DZFE

98.7 DZFE The Master's Touch

City of license	Makati City, Philippines
Slogan	Presenting the music of the masters and the Master's Word
Frequency	98.7 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date	1954 (AM band) 1970s (FM band)
Format	non-commercial, classical music, scriptural precepts
Power	15,000 watts
Class	FM Band
Callsign meaning	DZ Far East
Owner	Far East Broadcasting Company
Sister stations	DZAS, DYFR (Cebu), DWAS (Legaspi), DXFE (Davao)
Website	http://dzfe.febc.ph

DZFE, branded as 98.7 DZFE The Master's Touch is a music FM radio station owned and operated by Far East Broadcasting Company in the Philippines. The station's studio is located in Salcedo Village, Makati City and its transmitter, sharing its facilities with that of DWNU, is located in Antipolo City, Rizal. It operates daily from six in the morning to midnight.

Beginnings

DZFE was the second radio station established by American missionaries, who founded the first station (DZAS) of Far East Broadcasting Company in 1948. FEBC’s mission of bringing “Christ to the World by Radio” was first directed toward China. However, in 1954, FEBC stepped forward to answer a government bid for the establishment of a classical music station.

On 1 June 1954, DZFE marked its inaugural broadcast, signing on at 1800 for an evening of Strauss II, Rimsky-Korsakov, Filipino musical (My Nipa Hut), and Bach motets and chorales, before signing off at 2000.

DZFE continued its association with classical music into the age of FM radio in the 1970s. Following the government restriction to one AM station per network, FEBC took DZFE off air, but soon resurrected it —this time on FM— in response to appeals from the public.^{[citation needed]}

Recent Challenges

In 1997, DZFE decided to move closer to its listeners by transferring out of the FEBC Compound in Karuhatan, Valenzuela, to Makati City.

The new millennium brought a new set of challenges. The withdrawal of foreign subsidies following 9/11, in addition to other fiscal difficulties, spurred a decision to reduce the broadcast by 40% in 2003. The station has had to resort periodically to this self-preserving measure: in 1976, DZFE cut broadcast to a mere six hours, from 1600 to 2400; in 1986, DZFE was off the air from 1200 to 1800.)

In 2005, owing to the proliferation of tall buildings around its Makati antenna, DZFE transferred its transmitting facilities to a leased site in Antipolo, and also downgraded from 20 kW to a leased 5 kW transmitter to control power costs.

Renaissance

A new dawn of sorts began in 2006 when DZFE reclaimed 10 hours of the broadcast week, restoring quality programming to the 1000 to midnight block. The prevailing concern since then has been to regain signal strength. In April 2009, after four years of problematic transmission at 5 kW (and below) off a leased transmitter, DZFE finally began broadcast from a newly purchased transmitter, entirely funded by donations from local and foreign FEBC and DZFE supporters. The transmitter, a Nautel NV20, is the first of its kind in the Philippines. DZFE is processing an increase in transmitting power from 10 kW to 15 kW.

By mid-2011, DZFE, together with DZAS, one of its sister stations, will be relocated to a new, modern office space located at Ortigas, Pasig to adjust to modern broadcast settings.