Cheung Man-sun: the man who gave voice to Canto-pop

Cheung Man-sun was 12 when his mother died, and it wasn't long before he was hit with another crushing emotional blow - his family was so poor they had to give away his younger sister.

Cheung's father had settled the family in Sheung Shui after his discharge from the military. Jobs were scarce, and the family turned to farming their land to make ends meet. "We missed my little sister. I said I would quit school to get her back. But she came back to us after six months," said Cheung.

To supplement the family income, Cheung took a job at a textile factory where he would work after school. It was there that he had his first extended exposure to radio. "Back then, all factories played the radio [to keep up workers' spirits]. It was before the Canto-pop era, and many Mandarin love songs were played," he said.

When Cheung finished school, he got his first broadcasting job as a production assistant at the news and current affairs division of Radio Hong Kong. He had applied for the role after hearing the Labour Department's announcement on-air.

Not long into the job, his boss Chu Pui-hing returned from a stint at the BBC with ideas to revamp the station. "Chu asked me to host a weekly 30-minute show called Sun Tin Tey, or New Horizon, which was a play on my name. I was asked to play only Cantonese songs, which at that time were considered secondary to English songs," he said.

Far from it being a suicide mission for his career, the programme made Cheung a household name. The show was modelled after overseas contemporary series, the United States' American Top 40 and Britain's UK Hot 100. Each week, listeners would send in their choices for the best Canto-pop songs, and Cheung would put together the playlist for broadcast. He would then announce the song with the most votes, and one of the voters would get a gift.