RADIO ENGINEER FROM BORNEO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 797, 29 October 1954, Page 15

RADIO ENGINEER FROM BORNEO

"THE first Unesco Fellow under a New Zealand Government grant to come to the NZBS for training and experience passed through Wellington the other day. He is Chee Haw Kong, an inspector in the Post and Telegraph Department of British North Borneo. Mr. Chee was on his way to the Auckland district where he will spend the first part of his six months’ stay-at 1YA, 1ZB and an X station. Later he will have a spell in Wellington. studying station operations. When The Listener called to see Mr. Chee’ at the office of the National Commission for Unesco, we found a friendly

young Chinese who said his-aim in New Zealand would be to gain as much technical knowledge and practical experience as he could absorb. He was very pleased with the opportunity to widen his experience, and would take a special interest in studio control and maintenance of broadcasting transmitters. Mr. Chee explained that in North Borneo broadcasting was the responsibility of the Post and Telegraph Department, whose station at Jesselton-with a transmitter some miles distant-was on the air for an hour at lunch-time each day. "It is mainly an information, service," Mr. Chee said. "We _ broadcast news-mostly local news-in English, Chinese and Malay, Occasionally there are talks by Government officers to help the people to understand what the Government is doing, and Somé musical items; and we play BBC transcriptions in English as well as ordinary commercial recordings in Chinese and Malay. The Government Information Office is in charge of programmes." Broadcasting, Mr. Chee added, was regarded as an important part of the information services. The population of North Borneo is about 334,000 of whom about 2000 are Europeans. The number of radio licences issued in the Colony is about 3000. Mr Chee, who has been engaged in radio work for about 14 years, does maintenance work on the Post and Telegraph broadcasting equipment as well as some: announcing. He is also concerned with public address equipment and a certain number of radio receivers. He expects to make good use of experience gained here when he gets back home, as new equipment for the studio and a new transmitter have been ordered by the North Borneo Government under a Colonial Development and Welfare Scheme