Page 21 - Preservation for the Documentation of Chinese Christianity

VII. WORK OF AUXILIARY ORGANIZATIONS
3, Audio Visual Evangelism Committee (Cont'd)

b) Radio Department A ctivities of the Radio Department during 1962 were
centred around t hs e three areas: (l) Production of
e
sample programs fo r presentation to loca l stations and to Station DYSR in
the Philippines; (2) Stockpiling of Chinese Church music; and (3) Training
of programming and technical personnel]

In February, Mr. Thomas S. Cheng joined the Department as Administrative
Director, wh ile Rev. Sterling Whitener continued to serve as Secretary fo r
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Radio on the Committee. The Committee also made representations with RAVEMCCO
and the Methodist Board to approve the assignment of Rev, Thomas W. Lung to
Hongkong to take charge of radio programming for the Committee,

Mr. Danny Ng, the Studio Engineer, continued to take charge o f production
of experimental program tapes, wh ile Mr. Cheng doubled as musical programming
director.

In April and May, the Department assisted Prof. Albert Faurot o f the
School of Music of Silliman University, Philippines, in the collection and
recording of hymns of Chinese origin, by Chinese composers or adaptation of
Chinese folk tunes, sung in Chinese by local talents, on behalf of RAVEMCCO.
Actual Religious Broadcasting is under the supervision of the Religious
Broadcasting and Television Advisory Committee, under the Chairmanship of the
Very Reverend Barry T ill, and an equivalent Committee on the Chinese side.
The Committees are composed of representatives of a ll the major churches, and
this composition.enables the broadcasting and television authorities to under-
t ake-religious programmes with greater confidence. As the t it le suggests the
English language committee has this year added to its interests that of Tele­
vision. With the very rapidly growing number of television sets in the Colony
and the fact that each set is reckoned to have a very high proportion o f viewers,
it is more than time that the churches made some attempt to use this medium.

The Religious Broadcasting and Television Advisory Committee has been active
th is year in extending the work of the Church through the mass-media of Radio
and Television. Besides the usual broadcasts of religious services and lenten
addresses, the Committee has been able to add to Religious Broadcasting on Radio
Hongkong- a weekly Christian magazine feature en titlted Crossroads. This is a
programme o f 15 minutes and has b een well received. In Television the Committee
made its debut on Good Friday with a half hour dramatic presentation o f the
story of the Cross with suitable music by a number o f choirs from different
churches. Since New Year 1963 th e Committee has been able to sponsor a weekly
series of quarter o f an hour programmes entitled Encounter. This again takes
the form of a Christian magazine and there is evidence to suggest that the
programme is widely appreciated. We are very grateful both to Radio Hongkong
and to Rediffusion for their co-operation in enabling us to imaugurate an d
ex tend these a ctiv itie s. •

It is true that the work of t he Commttee only covers English language
programmes but it is known that a large n umber of Chinese people do in fact
watch the English language Television programme and we hope also that the
presence of Mr. Thomas Cheng on the Committee as a liaison with the Audio
Visual Evangelism Committee w ill enable u s to explore the p o ssib ility o f more
broadcasting on the Chinese network. The fir s t fr u it s o f this hope were
realised when on December 26th the Audior Visual Evangelism Committee succeeded
in introducing to the Chinese department o f Radio Hongkong a Christinas programme
produced by the programming personnel in th eir own recording studio. This
programme was favourably received and resu lted in an invitation for the studio
to produce another half hour programme fo r the Chinese network of Radio Hong
Kong to be broadeest on Easter Day I 963. The Radio Department also offered its
fa c ilit ie s to the Advisory Committee for production of a six weeks series o f a
daily four minute programme entitled Thought on Your Way. This programme,
mainly for non-Christian listen ers, i s unfor tunately s t i l l not on the air but
its preparation was an example of the p o s s ib ility of co-operation between the
Radio Department of Audio Visual and the Rel igious Broadcasting and Television
Advisory Committee.

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