Does the international community in Taiwan need a community radio station?
Yes
No
Undecided
0voters
I think Forumosa should launch their own Forumosa Community Radio station. Go to Live365 (there are others) to find out how/who/what/why etc.
Instead of wasting time making some one else change, spend the time making Forumosa bigger and better and take over where they’ve failed. Forumosa is the expat community and serves them via this forum site. There is no reason not to think that it could also branch out into other mediums and serve the expat community that way.
It’s all in the vision, planning and execution. Does Forumosa have it?
Define “need”. It’s sort of a moot point anyway - we have a station that purports to be serving the international community, but there is a lot of dissatisfaction. Let’s fix what’s broke first… everything else is just castles in the sky…
Eric, that’s a good looking website and I greatly respect your committment to helping your community and providing people with decent music, but the word “empowerment” makes me nauseous. It has been vastly overused, immediately summons for me an image of strident lesbians and militant vegetarians (not that there’s anything wrong with either of those, but I’m not sure that’s what community radio is about) and I will be thankful when its 15 minutes have finally elapsed (actually, I thought it was already gone from the lexicon, but I guess not).
I prefer English. While this ain’t perfect, maybe something more like this: “radio programming that is primarily produced by, oriented for and listened to by a particular local community.”
Unless you can listen to it on the radio, what’s the point? We can already get local news on the web, and we can any kind of music we want also. Who would sponsor it? It takes big money to pay for the professional team necessary to building a good radio station.
[quote]It’s the love of this kind of connectivity that is driving Taipei city planners to build what they say will be the world’s biggest “Wi-Fi” network, making cheap, wireless Internet access available almost everywhere in the Taiwan capital.
[/quote] xtramsn.co.nz/technology/0,7939-3880038,00.html
[quote]It’s the love of this kind of connectivity that is driving Taipei city planners to build what they say will be the world’s biggest “Wi-Fi” network, making cheap, wireless Internet access available almost everywhere in the Taiwan capital.
[/quote] xtramsn.co.nz/technology/0,7939-3880038,00.html[/quote]
But that isn’t radio. It’s internet. How does it help anyone in a car? How does it help anyone with a radio? :s
Let’s start with that?[/quote]
But that isn’t radio. It’s internet. How does it help anyone in a car? How does it help anyone with a radio?[/quote]
Let’s back up for a second here. Some folks want a radio station more “in-tune” with their tastes and needs. As some people have pointed out in the other thread, changing current radio station ICRT to suit its purported mission of serving the expat community is probably a big time-sink that may be fruitless for a number of reasons. I agree with that assessment. It’s a big fantasy to think that a community in which ICRT has no stake in supporting (screw what they say they, look at the money trail, which doesn’t lead to folks that inhabit Forumosa and the likes of you and me) will change because Forumosa got a petition going. You might in the meanwhile, create ill-will from people who don’t care much to hear from the international community but who could be helpful in other ways. ICRT has been going down hill for a long time, a petition is too-little too-late, IMO.
So, let’s focus on what Forumosa can do to better serve the expat community. First, get its own shit into gear so that second, it can build other areas of services, and possibly gain the ability to become something better than an ICRT. And being better would mean more relevant and serving to the expat and international community than ICRT which hasn’t been relevant to this community for a long while now.
An internet radio would be a useful place to start before doing a full-blown radio station. Who knows, there may be a number of Forumosans who might share that dream? Maybe Forumosa, to become bigger and more visible, would also be a beneficiary of such visibility? Forumosa doesn’t need to be active, just a passive conduit of information would be useful, but still reap the benefits. You never know, word travels fast in this island and it’s a very small place. Such an initiative might actually attract professional funding? Whatever, there’s a lot of potential possibilities. It is as I said a matter of does Forumosa want it and do it? Maybe not, but maybe other Forumosans might.
Community radio has the potential to play a vital role for the expatriate community by adopting programming formats and contents that respond to the expatriate community service requirements as established by community members themselves. The emphasis should be on communication as a two-way social process, on democratic ownership, support of local expatriates and businesses needs as well as enabling the expatriate community in Taiwan to express and debate issues unique to the international community in Taiwan.
It’s not just car radios. Walkman, diskman, MP3players, cellphones, PDA’s, laptops, desktops and the next generation hibred that will be a combination of all of these things.
Within the next two years all of these devices will be Wi Fi capable. That means anyone in a Wi Fi grid will have access to any online radio station. Anyone with a cellphone will have access to an online radio station 24/7.
Access and means of broadcasting are no longer an issue. Content is King!
You can build your own internet radio station at live365.com
and it is fairly cheap. I think it would work, there is a fat cable
connecting US and Taiwan. Could try some of there current
stations to test. You send them a live stream and they then
rebroadcast it over the internet. Check it out.
Checked it out and thought the site is comprehensive and prices resonable enough. Just a thought: Would FM Forumosa be a pipe dream or a potential reality? With all this peripherals available to even bedroom DJs, plus the generous wallets of members (hopefully)… And is there an audience more ready than this? :bouncy:
