Martin Andanar recently recounted his seven years working for TV5 and how he eventually became the face of Aksyon TV (TV5's news and sports channel).

He first learned about becoming the face of Aksyon TV from talks around the office.

"Since I started in this business, I never really took myself seriously. I just do my job and I love it," he told members of the press recently.

Only  during the launch when he saw the station ID did he realize: "This is really something big and it's a heavy responsibility considering that we are pitted against other networks: ABS-CBN has ANC, GMA-7 has GMA News TV."

The 37-year old news anchor said: "It's unbelievable, I never really thought I would get this far, parang wow, nakakahiya naman."

Martin said he has several advantages: One, he's younger and two, he has a unique perspective of the news.

"We were raised in different ways and come from different walks of life; I guess my selling point was my education which is sort of a balanced exposure to different specializations."

He holds a masters in Entrepreneurship from the Asian Institute of Management.  He finished a special course on grassroots movement in Illinois, and an intensive non-profit management course from Georgetown University in D.C. He also joined the Fellow's Program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Martin also takes pride in the fact that he is very much involved in Aksyon TV (which airs free on UHF Channel 41).


He shared, "I conceptualize everything that comes out on Radio Singko, the production, the voice-over, the same with Channel 41, I'm the visual voice-over, so doon pa lang sa inception ng channel and radio, I'm part of it."

He also handles the Y convergence sector, meaning, how TV content is translated for use to different traditional and non-traditional platforms. He's also in charge of "how the plugs should be created, the identity, and image of the station."

He names the late Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and John Roberts, formerly of American Morning on CNN, and Brian Williams as his influences. Locally, he admires Noli de Castro, Mike Enriquez, and Erwin Tulfo. The latter he calls his "idol, I have high respect for the person, he's the Batman and I'm his Robin."

He also credits Al Torres, the voice over of GMA-7 as a mentor. Martin worked with DZBB for three years before joining the network then known as ABC5 in 2004.

He calls himself the "accidental voice-over" of Radio Singko and now Aksyon TV as it was through a voice-over plug he posted on Facebook that the bosses found out about his talent.

Radyo Singko 92.3 News FM is the first all-news radio station on FM.

OVERCOMING A SPEECH PROBLEM. Martin wanted to be  a disc jockey when he was a Grade 4 student, listening to FM stations on the way to school every morning.


He recalled, "as a kid, I had a speech problem, I would stutter all the time."

This disability challenged him and he thought of ways to overcome it. He ended up joining elocution contests in high school, losing one in English because of stage fright and bouncing back by winning one in Filipino.