The postwar years ushered in the adoption of radio as a form of mass media and popular entertainment in Singapore. The establishment of Radio Malaya in 1946 and its successor Radio Singapore in 1959 expanded local infrastructure and manpower capabilities in radio ...

Radio broadcasting began in Singapore in 1924 through the initiatives of a small circle of amateur radio enthusiasts and hobbyists. It was developed further by commercial companies until it was nationalised by the colonial government in response to the threat of ...

Rediffusion was Singapore's first cable-transmitted, commercial radio station. It started broadcasting in Singapore in 1949. In the 1960s and ’70s, the station's Chinese dialect programmes enjoyed a strong following, and many coffee shops and households were fitted ...

The Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) was set up on 1 October 1994 with the passing of the Singapore Broadcasting Authority Act 1994 (now known as Broadcasting Act). Established as a statutory board under the former Ministry of Information and the Arts (currently ...

The first television station in Singapore, Television Singapura, was launched on 15 February 1963. It merged with Radio Singapura to form Radio and Television Singapore (RTS) following Singapore’s independence on 9 August 1965. On 1 February 1980, RTS was corporatised ...

Rufino Soliano (b. 10 January 1932, Singapore–22 April 2017, Singapore) was an accomplished musician, composer and conductor. He was the former head of the now-defunct Singapore Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra. Soliano had been active in the local music scene ...

On 2 April 1992, the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) launched the first subscription television channel, NewsVision, in Singapore through its subsidiary, Singapore CableVision. The channel was a 24-hour news service that showed mainly news from the United ...

P. Krishnan (b. 1932, Johor, Malaya–), also known as Puthumaithasan, is regarded as one of Singapore’s Tamil literary pioneers. He is a prolific short-story writer, playwright, poet and radio broadcaster, with an oeuvre comprising more than 40 stories, 100 essays ...

Chinese street storytelling was a popular form of entertainment in Singapore during the colonial period and up till the 1960s. The storytellers set up makeshift premises in various locations in the evening, and read aloud in dialect to paying customers seated around ...

Na Govindasamy (b. 1946, Singapore−d. 26 May 1999) was an educator, writer and an Internet researcher. He started writing in the 1960s. His works, which include plays, dramas and short stories for radio and television, furthered the development of literature in ...

With a history dating back to 1845, The Straits Times is the most widely read newspaper in Singapore with a reported combined print and digital readership of 1.34 million in 2014. It is currently the flagship English-language daily newspaper of Singapore Press ...

Yong Pung How (b. 11 April 1926, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia–d. 9 January 2020, Singapore) is a former chief justice of Singapore. Prior to his judicial career, Yong was the chairman and chief executive officer of the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC). He has ...

Cathay Building, located at the foot of Mount Sophia in the Dhoby Ghaut area, was once the tallest building in Singapore. It used to house the Cathay cinema, Cathay Hotel and Cathay Restaurant. The cinema was opened in 1939 in the front building, while the main ...

ST-1 was Singapore’s first communications satellite. Launched into a geostationary orbit in 1998, the 3.2-tonne, US$240-million satellite was a 50-50 joint venture between Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom. ST-1 provided direct-to-home ...

Rebecca Chua (b. 1953, Singapore–) is a poet, writer and playwright whose short stories have been anthologised in a number of collections, published in newspapers and magazines and broadcast internationally. She published a collection of short stories, The Newspaper ...

Choo Hwee Lim (b. 28 September 1931, Singapore–d. 12 May 2008, Singapore) was an important figure in the development of choral music and opera in Singapore. An accomplished baritone singer and music teacher, Choo spotted, encouraged and nurtured once-unknown music ...

Jacintha Abisheganaden (b. 3 October 1957, Singapore–) is an accomplished Singapore actress, entertainer and jazz singer. The daughter of musician and Cultural Medallion recipient Alex Abisheganaden, Jacintha’s early training in music stood her in good stead for ...

Jah Lelawati (b.1937, Medan, Indonesia–d. 2 November 1979, Singapore), also referred to as Jahlelawati, was a bangsawan (Malay opera) actress and writer. She started by writing novels and short stories and later progressed to scripts for radio and television dramas. ...

Mohammed Saffri Bin Abdul Manaf (b. 3 November 1952, Singapore–) is a scriptwriter, actor, director and comedian. Much of his work has been aired on the local Malay television and radio. A bangsawan (Malay opera) enthusiast, M. Saffri has also written, acted in ...

Dai Sor (b. 1913–d. 23 March 1989, Singapore), also known as Lee Dai Soh or Li Da Sha, was a renowned Cantonese storyteller. He was especially popular among radio listeners in the 1950s and 1960s. Lee, together with Ng Yong Khern and Ong Toh, who performed in Teochew ...