Production and Organization of Entertainment Programs in Early Stages of the Gyeongseong Broadcasting Station

Abstract

This research has its purpose in providing systematic studies on production and organization

patterns of radio programs during unified dual language broadcasting era while exploring its social and cultural significance. In particular, this research focused on entertainment programs during the first year since the opening of the Gyeongseong Broadcasting Station. In view of the production and organization of programs, the first year was a meaningful time for the Station as various materials, formats, and technical possibilities were tried. There are several reasons why the research has its focus on entertainment programs. In terms of program organizations, JODK consistently maintained the principle of report, culture and comfort. Since its establishment, comfort broadcasting has always been one of the most popular programs for Korean citizens. Entertainment broadcasting, which constituted another main pillar of the comfort broadcasting along with music, served as a venue where new types of various programs emerged but there has not been enough research on the broadcasting before the separate broadcasting era. In this research, production and organization of entertainment programs such as Book Reading, Script Reading, Movie Review and Radio Drama were analyzed based on the radio program schedules reported on Maeil Daily and Dong-A Daily from February 16, 1927 when JODK was set up to February 15, 1928. The research newly found that the first radio drama was not Dolls House (Act III) as it is widely known but rather Fame and the Poet and there were two more radio movies tried such as The Way of Sunset and Fallen Blossoms on a Stream in addition to Goldfish. It also found that altogether 20 plays, including foreign and Korean plays, were produced into radio dramas under the Radio Play Research Association. This paper, however, goes beyond delivering such new information and findings yet examines social and cultural context that led to the popular spread of entertainment programs and engages in in-depth discussion on the meaning of the programs in terms of colonial modernity and hybrid characteristics of media cultures.