7. Tenders for building, mechanical and electrical contracts were called late in 1967, and the building contract was awarded to the Yeu Shing Construction Co. Ltd. in January 1968. Mr. I. D. CAMPBELL, Architectural Associate of N. J. Pappas, arrived in the Colony as Supervising Officer for the project in February and work began immediately. By the end of March, all site preparation was completed and work was in progress on foundations and lower ground floor walls. 8. An artists impression of Broadcasting House appeared in my last report, and a photograph showing work to date appears in this. The building, of approximately 52,000 square feet total floor area, has sixteen studios, ranging from a music studio of 3,000 square feet, down to small recording studios of 150 square feet. Its four storeys include full engineering maintenance facilities, record, tape and reference libraries, offices and a staff canteen.
9. Occupation of Broadcasting House is scheduled to begin in November 1968, and to be complete by the end of March 1969. Radio Hong Kong will then be accommodated in a single building of its own for the first time.
10. A major change in the accommodation position took place in November 1967, when the department's administration and a number of programme staff moved to offices in Prince's Building, from Mercury House; the Mercury House accommodation being required by Cable and Wireless, the owners of the building.
11. The three major events which affected Radio Hong Kong during the period were the Kowloon riots in May 1966, the 1966 June floods, and the 1967 disturbances.
12. The May 1966 riots necessitated the two programme services remaining on the air throughout the nights when curfews were in force in Kowloon, using the two emergency Radio Hong Kong studios in Beaconsfield House which are adjacent to the Information Services Department newsroom. The last riots which Hong Kong had were in 1956, and few members of the staff had had previous experience of broadcasting under prolonged emergency conditions. The 1966 riots pro- vided this experience which was to become of considerable value in 1967 when the staff had to work for much longer periods under emergency conditions.
13. The June 1966 floods brought Radio Hong Kong nearer to total breakdown than at any other time since the war. Fortunately the main cloudburst did not occur until after all technical and announcing
2