COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA
A youth series Community Youth Club Weekly was introduced to arouse social awareness among young people, while Science Time and Play School were made especially for teenagers and pre-school children.
RTHK's Educational Television Division and the Education Department continued to produce curriculum-based and special educational programmes for schools. The government's Educational Television Service, which utilises the transmission facilities of the commercial television stations for eight hours every weekday during school term time, was watched by over 610 000 schoolchildren of Primary 3 to Secondary 3 levels. The programmes, all of which were produced by RTHK, were devised and written by Education Department staff who provided schools with programme literature and follow-up work.
Sound Broadcasting
Fifteen radio channels are broadcasting in Hong Kong - seven operated by RTHK, three by the Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company (Commercial Radio), three by Metro Broadcast Corporation Limited (Metro Broadcast), and two by the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS). This is an increase of three, following the grant of a licence to Metro Broadcast.
Radio Television Hong Kong (Radio)
RTHK, a publicly-funded station, is charged with providing balanced and objective broadcasting services to inform, educate and entertain the people of Hong Kong. Its news and public affairs programmes aim to provide fast, accurate and in-depth news reports to keep listeners abreast of important news and events. The Director of Broadcasting is RTHK's editor-in-chief.
RTHK maintained its international links with overseas radio stations. Apart from co-operating with the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Chinese Programme Service co-produced programmes with radio stations in China and overseas, and the Chinese com- munities abroad were kept informed of the developments in Hong Kong and vice versa.
RTHK now broadcasts 1 148 hours a week. Its main Chinese and English services, Radio 1 and Radio 3 respectively, operate 24 hours a day. The station has developed an individual identity for each of its channels.
Radio 1 of the Chinese Programme Service operates 24 hours a day with programmes focusing on information, education and entertainment. The channel broadcasts jointly with Radio 2 between 1900 and 0700 hours and with Radio 5 between 2000 to 1000 hours.
Radio 1 provides a full news service with updated financial, traffic and weather reports. Major political and social events in the territory are covered extensively and public mood is aptly reflected through the channel's phone-in programmes. During the past year, the popular Talkabout and other public affairs programmes became a major feature of Radio 1. To help in promoting Hong Kong investments in Guangdong, a live radio phone-in programme Guangdong on the Line was co-produced with the Trade Development Council and the Guangdong Radio Station. In addition, the channel was heavily involved in the fund raising campaigns for the victims of the serious flooding in mainland China. To mark the historic development of the political system in Hong Kong, the channel provided comprehensive coverage of the elections by producing a series of special programmes which
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