Rediffusion

Japan's Sony Corp is to cut 10,000 jobs or 6 per cent of its workforce having been in the red for some four years. A strong yen, competition from giants like Apple and Korea's Samsung played a big part too. TV makers have been exceptionally hard hit with Sony, Panasonic and Sharp expecting to have lost a combined $17 billion in the fiscal year just ended.

I am sure many of you will remember the Sony Trinitron Television sets of the time. It was down to this genius Akio Morita who founded Sony. Among other things, they gave us the Walkman. Pure genius, long before Sim Wong Hoo gave us the Nomad Jukebox, the Zen or Apple's iPod. Today, most unfortunately, Sony has to tell 10,000 people to walk, man. How the times have changed. Why is it that the world has never been able to avoid wastage and trouble by over-producing, over-consuming and then the sudden cut-back resulting in job losses? 


Depending if you have protection or the goodwill of the company, some may actually get a golden handshake which is well and good, so getting that pink slip is like having qualified for American Idol or Singapore Idol, hold that slip up high, clench your fist and punch the air and go on to being the biggest Idle.


It is sad for me to watch old brands and things go like Kodak and now Sony and the rest suffering but dearer than this was a magic box that was full of memories during my growing up years. 


Rediffusion


The humble box was in most homes and coffee shops. Having been around for more than 60 years they are saying adieu at the end of April.  Adieu or adios means good bye. When we say good bye, we are really saying God be with you. It is going the way of the type-writer. 


In its heyday, it is common to see the Rediffusion box in each home. It was a time we were living with our grandma and a few uncles and aunts. I was just a young boy (a few years old) and I remember that the Rediffusion box was probably switched on almost throughout the entire day. It was so much a part of us though I wasn't following it intentionally, I could vividly recall that I know which programme was coming up on each day of the week and the time. It was here that I got my first taste of American Rock and Roll music of the time where Casey Kasem was a favourite and regular fixture among my friends. So were local DJs like Roger Kool and Larry Lai. It is as Karen Carpenter so elegantly put it and it was everything I wanted to say - Yesterday Once More:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTaWayUE5XA

I pick a host of songs that were originally featured through the Rediffusion I heard as a child which have been ever so memorable, some of which I can roughly remember the years and others that I can't but it was the era of innocence where all you need was just a guitar and a song.

Can't Buy Me Love (64):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JD8SYLQzgM 
Under The Boardwalk (64):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPEqRMVnZNU
Ferry Across The Mersey (65): For Liverpool fans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loyRYFUYg9g
Downtown (65):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKCnHWas3HQ
The Sound Of Silence (66):
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsX03LOMhI
Spicks and Specks (66) Bee Gees' first hit at No. 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7kbQyseI1I
To Sir With Love (67):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sczEBtOnD3k
Georgie Girl (67):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSVfLNCW4Fs
To Love Somebody (67):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykU8iSKkJR0
Words (68): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JECTUQVrvzE
Bad Moon Rising (69):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BmEGm-mraE
Proud Mary (69):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOfHOMpU4iE
Reflections Of My Life (70):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79NiN7ISW7E
Bridge Over Troubled Water (70):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYKJuDxYr3I
Rose Garden (71):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4wcNVbYOQ
My Sweet Lord (71):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wynYMJwEPH8
It Never Rains In Southern California (72):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pyC7WnvLT4
A Horse With No Name (72):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSAJ0l4OBHM
Beautiful Sunday (72):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feegxv4goKo
I'd Love You To Want Me (72):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-pxgUyC_V4
Without You (72):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKqenACEPa8
Summer Breeze (72):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=its0qifGDxU

Others:

House Of The Rising Sun (First song I played with a guitar):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgANuwSNsok
San Franciso (Just love it! My uncle Steven always sings it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bch1_Ep5M1s
Strangers In The Night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlSbSKNk9f0
Massachusetts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc5oqjFsT5g

And later into the 70s with songs like Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc

From the upbeat and lively tunes of Downtown, Georgie Girl, Beautiful Sunday to the oft played tunes of Can't Buy Me Love which was even sung in Cantonese by some Hong Kong TV stations, how could one forget songs like San Francisco where due to the Califronia Gold Rush, the city was propelled to rapid growth. The hippie movement from 1964-1980 in the USA spread to the world. There was the message of peace, free love and communal living. These songs evolved at the time.  
Unlike MTV and youtube today, we never got to see the bands and singers, we never knew how they looked like, just the songs. Every song and beat brings me back to a time and place. I am sure for  many of you too. There are just too many wonderful stuffs to share. That is why we keep going back to the good old days. The movies, the songs and even the fashion.


Rediffusion is very special simply because they belong to a generation that spoke in dialects. You actually saw and heard TV adverts in Hokkien, watch Hong Kong Cantonese movies in black and white of course, hack they even report the stock market to you over Rediffusion in Hokkien! "Tiong kim poh ko hang cheng...UK NC chit kor kow card lard." There was a late night ghost story section that kept people glued to it as there was not much entertainment those days unlike all you lucky fellows today. They add sounds of a strong wind blowing or water dripping in the most eerie ways. 

Those were also the days where your unfinished food goes into a bin which was placed outside the home on a certain day of the week where some fellows came and collect what is called "swill", pig swill to feed the pigs and at the end of the year, these people will give you a tray of chicken eggs as goodwill for the swill. Even the noodle seller played his music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ7S8ADddOU


The most loved were the storytellers, the Cantonese loved Lee Dai Sor. The music in his intro still jingle in my ears. He went "seong yat chi kong toh ah san...":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTBcar_qKpg

The Teochew loved Ng Chia Kheng and the Hokkien loved Ong Toh. Those were the icons of days gone by. I can understand why we need to learn Mandarin but do we have to kill dialects to promote Mandarin? Was it an overkill? Our Mandarin isn't much better but our dialects have died. My grandma was not formally educated and I remembered her reading the Chinese newspapers in Teochew. That was amazing. I missed my grandmothers. 


The saddest part for me is - another part of Singapore's way of life is gone soon just Like the National Library, the row of bookshops at Bras Basah, the wonderful Indian Rojak, the National Theatre, Van Kleef Aquarium now Rediffusion and perhaps many more to come. Just like Liverpool, the Reds in diffusion. 


Before dementia set in, my memory has all been wiped up and it is not a computer virus. It's like as you and I grow old, we need something to cling on to don't you think? Remembering occasions, events, places, people, faces, loved ones and friends. Rediffusion was a close friend. Adios! God be with you and all the good people at Rediffusion. I hope you will take your time to treasure the good old days. Where we are now today will soon also be the good old days.

Oh simple things, where have you been? Oh simple life, where have you gone?