The station was first operated by the Department of Foreign Affairs until it was transferred to the Radio Broadcasting Board (RBB) which was created by President Manuel Quezon on September 3, 1937. Meanwhile, in the same year, an international telecommunications conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, reassigned the letter "D" to replace the former "K" as the initial call letter for all radio stations in the Philippines. In January 1942, the RBB was abolished to give way to the establishment of the Philippine Information Council (PIC) which then assumed the function of the RBB, including the operation of DZFM. In turn, the PIC was abolished on July 1, 1952, and since then, until the creation of the Department of Public Information (DPI) in 1959, DZFM and the Philippine Broadcasting Service (PBS) had been operated under the Office of the President.