media forced Stewart and the American Broadcasting Company, which held 25 percent, to cede majority control to Gilberto Duavit Sr., Menardo Jimenez, and Felipe Gozon — Gozon his own attorney — who relaunched the station in 1975 as GMA Radio-Television Arts; his wife Loreto, for whom the company and the DWLS call letters were named, was its president when the takeover ensued. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart (no article at “Robert Stewart (broadcaster)” — 404 verified this session)
Wikidata	N/A — entity search returned no item this session
DBpedia	N/A — lookup returned no result this session
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart DZBB 1950 Republic Broadcasting System GMA Network American broadcaster Philippines Loreto de Hemedes martial law foreign ownership Lucky 7 Club
ConceptNet	N/A (ConceptNet API unreachable this session)
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart
Uncle Bob Stewart
Robert La Rue Stewart — full legal name
Uncle Bob — the on-air persona

Examples and Analogies

The correspondent who stayed: Stewart is the Philippine case of the foreign correspondent who covered the war and never left — arriving with United Press in 1943, marrying into a Pampanga family in 1949, and spending the next decades building the country’s airwaves. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
A network founded in a wife’s name: barred in practice from owning the enterprise himself, Stewart chartered it as Loreto F. de Hemedes, Inc. — his wife’s name — and she, not he, held the presidency when the 1974 takeover came: the corporate device by which an American could build a Filipino station at all. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)
The acorn and the oak: DZBB’s 1950 signal from the Calvo Building, on mostly second-hand equipment at 10,000 watts on 580 kHz, is the acorn of what is now the country’s largest broadcast company — the lineage this wiki’s entries on DZBB and GMA Network carry forward. (Wikipedia — DZBB-AM)
The children’s uncle as civic shield: when the Macapagal administration moved to deport him in 1961 after his stations supported the defeated Carlos P. Garcia, letter-writing campaigns by the children who watched Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club helped shame the government into backing down — the audience of a puppet show mobilized to save its host. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
Verified biographical data:
Born: November 19, 1918, Tucson, Arizona, U.S. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
Arrival: 1943, as a war correspondent for United Press; marriage: Loreto Feliciano, a Pampanga widow with three children, met 1948, married 1949 (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
Company: Loreto F. de Hemedes, Inc., March 1, 1950; renamed Republic Broadcasting System in 1963; corporate name Republic Broadcasting System, Inc. formalized May 28, 1974, kept until 1996 (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)
Radio: DZBB’s first broadcast March 1, 1950 (formal launch as a Manila station June 14, 1950), Calvo Building, Escolta, 10,000 watts on 580 kHz; DZXX, the first pop music station, 1955, later relaunched as DWLS — Loreto Stewart’s initials — in 1976 (Wikipedia — DZBB-AM, Wikipedia — GMA Network, Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
Television: DZBB-TV, RBS TV Channel 7, October 29, 1961, on a surplus transmitter and two cameras — the Philippines’ third television station; regional sister DYSS Cebu followed in February 1962 (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)
Programs: The News with Uncle Bob (October 30, 1961 – September 22, 1972); Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club (November 4, 1961 – April 30, 1994; continued by son Robert Jr. “Jody” as The New Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club); The Maestro and Uncle Bob with pianist Federico Elizalde, then Uncle Bob and Friends with Joselito Pascual, 1978–1986 (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
Loss of control: stations seized and closed September 1972 under Proclamation No. 1081; returned December 1972 on limited three-month permits; majority ceded in 1974 to Gilberto Duavit Sr., Menardo Jimenez, and Felipe Gozon; relaunch as GMA Radio-Television Arts in 1975 (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — DZBB-AM, Wikipedia — GMA Network)
Retirement: after the blocked 1984 Imee Marcos takeover attempt at GMA, Stewart left the country for good, dissatisfied with the Marcos regime (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)
Died: April 5, 2006 (infobox; the article’s prose prints April 6), Phoenix, Arizona, aged 87; remains cremated, returned to the Philippines April 25, 2006, and interred at Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina, beside Loreto, who died in 1996 (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)

Usage Scenarios

1. Studying the Founding of Philippine Broadcasting

The chain DZBB (1950) → DZBB-TV (1961) → Republic Broadcasting System → GMA Network runs through Stewart’s ventures, and researchers of the industry’s American-founder generation use his career as its primary document. (Wikipedia — DZBB-AM, Wikipedia — GMA Network)

2. Researching Children’s Television

Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club — the first live children’s television show in the country, with puppets Spanky and Pancho and the catchphrase “hot-diggity-dog” — is the starting point of Philippine children’s broadcast history, and its thirty-three-year run the longest of his franchises. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)

3. Analyzing Foreign Ownership and Martial-Law Media Policy

The 1961 deportation attempt, the 1972 shutdown, and the 1974 forced transfer to the Duavit–Jimenez–Gozon group make Stewart’s biography a case study of how Philippine law and martial-law policy moved foreign broadcasters out of the country’s media. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)

4. Tracing GMA’s Corporate Lineage

The company Stewart chartered as Loreto F. de Hemedes, Inc. is the same corporate person that became GMA Network, Inc. in 1996 — the continuity this wiki’s GMA Network entry documents from the successor side. (Wikipedia — GMA Network)

Strategies

Build on second-hand equipment: DZBB opened on an old surplus transmitter and mostly second-hand gear, and Channel 7 on a surplus transmitter and two cameras — the scrappy-capital strategy that put his company on both media before it could afford better. (Wikipedia — DZBB-AM, Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
Personality as franchise: the Uncle Bob persona ran across news, children’s programming, and music shows for four decades, and the franchise survived the founder — his son Jody carried the Lucky 7 Club through the 1980s, and the run closed only in 1994. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
Program for the audience the state must heed: the children’s-letter campaign that beat the 1961 deportation threat showed the protective value of a mass, sympathetic audience — the broadcaster’s shield of popularity. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
Exit rather than serve: after the 1984 takeover attempt by Imee Marcos was blocked, Stewart retired to the United States “following his utter dissatisfaction with the Marcos regime” — the refusal that cost him the network he founded. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)

Security and Safety Measures

Broadcasting under closure: the September 1972 seizure of RBS under Proclamation No. 1081 is the standing Philippine case study of media shutdown as state security policy, and the December 1972 return on limited three-month permits the template for operating under license discipline. (Wikipedia — GMA Network)
The ownership law as vulnerability: the 1974 ban on foreign media ownership that forced the transfer is the structural fact behind the Duavit–Jimenez–Gozon acquisition — the legal exposure every foreign-built Philippine media company of the era faced. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)
Political entanglement risk: the 1961 deportation threat followed RBS’s support for a defeated presidential candidate — the object lesson that editorial choices in Philippine elections carry sovereign consequences for foreign owners. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)
For researchers: the record carries small variances that citation should preserve — the death date prints as April 5, 2006 in the infobox and April 6 in the prose of the same article, and one GMA Network passage dates the group’s acquisition to 1975 where the article’s own founding history says 1974 — the name-the-source discipline this wiki applies throughout. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)

Historical Context

Stewart arrived in 1943 with United Press and stayed through liberation; by 1948 he had met Loreto Feliciano, and their 1949 marriage fixed his life in the country. The company he chartered on March 1, 1950 bore her name — Loreto F. de Hemedes, Inc. — and that same day, by the station’s own record, DZBB first signed on from the Calvo Building in Escolta at 10,000 watts; the formal launch as a Manila station came on June 14, 1950. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — DZBB-AM, Wikipedia — GMA Network) The 1950s added DZXX, the first pop-music station, and the 1961 television gamble — a surplus transmitter, two cameras, and the country’s third station — was followed within a day by The News with Uncle Bob and within a week by the Lucky 7 Club. The same year brought the deportation crisis he survived. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)

Martial law ended the founding era: the stations were seized in September 1972, returned on short leashes, and in 1974 — the foreign-ownership ban having arrived — Stewart and ABC ceded majority control to Duavit, Jimenez, and Gozon; the company name was formalized as Republic Broadcasting System, Inc. on May 28, 1974, and the station relaunched as GMA Radio-Television Arts in 1975. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network) Stewart stayed on-air into the 1980s — The Maestro and Uncle Bob, then Uncle Bob and Friends, to 1986 — but after the 1984 Imee Marcos episode he left the country for good. He died in Phoenix on April 5, 2006, aged 87; his ashes were returned to the Philippines on April 25, 2006 and interred beside Loreto — who had died in 1996 — at Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina: the founder of the country’s largest broadcast company, buried in the country he had made his own. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)

Challenges and Controversies

The 1961 Deportation Threat

After RBS supported Carlos P. Garcia against Diosdado Macapagal in the 1961 presidential election, the victorious government moved to deport Stewart — a threat withdrawn amid the children’s letter campaigns his young audience generated: an early demonstration that broadcast popularity could be political protection, and that foreign ownership was a standing political liability. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)

The Forced Transfer of 1974

Whether Stewart “sold” RBS is a question the record answers conditionally: the GMA Network history describes him and ABC as “forced to cede majority control” under the foreign-ownership ban, with Loreto Stewart president at the takeover and Felipe Gozon — Stewart’s own attorney — among the buyers: a business milestone from which the modern GMA dates itself, and a consequence of martial-law-era policy. (Wikipedia — GMA Network, Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart)

The 1984 Marcos Takeover Attempt and Departure

The attempt by Imee Marcos to take over GMA Network, blocked by its executives, drove Stewart from the country for good — “following his utter dissatisfaction with the Marcos regime,” as the record puts it. His retirement in the United States, and death in Arizona in 2006, closed a founding career the Marcos years had already ended in practice. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)

Small Variances in the Record

The founder’s death date prints as April 5, 2006 (infobox) and April 6 (prose) within the same biographical article, and the acquisition year as 1974 and 1975 within the network article — variances too small to matter to the story but exactly the kind citation must carry faithfully rather than harmonize. (Wikipedia — Robert “Uncle Bob” Stewart, Wikipedia — GMA Network)