Voices from Yesterday 📻💜
A little radio, a world so wide,
With tales and voices by my side.
Though childhood days have slipped away,
Those treasured voices still remain today.
Rediffusion was my companion for the whole day. Every morning at 6am, the National Anthem came on—Aunty’s alarm clock to get ready for school.
Rediffusion: “It’s 6am! Time to wake up!”
Aunty: “School already? Okay, okay, I’m getting up!”
School finished around 1pm, and I would rush to catch the bus, dabao my lunch and get home just in time for Lee Dai Soh’s storytelling from 2.15pm to 2.45pm. Eating and listening together—cannot waste a single minute!
But aiyoh! Every time the story reached its most exciting moment…
Lee Dai Soh: “请各位下次收听！”
Little Aunty: “HAAAA?! Like that also can? Now must wait until tomorrow!”
After that, Mandarin pop songs and Cantonese opera filled the house. That was where I learnt to sing—though my family and the neighbours upstairs said it sounded like a chicken being killed!
Aunty: “I’m practising my singing!”
Family And Neighbours: “Can you practise a little more quietly?”
At night, Ong Toh’s Hokkien storytelling was on. Listening to him was where I learnt to speak Hokkien. There were Teochew, Hakka and Hainanese programmes too, so the neighbours would hop over to listen.
Then came the great battle over the selector knob—Gold Channel or Silver Channel?
Our home was also a little shop, so the doors were open all day. The wooden clog shop towkay would simply walk in and change the Rediffusion channel. Little Aunty would switch it back. He turned it again. Aunty turned it back again. Aiyoh, never-ending battle!
Even the upstairs neighbours would shout down their channel requests, but Mama and Aunty usually ignored them.
Finally, the towkay complained to Grandma, who was listening to Rediffusion from her room, just beside the set.
Grandma: “You want to turn the knob all day? Go install your own Rediffusion lah!”
Little Aunty: “Hehehe… Grandma has spoken!”
Best of all, we paid only a small fee and could leave it on all day—no extra electricity bill. What a bargain for so many stories, songs and languages!
And Rediffusion followed us even after we relocated to a new rental flat—we kept renting the set there too. We only stopped when the dialect programmes disappeared and everything switched to Mandarin.
Mama: “Where are my Cantonese operas?”
Aunty: “Mama, shall I sing for you?”
Mama: “You dare, you sing lah!”
Aunty: “Aiyoh, Mama, I was only offering!”
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