Rediffusion Malaya

The History of Rediffusion Bhd. began in England where radio waves were blocked by the undulating plains in years gone by. For a clearer reception, the idea to erect high receiving towers was conceived in Clacton, England, in 1928. Acting as antennae, these towers would accumulate the radio waves and "re-diffuse” them through smaller antennae to various homes. Hence the birth of the name and the company Rediffusion , which was set up as a subsidiary of The British Electric Traction Company Ltd (BET).
The British spread the Rediffusion broadcasting concept to a number of its various colonies, resulting in the setting up of Rediffusuon Malaya Ltd. If you go passed along Juan Pahang in Kuala Lumpur, you could not help but notice the bright yellow signboard boldly proclaiming the word Rediffusion.

This bright yellow signboard has been there for 46 years since the establishment of Rediffuslon’s first office in Malaya 20 years after the idea originated in England.
With its initial base in Kuala Lumpur a broadcasting substation was set up in Penang in 1952 followed by one in Province Welleshby and Ipoh 11 years later.
Managed wholly by the British, subscribership grew steadily reaching 55,000 in 1984 when 55 per cent of the company was divested to Tan Sri Asman Hashim, who was the first Malaysian to hold a stake in Rediffusion Malaya Sdn Bhd. However the company still retained British expertise and Management.
BET disposed of its remaining 45 per cent share to local corporations Vital Fortune Sdn Bhd (30 per cent) and Kemas Murni Sdn Bhd (15 per cent) in 1989, making the establishment a wholly Malaysian company
With Azman at the helm, the company changed Its name to Rediffusion Cable Network Sdn Bhd (RCN) in July 1991 to reflect Its broadcasting business.
Together with Point of Sales Advertising Sdn Bhd (Posad) and Rediffusion Music Production Sdn Bhd (RMP), it was under the umbrella of holding company Risley Enterprise Sdn Bhd which became Rediffusion Bhd. in 1993.
in preparation for the listing exercise.
Rediffusion now had a paid-up capital of RM18.76 million and through its core Company RCN, operated two channels known as RCI and RC2 in the four original areas, Petaling Jaya, Port Klang, Kajang, Kampar and Gopeng. Subscription reached 83,000.
Traditionally most of it's subscribers were the Chineese-speaking community with most of them tuning into RCI which aired Chineese programmes.
Running for eighteen hours each day, the network's programmes were entertainment based and the subscription rate was
RM8 monthly with the initial installation fee being RM36.
Executive director was Yee Swee Choon who had plans to set up stations in nine other areas along the west coast for which it had operating licenses.
Catering for a niche group, Rediffusion did not view other local radio stations who catered for the masses as competition and
carried out pilot projects to test the acceptance for new programmes aimed at the non-Chineese speaking listeners as there was a good potential for expansion in that direction.
The company also researched new ways of wired broadcasting looking into ways of using idle telephone lines to open up new niche markets especially in high rise buildings such as apartments, hotels and office blocks, broadcasting was limited to houses.
With the proposed development of this new market, RCN is also considered the increase of programmes such as non-stop music channels.
The expansion of the advertising industry at between 15 per cent and 20 per cent annualy contributed to the group's music production house which produced jingles, Rediffusion had the added advantage of having it's own production and sound-recording studio.
The activities of the three companies - RCN, Posad and RMP - complemented the groups core activity of wired broadcasting.