Radio Guangdong: Chinese radio discourses revisited

All radio broadcasting is live in a sense, whether the material is spontaneously generated, as in a chat show or a running commentary, or pre-recorded, as is the case with a compact disc or a tape. In all cases, it is heard on the receiver in the same moment that it is transmitted from the studio. Before 15 December 1986, almost all Chinese radio broadcasting was either pre-recorded or consisted of prescripted continuity and time checks. But after that date a situation gradually developed in which as much as 75 per cent of speech content was spontaneous: neither pre-recorded nor scripted word-for-word. It is this sort of radio that is commonly referred to as live in China - and this is the sense in which I shall use the word live throughout the rest of this essay. As the station that pioneered the development, Radio Guangdong is immensely proud of its position in Chinese broadcasting history. The implications for local culture have also been immense. So great is its sense of pride and achievement in leading the major reform of broadcasting in China that, in 1999, Radio Guangdong marked its fiftieth anniversary by compiling and publishing a collection of essays that charted and reflected its last thirteen years of broadcasting practice.