Radio_Hong_Kong_1958-1959 — Page 22

these difficulties were overcome and from May onwards morning services were broadcast every Sunday in rotation from St. Mary's Church, Causeway Bay, the Chinese Baptist Church, Caine Road, the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Caine Road, and the Hop Yat Church in Bonham Road. The studio services in the evening remained as in past years. Special religious programmes were arranged for Easter and Christmas.

CHARITY

63. Twenty one Appeals were broadcast and in addition just under $161,000 was raised from three charity concert broadcasts, two organized by the Wah Kiu Yat Po and one by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals. Three other charity concerts organized by the Wah Kiu Yat Po and broadcast from the studios of Rediffusion were relayed by Radio Hong Hong.

PART IV

ENGLISH PROGRAMME SERVICE

GENERAL

64. The English Service broadcasts an average of nine and a half hours daily on weekdays, thirteen hours on Saturdays and fifteen and a half hours on Sundays and Public Holidays. Weekday transmissions are in three periods; morning, lunchtime and evening. There was no increase in broadcasting hours during the year, apart from all-day programmes during the England v. Australia Test Match.

65. Although English is the principal language used, there are weekly programmes in Portuguese and fortnightly programmes in French. The service is broadcast on 860 Kc/s: later in 1959 it will also be broadcast on VHF/FM 92 Mc/s.

66. Limited hours of broadcasting make critical the problem of providing a balanced service. The Service aims at broadcasting the best programmes available in transcribed form from overseas, whilst at the same time utilizing as much local talent as possible in every field of broadcasting. The bulk of the audience to the service is Chinese, and this makes necessary continual study of the type of presentation which should be followed. Should language be simplified and presenta- tion moulded to give as perfect an understanding as possible to those whose mother tongue is not English, or should the Service be presented in a straight-forward manner, English as she is spoke? In practice, the answer is a compromise.

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