Radio_Hong_Kong_1964-1965 — Page 12

22. The first series began in April 1964; each concert was an hour in length and the admission charge was 50 cents. Presentations included concerts of Cantonese instrumental music, Chinese folk songs, Western piano and instrumental recitals, etc. So popular did the experiment prove that it was decided to follow it up with a second series in October. This time the length of the concert was increased to 14 hours and the price to $1.00. One of the interesting innovations of the second series was to combine Western and Chinese music recitals in the same pro- gramme. Again, the response was encouraging enough for further series to be planned for 1965. Each of the concerts was either broadcast live or recorded for subsequent transmission.

23. There were many concerts of Chinese opera broadcast throughout the year. Several of these were sponsored by leading organizations in order to raise funds for particular projects. The concert arranged by the Hong Kong Buddhist Association in June, for instance, realized no less than $526,014 and another organized by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals succeeded in raising just under a quarter of a million dollars. 24. A special request programme was jointly presented in October by the Hong Kong & Kowloon Kai Fong Associations and the Hong Kong Chinese Artists Association to raise funds to assist victims of the many typhoons the Colony suffered during the year. More than 50 operatic stars took part and over $142,000 was pledged to help the needy.

25. Light music productions included the many request programmes which are broadcast each week. There is still never enough time to satisfy all the correspondents and the backlog of letters for 'Par Avion', heard from 10.45 to 11.30 a.m. each weekday continued to grow. Programmes of hospital requests also gained popularity during the year and listeners could request records for relatives and friends for broadcast on Mondays and Fridays from 2.30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

DRAMA

26. The high rate of production of local drama programmes con- tinued throughout the year. Detective stories such as 'Inspector Whalen investigates' and 'Inspector Scott' continued to appeal. In connexion with these programmes prizes are offered for the first correct solution to each week's 'crime' plot and the telephone calls after each episode were so numerous that the switchboard was often jammed by hopeful 'amateur detectives'. Another new series of interest was 'Caseworker' in which dramatized stories were based on cases from the files of the Social Welfare Department.

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