COMMUNICATIONS AND BROADCASTING
at the invitation of the BBC, with whom Radio Hong Kong works in close co-operation, a contribution was arranged for inclusion in the BBC's Christmas Round- Up programme. This comprised carol singing from a Chinese Youth Club in one of Hong Kong's poorer districts.
A development of importance, and one which proved immediately successful, was the introduction on the Chinese service of dramatized features designed to put over Government publicity. These included a series of radio plays on the prevention of petty crime, and a number of actuality features on the importance. of dialling "999" in an emergency.
As a result of a small increase in staff it was possible to introduce a greater proportion of 'live' programmes, both as studio productions and outside broadcasts. One of the main aims of Radio Hong Kong is the gradual replacement of programmes on gramophone records by broadcasts which come either from the studio or the open air.
Rediffusion
Rediffusion (Hong Kong) Limited, under a fran- chise granted in 1948, operates a wired broadcasting system in the Colony. Under the terms of this franchise, Rediffusion relays programmes from Radio Hong Kong for a minimum period of 21 hours a week. The Company pays to the Government $1 a month, in respect of each subscriber, in the form of a Radio Licence Fee. Programmes comprising relays of Radio Hong Kong, B.B.C., and other broadcast programmes, but mainly originated in the Company's studios, are distributed over a network which now covers the whole of the urban area and parts of the Peak.
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