SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF RADIO BROADCASTING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730206-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 3, 2003
• Sequence Number: 206
• Publication Date: November 11, 1998
• Content Type: REPORT

o%^v,artnrm"r GPI
Approved For Release 2008/03/03: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500730206-9
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
CLASSIFICATI "'~-" ? D -am I
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 25X1
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
I I I
Some Characteristics of Radio' Broadcasting
THIS DOCUMSNT CONTAINS INFO IT NATION AFFECTINS THE RAIIONAL DDIINY[
Of T11[ UNITID STATES WITHIN I TNY Y[AN1144 OF ES FIONAS[ ACT YD
Y. 1. C., S 1 AND 71. AL AY[ND[3.1 ITS TRANSMISSION OR TN[ NIYELATION
OF ITS CONTENTS IN ANT YANN[N TO AN UNAUTNONIIDD -[RSON 11 FRO-
111NIT[D ST LAW. RAFRODYCTION', OP THISI FORM IS PROHIBITED.
DATE DIST. /3 March 1951
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
During 1950 the Chinese Communist Government took steps to organize and systematize its
domestic broadcasting services and to expand its international services. The various
regional short-wave stations were amalgamated into a national networt controlled from
aping, and interne onal sere ces were schedule~ln e; r ncipal languages of Asia .
The organizational moves seem to have ' been effective in establishing central control ol,,
domestic broadcasting and rapid dissemination of the voice of the Government. The ff,.? ,,,* I.'?
Dapstic Broadcasting
Cii;in .950 domestic broadcasting underwent a steady and rapid consolidation and
e angRn which paralleled the consolidation of Communist !control on the mainland; th
ems Communist radio has developed into a centrally controlled network of 51 statJJ
g M transmitters.4 The hub of the national broadcasting system is the Central Lft-W
le's Broadcasting Station in Peiping. It directs the central station for each f~ ;
he: -4-?T,... a.t.,+..,.t.,+ oT,n.,..T,..t .A.,.. 'n..+ 4--- 11T--+T,.~.n+ Q4.,, Ir-- hi.?,?..?1?l,~e o+ s
Peiping programs a day, and some regional stations relay more than ltwo. They also
rt local news and carry all major lspeeches, orders, and proclamations. The technical
ity of the relays is usually poor; the local frequencies may vary irregularly from
to day.
ion also controls the vast network o, medi stallions operating under the
i~ ofthe regional a s ra MU units. These local eta ions are required to JAM* -
re
torinj Network: In April 1950 the Government Press Administration took a further step
M-Iftm
toward effective broadcasting by establishing a nationwide monitoring network for the
dissemination of broadcast information. Local governments at all levels, political units
of the People's Liberation Army, public organizations, factories and schools were
instructed to appoint broadcast monitors to transcribe news, official pronouncements, and
other key material carried by the central station. Major radio stations were directed to
organize classes to train monitoring personnel for local monitoring stations. These
~ !I
* Peiping does not, however, monopolize radio broadeastinglin China for commercially-
sponsored private stations are still in operation. They are allowed to broadcast only
advertisements, music, and news supplied by NEW CHINA NEWSIAGENCY. There are believed
to be 33 such stations distributed as follows: Shanghai, 22; Canton, 3; Chungking, 3;
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manufacturing 20,000 sets yearly g epa rs and the Government is now
,
patterns of the Soviet radio in its emphasis on "social education" rather than enter-
tainment. Peiping explicitly acknowledges this motivation, which it relates to e
th
urgent need to ccisolidate the new regime in the face of problems of communication and
illiteracy. In an'editorial published on 61June PEOPLE'S DAILY points out that broad-
casting stations are "huge lecture rooms which can teach tens of thousands, hundreds of
thousands, and millions of people at the same time,"! It further characterizes radio
as "a modern weapon" of great use in consolidating and coordinating the activities of
different levels of Government and in "straightening of policies, thwarting of deviations,
and greatly increasing working efficiency,"I
In furtherance ofllthese objectives Peiping Radio conducts extensive and repetitious
campaigns to,popularize such developments and policies as the "liberation," of Tibet,
the Stockholm Peace Appeal, intervention in Korea, People's Victory Bonds', etc. Both
news broadcasts and commentaries are employed in these campaigns. In addition there
are educational programs concerned with diverse and long-range topics such as Marxism-
Leninism, the carelof cattle, or the importance of land reform and floodcontrol.
The domestic news content of Chinese Communist broadcasts is provided byINEW CHINA NEWS
AGENCY, which was centralized and reorganized in April 1950 as the official news-
gathering and distributing agency. The main office is in Peiping but there are branch
offices in all the main administrative areas. News from abroad, when included, is
generally based onl,material from TASS, TELEPRESS, VIETNAM NEWS AGENCY, THE DAILY WORKER
and other agencies or broadcasting stations within the Communist orbit. Such reports
are usually broadcast under Peiping datelines but with source credited. There are
occasional broadcasts purporting to quote ASSOCIATED PRESS, UNITED PRESS,, INTERNATIONAL
NEWS SERVICE or REUTERS wherein the line between actual quotation and station comment
is frequently not delineated clearly.
In another April article PEOPLE'S DAILY emphasized that radio stations should "organize
(programs according to the needs of listeners," and the regional stations give
particular prominence to regional news. Thus Sian covers developments inllthe towns and
villages of the Northwest and treats exhaustively such matters as irrigation projects
and cattle insurance. The Tsinghai Regional'Service,lfrom Sining, urges friendship and
solidarity among the national minorities (a familiar theme in Peiping broadcasts, too)
and gives detailed reports of regional meetings. Mukden accents industrial re-
habilitation and development and notes that Soviet equipment and techniques are employed
in industriallproduction and mining. (Regional services south of the Great Wall seldom
refer to local adoption of Soviet methods.) Chungking devotes 60 percentlof its time
to coverage of Szechuan developments, but also touches upon events in Yunnan, Kweichow,
and Sikang provinces.
Quality of Broadcasts: The quality of Peiping's domestic programs is ener 1 hih)
much of it being broadcast in "pai hua," the most widely understood dialect. generally
idioms and phraseology have been supplanted by simple words. The announcers are usually
women whose voices are clear and whose inflection is sharp; their style reflects both
education and training. The technical quality of the Peiping transmitter is fair, but
studio noises, automobile horns, and train whistles from the outside sometimes intrude
on the broadcasts.
B. International Service
In the spring of 1950 Peiping assigned three transmitters to the newly-explllded Chinese
International Service, With these facilities it has developed a multilingual service
l --- --? ???- . ?- ,.y. ... 1ne distribution thereof) is, approximate-
1" 1, 350,000 and 400,000 sets in Northeast and East China, 200,000 in North
China (mainly Peiping and Tientsin) and 100 000 sets in other places." The DAILY adds Ili
that another 200,000 could be made available throw h
i
The monitors arealso expected to organize listening groups--a function which takes on
added significance from the fact that the distribut"'an of radio receiversis limited.
In April the PEOPLE'S DAILY notec1 thn+. -4l -_____.1
mon.Tior.r are to supply the public with information on program schedules and are expected
to transcribe certain programs in full for wand publication by local media, including nes-
papers posted bulletins. Peiping now schedules for transcription by local monitors
regular dictation speed broadcasts which in November instituted a dailyl,lprogram to
publicize the 'Movement to Resist America, Aid Korea, Defend Our Homes, and Protect the
Nation." One dictation speed program carries the daily propaganda directives.
 beamed to host of the Far East. New languages were added throughout the summer and fall,
until the International Service now schedules broadcasts 10 hours a day in 14 languages
and Chinese dialects. Broadcasts to "Overseas Chinese" in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka,
Amoy, and IChaochow constitute the largest segment of the schedule, which also includes
one and one half hours of Korean, one hour each of Japanese and English, a half-hour
each of Indonesian, Tonkinese, Thai and Burmese, and Mongolian and Tibetan' periods on
certain days. No Indian-language broadcasts are scheduled.
The intern,-..ional programs, for the most part, are stereotyped ',and unimaginative. Their
primary source seems to be the NEW CHINA NEWS AGENCY files and there is little
apparent effort to tailor the broadcasts to a particular audience beyond use of folk
songs from la given area. On occasion, however, a given language program will have a
group of specially selected news items, as for example one in Thai recounting the evil
behavior of the Songgram regime. The quality of the programs varies both in language
purity and lin announcing skill. The Indonesian program, for example, is announced by
a Chinese who has only a fair idea of the language and who uses an erratic) style of
delivery; recordings of Indonesian music are frequently played.) The two Tonkinese
announcershave excellent voices and a good command of the language but occasionally
mistranslate technical terms. The Thai broadcasts are conducted by two announcers whose
use of the, language is marked by idiosyncracies and vagueness. The Japanese program
.seems to be well managed. The Mongolian announcer, who increasingly adopts terms used
by Moscow and the Soviet-controlled Ulan Bator radio, speaks a kind of Mongolian used
primarily by inhabitants of the border areas and by persons of mixed Chinese and
Mongolian stock. Mongol folk songs are frequently played; there are few commentaries.
There appears to be no substantial difference between material broadcast in Mandarin for
the domestic audience and that broadcast in Mandarin and Cantonese for overseas audiences,
except that the Cantonese program includes a somewhat larger volume of reporting on the
activities of the overseas Chinese. The dictation-speed service in Mandarin for the
overseas press does not differ materially in content or emphasis from regular Mandarin
news programs. The English-language news broadcasts consist entirely of material from the
current or' preceding day's file of NCNA English-Morse transmissions. The litems are
usually read verbatim except that datelines are omitted and the length maylbe cut. The
two femaleannouncers speak fairly good English with only slight accents.
CO F'1 ~r ENTIAL
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