Welfare's prize guys toast radio show

YOUR marriage might be on the rocks, but call a new RTHK radio phone-in devoted to on-air discussion of family problems and you could win a toaster.

The Social Welfare Department is offering $10,000 worth of home appliances in a bid to tune life-education programmes on to a more commercial wavelength.

And if the thought of people's problems being aired in return for a new rice cooker makes your hair curl, don't worry - hair dryers are on offer, too.

Fourteen hour-long Harmonious Life programmes will be broadcast live from April 24, covering such diverse subjects as human relationships, sex education and home management.

Their aim, say co-organisers the Family Life Education Publicity Campaign, is to help people handle problems that could undermine family relationships.

But Welfare Department officials thought an incentive was needed to cook up public interest in the shows and quickly warmed to the idea of offering listeners electrical appliances.