Commercial Radio Hong Kong

Introduction

Entrance of CRHK

Commercial Radio Hong Kong (CRHK) (Traditional Chinese: 香港商業電台; Simplified Chinese: 香港商业电台; Pinyin: xiānggǎng shāngyè diàntái) is one of the only two commercial radio broadcasting companies in Hong Kong together with Metro Radio Hong Kong, which started its broadcasting business in Hong Kong in July 1991.

It is intended to provide balanced entertaining, informative and educational programmes; it broadcasts arts and cultural programmes, updates on current affairs as well as news and weather reports. CRHK is also famous for acting as a platform for discussion of current news and issues. These programmes are particularly popular to all walks of life.

History

CRHK was founded by George Ho Ho-Chi (何佐芝) on 26 August, 1959 when he inherited HKD50,000 from Ho Tung (何東). G.J. Ho (何驥), son of George Ho, is now the chairman of the company.

When the 10-year franchise of Radio Rediffusion (Traditional Chinese: 麗的呼聲; Simplified Chinese: 丽的呼声; Pinyin: lìdehūshēng), which was the ancestor of today's Asia Television Limited, ended in 1959, CRHK joined Radio Rediffusion and Radio Television Hong Kong to make what was called the three kingdoms of radio stations. It was one of the most flourishing times of the radio broadcasting history of Hong Kong since more competition also meant better productions. However, Radio Rediffusion closed down at the end of September 1973.

CRHK's licence was renewed on 22nd, July 2003 and will last for another 12 years until 26th, August 2016.

Channels

Currently CRHK broadcasts through two Cantonese Channels on the FM band and an English one on the AM band. All of them are 24-hour broadcast. The three channels have distinct programme formats and listening audiences.

CR1(FM 881) (雷霆881商業一台) has the widest audience base in Hong Kong. It is a talk-based channel. It braodcasts current affairs, traffic and financial information. There are also many talks and phone-in shows in which DJs and audiences can analysis, discuss or debate together.It also offers some cultural programmes, e.g. broadcast dramas.Its target audiences are 25 to 40 years old.

CR2(FM 903) (叱咤903商業二台) is a music-based channel targeted at the younger generation and audiences feverish with pop music. The programmes are more about the latest news in pop music, including the Canto pop music, Japanese songs and English songs. The channel is famous for participating in annual music award ceremony, in which the rates of the Canto pop songs being broadcasted by the DJs can determine different prizes to be awarded to Hong Kong singers.

AM 864(AM) is an English channel. It offers a diversified music choices, from latest international hits to certain hip-hop, jazz, rock and roll, rock and grunge music. It is intended to cater for varying tastes of audiences internationally.

Audiences can keep up with local and international news, especially some global events, through Commercial Radio. Everyday, audiences can get "round the clock news" once an hour, weather information or forecast and traffic reports can also be accessed on air. In addition, it regularly produces news reports and public affairs programmes.

As internet became more popular, CR entered the new spectrum by having 881903.com on 1995. 881903.com is the first radio station over the internet in Asia. The signal is retransmitted over the internet and people can listen it. By having online radio station, chance to having an innovative and exciting medium is created. Also, the type of audience became global.

==Commercial Radio Production== File:Crplogo1.gif

Commercial Radio Production Co. Ltd. (CRP) was established in 1997. CRP is creative and has rich experience in radio production. In order to help the partner to get the benefit, it aims at providing innovative and diversified marketing promotion plans in different media. Also, CRP designs different business promotion plan to different partners. The content of Professional services of CRP are as followed:

Productions:

CRP organizes different kinds of concerts and outdoor activities, such as "Radio 2 Music Award", "903 id club Music is Life Concert" , "Famine 30" . It is very experienced in organising stage performance and large events. Also, CRP holds gatherings for listeners of CRHK, such as "903id club". These activities help to create a bond between the listeners and the radio. In addition, CRP issued lots of products, including book and stationery, to promote its brand.

Artroom:

While producing and organizing different kinds of activities, large amount of art products are needed, such as pamphlet, poster and stage design of <<Radio 2 Music Award>>. Its creativity has always stood it out from other local radio station.

Multi Culturalism

Starting from 18 June 2005, two new foreign language radio programmes - "Hong Kong-Pak This Evening" in Urdu and "Nepal Darshan" in Nepali - were launched jointly by Commercial Radio and the Home Affairs Bureau to promote multi-culturalism in Hong Kong and to strengthen the sense of belonging of the ethnic minorities living in Hong Kong, but at the same time retaining their cultural identities.

The programmes were to be broadcast for 26 consecutive Saturdays on Commercial Radio Channel 1 (AM864) until 10 December 2005. "Hong Kong-Pak This Evening" and "Nepal Darshan" were on air from 08:00pm to 08:30pm and from 08:30pm to 09:00pm respectively. The Urdu programme was hosted by Abid Ali Baig, who is a poet and writer and has been working in the broadcasting industry for 30 years in Pakistan whereas the Nepali one was hosted by Pushpa Kumar Rai, who worked with the former British Forces Broadcasting Service for almost 20 years and is familiar to many Nepalese ears in Hong Kong. The programmes comprised mainly music, news, sport, current affairs and community services related to the respective ethnic groups; local celebrities from the ethnic groups were also invited to talk about their own cultures and their assimilation into the local community.

881903.com

CRP is the administrative organization of 881903.com. 881903.com was launched in 1995 as the official website of Commercial Radio Hong Kong and was the first radio station in Asia to retransmit its signal over the internet. Although it is only available in Chinese version,it is a platform for the radio station to promote its programmes and related products. In fact, you can find updated news and financial information, programme schedule, programme introduction and even personal page for each DJ. By logging onto the page, people around the world can listen to Radio 1 and 2 immediately. Members of 881903.com even have access to past radio programmes. An open forum can also be found on 881903.com which allows audience to leave all kinds of comments to the radio programmes or the DJs in order to increase the interaction. And because of its uprising popularity, an attractive multimedia marketing platform is formed. A large population, especially overseas audience, can be targeted easily and extra revenue is generated from its advertisers such as Netvigator ICQ and Motorola.

And this site also serves as a channel to promote 903id club(see below) and its related product.

The Basement

There has always been a keen competition among Hong Kong radio stations. Though being one of the successful stations, CRP is not any slower in responding to the market. Recently, CRP launches video production service and issues <<903 Music Movement>>. In this programme, music and picture are combined and it creates a new definition for radio service. This combination is then moved on to mobile phone service, creating a whole new media for radio and music.

In the future, CRP will aim at providing faster and more updated information and an entertainment platform to the public. It will too provide creative marketing promotion service to its customers.

Discussion platform for contemporary HK issues on air

Among all 881 Programmes, there are two programmes that actively discuss the contemporary Hong Kong political, social and economical issues everyday.

<<On a Clear Day>> (在晴朗的一天出發)is broadcasted every Monday to Friday, 7am to 10am. This three-hour programme is hosted by Wong Wai Min (黃偉民), Sze Nam Shen (施南生) ,Cheung Tso Yung (張楚勇), Lee Wai Ling (李慧玲)and Pun Siu To (潘小濤). The hosts make the programme more interactive by inviting audiences and sometimes guests to participate in the discussion of current issues. The programme has a session called voice column (在晴朗的一天出發聲音專欄). Some CR DJs participate as columnists, sharing their own viewpoints on certain issues, e.g. the column <<陶言無忌>> by To Kit (陶傑), who had worked in BBC broadcast for 8 years.

<<The Tipping Point>> (左右大局)is broadcasted every Monday to Friday, except the horse racing day, 6:30pm to 8pm. This programme is hosted by Lee Wai Ling (李慧玲), Pun Siu To(潘小濤)and Kwok Chi Yan(郭志仁). It is a more critical programme on the discussion of current news in Hong Kong. It is also a phone-in programme, which involves the DJ, guests and audiences in discussion. The programme claims that the guests invited to the discussion everyday are related to the news on that day.

Issues involving the Freedom of Speech

In the middle of 2004, three of their programme hosts, who were all well known of their out-spoken hosting style over social and political issues, suddenly announced their stoppage as hosts of their respective programmes. Albert Cheng Jing Han (鄭經翰) announced a hiatus from hosting his programme in April 2004 and claimed to be due to pressure from Chinese government, and announced resignation by the end of july. Another famous political programme host Raymond Wong Yuk Man (黃毓民) announced his decision to quit his own programme on the 13th May claiming there was threat to his family's safety. However, he decided to rejoin the Commercial Radio and host a brand new programme for the station in October 2004. Allen Lee Peng Fei (李鵬飛) replaced Cheng Jing Han as the programme host but announced to quit on the 19th May also due to political reasons. Freedom of speech has been a concern in Hong Kong since the Handover, and the sudden resignation of the hosts had raised further doubts with the issue.

File:903logo02.gif

903 id Club

“903id Club"is an organization in Radio 2 of Commercial Radio (叱吒903). Id can stand for "I Dream", "I Discover", "I Dare" and "I Decide". 903id club aims at promoting local music and is a trend setter among local teenagers. For example, it is one of the organizers of <<Music is Life Concert>> (拉闊音樂會) which attracts thousands of audience every year. Also,it promotes new movies and introduces the latest trend to public.Besides, 903id club creates a channel for music and movie lovers to share their thoughts and interest. This once again shows CRP's emphasis on audience's participation.

Moreover, 903id club is linked to several radio programmes, such as <<Sammy Moving>>(森美移動). And DJs work on projects supported by the club. One of the very successful examples is the annual drama performance(森美小儀歌劇團)done by Sammy Leung Chi-Kin(梁志健) and Kitty Yuen Siu-Yee (阮小儀). Another success is boy group "I love you boyz" formed by popular DJs Jim Yan(少爺占)and Donald(唐劍康). The group is famous for its exaggerating and weird image.

Also, members of 903id club get discounts in various shops e.g Laneige and has the right to join activities organized by the club. This reinforces the audience's belongingness to the channels.

Contacts

General Enquiries

Address: 3, Broadcast Drive, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

E-mail Address: crbd@crhk.com.hk

Telephone number: (852) 2336 5111

Facsimile number: (852) 2338 4247

Broadcast Advertisement

E-mail Address: crbd@crhk.com.hk

Telephone number: (852) 2339 4810

Web Advertisement

E-mail Address: info@pixelmedia-asia.com

Telephone number: (852) 2851 2496

Facsimile number: (852) 2851 2495

Commercial Radio Production

E-mail Address: production@crp.com.hk

Telephone number: (852) 2338 9514

Facsimile number: (852) 2339 4644

External Links

http://881903.com

http://www1.881903.com/framework/pccs.gateway?url=jsp/event/main.jsp&page=crp.main

http://www.hkpri.org.hk/governinghk/factsheet/FS040508-CR.doc