Staff,
5
(B) BROADCASTING.
Mr. Jack Shepherd joined the staff as Assistant News Editor and Senior Programme Assistant on 1st August 1949, to help with the additional work resulting from the turn of events in China. Mr. Shepherd left the station for England on 31st October, 1949.
New Premises.
The new studios in Electra House are due for com- pletion during 1950. Offices will be occupied at the beginning of May and the studio a few months later.
Transmission.
Basic times of broadcasting were maintained as in 1948/49, i.e. 61 hours a day.
With the arrival in the Colony of large reinforcements, the Forces Civilian Entertainment and Welfare Committee arranged additional programmes for the Forces on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. with effect from September 3rd. These proved extremely popular.
Programmes.
(a) Chinese: Two problems which have seriously affected the Chinese Section have been the continued shortage of new Chinese recordings and the great difficulty in obtaining local talent. More than half of the Chinese Programme is of neces- sity 'live', due to the shortage of records.
A popular move with Chinese listeners was the exten- sion of Cantonese Opera theatre relays until the end of the play, usually in the small hours of the morning.
week.
The Education Department now sponsors two talks per
The new concert studio in Electra House, designed to seat an audience of one hundred, will prove a great asset to the Chinese Section especially, both for broadcasting Cantonese operas, Cantonese and Mandarin concerts, and plays for which the present studio is too small.
(b) English: The B.B.C. Transcription Service continued to contribute excellent material, both in recorded and scripted form. The closest liaison has been maintained with the B.B.C., and at the time of the 'Amethyst' incident the first direct link between Radio Hong Kong and London was arranged. A direct link was also arranged with C.B.S., New York in the summer.
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