I would like to respond to Mark Wolfe's comments (Letter, Jan. 23, page 8). Wolfe fired several salvos at ICRT radio, and hit its soft underside alright. Some of his criticism has merit. However, he took a cheap shot at a couple of friends of mine, DJs Rick Monday and Bill Thissen, and shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.
I agree that the music we were getting on the station needed a revamp. Although I am no expert, I often felt the selections leaned too much to American pop offerings from the 1980s or early 1990s. Fine, so the station should have expanded its musical horizons.
I strongly object, however, to Wolfe's characterization of Rick and Bill as "annoyingly amateurish." What justifies such terminology, and what are Wolfe's credentails for making this judgement? The Monday-Thissen morning combination brought wit and clever satiric commentary on current affairs and matters of interest to many of us who live in Taiwan.
Monday personally reached out to numerous local artists and musicians of all national backgrounds. He gave boosts to their careers and challenged the musical and cultural interests of his many loyal listeners.
As a team, Rick and Bill also kept local English speakers informed of a variety of educational, cultural and church events, and they did it with a light, quickly paced, caring touch.
What was amateurish about that?
These two guys have done a lot of good for Taiwan, and they got the wet end of the cigar. It just isn't right.
Daniel Bauer
Hsinchuang
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