I’m interested in opinions of ICRT, this loosely connected to another post here.
Long slagged by expats, why don’t we band together and give them suggestions? Recently even taxi drivers have been telling me it is boring. I mean the morning show… is the playlist really limited to Robert Palmer, Go West, UB40 and everything else pre-80s?
For my part, I vote for a program playing more off beat/alternative music. Just an hour a week would be enough. If there is a good response from listeners then start to blend in newer songs throughout the day.
Aren’t there other radio stations in Taiwan that target the international community? World Radio, for one. When is that broadcast?
And then Bloomberg News Radio is broadcast on the graveyard shift on AM (sorry, I can’t remember the exact freq, but it is middle of the dial). It’s neat to listen to New York traffic and weather (when it is so much warmer here!)
Also, the G’Day Cafe plays Hawaiian radio – anybody know where they get their feed? Internet?
Jake’s Cafe used to play a US station too. They said they got it through cable but I am assuming that was a cable internet feed.
Should we completely give up on ICRT though? Has anyone actually spoken to them with ideas or requests for shows? Would anyone be willing to volunteer as DJ for a show?
That’s right, the dj’s are boring, pretend cool and might believe that not only Taiwanese but also foreigners like them and their shows… where did they find those guys by the way? In country music radios?
The guy from the news desperately tries every hour to pronounce his uninteresting news without stopping on every word or saying something wrong!
Alright, have a look at Realudio, listen to news and music from your homecountry 24/24!!!
Truly agree that ICRT needs some change. HOw about some nice blues would be kewl… Instead of there jazz prog. which is so boring… And truly they were djs from country station!! haha…
NO alternative? Whats wrong with those dudes!!
quote:Originally posted by Oliver:
[b]Too sad too say: ICRT really sucks…
That’s right, the dj’s are boring, pretend cool and might believe that not only Taiwanese but also foreigners like them and their shows… where did they find those guys by the way? In country music radios?
The guy from the news desperately tries every hour to pronounce his uninteresting news without stopping on every word or saying something wrong!
Alright, have a look at Realudio, listen to news and music from your homecountry 24/24!!![/b]
It’s those American DJ accents that drive me crazy if I’m unfortunate enough to have to listen to ICRT. I’m not saying that all American accents are grating, but American DJ accents are the pits (or perhaps it’s just ICRT).
Why not listen to a music station on the Net? You’ve got unlimited choices for every kind of music.
As for local stations, I never listen to ICRT. I used to like Taipei Zhi Yin (101.7). In the evening, Li Ming Ro gets into some really racy topics! But that’s a Chinese station, so if you really want a station with an English speaking DJ, I’d just look on the Net at broadcast.com or elsewhere.
ICRT has a lot of reasons for playing the style of music they do … most notably they are terrified of losing more audience share to the Chinese FM stations if they dare to tinker too much with their programming format.
They came into being in the 80s – the good old days of martial law, which kept the competion down; and an environment which let them use guanxi to circumvent licensing problems and keep their prime broadcasting spot up on Yangmingshan. No wonder the music and staff reflect such a wistfulness for that decade!
But you have to give credit where credit is due … at least until a few years ago they had a very competent news staff, and they are quite talented at promotions. And they have experimented with different formats and programming, such as AM talk radio, public radio programs from the U.S., and rebroadcasting the BBC World Service.
I was visiting my sis in Hawaii long time ago, and met this guy. He was a consultant for ICRT. Oh and yeah he was a Hawaii resident. He told me that most of the DJ recruits are from Hawaii. I really believe what he says, cuz they live up to the “carefree Hawaiian” personality. The way they talk everything. These DJs do NOT represent how USA radio DJs talk and do radio format. I personally can’t stand ICRT cuz of the way they talk. I don’t mind the outdated music though new stuff would be good, but the way the DJs talk. Well, at least they could find DJs who talk differently.
I personally think ICRT sucks big time. However, I haven’t given them any time on my dial for a few years now. They are still being punished for the scrappy, boring, pretentious, extemely annoying playlists and “personalities” I had to suffer from giving them eartime before.
Solution? An English language competitor. Sorry state of affairs.
ICRT used to be halfway decent. Then, for some reason(one suspects the execs were afraid of losing money by trying to improve things), they fired all of the decent people and brought in a bunch of idiots. Basically they sold out and went after the English-teaching bucks, probably because they realized that most of their listeners, and thus most of their profits, were from Taiwanese listeners. However, they failed to realize that the reason these Taiwanese listeners liked ICRT for a reason. By catering to these listeners by turning it into just another Chinese radio station, with a chorus of screaming Chinese women announcing each promo, etc., they’ve ruined it.
Now they have basically become just another English-teaching radio station, one of several hundred, it seems. You say you can’t stand the accents of the native English speaking DJ’s? I can’t stand the accents of the non-native English speakers. I dislike Dennis Nieh, “Jockey Joe”, and Diva drives me up the wall with her warped sense of self importance.
What’s that? Oh, some of those I just mentioned are native English speakers? Could have fooled me. I thought they were all trying to be Ron Stewart or Trent Michaels, and, unfortunately, succeeding.
All I can say is, thank the gods for Internet radio and Adsl.
Diva drives me mad. I can’t stand the way she speaks. Ron Stewart isn’t that bad if you ever meet him in person, afterwards, you may think he is pretty cool. Ditto for Dennis. Lately Dennis has been playing some great tunes, at least when I am listening, ditto for Trent Micheals. Dennis Wong has a very nice voice and attitude on the radio. You know he learned all of his English at ICRT. By the way, I amy be wrong but I think the station goes back to the time when the US military was still here back in the 70’s. Richard Walker seems like he has been there the whole time.
You know they are having a lot financial troubles. They make their money through advertising, kind of like this website and and in economic downturns, ad budgets are the first to be cut.
Recently I heard a really cool show which was the alternative Top 10 or Top 20 songs from College radio or something. I think it was Sunday.
Write to some of the DJs and tell them to stop playing Boys Bands. Trent Micheals swore to me he would never, although I am not always listening so I am not sure.
I truely think after saying all of this however, that ICRT sucks. I am forced to turn it off or change the channel whenever some of that Top 40 crap comes on. However, let it be known that Philipinos domestic and factory workers and other foreign workers by far outnumber European and North American expats. I think those foreign workers like Top 40. The Taiwanese audience you know the vast majority likes anything that you can sing at a KTV place. Mushy easy listening.
Why don’t you start a garage radio station. I think it doesn’t cost that much. Just make it powerful enough to be heard in Taipei downtown. Get volunteer DJs, get some advertising (maybe Oriented would pay to advertise or you can go after their advertisers, hahaha, sorry Gus), or get donations at the night clubs or to promote concerts etc. blah blah blah, be creative.
Start pricing those Transmitter towers and other stuff to have your own station. Not sure how much it costs. I would gladly donate some money. Not a lot though.
Hey Paogoa which Internet Radio stations do you reccommend?
A couple I can think of at the moment that I enjoy are www.hober.com, simply because they play stuff you wouldn’t ever hear, and I also enjoy listening to airos.org, which is American Indian Radio On Satellite…it may not be for everyone, but I like it. More stuff you wouldn’t necessarily be able to hear here.
For radio stations from just about anywhere, all you have to do is do an Internet seach for the genre, location or call sign, and they will likely turn up. Having ADSL helps, of course.
No offense, Poagao, but if hober.com is your preference, its no wonder you can’t stand ICRT!
It has to be one of the most eclectic stations around, on or off the net.
Its been my homepage for the last two years and is my favorite (apart from Radio Scotland – so shoot me )
As for ICRT, I can’t really comment as I haven’t listened to it properly since they ditched the World Service stuff on AM (which I liked). I thought its supposed to be kind of like high school radio for local kids these days, isn’t it? That’s the impression I get when I hear it in a shop or somewhere like that.
So-called professionals who don’t even get close to amateur standard in any of the station’s aspects. Hell, even their traffic reports are a joke.
Traffic? Tim Bergie is great! He sounds like he’s on an Internet connection that keeps getting different speeds. I suspect he does this in order to fit in snide little comments of his own withou anyone noticing:
I like the traffic and news updates. When I am driving, I don’t have much choice. Any other better broadcast stations in the Taipei area? No internet or satellite radio in my car, YET. I sometimes get sick of the 10 CDs in my CD changer. I guess I need to change them more often. I wish it played MP3 CDs and not just mp3 to .wav cds.
Hober is pretty cool. I like folk and blues a lot, but I need to get my daily dose of Alternative too. Anyway, Hober is from my home town of Washington DC. Reminds me a lot of Charlottesville, VA where I went to University. If you are ever in that part of the USA, stop by the The Prism Coffeehouse. http://www.theprism.org/
