Advertisement
Advertisement
As chief executive Stephen Chan Chi-wan has grand plans for Commercial Radio, hoping to involve more listener interaction. Photo: Dickson Lee

Commercial Radio boss Stephen Chan Chi-wan plans interactive digital radio

VIVIENNECHOW

The digitalisation of the city's radio industry doesn't need new licences, but rather a new mode of operation and content development combining the best of traditional and new media, Commercial Radio boss Stephen Chan Chi-wan says.

"We are not running a radio station. We are running a new media [operation]," chief executive Chan said, explaining why his firm has not joined the rush to seek a 12-year digital audio broadcasting licence from the government.

Metro Broadcast is the only traditional radio broadcaster to be granted one of the new licences, with two others going to newcomers, Phoenix U Radio and the troubled Digital Broadcasting Corporation (DBC).

Public broadcaster RTHK will also launch digital channels soon, but Commercial Radio withdrew its bid for a digital licence in 2010 and Chan says its future will be in convergence and cross-platform broadcasting instead of traditional radio signals.

"Commercial Radio began digitalisation very early on … there was no need to apply for a new licence," Chan said.

Audiences can now access radio broadcasts on the internet and via smartphone applications. Live videocasts of radio programmes are also available online.

But the company is now looking at how the web can be used to offer immediate interaction between the station and its listeners.

"We will develop new programmes and applications to enable our listeners to start [discussions] on their own topics. They can express their views any time they like. The radio platform will bring these views to a mass audience," Chan said, adding that the plan would even involve a new social network.

More details of the station's digital initiatives would be released in the next quarter, Chan said, but he refused to reveal how much money was going into the new ventures.

Chan was offered the chief executive position by Commercial Radio's vice-chairwoman Winnie Yu in March, a week after he left TVB, where he had been general manager as well as a popular on-screen talent.

He had planned to stay at Commercial Radio for just a few weeks, until Hong Kong's new chief executive was elected, but after Leung Chun-ying won the poll Chan vowed to stay on until universal suffrage was implemented.

Chan declined to comment on the troubles of DBC, which is due to go off air next month after major shareholders refused to inject new capital, a move that its co-founder, former Commercial Radio talk show host Albert Cheng King-hon, claimed was politically motivated.

He stressed that Commercial Radio's reputation for outspokenness would not be restrained, no matter how much pressure it came under.

"We are never worried about this. This radio station has been in Hong Kong for 52 years and we have never succumbed to any kind of pressure," Chan said. "This station has no censorship. The most important thing is, are we doing what we should do, saying what we should say. This station has no censorship. It is this company's station."

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: New boss eyes interactive digital radio
Post