Gino Out: Long-Time DJ Leaves Monster RX 93.1

‘The Morning Rush’ lost another of its well-known voices.

Gino Quillamor announced his departure from Monster RX 93.1 this past week. He made his last appearance on Wednesday, June 20, and following the show he tweeted “Peace out!”, which led to questions from some of his followers with regards to his departure from the station.

Peace out! ✌🏻

— Gino Quillamor (@ginoboi) June 20, 2018

Gino initially joined ‘The Morning Rush’ as a substitute to Delamar Arias in 2011. Almost immediately, he and Chico Garcia clicked as a tandem, with ‘Rushers’ dubbing the duo as ‘ChiChi and GiGi’.

Under Chico and Gino, ‘The Morning Rush’ introduced new segments to keep up with an increasingly younger audience. Two of these segments, Epic Pic and Epic Rap-offs, became immediate hits with the listeners.

Even as Delamar returned from maternity leave in late 2011, RX management was so impressed with Gino that the station promoted him to work ‘The Morning Rush’ on a full-time basis. The trio of Chico, Delamar and Gino would remain together until July 2016 when Delamar left the station to focus on her family.

After Bea Fabregas briefly filled Delamar’s role, Chico and Gino continued to host the show without a female co-host for the next several months. Then in April of last year, RX found a new co-host in Rica Garcia, and this setup remained until last Wednesday.

In the wake of Gino’s departure, RX decided to keep ‘The Morning Rush’ as a three-person team by adding Hazel Aguilon as its newest co-host. But it remains to be seen if this will be an temporary experiment or a full-time gig.

Much like Delamar’s departure two years ago, RX will find it difficult to replace a Gino Quillamor. Hazel may be an established voice within the station, but filling the shoes of Gino is easier said than done.

Unless ‘Rushers’ are convinced that Hazel is a worthy replacement, ‘The Morning Rush’ will once again have to endure some growing pains. But for a show that has accomplished a lot of late despite a revolving door of female hosts (see the 2018 KBP Golden Dove Awards), they will do just fine.

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Monster RX 93.1 In a Crisis

The once tight-knit family on Monster RX 93.1 is crumbling.

Still reeling from the departure of Delamar Arias last July 29, RX endured another incident a few weeks later. On August 14, RX DJ Karen Bordador was arrested along with boyfriend Emilio Lim due to possession of illegal drugs.

At the time of her arrest, Karen was assigned to the 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. slot. Prior to that, she was partnered with Rico Robles during the afternoon.

Friends and family of Karen vehemently denied that she was a drug user. Even her ex-boyfriend Chris Tan agreed to their sentiments.

In response to the situation, the management of RX issued the following statement:

As a result of Karen’s arrest, RX was forced to make adjustments in their schedule. Initially, Hazel Aguilon, Cara Eriguel and Tom Alvarez were given longer shifts during weeknights, but recently, student DJs from the Radio1 program were assigned to man the 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. slot that Karen usually handles.

But Karen Bordador was not the only RX DJ to make the headlines. Yesterday, RX listeners were stunned when DJ Bea Fabregas announced her departure from RX following her final shift on the station’s Hip 26 block.

View this post on Instagram

Hi ❤️ My shift on Hip26 this morning was my last day as Monster DJ, this was unexpected for me as well so this will be a bit lengthy but please bear with me! . To @chicogarcia @delamararias @ginoboi931: I cannot begin to thank you all, for everything. For accepting this clueless weirdo, that doesn't like eating lol, or traveling or game of thrones and yet making me feel at home off air, but most especially the second that mic was turned on. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be able to call the you two, Chico and Gino as my radio partners. Also the rare days that Delle and I would be there together, and the four of us were on air all at once. Without a doubt the past year on The Morning Rush has brought me such an amount of joy that I could not contain, and I think that's the reason why I would laugh so hard. I don't think I've ever laughed that much in my life. Thank you so much to the three of you for accepting me, but more than anything, thank you for being wonderful people that I get to call friends now. I will always be grateful and blessed to have met you guys. . To the Rushers: WHERE TO BEGIN. You are all seriously the best. From day 1, to laughing with us, to sending in your tweets every show, to forgiving me for not playing all of your requests ✌🏼️😂 to even asking me to sign your TMR books, that I wasn't even part of ❤️ and lastly to creating the petition last month on change.org! Just like the three, you all welcomed me with open arms, and I consider that a privilege and a blessing. I love you all, and the support you have shown me here on IG, twitter, Fb and most especially on air, will be with me always. Thank you thank you thank you. . To the RX management and staff: Thank you for trusting me, and allowing this weirdo to go on air again. Thank you for the past year, I was truly able to grow as a DJ and as a person. I wish you all the best. . ❤️❤️❤️ Bye for now!

A post shared by beafabregas (@beafabregas) on Aug 20, 2016 at 8:48pm PDT

At the time of her departure, Bea was assigned to work for RX during weekends. Prior to that, the former Magic 89.9 and 99.5 Play FM DJ was an occasional co-host on ‘The Morning Rush’ with Delamar, Chico Garcia and Gino Quillamor.

No specific reason was given with regards to Bea’s resignation.

The crisis within Monster RX 93.1 is quickly becoming an epidemic. If the well-documented departure of Delamar Arias is not enough, now the station’s management needs to deal with the departure of Bea Fabregas and the incident surrounding Karen Bordador, something that could add pressure to its remaining DJs.

As the station scrambles to find replacements for their three female DJs, one must wonder if the best days of RX were now behind them. RX may be a proud and multi-awarded institution, but unless they address the situation immediately, they could lose not only their loyal listeners, but also their credibility.

For the entire RX family, the time to act is now. Good luck.