It has been a bad few weeks for Hong Kong's non-mainstream music listeners. First the news of the demise of the Jazz Club and then on Saturday I listened to the final afternoon of RTHK's Today's Country and Folkroots. I fail to be convinced by the letter from RTHK's Head of English Programme Services Richard Tsang (South China Morning Post, March 2), in defence of the scrapping of these radio shows and his assertion that 'an even wider range of such music' awaits us. What exactly does he mean by this? Perhaps that some easy listening folk and country music will feature in an extended mixture of pop and middle-of-the-road mush called liquid radio? The presenter of Folkroots Marshall Hughes was able to delve deep into an already wide range of challenging folk music. Will liquid radio manage the same? I doubt it. Mr Tsang then explains that these formerly dedicated and specialised shows are actually making way for more of the typical general issues programming so prevalent on RTHK, the BBC World Service and local TV. We are already deluged by this kind of discussion programming concerning local and regional current affairs and the newspapers also manage to cover such issues informatively. What none of the competition for people's time and ears does offer is specific non-mainstream music programming. And please, the only people who adhere to the rhetoric about 'Hong Kong's status as a world city' are the Hong Kong Tourism Board and the marketing gurus who dreamt up the phrase. Some of us actually live here and know the truth for ourselves. Shame on you Mr Tsang. BARRY WILSON Lamma
