The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday approved a request from the National Police Agency-funded Police Broadcasting Service (PBS) to move its only two AM stations to the FM frequency to help it reach a wider audience and counter radio broadcasts from the Chinese Communist Party.
The national radio network’s stations in Hsinchu County and Tainan are broadcast on the 1512 kilohertz (kHz) and 1314 kHz AM frequencies respectively.
The commission ruled that they would be reassigned to the 94.9 megahertz (MHz) and 94.7 MHz FM frequencies respectively in accordance with Articles 4, 8, 9 and 10 of the Radio and Television Act (廣播電視法).
Photo: Tsai Ssu-pei, Taipei Times
The station in Hsinchu County is also responsible for providing radio services to Taoyuan and Miaoli County, while the one in Tainan also covers Yunlin and Nantou counties.
After the channels are reassigned, PBS must within a month submit documents and new business plans to the NCC for review.
The broadcast media regulator said in a statement that it approved PBS’ request because it is a national network that offers around-the-clock radio services.
As a state-funded radio network, it can help quickly disseminate public service announcements, traffic reports and emergency response information to listeners, it said.
“As more people are listening to FM radio services, which also have better sound quality than AM radio services, we are reassigning the two AM stations to unused FM frequencies after consulting with the Ministry of Digital Affairs,” it said.
NCC Department of Planning Director Wen Jiun-yu (溫俊瑜) said that the 94.5 MHz to 96.1 MHz FM frequencies were previously assigned for use by International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT), the nation’s only private English-language radio station, due to a government plan to rearrange the use of frequencies.
However, the plan was stalled after ICRT refused to leave the 100.7 MHz frequency that it has used for years, Wen said.
When tuning in to the unused frequencies, listeners in western Taiwan can sometimes hear radio programs produced by China’s Voice of Strait (海峽之聲), he said.
The Chinese radio station was previously known as the People’s Liberation Army Fujian Front Line Broadcasting Station.
“People would not hear radio programs from across the Taiwan Strait as frequently once PBS starts broadcasting from the FM frequencies,” Wen said.
PBS would announce when the stations in Hsinchu County and Tainan would begin airing on FM after the review of its application is complete, the commission said.
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