First, a brief introduction. I am writing here by invitation from GI Korea after mentioning in an earlier post I might consider blogging on evolving information technology and media. I may not have many offerings as I also want it to be relevant to Korea.

Over a year ago, a new English language radio station started in Korea; an alternative to AFN and Arirang. It’s called TBS eFM and I can receive a broadcast from Seoul on 101.3 FM down in the Osan area. They are supposed to be starting to broadcast from Busan and Kwangju too. It has all kinds of programs from variety music hours with inane DJ banter to news and commentary shows.

I‘m hooked on one of their latter. It’s called This Morning and it’s moderated by a Korean American named Henry Shinn. The program is broadcast between 7 and 9 AM, Monday to Friday. I pick it up on my commute to work in my car and continue to listen from my computer at work from their ON Air feed.

I am what some would call a news junkie. When someone asks what I’m listening to on my Ipod, they are surprised to learn that it is not music, but downloaded news podcasts. I have long since given up with the consumer news on evening network and cable channels. Too superficial or too opinionated for me. I want my news presented the way Joe Friday insisted on information; “Just the facts ma’am. Just the facts.” Let me interpret them for myself. So, I download podcasts from NPR, CSPAN, BBC, The Economist and the Sunday morning network news programs. In these programs you find commentary from knowledgeable people with first person accounts of events.

The TBS eFM This Morning broadcast is just such a program. Mr. Shinn has interviews with key players on subjects from politics, economics, international affairs, and culture in Korea. I learn something new every day. However, I had been disappointed because I felt a valuable resource of information was not being preserved as podcasts. My disappointment ended this past week. All of it is now available as an AOD (Audio-On-Demand) service. An AOD is limited in that you must be connected to the Internet to listen to the audio stream online, but you can capture and save it with the right tools.

As examples of what’s available, I’ll refer you to what I thought were interesting interviews. Both with former U.S. Ambassdor to Korea, Mr. Donald Gregg. On June 25, the anniversary of the start of the Korean War, ambassador Gregg came on. He reveals something of his opinion about General MacArthur.

And there was the added complication that MacArthur, who had ignored Korea from his magisterial position in Tokyo. Apart from his brilliant stroke at Incheon, once he landed on the Peninsular, he drove north to the Chinese border, provoking Chinese intervention, despite the fact that the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington wanted him to stop at the narrow neck of North Korea that runs from sort of Anju on the west coast to Hungnam on the east coast. So you had an egotistical general who hadn’t been in the United States for 14 years taking charge of a war, running it for his own ends, with Harry Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington virtually helpless to control him.

He says something on revisionist ideas about what might have been had we not entered the war. He also related a conversation with a North Korean on why they find it difficult negotiating with us and our changing administrations.

Ambassador Gregg was also interviewed in August 19 on the legacy the former president Kim Dae Jung. He says he thinks president Kim “will come to be seen as really the father of democracy in South Korea.” He called the summit president Kim had with Kim Jung Il a “huge milestone in bringing reconciliation between North and South Korea.” He talks about the role he played as chief of station for the CIA in saving the life of president Kim in 1973. He also says that after the two American journalists were captured by the North Koreans he wrote to president Kim asking him to write to president Obama giving him advice on how to deal with the North Koreans. He later learned that when president Clinton visited Kim in May, Kim gave Clinton such a letter to be delivered to Obama. That may have been the beginning of Clinton’s involvement in freeing the journalist.

You can listen to both of those broadcasts directly on the TBS eFM website on the This Morning AOD page. The June 25 program is at no. 132 in the list. Each day’s program is provided in two separate hour long AOD streams. Ambassador Gregg came on at about 8:30 in each program so you will find him at about half way through the second hour’s AOD. The August 19 program is at no. 210.

There is a wealth of other good programs there, if you have the time to go through it. To make that easier, there is an Announcements page. It lists the programs titles and dates and maybe the name of a guest commentator. Clicking on the title link will give you more information about the day’s program.

If you appreciate getting in depth information from people who know what they are talking about, I’m sure you will find a lot that’s useful there.