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Frequency shift to cost ICRT listeners in several areas

International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT), the only English-language radio station in the country, may have to say farewell to many of its faithful listeners in many parts of the country.

"Even those listeners in Taipei County may not be able to hear us in the future," said a source at the station, who wished to remain anonymous.

During a telephone interview with the Taipei Times yesterday, the source said the station did not want to take advantage of the government but ICRT would hate to lose a lot of its listeners.

According to the source, the Government Information Office (GIO) issued an official notice to the station a few days ago saying that ICRT would be downgraded from a "high-power broadcaster" to a "medium-power broadcaster" because its frequency -- FM 100.7 -- had been redesignated for "medium-power broadcasters."

The source would not confirm just when the shift will happen.

At present, ICRT's three transmitters are each able to cover an area within a 60km radius. The three transmitters cover most parts of the west coast of Taiwan, from north to south.

However, according to the GIO notice, once the station becomes a "medium-power broadcaster," the coverage for each transmitter will drop to a radius of 20km.

The source said that station officials hope to retain ICRT's current reach but the two options offered by the GIO would cost too much money.

"If ICRT becomes a medium-power station, we will need another six to 10 transmitters to maintain a full coverage of the west coast," the source said.

The GIO has offered another alternative -- for ICRT to move its frequency from the current FM100.7 to something beyond FM104, which belong to "high-power broadcasters."

But that would also cost more than the station can afford.

"As for the GIO's [alternative] proposal, we might need to upgrade our equipment and spend a lot of money on promotion [of the new frequency]," the source said.

"That is not something we are capable of at the moment," the source said.
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