Staff
18.
5
(c) Broadcasting
The broadcasting staff was increased in August 1948 by the creation of a new post of News & Talks Editor.
New Title
19. The Hong Kong Broadcasting Station was officially given the title "Radio Hong Kong" in August 1948.
Transmission
20. The basic hours of broadcasting were maintained at 6 hours per day in each of the two programmes, English and Chinese, with the English programme opening two hours earlier on Sunday mornings so as to allow of the inclusion of religious services. The practice of providing continuous transmission from 8 a.m. to midnight in each of the two programmes on public holidays was initiated on Christmas day 1948.
Programmes
21. The creation of the post of News and Talks Editor, mentioned above, has led to a marked improvement in the presentation of locally compiled news bulletins and has also made possible an extension of outside broadcasting activities,
22. The main source of programme material continues to be the B.B.C.'s transcribed programmes and direct relays but local talent is used as much as is consistent with the maintenance of certain programme standards. Radio plays, produced under the aegis of the Hong Kong Stage Club, some of them written by local playwrights, have been a feature of locally originated programmes.
23. The Chinese section of Radio Hong Kong continues to be handicapped by the shortage of Cantonese records and increasing disturbances in China have disappointed the hope that the Chinese phonographic industry would soon resume production on the pre-war scale.
Licences
24. The number of licences continued to increase rapidly and the number in force as at the end of March 1949 was 33,459, an increase of 9,295 over the previous year. The cost of a receiving licence was raised from $12 to $20 per annum in January 1949 but this increase in the fee had no adverse effect on the upward trend in the number of licences, and as a result the rate of revenue from receiving licences by the end of the year under review was sufficient to cover the whole cost of the broadcasting services.
J. H. B. LEE,
Postmaster General.
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