ENG-1961 — Page 334

PUBLICATIONS, BROADCASTING AND FILMS

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children in their school examination was introduced with a most gratifying response from the audience. Over 70 outside broadcasts were made, the highlight of which were the commentaries given on the arrival and departure of HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent.

An average of 30,000 letters and cards were received by the station each month, and following one half-hour listener participa- tion programme over 13,000 letters arrived.

The service continued to supply programmes to Radio Singapore and, in addition, is now providing programmes for Radio Malaya.

REDIFFUSION

Sound Relay. Rediffusion (Hong Kong) Ltd provides a popular wired broadcast service throughout the Colony, extending to practi- cally all the urban areas and to many villages on the Island and in the New Territories. At present the system has more than 1,000 miles of main trunk network and about 2,500 miles of installation cabling. Distribution is via sub-stations, kiosks and feeders to more than 50,000 loudspeakers. The parent company first operated 33 years ago in the United Kingdom and now operates in many parts of the Commonwealth; the Hong Kong company, locally controlled, is part of the world-wide organization.

Rediffusion has a modern studio building on Hong Kong Island. It contains seven sound studios, all air-conditioned, from which three simultaneous sound programmes go out daily from 7.00 a.m. to midnight, two networks ('Gold' and 'Silver') being in Chinese and one ('Blue') in English."]

Sixteen per cent of Rediffusion programmes are commercially sponsored. The Chinese programmes offer music, news, drama, talks, sports, commentaries, women's features, children's shows, comedy, story-telling and theatre relays in Cantonese, Kuoyu, Swatow, Hakka, Shanghai and other dialects. The English service includes continuous daily broadcasts of musical entertainment, plays, studio shows, news, BBC and other relays, sports events, stock-market news, and features for women and children. During 1961 Rediffusion charity broadcasts raised nearly half-a-million dollars for needy families. Rediffusion employs 532 local staff of whom 98% are Chinese, in addition to a great many musicians, soloists, story-tellers and dramatic artists.