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PUBLICATIONS, BROADCASTING AND FILMS
produced for women and children and the interest taken offers an opportunity to broadcast special talks on such subjects as Mother- hood Education Week and the Drive for Happy Homes.
A domestic drama which achieved considerable popularity during the year is General Cook. The episodes, which are broad- cast three times a week, tell of the experiences of a family cook in his efforts to satisfy the gastronomic needs of his employers. Actuality recordings are made in various markets while the cook is buying his ingredients, and the family join him in the kitchen to learn his culinary secrets. A development of considerable interest during the year was the establishment of a local sound effects library. A total of 500 items have been recorded and divided into 27 categories. The library, which is available to other broadcasting organizations, film producers and others upon request, is considered a valuable contribution to the Colony's archives.
Engineering Division. The engineering services of Radio Hong Kong are operated by Cable and Wireless Ltd. In addition to maintaining transmission and studio services, the division operates a considerable amount of outside broadcasting equipment which can be called upon at short notice. Three outside broadcasting vans are now in use and nine portable tape recorders are on con- stant call by programme compilers. An interesting engineering development during the year was the construction of a tape re- covery unit. The machine was designed and built in the workshops of Radio Hong Kong, and serves the dual function of electronic- ally counting the number of splices in a tape while being able to stop instantaneously when a splice passes a selective ‘eye'. In this way individual splices can be investigated to ensure that joints. have been satisfactorily made. Those tapes which have been spliced too often are rejected, while as much satisfactory material as possible is salvaged.
COMMERCIAL RADIO
Commercial Radio broadcasts programmes in English and Chinese, each service being on the air 17 hours a day. The English service is broadcast on 1530 kc/s and the Chinese service on 1050 kc/s, using 1-KW transmitters. The studios, transmitters and antennae are situated at Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon.