Rediffusion And Its Glorious 63 Years
Rediffusion has officially walked into the history books as the midnight struck on the 30th of April 2012, bringing down the curtains of its glorious 63 years of operation. It was 1949 when the first office of Rediffusion was set up here at Clemenceau Avenue. Rediffusion first started in London in 1928, before expanding to Asia after the Second World War, establishing in then-British colonies such as Hong Kong, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang) and Barbados.
During that era, the radio broadcasting technology remained largely at AM (Amplitude Modulation), which was often disrupted by noises and interferences. In contrast, the crystal clear sounds provided by the Rediffusion cable radios proved to be a big hit in Singapore. Thousands subscribed to its monthly rate of $5, a considerably large amount by the standards of that era, to enjoy radio programs in English, Malay, Indian and several Chinese dialects. Legendary storytellers such as Lee Dai Soh 李大傻 (Cantonese), Ng Chia Kheng 黄正经 (Teochew), Ong Toh 王道 (Hokkien) and Chong Soon Fat 张顺发 (Hakka) helped Rediffusion cement its leading position in radio broadcasting from the fifties to seventies. Lee Dai Soh (1913 – 1989), in particular, mesmerised countless listeners with his charming narration of classics such as Monkey God and Return of the Condor Heroes. The programs in dialects were so popular that by the seventies, Rediffusion’s subscription rate hit almost 100,000.
In 1967, the Radio Television Singapore (RTS) launched four FM (Frequency Modulation) radio stations with high quality sounds that posed a threat to Rediffusion’s advantage. Fierce competition in the radio broadcasting arena also caused Rediffusion to lose some of its brilliant talents. In 1982, Rediffusion suffered another blow as its dialect programs were ordered to cease in conjunction of the Speak Mandarin Campaign launched in 1979. The pace in the society and technology might be too great even for an old established brand to keep up. For Rediffusion Singapore, the final moment came in 2012 when the former broadcasting giant decided to cease its 63-year-old operation after failing to find new investors. It is truly a sad day for many of its supporters, especially the older dialect-speaking generations who have depended on Rediffusion as their main source of entertainment.
Rediffusion’s Golden Years
A Rediffusion set from the 1950s
For a generation of Singaporeans, the name Rediffusion brings back warm memories of a little nondescript brown, rectangular box blaring music and entertainment in homes and coffeeshops across Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s. This iconic radio station – known as 丽的呼声 in Mandarin (Li Di Hu Sheng) – provided countless hours of enjoyment to its listeners with the latest American pop music, dramatic stories told in Chinese dialects like Hokkien and Cantonese, and the friendly chatter of DJs at a time when home entertainment options were in short supply.
Before the production of Channel 8 dramas, people were hooked on traditional tales narrated by the likes of Lee Dai Soh (李大傻) in Cantonese, Ng Chia Kheng (黄正经) in Teochew, Ong Toh (王道) in Hokkien and Chong Soon Fat (张顺发) in Hakka. Their work on Rediffusion was in the tradition of the storytellers of old who went around Chinatown, Telok Ayer and Boat Quay to entertain the crowds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Storytellers like Lee Dai Soh and Ong Toh helped make Rediffusion popular.2 Their efforts left a mark on people like James Seah who, on the Singapore Memory Project,3 recalled how these stories affected the daily rhythms of life at home. Seah had become a Rediffusion fan in 1960 when he was still in Primary 5 and was living in a kampong in Bukit Ho Swee. He wrote: “My mother would stop whatever housework, and I had to complete school homework before 9 pm to sit attentively on a stool beside the wooden partition of my next door neighbour. The Rediffusion was subscribed by my neighbour and he kindly shared it with us… The radio was located nearest to our side of the wooden partition and the volume… turned on to its maximum.”
Apart from stories, Rediffusion also broadcast recordings of outdoor stage shows such as concerts and music programmes, which were mainly in Chinese. Recordings of Chinese wayang (street opera) performances, in particular, were well received until the 1970s when boxing match commentaries took over. Rediffusion became popular at a time when the majority of Singaporeans lived in rural areas and not many households could afford a television set. Besides, Rediffusion triumphed over the state-owned broadcaster because it had a clear advantage over conventional radio services operated by the state. Unlike AM or FM radios, Rediffusion boxes did not have receivers; they were largely loudspeakers with a built-in amplifier. As Rediffusion’s service was transmitted via cable, the audio quality was much better compared with over-the-air radio services of the time. In addition, Rediffusion sets did not depend on electricity, as power was supplied via the same cable that delivered the radio signal. This was a boon especially in rural areas that were not connected to the electrical grid. At its peak, Rediffusion, which was dubbed “the people’s network”, had more than 100,000 subscribers.8 It provided a novel way of delivering entertainment programmes, the majority of which were in Chinese dialects. On the other hand, government-owned radio stations like Radio Malaya and its successors broadcast mainly news and educational programmes from England that were deemed as lacking “life and originality”. People also found Rediffusion to be more “intimate” and “homely” as listeners could call in to chat with their favourite DJs. However, due to changing market conditions, new government policies and competition from television and free-to-air radio, Rediffusion began to wane in popularity in the 1980s and its audience numbers declined. The radio station ceased operations in 2012, and although it was revived a year later, Rediffusion no longer functioned as a radio station.
Rediffusion returns to Singapore
Singapore cable radio broadcaster Rediffusion, which went off-air for about a year, was officially relaunched as a digital service on Thursday. The digital version of Rediffusion will deliver both conventional and new content to audiences via its website and mobile app. Listeners can also stream it live on its website.
Former radio deejay Eva Chang had acquired the rights to Singapore's Rediffusion along with some other assets last year. She now helms the company with veteran Singaporean singer Dick Lee as her creative director. According to a report in Omy.sg news portal, Rediffusion plans to venture into the television industry at a later date, elaborating that a Chinese-language learning channel will be provided for primary school students.
Earlier this month, Channel News Asia reported that Rediffusion would still provide content in Chinese dialects under the banner of Rediffussion Classic. As of December last year, the radio station's premises had been relocated to Burn Road.
Rediffusion changing tack to stay alive a year after relaunch
Ms Chang giving a demonstration of a live online podcast to potential business partners at the Rediffusion office. The station's own podcast, The Eeva Show, features Ms Chang interviewing interesting personalities. ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
When former DJ Eeva Chang Mei Hsiang bought Rediffusion, she had big plans to turn around the flagging radio station by raising its appeal to the young and going online. More than a year and some $4 million later, Ms Chang and company are back to the drawing board. The mobile app that it launched last year to allow users to tune in to old Rediffusion programmes for a monthly subscription fee of US$1.99 (S$2.55) has been pulled.
Ms Chang told The Sunday Times that the app targeted Rediffusion's older fans, but not all of them used smartphones. Rediffusion also had to pay 20 cents to a server for each hour of programming a user listened to. "It worked out to a lot of money and we were not able to support that." The app had about 20,000 downloads in the one year it was on the market.
In its heyday, Rediffusion had more than 100,000 subscribers, but the number dwindled to no more than 4,000, which led to the company closing in 2012. Ms Chang originally wanted to recruit DJs to produce content for Rediffusion, but that has been scrapped too. "When I first bought Rediffusion, no one thought I would make it but I was fearless. But when I started working, I found out it was really tough," said Ms Chang. The former Rediffusion DJ had bought the brand, its materials and broadcasting facilities for an undisclosed sum after the company ceased operations. Despite the problems, Ms Chang has not given up on the brand. She will aggressively cut costs and reorganise the business in another bid to keep the station alive.
Rediffusion
Rediffusion was Singapore's first cable-transmitted, commercial radio station. It started broadcasting in Singapore in 1949. In the 1960s and ’70s, the station's Chinese dialect programmes enjoyed a strong following, and many coffee shops and households were fitted with Rediffusion sets. The Rediffusion company in Singapore was a subsidiary of Broadcast Relay Services (Overseas) Ltd, a London-based company pioneering the use of cables to broadcast radio services. As part of the company's expansion into Asia, it entered Singapore in 1948, setting up broadcasting studios at the site of the former railway station at Tank Road (now Clemenceau Avenue).
On 1 August 1949, Rediffusion (Singapore) Ltd was officially opened by then Governor Franklin Charles Gimson. It was Singapore's first commercial radio station, and also the first and only cable-transmitted radio station. This form of transmitting is known as radio diffusion, hence the name “Rediffusion” (re-diffusion). In August 1950, the Singapore Rediffusion Employees Union went on strike for 67 days, while in May 1962, Rediffusion employers went on strike due to disputes over wages and working conditions. Rediffusion became a great hit and garnered 9,600 subscribers within a few months of its launch. Radio sets in those days were too expensive for many households and Rediffusion was an affordable alternative at a subscription rate of $5 per month. Initially, the station broadcasted programmes from the United Kingdom, but Chinese dialect programmes were subsequently added to meet local demand. Each day, two Rediffusion channels provided a combined 34 hours of radio programmes to subscribers. The station's entertainment-based programmes, which were a stark contrast to those produced by the government-run Radio Malaya, became very popular.4
During its heyday, Rediffusion radio sets were a common sight in coffee shops and many people gathered there to listen to American rock 'n' roll music and stories narrated in Chinese dialects by storytellers such as Lee Dai Sor (Cantonese), Ng Chia Kheng (Teochew), Ong Toh (Hokkien). and Chong Soon Fat (Hakka). It was estimated that up to 100,000 listeners followed the programmes hosted by these master storytellers. By the 1960s, the number of Rediffusion subscribers had increased to about 50,000. Rediffusion continued to experience subscription growth in the 1970s, and by 1977, it had 90,428 subscribers.6 The size of the company also increased during this period of expansion. By 1979, it had 800 staff, including permanent employees and part-time broadcasters.
A Look-Back at the Station and Service in 1950's / 1960's
Rediffusion Singapore was established in the late 1940's bringing a Cable Radio Service thousands of subscribers in Singapore at a time when radio sets were very expensive and reception of such stations very poor. The service comprised two audio channels and was based on the system of distribution which had proved successful in the UK since the early 1930's. Subscriber take-up grew at a rapid rate with Rediffusion loudspeakers being installed in domestic and commercial premises throughout the island. The Rediffusion sevice remained primary radio service in Singapore for over thirty years. Headquarters and studios were built on Tank Road, later to become Clemenceau Avenue after road improvements. Singapore's Governor, Sir Franklin Gimson opened the station in August 1949. It was an immediate success with the listening public with a monthly subscription of $5.
The Rediffusion System - Singapore Rediffusion was centred on a large, three-storied building especially erected for its purpose and situated on the outskirts of the commercial centre.
The building accommodated the offices, programme origination, central control, stores, and workshop.
Programmes were fed, by means of rented lines to amplifying stations in the heart of the shopping and housing areas as these were the most densely populated quarters of Chinatown and yielded the highest subscriber density. Subsequently development extended to the less thickly peopled but more easily accessible districts in the outskirts. For feeding the distribution kiosks, star-quad H.L.L. cables were erected on trolley poles wherever it was possible as the buildings were usually too insecure to support them. Feeders were block cabled and, except on modern brick and concrete buildings, all wires were attached to the front of premises as the backs of most were so dilapidated that it was generally impossible to find anything to which cable could be fixed. Even in the front, wiring was made difficult by the large amount of decorative work and display.
There was also competition from other wiring. The Chinese are very fond of electrical appliances and, where landlords had neglected repairs, their homes had a maze of wiring tied up with string. "Extensions," of the flex and tape variety, branched out from this in all directions, and it was not uncommon to see lighting flex running outside for perhaps two hundred yards or so hooked up to shop signs, window shutters. and drain pipes, to feed some member of the family down the street with light and power, because the existing electrical system was beyond repair. The power stations were badly overloaded and blackouts were frequent. At the main Redillusion building a standby generating plant was run every evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to relieve the municipal supply of the 16-kw load.
Rediffusion Singapore
Rediffusion went off-air on 30 April 2012
Rediffusion Singapore (Chinese: 丽的呼声), started in 1949, was the first cable-transmitted radio station in Singapore. It was a Singapore subsidiary of the Broadcast Relay Services (Overseas) Ltd. It was also Singapore's only subscription radio service. Rediffusion Singapore was once considered the "prime entertainment organisation". It was also known as "The Box", as its so-called devices were found in over 100,000 homes. Due to decreasing subscription, it closed in 2012. On closure, a former Rediffusion Singapore deejay, Eva Chang Mei Hsiang, bought the radio station and in 2013 re-opened the radio station as an online radio station.
Rediffusion Singapore was founded in 1949 as a result of the success encountered in radio broadcasting in Singapore, particularly in the post-World War II era. The cable radio service was seen as a remedy against poor reception which affected certain housing estates until then. Rediffusion Singapore was operated by Overseas Rediffusion, a subsidiary of the Rediffusion broadcasting business based in the United Kingdom, from the former's foundation until the late 1980s, when the British-owned Rediffusion conglomerate was broken up. In October 1979, as part of the Speak Mandarin Campaign, Rediffusion began airing Mandarin lessons in Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew, in collaboration with Nanyang Siang Pau and Sin Chew Jit Poh. Rediffusion had more than 500,000 listeners, most of them speak in Chinese dialects. Rediffusion would begin to gradually reduce programming in the Chinese dialects which were at 40% at the time the lessons were aired, previously at 80%. In 1989, Rediffusion was sold from the local subsidiary of British Electric Traction to the British company Yorkshire Radio Network for the sum of $9 million. The new owner would help revitalise the station. On the same year, Rediffusion applied for a licence for "wireless broadcasting", but was rejected due to the lack of usable FM frequencies.
As an attempt to get rid of the old "matriarch" image of Rediffusion, its Mandarin programmes were refreshed in 1989 and began to cater to young Mandarin-speaking listeners. As of 1990, Rediffusion Singapore had 60,000 subscribers and 209,000 listeners. Responding to the increase of radio stations and competition, Rediffiusion's Silver channel became all-English channel in December 1990, targeting the non-working population, specifically the retirees and the handicapped. It took two years to plan for the change. Since 2000, Rediffusion Singapore provided digital radio services in Singapore. On 15 April 2005, the Media Development Authority issued a five-year licence to Rediffusion Singapore for a subscriber-only Digital Audio Broadcasting service, making it the world's first. In September 2008, Rediffusion Singapore launched Redistar, a radio station playing local music. Rediffusion went off-air on 30 April 2012 but it resumed broadcasting on 11 November 2013 using the internet to transmit their programs.
Rediffusion And Lor Arh
Rediffusion has officially walked into the history books as the midnight struck on the 30th of April 2012, bringing down the curtains of its glorious 63 years of operation.
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It was 1949 when the first office of Rediffusion was set up here at Clemenceau Avenue. Rediffusion first started in London in 1928, before expanding to Asia after the Second World War, establishing in then-British colonies such as Hong Kong, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang) and Barbados. During that era, the radio broadcasting technology remained largely at AM (Amplitude Modulation), which was often disrupted by noises and interferences. In contrast, the crystal clear sounds provided by the Rediffusion cable radios proved to be a big hit in Singapore. Thousands subscribed to its monthly rate of $5, a considerably large amount by the standards of that era, to enjoy radio programs in English, Malay, Indian and several Chinese dialects.
Legendary storytellers such as Lee Dai Soh 李大傻 (Cantonese), Ng Chia Kheng 黄正经 (Teochew), Ong Toh 王道 (Hokkien) and Chong Soon Fat 张顺发 (Hakka) helped Rediffusion cement its leading position in radio broadcasting from the fifties to seventies. Lee Dai Soh (1913 – 1989), in particular, mesmerised countless listeners with his charming narration of classics such as Monkey God and Return of the Condor Heroes. The programs in dialects were so popular that by the seventies, Rediffusion’s subscription rate hit almost 100,000.
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