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PRESS, BROADCASTING AND CINEMA
COMMERCIAL RADIO
The Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company transmits two Chinese services and one English. The second Chinese service which went on the air in 1963 met initial difficulties as a result of interference on its frequency but test transmissions conducted on an alternative frequency have proved satisfactory. It is now hoped that this alternative frequency will be permanently allocated to the service. Commercial Radio's Chinese programmes cover a wide range, from dramas and variety shows to music and opera. It has a particularly strong following for its serialized dramas which are often adapted for subsequent films. Among other in- teresting programmes is the 'Market Report' which not only offers retail prices to housewives but has expanded to include wholesale prices and other information for restaurateurs and others in the food business. The second Chinese service has made possible the introduction of a number of adult education programmes on subjects ranging from the Confucian Analects to a series of talks on Commercial Practice broadcast in conjunction with the Junior Chamber of Commerce.
The English Service of Commercial Radio also undertakes some educational broadcasting. This year a 15-week series on the English language was broadcast, based on the texts of books recommended for study by the Education Department. The service describes its general listening policy as 'middle of the road'. Classical music takes 10 per cent of programme time, the spoken word has been increased to 21 per cent, including news broadcasts, and other music accounts for the remaining 69 per cent of programme time.
This increase in the spoken word content of their programmes reflects to a large extent the greater efforts being made by all the stations to report the events of the day by direct interview so that the man with the tape-recorder has become as much a feature of press conferences in Hong Kong as the reporter with his note- book. Commercial Radio's English service now broadcasts inter- views with prominent citizens and visitors twice a night. Big local broadcasts during the year included top flight entertainers, popular singers, and classical orchestras direct from the City Hall while the station also sent its team to Tokyo for the Olympic Games. They broadcast live reports to Hong Kong throughout the games