282
PUBLICATIONS, BROADCASTING AND FILMS
Transcribed shows were obtained from Australia, Canada and the USA, and an approximate weekly breakdown of programmes is as follows: Classical music 10 per cent; spoken word six per cent; news eight per cent; music other than classical 76 per cent.
Chinese Programme Department. The year was again one of expansion. A series of half-hour educational programmes was specially prepared to help middle-school students with their examinations in February. A new 15-minute Current Events pro- gramme covering daily events in Hong Kong was introduced in February and is now being broadcast five times weekly. Two mem- bers of the staff of this programme were sent to Djakarta to cover the Asian Games. Special appeals were made for donations to the Community Relief Trust Fund set up after typhoon Wanda in September and $104,523 was received. In addition, a charity foot- ball match was sponsored by the station and raised $68,617 for the relief fund.
The Chinese service began relaying news bulletins from Radio Hong Kong in September. It has continued to supply Chinese programmes to Radio Singapore and Radio Malaya, and is pre- paring Chinese programmes for the New Circuit Broadcasting Co Ltd of Canada. During the year over 100 outside broadcasts were carried out; 190 dramatized plays and 25 Chinese operas were produced in the studios. Each month 32,000 letters are received from listeners.
REDIFFUSION
Sound Relay. Rediffusion (Hong Kong) Ltd provides a wired broadcast service extending to practically all the urban areas and to many outlying villages on Hong Kong Island and in the New Territories. The network has more than 1,000 miles of main trunk lines and about 2,500 miles of installation cabling. Distribution is via sub-stations, kiosks and feeders to more than 50,000 loud- speakers. The parent company first operated 34 years ago in Britain and now operates in many parts of the Commonwealth; the Hong Kong company, which is locally controlled, is part of this world- wide organization.
Rediffusion operates from the most modern studio building in the Far East. It contains seven sound studios, all air-conditioned, from which three simultaneous sound programmes go out daily