COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
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its two Chinese services was effected towards the end of 1989. There were healthy gains in the station's listening figures.
All three services of Commercial Radio (two Chinese and one English) continued the tradition of up-to-the-minute news with bulletins every half-hour.
All three services of Commercial Radio continued to do their best to entertain as well as to keep listeners informed. CR 1 maintained its strong public affairs image by injecting more civic-consciousness programmes including a special Know the Law programme during August, and a young writers' competition in November. The station was flooded with entries to the 'I Love Hong Kong' slogan-writing competition in February.
CR 2, the youth station, continued to develop local culture by promoting local pop songs, organising a special concert by new generation artists in the Coliseum in July, and a special concert for local song-writers in October. This channel was also active in promoting environmental protection and other public service campaigns.
The creation of an Angel of the Road character to give traffic information in an un- conventional and entertaining style has given spark to an otherwise dull and unin- teresting information segment.
The English Service pursued excellence by again winning awards at the International Radio Festival of New York.
British Forces Broadcasting Service
- The British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) is part of the radio division of the Services Sound and Vision Corporation, a world-wide organisation providing entertainment, in- formation and training films, video, television and radio services for the British Forces, under contract to the Ministry of Defence.
BFBS provides two radio services designed for the particular needs of the Gurkhas and British Forces serving in Hong Kong, Brunei and Nepal.
Nepali programmes, broadcast for 90 hours each week from Sek Kong in the New Territories, cater for the interests of the Brigade of Gurkhas, providing music and features reflecting daily life with the Brigade in Hong Kong as well as in Nepal and Brunei. News reviews, sport, quiz programmes and audience participation phone-ins help to complete the service.
The English-language service broadcasts 24 hours a day with most of the programmes coming from the main studio complex in Sek Kong. However, the news and speech orientated lunchtime programme Roundabout Hong Kong comes from the BFBS studio at HMS Tamar.
The BFBS satellite enables the station to broadcast such major programmes as BBC Radio Four's The World This Weekend and BBC Radio Two's Sport on Two as well as other major sporting and State occasions.
The production centre in London has the brief of keeping its overseas listeners in touch with home and provides specialist programmes on a variety of subjects involving many of Britain's premier broadcasting personalities.
Future Role of Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)
Legislation which will allow RTHK to operate as a corporation under a board of governors was under preparation. It is planned to phase in financial and administrative changes which will ultimately allow RTHK to operate on a more independent basis. This will enable RTHK to respond more flexibly to changes in the broadcasting market in Hong Kong resulting from increased competition.