fast as the television audience is growing, sound radio is still the principal source of news, information and entertainment to the majority of the population of the Colony. There is however little doubt that in Hong Kong, as elsewhere, the attraction and influence of television will grow to a point where there is less reliance on sound radio, and the Government Television Unit, when established, will enable Govern- ment to establish its own links with the people through the medium of television.
9. One of the problems which faces programme planners in Hong Kong, whether they are working in the Chinese or English languages, is the complexity of audiences in terms of race, language and educational and cultural backgrounds. It is difficult to provide services which satisfy all groups with the limited number of transmission channels. The English Service of Radio Hong Kong made an attempt to overcome this difficulty, at least partially, when it introduced an experimental service of serious music, broadcast on the FM transmission only, from 9 pm-midnight Monday to Friday. This experiment appears to have been a success, although only an audience survey will be able to provide facts about the size and attitudes of the listening audience to it.
10. Radio Hong Kong continued to maintain close links with the Secretariat of the Asian Broadcasting Union during the year and the Deputy Director and Assistant Engineer (Operations) attended the General Assembly in New Delhi. Radio Hong Kong was also admitted to associate membership of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Confer- ence. The next meeting of the Conference will be held in Jamaica in 1970.
BROADCASTING HOUSE-HISTORY
11. Radio Hong Kong began life in 1928 in the General Post Office, then moved to the Gloucester Building where it remained until 1950, when two floors of Electra House, subsequently renamed Mercury House, the Far East Headquarters of Cable and Wireless Ltd., were occupied. Between 1950 and 1969, the Department became increasingly fragmented, with various sections housed at different times in the Central Government Offices, Wellington Barracks, the Causeway Bay Magis- tracy, 1A Garden Road, and finally Prince's Building.
12. The story of the moves is linked with the steady expansion of broadcasting services. In 1950 Radio Hong Kong was on the air for only about nine hours a day on each programme service. Seven years
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