Singapore

  •  1930— the BBC began planning a shortwave transmitting station to relay BBC Empire signals from the United Kingdom to the Far East 
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  •  1932—Empire Service transmissions to South and South East Asia began
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  •  1935— Authorization of the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation (BMBC)  granted.
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  •  1940 BMBC's first transmission and Government-owned Malayan Broadcasting Corporation takes over assets of BMBC
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  •  1946— The British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service began broadcasting at Jurong, transmitting live programmes in English, Burmese, Indonesian and Thai from studios at Singapore's Cathay Building on Thomson Rd.
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  •  1949 —These studios moved to Caldecott Hill. B.F.E.B.S. shared the site with Radio Malaya (Singapore). Operations consisted of live broadcasting in English, Indonesian and Siamese, news editing and monitoring.
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  •  Christmas Day, 1949—The station was again moved to Tebrau on the mainland of Malaya, and control of B.F.E.B. S. was handed over by the Foreign Office to the BBC.
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  •  August 1965— BBC Far Eastern Service closed down its studio operations in Singapore. It became the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station in 1974, and it is still on the air.

Radio Broadcasting in Singapore began a decade before the first official broadcasting company in Singapore was estbalished in 1935. Much like in other parts of South East Asia, broadcasting began with the efforts of amateur enthusiasts and the support of commercial enterprises specializing in radio equipment. These pioneers were instrumental in establishing amateur radio stations, advocating for improved broadcasting regulations, promoting the medium through diverse channels, and educating the public on the technicalities of wireless reception.  ( see this feature for a history of the AWSM and other private companies in SIngapore).

Also similar to Kuala Lumpur, there were many  complaints made to the British Colonial Office and the BBC over its transmissions from its shortwave station at Chelmsford in England, which were too weak to be received in Singapore. Omba Pende carried strongly worded editorials and satirical cartoons on the matter. The society’s main grouse was the lack of reliable transmission, whether Malayan or British, and to make matters worse, listeners were asked to pay $5 for a receiving licence. (Malayan Radio Review, 20 Nov 1932).

According to Dr Chua Ai Lin, the turning point for Radio Broadcasting in Singapore " took place on 19 December 1932, when the new Empire Service of the BBC was launched. By mid-June 1933, Malayan listeners could tune into Empire programmes for seven-and-a-half hours each day." 

 

The  BMBC

On 21 July 1935, a broadcasting licence was awarded to the British Malaya Broadcasting Corporation (BMBC), a Singapore-based company established by a “small band of wireless enthusiasts”. The cost of running the station came from receiver-set licence fees, which were increased from $5 to $12 each per annum, of which 90 percent was channelled to the BMBC. The British government reserved the right to censor all broadcasts.

BMBC was British Malaya's  first large-scale commercial radio station. Test transmissions began in January 1937. To undertake the significant task of serving the entire population of Malaya  and southern Johor, the company constructed new studios and transmission and receiving stations at Caldecott Hill.

On 1 March 1937, the radio service was officially launched by Shenton Thomas, the Governor of the Straits Settlements. Unlike earlier local stations that used shortwave bands, BMBC broadcast on mediumwave bands, making it accessible on the more affordable mediumwave sets. In 1938, shortwave transmissions were added to extend the broadcaster’s reach to the rest of Malaya.

Caldecott Hill Estate

The Caldecott Hill Estate flourished with the establishment of BMBC. As many as 70 new houses were built within 100 acres of land at the residential estate in 1937, in a project launched by a private company named Fogden, Brisbane and Co., to accommodate the personnel working at the new broadcasting service.

However, BMBC was not a sustainable operation, and internal and external factors soon led to its downfall. The company failed to raise the necessary funds through share sales, had been incurring losses since its inception, and the revenue from receiver-set license fees was insufficient to cover operating costs. A government subsidy had been previously provided to keep the station afloat.

Second World War

The British government acquired BMBC in 1940, restructuring it as the Broadcasting Station, Posts and Telegraph Department, Singapore and the Federated Malay State). A year later, the operation was taken over by the new Malayan Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), a joint venture between the governments of the Straits Settlements and the United Kingdom.

News of the Second World War and potential Japanese aggression in Southeast Asia soon filled up the radio airtime as thousands of listeners anxiously waited for the latest updates.

When the enemies inched in by early 1942, the Caldecott Hill radio station and studios were quickly abandoned with the radio mast and transmitter destroyed. When Singapore fell, the Japanese military took over the station and repaired it, changing its name to Syonan Hoso Kyoku. A Caldecott Hill camp was also set up nearby, where the Japanese imprisoned, interrogated and tortured many Australian prisoners-of-war.

During the war, the British Ministry of Information carried out broadcasting to enemy-occupied territories in the Far East through a confidential British Far Eastern Broadcasting Service (BFEBS). It came under the British Foreign Office after the war and had its office briefly at Caldecott Hill, operating with sixty European directors, technicians and announcers. It later became known as the Voice of Britain and its facilities were used as a relay station for BBC. Radio Malaya, under the charge of Department of Broadcasting, later shared the Caldecott Hill premises with BBC when they left their Cathay Building headquarters and moved into the new $430,000-building in 1951.

Television Singapura

Radio Malaya split into two in 1957, when the Federations of Malaya achieved independence from the British. One branch was relocated to Kuala Lumpur, retaining the name Radio Malaya (changed to Radio Malaysia in 1963), and went on air in 1959. The other was renamed as Radio Singapura, and operated from the original studio at Caldecott Hill.

Singapore wanted to explore the feasibility of a television service in the early sixties. A Japanese Colombo Plan team of experts was invited to survey the situation and make recommendations to the Singapore government. The report convinced the government to inaugurate a television service, and the Ministry of Culture was assigned to lead the project.

After three years of study, Television Singapura ran its first pilot television service on 15 February 1963. Although the television telecast lasted only an hour, it was nevertheless a great achievement and significant milestone.

In August 1965, with the independence of Singapore, both entities of Radio Singapura and Television Singapura were combined to form the Radio and Television Singapore (RTS).

 

Sources:

Broadcasts, Dramas and Dreams… Caldecott Hill in 80 Years https://remembersingapore.org/2017/04/16/caldecott-hill-broadcasts-dramas-dreams/

The Story of Radio Singapore

https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/files/pdf/vol-12/v12-issue1_Radio.pdf

 

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