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The KRAB Audio Archive
Chinese Radio
Produced by the Chinese Media Committee (CMC)
Feb 10, 1973 to Apr 14, 1984

The story in the Seattle Times of Mar 25, 1973 is titled "Chinese Voice helps foreign born". Written by Julie Emery, it describes a new program that started airing on KRAB Feb 10, 1973:

A youthful team of amateur broadcasters, alert to the needs of such groups as new immigrants and the elderly who speak little English, is beaming information and entertainment into Seattle's Chinese community.

The idealistic producers of Seattle Chinese Voice, however, try to have something for most of the city's Chinese when the program goes on the air at 8 o'clock every other Saturday night over Station KRAB-FM. The program is broadcast in Cantonese.

Eugene Lai and Cecilia Fung, University of Washington graduate students from Hong Kong are leaders of the team. They are hopeful that the program may have some unifying effect on the Chinese population here, which they estimate at about 10,000. Lai notes that the "foreign born and the American born often don't get along too well because of their diverse backgrounds."

"The hour-long show, in part, acts as a "public service agency and general troubleshooter," Lai explained.

"A lot of Chinese who have been here 10 or 20 years don't know, for example, where to apply for social security or low-rent housing. We tell them. We hope the broadcast will be educational, entertaining and render some important services."

And so, a new program was initiated on KRAB. While it started and ended its run with programs on alternating weeks, for most of its 11 year life (Feb 1973 to Apr 1984) it was produced and aired weekly. Which means it was a lot of hours of programming.

Two former CMC members and producers of the program, Lily Woo and King Lee, have shared a collection of several tapes, documents, publicity items, and a lot of photographs with us for the archive.

It is noted in one of the documents in the collection, "Many of the early founders and members of the CMC have become community leaders, and many have remained active, caring community volunteers." Here is a list of many of the volunteers that contributed to the program's success:

Many of the members and participants in the Chinese Radio Hour (Seattle Chinese Voice) listed above met in a reunion hosted by the UW Alumni Association on June 16, 1017. Here is an article about the reunion written by Assunta Ng and published in the blog of the Northwest Asian Weekly (June 22, 2017.

Audio Examples of Chinese Radio

As described in the Seattle Times article, the programs were in Cantonese.

So that people not conversant in that language might better understand the range of subjects discussed in the program, Lily and King created outlines of the content of each program. To follow along, click on the image just to the right of the audio link.

Recordings courtesy Lily Woo and King Lee

Photographs from events and meetings of the Chinese Media Committee

A Photo Album (small images)

Slide show of the Tenth Anniversary Variety Show Apr 9, 1983 - Nippon Kan Theatre (larger images)

Slide show of other events and meetings (larger images)

Documents and other ephemera

(Click on images at right to see the scanned documents and photos)

If you possess any souvenirs (program guides, tapes, or photos) or have a story about your experience with KRAB you are willing to share, please email archive@krabarchive.com

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