ICRT complains about not having sponsors for it’s shows. This is correct for the reason that they do not make an effort to get and/or renew such agreements. We used to advertise on ICRT, the last agreement we had was sponsoring an oldies show. That time they just axed the the show after a few months, did not bother to tell us (found out when I tried to tune in on one fine Saturday morning). When we asked, they sent us uncle Richie (let’s bring him and his guitar back) to explain. I am sure if they come up with decent shows in English, us and similar outlets with a mainly foreign customer base would certainly consider to sponsor/advertise again. Assume they still have our numbers on record somewhere.
Richardm,
Technically, that is not an editorial. An editorial is written… unsigned …by a writer speaking for the entire newspaper. What you read is better called an editorial page commentary or an op-ed piece (for OPposite the EDitorial). Well, that’s what William Safire says…
What word would you replace ‘‘measly’’ with?[/quote]
I was thinking US1,000 might have been NT1,000. If anyone thinks that US1,000 is measley, they can give it to me.
Richardm,
Technically, that is not an editorial. An editorial is written… unsigned …by a writer speaking for the entire newspaper. What you read is better called an editorial page commentary or an op-ed piece (for OPposite the EDitorial). Well, that’s what William Safire says…
What word would you replace ‘‘measly’’ with?[/quote]
I was thinking US1,000 might have been NT1,000. If anyone thinks that US1,000 is measley, they can give it to me.[/quote]
US$1,000 as an individual contribution is not measly. From a major corporation, it’s measly.
$1000 US a year is peanuts for the 500+ corporate members of AmCham. For an individual, hey it’s a lot of money, but for Manulife, Johnson & Johnson, Standard Chartered Bank, Alcatel, Cathay Pacific Airways, Wells Fargo Bank, Nestle, Siemens, and many, many others, it’s peanuts. These are just a few of the companies I found employing individuals featured on the “new members” page.
Apparently the people at ICRT are reading forumosa.com. A friendly, young lady called me as a reaction to my post this afternoon and made an appointment to visit me together with her sales director later in the week. Keep you posted.
yeh, TavernCappy, that’s good. Wonder if the Taipei Times will let ICRT respond with its own commentary, to explain its demise? Would be interesting to hear their side of the story, not that there is one…
That does sound nice. Only thing is its called “selling”
I had a small chain of retail shops in Australia with a 500k advertising budget and radio were the most desperado bunch of all media. Don’t know if its the same here.
[quote=“Taverncaptain”]Apparently the people at ICRT are reading forumosa.com. A friendly, young lady called me as a reaction to my post this afternoon and made an appointment to visit me together with her sales director later in the week. Keep you posted.[/quote]She’s only coming because she wants your money. Maybe you can tell her “Sorry, I try to accomodate to the foreign community, you don’t, bugger off”
Oh Really BFM, I thought she is coming over to find out if I really look like my avater! Obviously she is trying to get business and those who know me do know that I will tell her what I think of the station and what would have to happen to win us and others back as advertisers.
Right, the Sales Director and Sales Executive from ICRT came to my office today and we had a very constructive chat!
- They take the recent campaign including the petition very seriously.
- They fully admit that some of the changes made were bad ones and they will correct them.
- BBC world Service News will unfortunately not come back in the near future as it is very expensive. However they will increase the number of quality people in their news department.
- They do want to serve the foreign community better again.
Think most people agree that the Morning Show is an important one for all of us. For those that come home work or a heavy night out, for those that get up and get ready to work, for those that commute to work and for those that are early at work. From February to March in phases, they will bring back a news / community hour including traffic reports between 7-8am with interviews, previews, reviews of events that are taking place in Taiwan and that means Taiwan not only Taipei.
We agreed on some advertisement deals that will contribute to a better morning show at least.
On the music front, they will add more titles to their collection, also they have already started to implement a limination of 1 Chinese Song per hour.
Personally, I am confident that the whole Petition thing at leas woke them up and that we will see some positive changes during the next few months.
Cheers!
Michel
That’s good to know TavernCaptain. But by the same token, do they know how to make the right changes, the right decisions? Who’s advising them on that? Is Forumosa (er, the admins really) involved or are they just going to be running around like a headless chicken?
YC, I am not part of the management of ICRT and cannot answer your question, all I can tell you that I think the recent petition and approach from other groups (AIT, CS, ECCT, ect.) seems to have had his affect on them. At the end they are still an enterprise and have to do what they think is the right thing, if all listeners will agree to it is another thing. I have done my part to assist financially in part, btw. been given to nderstand that talks with similar oulets are progressing well.
Many thanks for your efforts, Michel.
To keep you updated, we had a second meeting with ICRT at their place yesterday afternoon when I also had the pleasure to meet with Janet Chu, General Manager of the Station and long term ICRT man Todd Van Wyk now being the Programming & News Division Director. Second meeting was actually more constructive and chances that we can work out a good package with them that suits both parties and adds some stuff we are all missing on ICRT are fairly high. End result expected the end of this week when I will let you know.
[quote=“lane119”]Here’s the interview, only I was wrong, not an interview, a commentary piece written by two people.
Keep the ICRT true to its mandate
By Gus Adapon and Anthony van Dyck
Monday, Jan 10, 2005,Page 8
For many foreigners in Taiwan, International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT) provided a shared experience that transcended nationality, vocation, age and income. It connected us to one another and to the Taiwanese community at large.[/quote]
There were several follow-up letters to the Taipei Times last Saturday about the Op-Ed piece we wrote.
Show us the programming
[quote=“CK Rusty Lee, from Neihu,”]It was a year ago that International Community Radio Taipei’s (ICRT) morning team of Rick Monday and Bill Thissen began a petition to bring its audience better cable TV. The individual chambers of commerce, the Community Services Center and other organizations joined the effort by putting a petition on their Web sites.
Over 30,000 listeners responded and the petition was handed to the Government Information Office director. Today I have more and better choices of cable TV programming. That cooperation between ICRT and the English-speaking community is missing under general manager Janet Chu (朱雅如).
Anthony van Dyck and Gus Adapon’s suggestion (“Keep the ICRT true to its mandate,” Jan. 10, page 8) that the business community contribute NT$1,000 per year for quality English-language radio programming got me thinking. If those 30,000 listeners who signed Rick and Bill’s petition each contributed NT$1,000 a year to bringing back a quality morning show, ICRT would receive revenue of NT$30 million from a three-hour show. Chu could then do whatever she wanted during the other hours and ICRT would still survive.
ICRT chairman Nelson Chang (張安平) seems to be saying “show me the money and I’ll bring back professional announcers.” The message, it seems to me, should be “show us quality programming” and then ask for sponsorship.[/quote]
ICRT part of our existence
[quote=“Irene de Pablo”]Thank you for bringing out in public the ICRT’s issues concerning the international community in Taiwan. ICRT’s primary mandate is to serve the international community and to bridge the gap between cultures, which makes the station vital and useful to both international and local audiences.
With all these improper changes at ICRT, such as going from English programming to “Chinglish” and cutting down on all important shows and free community service ads, it has alienated its own benefactors – the foreign community. Therefore, the international community is appealing for help and support to bring back the real ICRT with its high standard of English programming and community-based services.
Our concerns and opinions about the station’s effectiveness have not even been polled, so why the abrupt changes from a non-profit station to ambitious business competition? I hope that Nelson Chang (張安平) [chairman of the Taipei International Community Cultural Foundation] could resolve this as soon as possible by bringing back the original programming.
It is to be hoped that support from the foreign community will come to light as losing the station means losing a vital part of our very existence in Taiwan.[/quote]
Who cares?
Bring back the old ICRT
[quote=“Jamie Yang, from Banqiao,”]Does it seem odd to anyone else that ICRT chairman Nelson Chang is on the one hand asking corporations to support ICRT while at the same time refusing to bring back the programming schedule ICRT’s listeners are asking for?
Chang can do anything he wants with his station, but if he presents programming that only he wants, then he needs to ask KGI Securities, Taiwan Cement and the China Trust bank to sponsor ICRT.
How many businesses will be willing to fund a radio station based solely on a promise to reverse its strategy? Chang, bring back the programming, then ask for support.[/quote]
Who killed ICRT?
[quote=“Liya Su, from Banqiao,”]It used to be a big pleasure to listen to this radio channel. It used to be a station with a foreign flavor. It used to be great when students were able to understand ICRT. The attractive male and female voices attracted thousands and thousands of listeners. It used to be full of mystery.
Right now, an unknown tornado has turned it upside down. Listeners don’t know why they are tuning in to FM100 anymore. They don’t know if the DJs’ English usage is correct. Listeners don’t want to be part of the ICRT gang anymore. Sad. Listeners are mostly turning off our favorite radio station because there aren’t any familiar DJs, except for Ron Stewart.
Many times listeners cannot even find the channel, because the music and voices are almost indistinguishable from other local radio stations. Who killed ICRT? Who will give the listeners the answer? I do care.[/quote]
Isn’t it obvious that unless ICRT measures up to any one of the online stations in N. America, it is but another semi-serious attempt to “teach” ESL while provide jobs to displaced overseas Chinese, locals and expats?
I guess it may be realistically impossible to run a real all-English, fully-professional station in Taiwan with their budget and listernership?
All of this is well and good, but let’s look at a lot of the facts:
The ONLY expats and groups lamenting the (thank goodness) slow death of ICRT are the myopic Taipei community. Really. A few grumblings south of Taoyuan might come up, but they are minuscule. Most expats who could, gave ICRT five minutes of their time when it was “good” (according to that Taipei clique) and turned it off.
A topic I’d bring up when making small talk with expats I just met would be asking them if they listened to ICRT. Not ONCE was the question met with positivity. In fact, it was as if 9 times out of 10 there’d be groans, sighs, or nervous laughter. Common gripes: Too Taipei-centric (and the irony of that comment was that it occurred at an ICRT-sponsored event in TAICHUNG!), the news was on at ungodly hours and was practically useless, the hosts sucked, the music was like “Chinese water torture” (that cheesy joke came up a few times from different encounters - and this was when it was like 100% English during prime time), and that the station had no appeal because it was stuck in a “time warp” (another phrase that came up more than a few times, in reference to ICRT) and that its why expats and locals were turning away in droves.
I tended to agree with 100% of the opinions.
As an expat, I felt the station was an insult. Here was this bastion of potential - not just for locals - but for visitors. It had the makings of being like NHK but with a healthy dose of entertainment (rather than information and education programing exclusively). It was run poorly. It couldn’t hold a candle - production wise - to the local stations who had (by Taiwanese standards) engaging personalities. ICRT was worse than the lowest amplitude junior college radio station in the U. S. It was third rate Canadian radio. It couldn’t even hold a candle to anything on British radio, and even the mind-numbingly bad AFN broadcasts in Korea were more solid - and, dare I say it - ICRT was only better than random ham radio broadcasts or fireworks at the neighborhood temple.
Outside of the Taipei/Taoyuan area, ICRT could best be described as the expat equivalent to holding puppet shows for the gods (to make a local comparison): nobody was listening.
So, why should an expat like me care if ICRT ends up offing itself?
WHY?
Since it’s f-all for the expat population outside of Taipei (and I’d gamble it doesn’t have that much importance to the majority). What benefit does it present to the entire island?
ICRT has outstayed its welcome. It’s only frustrating because I agree with the potential ICRT has. I think that is something that I would have in common with the ICRT warriors - seeing its POTENTIAL. However, ICRT has had many years to get its act together and it’s consistently failed.
Its last great stand was what, 1995? 1996?
There is a track record that it won’t improve, and all of the time, effort and finances would be best used in establishing an internet alternative.
WIFI is making inroads here. I-pods, etc keep on growing in popularity, and Broadband in home is commonplace.
So, let the terrestrial joke die. Move on. Focus your efforts into something that doesn’t have the track record as being a broadcasting albatross.
Forumosa internet broadcasting would be cool: volunteers putting together shows, a more diverse selection of music (without a doubt), more points of view, better promotions (and with much less overhead), and I think it would make more of an impact.
Also, I laugh at the clowns who objected to ICRT adding Mandarin songs to its play list. How racist is it that people through shit fits about that? In the context of those additions being a small part of a bigger problem - I understand. However, I loathe pop music from most nations and even I wouldn’t go nuts about that singular change.
I’m not out to troll and start a fight, but I am hoping ICRT falls apart and calls it a day.
I’m only disturbed that people care about it - and it’s mostly the Taipei residents. It’s bad enough that Taipei takes the dowry and lets the rest of the island fend for scraps politically, but for entertainment it’s even sadder.
Few are giving us a reason outside of Taipei to care, and it becomes clear that the reason stands that there is NO reason for us to care.
This reminds me of the guy who rallied against New Coke and started the “Coke Classic Society.” He had NEVER tasted the “New Coke,” and when presented with a taste test of old coke and “New Coke” : he couldn’t tell the difference. His efforts helped to keep the “classic” coke (which was NOTHING like the original Coke - as anyone over 40 can attest) in production and in getting “New Coke” dropped were successful.
The biggest irony was that either coke still tasted like crap.
ICRT is crap. No matter if it goes to the “old” mandate or creates a new one - its track record has always been crap.
Argh… To think, such passionate efforts could be channeled into helping long term foreigners own their own property here - and to help the economy, or for the rights of foreign spouses of local residents have the right to dual citizenship without denouncing their citizenship of birth (which Taiwanese don’t have to do).
Talk about Don Quixote and windmills! :loco:
The bottom-line is ICRT has to be a non-profit station or be run on Miracle Gas that is free as the air we breathe.
The folks who want to listen to it with the the type of programming an English station should air are simply not the major paying patrons.
The international community who has no knowledge of the local lingo will have to read whatever newspapers available to keep updated on local news. Excellent online radio is available in droves anyway.
Here is an idea that could lift it out of its doldrum. Turn ICRT, after its prolonged demise, into a training tool for local students in broadcasting. That way funding could come from the schools and maybe official sources who are interested in grooming English-savvy DJs.
Yeah but we’d still need a genuine English radio station in Taiwan.
ICRT:
Music: MOR (Middle of the Road). Boring.
News/analysis: Weak and thin.
Intelligent speech programming: Arts, science, ideas, history/politics (a rich vein in Taiwan that some of us would like to here more informed opinions about), peoples’ stories etc… Not to my knowledge.
Presenters: Iritatingly North American. No offence to those of hailing from there. It’s actually the whiney imitation American accents that are far more irritating. It just gets on your tits when foreigner comes to mean North American and the only acceptable English [sic] accent is a middle of the road American one.
I’ve been rediscovering John Peel on Radio 1 (for music) and Radio 4 for ordinary people’s life stories (called Home Truths) since he died. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but for highbrow speech across the whole spectrum BBC Radio 4 kicks arse (it’s online). Sadly it’s not exactly Taiwan centric - I would love to listen to something like Radio 4 but with a “Very Well Made in Taiwan” badge on it.
Am I wrong to think that a foreign language radio station can be anything other than middle of the road, lowbrow and arguably boring?
How about some alternative/ cutting edge / underground music. To get that, we probably would have to go the local community - we foreigners are not exactly coming up from the streets!
Hope I haven’t been too negative.
To update you, we have finalized an agreement with ICRT. Contents of agreement i.e. numbers confidential.
In a nutshell, from February 1st onwards, you will hear every Monday to Friday the Tavern Premier Sports Report. This will be aired at approx. 7’10-7’13am and lasts for approx. 90Secs. to 2 Minutes and will bring sports news from around the world. Priority will be given to the Swiss Football League, the Swiss Ice Hockey League and about Sauber’s remarkable success in Formula 1 
. Seriously, priority will be given to key sporting events that are followed around the world, as well as here in Taiwan. The Tavern Premier Sports report will be part of ICRT’s extended news segment at 7am.
What I have been briefed with, sounds that at least the 7-9am show (however still without uncle Richie and his guitar) will get back to what it used to be.