programmes are slightly different for the English and Chinese stations in order to suit the needs of the communities they cater for. On Saturdays the programmes are continuous throughout the afternoon and on Sundays there are continuous programmes from 10 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. On public holidays programmes start at 8 a.m. and run throughout the whole day.
ZBW, the English language station, depends principally on recorded music supplemented by material of high quality made available by the B.B.C. Transcription Service.
Live programmes include sports commentaries, book reviews and other talks, amateur plays of reasonably high standard and recitals by the Colony's principal musicians. ZEK, on the other hand, has recently had great difficulty in obtaining sufficient quantities of new Chinese gramophone records and has therefore come to depend chiefly on live broadcasts which include plays, studio concerts, recitals, talks and-most popular of all- programmes given by well-known professional story tellers. Three nights each week Chinese operas are relayed from various theatres and on these occasions the broadcasting hours are extended from 11.30 p.m. until midnight.
Rediffusion
Two
Rediffusion (H.K.) Ltd. holds a franchise granted in 1948 permitting the operation of a wire broadcasting system controlled from the company's studios in Hennessy Road. Programmes comprising relays and material originating from the company's own studios are carried to subscribers through three amplifying stations, two on_the Island and one in Kowloon, over 500,000 route yards of wire. programmes are broadcast simultaneously, one in English and one in Chinese, continuously from 7 a.m. to midnight. A switch on each receiver gives the subscriber a choice of either programme. Relays from Radio Hong Kong, the B.B.C., Manila, Australia, and elsewhere are received at the company's wireless receiving station situated at Shatin in the New Territories. Commercially sponsored programmes are accepted by the company. The fee charged to subscribers is $10 a month, and the company pays the Government a fee of $1 a month in respect of each subscriber. The popularity of the system may be assessed from the fact that in less than three years of operation the number of subscribers has risen from 1,000 on the opening date to over
50,000.
II2
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