Wedded to broadcasting, Mr Chung never says retire.

Mr Chung's broadcasting career began in 1947. He had worked for the local radio station Rediffusion, United States Information Service (USIS) and Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) — the station he is still serving now. During his career, he was mainly involved in radio plays and his excellent performance had earned him the title of 'King of Broadcasting'. His fellows dub him 'Big Brother Chung' because his second younger brother, who once worked in the same industry, called him 'big brother' and other people just followed suit.

A leading broadcaster now, Mr Chung wished to join the film industry when he was young. He said, 'After the liberation of Hong Kong, I attended school, and at the same time, enrolled at an actor development institute set up by a film company to acquire knowledge of film making, including acting, script writing, film editing and log keeping.' In his leisure time, he learned film production from a famous film director, Kwan Man-ching, and acted in films. Realising his lack of talent in acting, Mr Chung then focused on offstage work and wished to make himself a film director. But at the age of 18, chance led him to embark on his career in broadcasting.

One day in 1947 at the actor development institute, a classmate called out, ''Is there anyone interested in radio broadcasting?'' As radio broadcasting was new to Mr Chung, he signed up without a second thought out of curiosity. He then made his debut on the air. It is still fresh in his memory. He was cast as the father-in-law of the male lead in the play. But how did an 18-year-old young man sound like a middle-aged? Mr Chung had made all the preparations for the play. ''I visited the park in my neighbourhood, observed and learnt the way the middle-aged spoke. I got through after the rehearsals.'' It sounds all so easy. But in those days, radio stations did not have recording equipment, and programmes had to be broadcast live. Plays were no exception. In spite of repeated rehearsals and ample preparations, live performances were prone to nerves and slip-ups, and the stress that Mr Chung faced up to was great. After his first play, Mr Chung became a freelancer and frequently performed in radio plays. Unknowingly, he developed great interest in broadcasting.

Mr Chung's broadcasting career set off in 1952 when he joined Rediffusion. During the station's launching period, Mr Chung performed in radio plays in addition to his work in the film industry. Rediffusion was a commercial radio station which produced programmes that catered for the preferences of audience. As a result, a considerable number of radio plays were produced and Mr Chung was given more assignments than what he could attend to. He was thus brought to a career crossroad — should he carry on with his work in the film industry, or develop his career in broadcasting? Considering that broadcasting was more fascinating to him and would offer more work opportunities than the film industry, he finally chose broadcasting and became a full-time broadcaster. When he worked as a programme producer in Rediffusion, he was responsible for radio plays production in addition to broadcasting. During this period, he gave his talent full play and participated in innumerable radio plays of wide varieties, including science plays, ethical plays, detective plays and series adapted from drama fictions and martial arts fictions.

In 1955, Mr Chung left Rediffusion for the USIS. He produced variety shows about Hong Kong while working for Rediffusion, the then Radio Hong Kong and Commercial Radio in his spare time. In 1970, he accepted an offer and joined the civil service as a programme officer in RTHK. In 1991, Mr Chung retired at the age of 60 and continued his service with RTHK as programme host up till today.

Having been on the air for more than half a century, Mr Chung never gets tired of it.

Top