The post-Erwin Tulfo era in ‘Punto Asintado’ is off to an unimpressive start.
Nearly a month after Erwin Tulfo left TV5 on his own terms, the show that Erwin left behind is still searching for a permanent and regular host. At the moment, four different hosts have filled in on ‘Punto Asintado’.
They are:
- Mae Anne Los Baños
- Maricel Halili
- Alex Tinsay
- Atty. Mel Sta. Maria
Call it an unstable bunch. While the four hosts are willing and able to fill the chair, their other roles within and beyond News5 prevent them from hosting ‘Punto Asintado’ on a regular basis.
Alex Tinsay, for example, is also the host of ‘Aksyon Solusyon’ on weekdays and ‘Metro Sabado’ on Saturdays. He is also one of the hosts of ‘The 700 Club Asia’ on the GMA family of networks.
Atty. Mel Sta. Maria is the host of ‘Relasyon’ alongside Gladys Lana-Lucas (by default; original host Luchi Cruz-Valdes no longer appears on the show since June). He also fills in for Orly Mercado on ‘Orly Mercado All Ready’ on occasion, and outside Radyo5, is the dean of Far Eastern University Institute of Law.
Both Mae Anne Los Baños and Maricel Halili serve as News5 reporters. Mae Anne was one of the anchors of ‘Balita Alas-Singko’ while Maricel hosts ‘Iba Yung Pinoy’ on Sunday afternoons.
The rotating host situation in ‘Punto Asintado’ is a microcosm of the overall situation that is going on at Radyo5 92.3 News FM. Throughout the past year, some of the station’s personalities left for various reasons, and the fact that Radyo5 executives have failed to fill in the gaps made it clear that the station’s days are numbered.
When every listener thinks of ‘Punto Asintado’, Erwin Tulfo will always come to mind. This show will always be identified with him, even though he had some co-hosts in Cheryl Cosim and Martin Andanar along the way.
Perhaps Radyo5 would be wise to cancel ‘Punto Asintado’ at this point because it makes no sense continuing the show without its most identifiable personality. The show is and will always belong to Erwin Tulfo regardless of where he goes.
As for the situation at the chair, Radyo5 may need to call Ed Lingao and Lourd de Veyra’s number. A new morning show with either one of them could mitigate the loss of one of Radyo5’s standout programs.
One can only hope that Radyo5 will do the right thing when it comes to the 8:00 a.m. weekday slot. Time is of the essence, so good luck to them in figuring out this mess.
From the Tube 
It took them seven months to cancel Punto Asintado. Just this morning, they premiered BolJak with Attys. Bruce Rivera and Jesus Falcis and Mae Anne Los Banos.
Well I’m up for change and cutting Punto Asintado was a good choice. After Erwin left,it became a spitting image of Orly Mercado’s show.
Well if it becomes a success,we’ll never know?
Good for it to finally go. Punto Asintado is and will always be the Erwin and Martin show. But to get rid of it months after the two left is still a mystery to me.
Speaking of spitting image, when will Radyo5 realize that Aksyon Solusyon and Serbisyong Kapatid are too similar to each other? Serbisyong Kapatid, ever since it premiered, became pretty much Aksyon Solusyon version 2. Radyo5 should just pair Alex Tinsay and Cheryl Cosim together just to avoid any redundancy.
When the Yellow bully named Ed Lingao harassed 2 Tulfos, that’s the end of this station.
And losing listeners who wanted Tulfos on air, rather than this Lingao Something is alarming.
And they also cut off the 24 hour format. No relaxing tones anymore.
They are losing strength, from almost making MBC run with their money, now, they are nothing more than Easy Rock.
The bigger picture here is that Radyo5 is really struggling. They lost many of their old anchors and programs in the years since Martin Andanar left. It only got worse with the Tulfos’ feud with Ed Lingao. News5 couldn’t replace any one of those who left. Even LCV had to go due to personal and health issues.