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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
The most important series of talks during 1958 was sponsored by the British Council. These talks, given before an audience in the British Council, were broadcast in shortened versions. Many eminent speakers took part, and the subjects covered British Professional Institutions, British Universities and Colleges, British Colleges of the Arts, and British Industry.
Under the title 'A Thought on Your Way', a daily morning series of five-minute non-denominational Christian talks were given by both clergy and lay speakers. In December four talks on Advent were broadcast by clergy of the Anglican Church.
The demand for broadcasting time for charitable appeals grew again, nineteen appeals being broadcast.
Audience Research. In the early part of the year the joint Radio Hong Kong and B.B.C. audience research survey begun in December 1957 was completed. Over one thousand listeners had been interviewed and the information they gave proved most useful. It enabled, for the first time, some estimate to be made of the size of the audience to radio programmes, their listening habits and their likes and dislikes. Such information is essential in the planning and preparation of a public broadcasting service.
REDIFFUSION
Sound Relay. Rediffusion (H.K.) Ltd. provides a popular wired broadcast service throughout the Colony, extending to practically all urban areas and most of the outlying villages of the Island and the mainland. At present the system embraces more than 1,300,000 yards of main trunk network cable and approximately 3,000,000 yards of subscribers' installation cabling. Distribution is from eleven sub-stations, feeding 27 kiosks from which 172 feeders radiate to approximately 66,000 Rediffusion loudspeakers.
Programmes are originated in Rediffusion House from modern air-conditioned studios and provide three simultaneous programmes between 7.00 a.m. and midnight daily, two Networks (Gold and Silver) in Chinese and one (Blue) in English.
Approximately 16% of Rediffusion programmes are commer- cially sponsored. The Chinese programme service offers music, news, drama, talks, sports, commentaries, women's features, children's shows, comedy, story-telling and theatre relays in