I have always loved listening to Passion 99.5. It is one of the few radio-stations really worth listening to in $ingapore (besides BBC and Symphony 92.4). To my dismay (but not surprise), the freakin' powers that be are gonna pull the plug on the station by this year-end.
This is why I shall reproduce this bit from X'ho:
After news of Passion 99.5 FM, a public service radio station devoted to the arts and funded by the State, was reported to be wrapping up by year's end, Samuel Lee wrote in The Straits Times' Life! (Aug 27, '03): "Don't kill Passion for the arts... Losing one's Passion is already bad enough. Losing one's soul would be the end." Actually, dear Sam, the end was 'the beginning.' We'd already lost our soul ages ago (to - what else? - money, of course!). But don't try giving this perspective of mine to the national press or we'll be flooded with readers' response that Singapore is still remarkably soulful. And we may just get a new season of Extraordinary People on TV in tow as well. I mean, who likes to be told we got no soul?
Never mind the official reason, the general hunch is - Passion ain't getting no funding no more to stay afloat because the money has to go to a heftier fund-recipient, that 'durian'-enterprise building, the Esplanade, the great symbol of our love for the arts. Don't you know facade is everything in Singapore? So what's a real speaking voice on Passion in comparison? A truly perfect example of how, in Singapore, doing it for the people is always secondary to the view from the top or outside.
It's sad, really sad. Goodbye to vibrant, eclectic world music, cool jazz and interviews with passionate people who are involved in the Arts, and hello to more insipid, trashy pop-songs and inane, sleazy banter that are tailored to turn our young minds into mush. It's always those stations who will generate more advertising revenue, isn't it?
And to hell with the Esplanade.
This is why I shall reproduce this bit from X'ho:
After news of Passion 99.5 FM, a public service radio station devoted to the arts and funded by the State, was reported to be wrapping up by year's end, Samuel Lee wrote in The Straits Times' Life! (Aug 27, '03): "Don't kill Passion for the arts... Losing one's Passion is already bad enough. Losing one's soul would be the end." Actually, dear Sam, the end was 'the beginning.' We'd already lost our soul ages ago (to - what else? - money, of course!). But don't try giving this perspective of mine to the national press or we'll be flooded with readers' response that Singapore is still remarkably soulful. And we may just get a new season of Extraordinary People on TV in tow as well. I mean, who likes to be told we got no soul?
Never mind the official reason, the general hunch is - Passion ain't getting no funding no more to stay afloat because the money has to go to a heftier fund-recipient, that 'durian'-enterprise building, the Esplanade, the great symbol of our love for the arts. Don't you know facade is everything in Singapore? So what's a real speaking voice on Passion in comparison? A truly perfect example of how, in Singapore, doing it for the people is always secondary to the view from the top or outside.
It's sad, really sad. Goodbye to vibrant, eclectic world music, cool jazz and interviews with passionate people who are involved in the Arts, and hello to more insipid, trashy pop-songs and inane, sleazy banter that are tailored to turn our young minds into mush. It's always those stations who will generate more advertising revenue, isn't it?
And to hell with the Esplanade.
