ENG-1994 — Page 417

COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MEDIA

other emergencies, special announcements are carried frequently. The channel also plays Chinese and Western 'golden oldies'.

RTHK maintains regular links with broadcasting associations and overseas radio stations. The station co-produces programmes with radio stations in China and overseas stations broadcasting in Chinese. Through these exchanges, overseas Chinese communities and local audiences are able to keep in touch on a regular basis.

In order to provide a channel for meaningful dialogue between the station and its listeners, advisory panels for the different RTHK channels were set up during the year. Each channel has a dedicated panel, comprising 20 to 40 members of the public, and each advisory panel held two meetings in the year.

On the technical side, a multi-user digital audio recording, editing and playback system was installed in the newsroom, replacing the traditional reel-to-reel and cartridge tape machines, and bringing improvements to sound quality, editing and news presentation.

Commercial Radio

Commercial Radio operates two Cantonese services (CR1 and CR2) on FM and one English service (Quote 864) on AM, on a 24-hour basis.

CR1 is an information channel offering a mix of news, current affairs and music programmes for listeners comprising mainly the 25 and above age group in all walks of life. CR2 promotes local and foreign pop music among young people, mostly aged 24 and below. The channel also carries special programmes in support of charity drives and community services.

Quote 864 is an all-music channel featuring a mix of English and other ethnic songs. Hourly news updates and weather information are also broadcast during the daytime.

Metro Broadcast

Metro Broadcast operates two FM channels (FM Select and Hit Radio) and one AM channel (Metro News).

FM Select offers bilingual broadcasts in Cantonese and English to a more mature audience aged 25 and above, featuring mainly evergreen songs from the Thirties onwards.

Hit Radio is a pop music channel for young people. Apart from playing Chinese and Western hit songs, the channel introduced more talk shows, phone-in programmes and a Putonghua music programme in 1994.

Metro Plus offers a bilingual service blending five hours of English news programmes with Putonghua and English songs. Ethnic programmes in Tagalog and a Cantonese phone- in programme are also presented in the evenings. In June, hourly Cantonese new summaries were introduced.

Satellite Radio

STAR TV announced in November that it was launching seven pan-Asia radio channels through 'Star Radio'. Scheduled to come on air in early 1995, the service will be broadcast on sub-carriers on the same satellite that carries STAR TV's television channels. The service will comprise four contemporary music channels and three contemporary hit channels, offering Chinese, Western, Indian and Indonesian music. The Western music will be provided on both the northern and southern beams of AsiaSat I, while the Chinese music

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