Mike enjoyed a long and productive career at ICRT.
One of his most spectacular contributions to ICRT and Taiwan audiences was a serialized presentation of the Chinese literary classic, Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢.
This was done in the early 1990s, before the widespread use of computers, so he made his changes and acting notes directly on the print copy of the novel translated and adapted from the original Chinese by Chi-Chen Wang, published in 1958.
Due to the size of the tome, ICRT Production had to recruit staff from across the radio station to lend their voices to the production. Each episode was about 5-7 minutes, and the final work encompassed 243 episodes, which were run on a daily basis for nearly one year, with a repeat of that week's episodes on the weekend. This was also in the days before computerized audio editing, so the show's producer, Ping Lu, had to record the various voices, music and sound effects to separate reels of magnetic tape, then painstakingly dub and mix them using a multi-track recorder.
Here's an audio sample of the show. Mike opens the recording as the the story's narrator, followed by two ICRT staff acting the roles of Liu Lao-lao and her son-in-law, Kou-erh.
Liu Lao Lao selection from Dream of the Red Chamber
Below is a copy of this section of audio, with Mike's hand notes clearly visible.
Mike also starred in ICRT's first video posted to YouTube in about 2011. Here's a clip from the video, starting as DJ Ron Stuart storms into the News Studio, greeted by colleagues including Bill Thiessen, Gavin Phipps, Liz Tsai, Jane Lee, and of course Mike, who then ends the clip by reading a short newscast.
More Photos
The ICRT News team, with Mike the center of attention, circa 2013
Mike in far left, circa 1990s
Mike in the ICRT News Room with colleagues. This photo dates back to the early 90s at the ICRT studios, then located on YangMingShan (Yang Ming Mountain), Taipei
