That must have been a surprise to hear your own letter read on the air. Listening to the crude propaganda broadcasts from the East Block countries was one of my ideas of entertainment. I used to also listen to a lot of English broadcasts from Radio Nederland. One program I miss was this American Big-Band music program that the Deutsche Welle used to have. One of the more unusal things I listened to was news reports on Radio Australia about the de-orbit of Skylab (This was in 1979 and big parts of Skylab crashed in Australia). Just two years ago I listened to Kol Israel announce rocket attacks. I do not understand Hebrew but periodically programming would be interrupted by this beep-beep-beep alarm sound and the announcer would mention the name of a city that was in danger. A lot of broadcasters are cutting back on shortwave and you can listen on the Internet, but it is not the same thing.
I actually did hear the live Radio Beijing broadcast on June 4, 1989, when the crackdown began, and the announcer was condemning the government. However, by the next hour, Radio Beijing went back to announcing the Party Line.
I wonder whatever became of that brave announcer.