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| Graphic via YouTube |
TAIWAN:
75 years ago, The Voice of Free China began broadcasting officially under that name. It was October 10, 1949, with its first 50 kW transmitter.
At the time of the Cold War, the station wasn’t just a propaganda tool, it was part of the country’s intelligence infrastructure. It aimed to discredit the People's Republic of China and to support nationalists' claims to be the only legitimate government in all of China.
Central Broadcasting System CBS was in charge of broadcasting to mainland China and La Voix de la Free China broadcasted its programs to the rest of the world. Aside from foreign listeners, the target audience of the Voice of Free China was mostly the 20 million overseas Chinese.
The Voice of Free China broadcasted in 14 languages, including five Chinese dialects: Mandarin, Minnan, Cantonese, Hakka and Chaochow. The nine foreign languages used for the broadcast are English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Vietnamese. The programs were broadcast in the direction of Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia (Korea and Japan), America, Australia, Europe and Africa on 81 frequencies, .
The number of letters from listeners is the best measure of the effectiveness of a program. In 1978, the Voice of Free China received 68,000 letters, while the Voice of America, which had an operating budget 22 times and carried 14 times as many employees, received only 2.5 times as many letters.
To provoke audience reaction The Voice of Free China sent many gifts to listeners who wrote to it: flags, books and program guides, not to forget QSL cards. Cards were renewed every quarter.
With the easing of inter-detroit relations and the liberalization of the Taiwan government, the Voice of Free China changed its name to Radio Taipei International in 1998. In 2003, it became Radio Taiwan International
(Radio Magazine 10/10/24)
