How RTHK, then known as Radio Hongkong, finally found a permanent home
When the broadcaster moved to Kowloon’s four-storey Broadcasting House, it became the third studio to do so – road names were changed to reflect the area’s new occupants
“Radio H.K. to get own premises,” ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on October 7, 1967.
“Radio Hongkong will move into its new $6 million broadcasting station in Lung Cheung Road, in Kowloon […] by the end of next year,” the story continued.
The four-storey block, overlooking Kai Tak airport and Kowloon Bay, would replace Radio Hongkong’s existing facilities in Central and Admiralty. Upon completion, the broadcaster would have a home of its own for the first time since it had been established, in 1928.
“Originally, it was intended that Radio Hongkong should take over a building at HMS Tamar but after preparatory work had started, the building was declared unsafe by the Public Works Department and was demolished,” the Post reported.
Then, in 1965, it was announced that a new centre would be built in Pok Fu Lam. However, in November 1966, the site was switched to Kowloon, the Post reported, because other radio and television stations had bought land there and the government felt it would be convenient to situate Radio Hongkong in the same area.
Since all of the colony’s radio and TV stations would be clustered south of Lion Rock Tunnel, the Urban Council had agreed to rename roads there, the Post reported on January 19, 1968. The perimeter road was renamed Broadcast Drive and the two bisecting roads were called Marconi Road (after radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi) and Fessenden Road (after Reginald Fessenden, who made the first known radio programme broadcast, in the United States).
On April 25, 1969, governor Sir David Trench officially opened Broadcasting House, making Radio Hongkong the third broadcast studio – after Television Broadcasts (TVB) and Rediffusion Television – to move to the 20-hectare “Radio and Television City”.
The facility, which is still used by the station, renamed RTHK, occupied 54,000 sq ft and accommodated a canteen for 100 people, rehearsal rooms, a record and tape library and a music studio capable of hosting a medium-sized symphony orchestra.
