Radio Taiwan International

Infobox Network
name = Radio Taiwan International (RTI)
logo =
country = Taiwan, ROC
network_type = Radio network
available = International
owner = Radio Taiwan International
key_people =
launch_date =
past_names =
website = http://english.rti.org.tw/|

Radio Taiwan International (RTI) is the international radio service of the Central Broadcasting System (CBS) (Chinese: 中央廣播電台 Pinyin: Zhōngyāng-guǎngbō-diàntái) of the Republic of China (Taiwan). It is a government-owned station that broadcasts in 13 languages around the world.

History

The Central Broadcasting System was founded in 1928 as the voice of the Kuomintang (KMT) government quartered in Nanjing (Nanking), mainland China. During the Second Sino-Japanese war the KMT was forced by Japanese advances to relocate the radio station, along with the capital city, first to Hankou in the central Hubei Province and then to Chongqing (Chungking) in south-central China.

After the conclusion of the Second World War which saw the surrender and withdrawal of Japanese forces, the KMT and the Communist Party of China (CPC) resumed their civil war. The KMT retreated to Taiwan in 1949 and the Central Broadcasting System moved with them.

Current status

After undergoing restructuring during the period 1996–98, CBS broadcast to mainland China and the rest of the world under the call sign "Radio Taipei International" and the "Voice of Asia". "Radio Taipei International" essentially replaced the international radio services of the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC), known as the "Voice of Free China". "Radio Taipei International" broadcast to China and to an international audience; by contrast, the "Voice of Asia" was broadcast to the Asia-Pacific region only and offered a lighter format than RTI. In 2002 the "Voice of Asia" call sign was dropped to leave "Radio Taipei International" as the sole broadcasting name for the service. This was in turn changed to "Radio Taiwan International" in 2003.

In addition, via domestic AM radio and shortwave, CBS also broadcast three different "networks" in Chinese (mainly Mandarin) to the mainland. These networks were the "News Network" (a news and information-oriented service), the "Variety Network" (a music and features-oriented service, also known as the "Mandarin Program", "Perspective Program", or the "Pop Network Program"), and the "Dialect Network" (programming aimed at the minorities of China). In time, the "Variety Network" was renamed the "General Network", the "News Network" became the "Mainland Network", and eventually the "Mainland", "General", and "Dialect Network" were merged in with "Radio Taiwan International". One consequence of this was that CBS could no longer broadcast domestically in AM radio.

Broadcasting details

Radio Taiwan International broadcasts to the following countries and regions:
* Australia and New Zealand
* China
* Europe
* Indonesia
* Japan
* Korea
* North America on WYFR at 5950 kHz and 9610 kHz between 5 p.m./6 p.m. Eastern until 3 a.m./4 a.m.
* The Philippines
* South Africa
* South America
* South Asia
* Southeast Asia

Programming is carried in various Chinese languages plus English, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish, German, French and Russian.

See also

*Media in Taiwan
* English language print media published by the Government Information Office
**Taiwan Review
**Taiwan Journal
*The 2001, 2003, and 2005 editions of the World Radio Television Handbook (WRTH)

External links

* [http://english.rti.org.tw/ Radio Taiwan International Website] zh icon en icon fr icon de icon id icon ja icon ru icon es icon th icon vi icon