International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT; ) is Taiwan's only English-language radio station. Prior to 1979, the station served the U.S. military personnel in Taiwan as the Armed Forces Network Taiwan (AFNT). When the United States broke diplomatic ties with the Republic of China in 1979, the American business community, with the help of the ROC government, reorganized the station into ICRT. History Origins From 1957 to 1979, the station served the US military community in Taiwan as the Armed Forces Network Taiwan (AFNT). After the United States broke diplomatic ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan in 1979, Rear Admiral James B. Linder, last commander of the United States Taiwan Defense Command (USTDC), informed a letter to the Taiwanese Government Information Office (GIO) pointing out that equipments of the AFNT be transferred to the ROC Government by the US Federal Government without compensation. The new radio station, under the name of ICRT, was reorganized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) and the ROC government. Early period ICRT enjoyed immense popularity during its first fifteen years. The station offered two channels: AM 200 and FM 989. Both channels provided similar content of foreign pop and rock, with the difference that FM100 also had daily five-minute news at the top of every hour, one-hour morning and evening news programs, and three hours of classical music on Sunday nights. ICRT’s news coverage was renowned. Live top-of-the-hour news segments were broadcast 24 hours-a-day. Members of the news team were often dispatched to report live from the scene of an event. ICRT’s news coverage was also noted for covering controversial or sensitive political topics at a time when Taiwan was just coming out of martial law. In a period heavily dominated by a KMT-leaning media, ICRT gave a voice to the opposition party, facilitating a fair exchange of ideas. 1990s The station started to suffer from operating challenges in the 1990s. The ROC government liberalized the radio market, forcing ICRT to face competition from other radio stations. AM576's programming lineup became weaker and lacked DJs to cover the entire twenty-four hours of air time, resulting in an automated jukebox system to replace the DJ. Eventually AM576 only broadcast the BBC World Service and CNN Radio and then went permanently off the air in 1999. News coverage in FM100 was gradually downsized. In 2000, ICRT moved from its original location on Yangmingshan