Chung Wai Ming Recalls His Sixty Years in Radio

Clip1-Joining the Field and First Audition

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One evening after work, one of my classmates asked us if anyone would be interested in broadcasting. To us, broadcasting was a new term. We were all very curious, so everyone put up his hand to show interest. Only later did we realize this was about taking part in the radio play “The Rebirth of the Rose”. The group of us went to see the man in charge, Mr Cheng Kwan-min who was organizing the adaptation of this stage play for radio. It was a three-act play. He did the casting. He played the leading male role, and the female lead was played by Li Ni. She later emigrated and left us. I was cast as a middle-aged man, the father-in-law of the male lead. I was only about 16, 17 at the time and didn’t know how to play the role; so I went to ask my teacher. He advised me to observe the way older people spoke, or lower my voice to speak. After reading our scripts, we had an audition. The first time I walked on the very thick red carpet as I entered Radio Hong Kong in Gloucester House – the feeling I had at that moment, I can still feel it when I close my eyes now. We were there to do an audition for the producers and after they were satisfied, we had a rehearsal with the music. When all was satisfactory, the first broadcast took place on the evening of 23 November 1947. That was the first time I ever took part in the broadcasting of a radio play.

I can’t remember too clearly how I performed then, I only remember that I was extremely nervous. When the time came for the programme to start, the announcer said: “This is Radio Hong Kong Station ZEK, the following programme is a special radio play…” As he was announcing it, I was already very nervous. After the announcement, the gong was sounded, and my heart thumped with the sound of the gong. My teacher had taught us to breathe deeply, and not to think of anything except the dialogue. I did accordingly, and the airing was successful.

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