"When I was doing my military service I took a shuttle bus every day past the crossroads of Chunghsiao East Road and Tunhua South Road. There weren't so many tall buildings back then, and I would always see the three bright brass characters of Kuangchi Program Service's name on the red brick wall of their building." Kuangchi Program Service (KPS) is the only place cartoonist Tsai Chih-chung has worked. When he started there as a graphic designer his monthly salary was NT$3,300.
When KPS's priests went off to the US on fundraising tours at the end of every year, Tsai would ask them to bring him back Disney cartoon films such as Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. He would put frames from the films up on the wall to study and copy in order to understand the principles of animation-such as how many frames one needs per second, or how many pictures it takes to produce a walking movement. By reproducing scenes from the films, he learned how to make animated films and how to draw cartoons. "My teachers were the Disney films, but KPS was the school which taught me to put my skills to use," says Tsai Chih-chung.
Government surplus
The time Tsai is referring to was around 1971, when upmarket development had not yet reached eastern Taipei City. Of Taiwan's three main TV stations, Taiwan Television (TTV) had been broadcasting nine years, China Television (CTV) had been going three years, and Chinese Television Service (CTS) had just gone on the air.
A decade later, in the 1980s, KPS still offered the best opportunities for people wanting to go into TV production work.
"In the past, if you took a taxi to KPS, you didn't need to say the address-the drivers knew where to take you." Pan Tien-chu, who worked at KPS for 14 years and is now a director in the news department at the cable channel Super TV, says that if only you were willing to make the effort, at KPS you were sure to learn a great deal about TV production. At KPS Pan made variety, children's and educational programs, but he eventually left in search of the opportunity to make news programs.
Before the advent of cable TV in Taiwan, the first goal of graduates of television and broadcasting courses was to get a job with one of the three broadcast TV stations, or failing that with KPS. "This was because compared to the big three stations, all KPS lacked was its own broadcasting facilities," says Pan.
This "TV station without a transmitter" was founded in 1958 by Father Philip Bourret, an American Roman Catholic priest.
Father Bourret was familiar with the operation of electrical equipment, having graduated from the department of electrical engineering at Stanford University. After World War II he was sent to Manila in the Philippines as a missionary. He was very excited to discover that the US military were about to dispose of a large quantity of sound recording equipment, and when he approached them they responded that if somebody was willing to take it off their hands, they would be happy to donate it. Later, when Father Bourret had the opportunity to come to Taiwan as a missionary, he brought some of the equipment with him and set up the "Kuangchi Recording Studio" in Taichung.
Started as a recording studio
The only person still at KPS who worked with Father Bourret is 67-year-old Father Raymond Parent. He recalls how in the 1960s, when Taiwan and mainland China were engaged in a propaganda battle on the airwaves, and listening to mainland broadcasts was forbidden in Taiwan, the government encouraged the establishment of private radio stations. The number of radio stations quickly grew to over 80, and there was an enormous demand for programs. Father Bourret produced classical music programs, five-minute stories, and short radio dramas, all of which he made available to radio stations free of charge.
Later, because all the good radio actors were in Taipei, Father Bourret moved his recording studio to the capital. At about the same time, the Ministry of Education set up a small educational television station which broadcast to the Taipei area. Father Bourret acquired some television equipment, including a video tape recorder, and KPS began to produce children's science programs based on the primary-school science syllabus. At that time KPS's was the only video tape recorder in Taiwan, and it took two grown men to move it. Each of the programs was recorded at KPS, and then the recorder was moved to the educational TV station, which at that time was inside the botanical gardens on Nanhai Road, to broadcast the program.
A sure money-loser?
According to the book You Have to Win by late media scholar Chang Chi-kao, the main reason President Chiang Kai-shek decided to set up a television station in Taiwan was that stations had already been set up in Beijing (in 1958) and Hong Kong (in 1960). Chiang originally planned to ask Wei Ching-meng, then president of China Broadcasting Corporation, to establish a station, but Wei was hesitant because CBC was still not turning a profit. At that time few people were willing to get involved in setting up TV stations because they considered such a venture a sure money-loser.
Around then KPS bought its present 2,000-plus square meter site on Taipei's Tunhua South Road for a price of NT$1,000 per ping (3.3 square meters), and put up its headquarters building, which includes two two-storey-high television studios, for the cost of building a church. In an era when the government controlled everything as a matter of course, "for a private organization to want to get involved in television was seen as madness," says Father Parent.
But with help from many people and frequent donations from abroad, and because television programs had the potential to reach a huge audience, KPS was determined to get into this area of activity.
On 10 October (ROC National Day) 1962, TTV went on the air. But on the day it was short of a camera for its news broadcast, so it borrowed two from nearby KPS, and this enabled the grand opening by Madame Chiang Kai-shek to go ahead without a hitch. When TTV asked how much they had to pay, KPS said generously that there would be no charge, but they hoped that in future they could make programs for TTV. This marked the beginning of their close collaboration.
Worthless work for Uncle Jerry?
In 1974, KPS recruited Father Jerry Martinson, an American who was teaching in the Faculty of Theology at Fu Jen Catholic University, to take charge of its audiovisual equipment. Since then this priest, who likes to perform songs to his own guitar accompaniment, and has devised and hosted many programs himself, has been KPS's trademark.
"Father Jerry" has often been invited to perform on TV, for instance singing the Taiwanese dialect song Hot Meat Zongzi on various variety shows, and playing the famous Jesuit priest and Qing-dynasty court painter Giuseppe Castiglione in a CTV drama series. He taught the popular singer Tracy Tsui to sing in English, and on her TV show, when she showed films introducing the scenery and customs of places around the world, she would accompany each one with a song in English. But for young children, Father Martinson is probably best known as the "Uncle Jerry" of the English teaching program Giraffe and KPS's English tapes and CD-ROMs.
In 1976, KPS planned to put up a new building next to its original four-story structure, to accommodate new sound recording suites and some large TV studios. This project required substantial funding, and Father Martinson was sent overseas to raise the money. The then KPS president Father Paul Shan (now Cardinal Shan) told him not to come back to Taiwan until he had raised US$1 million. Within six months Father Martinson visited 200 foundations in Europe and America, but 90% said they were not interested.
In the Netherlands, someone even asked him why he had come all the way from Taiwan with such a hare-brained scheme. Why would a priest want to be in radio and television? He should get out of that worthless line of work as soon as possible and go back to looking after his church.
But Father Martinson didn't give up. He kept the person's name and address, and whenever he received help from other people he would write saying how they regarded KPS's work as important enough to warrant support, and politely asking him to reconsider. One day two years later, when work had already started on KPS's new building, Father Martinson received a letter from the Netherlands with a check for US$100,000.
Hsu Kuangchi and Matteo Ricci
The question raised by that Dutch sponsor actually expresses a doubt held by many people. Why would KPS, as a part of a Catholic missionary organization, want to make TV programs? In fact this has to do with the experience of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), the first Western missionary to come to China.
Many people are unaware that the "Kuangchi" in Kuangchi Program Service is the name of a person. It commemorates the contacts and friendship between Matteo Ricci and Hsu Kuangchi (1562-1633), an astronomer at the Ming imperial court. When Ricci, a Jesuit, came to China in the 17th century he got to know Hsu, and the two collaborated to introduce Western scientific knowledge, translating works on geometry, calendars, agriculture and other fields into Chinese. Matteo Ricci is regarded as one of the Westerners most deeply versed in Chinese culture. In order to fit in with China's many Buddhists, he shaved his own head. He was also a gifted linguist, and had a photographic memory which enabled him to memorize Chinese classics such as the Four Books. To general admiration, he was able to recite them fluently both forwards and backwards. Ricci's collaboration with Hsu Kuangchi was a milestone in Chinese-Western cultural exchange, and KPS was established with the aim of continuing in the same spirit by the use of broadcast technology.
In 1980 Father Martinson took over as president of KPS, and he recruited John Hei, who at the time was working for the Hughes Corporation in the US, to help him manage it. In 1981 Hei launched A New Look at Modern Weapons, the ROC's first program devoted to introducing new military technology such as ballistic missiles, fighter aircraft, lasers and the space shuttle. The program proved extremely popular and was aired for a full two years. Many of the documentary films used were collected by John Hei on trips overseas, and sometimes the ROC military even borrowed such material for information purposes.
However, some people may ask why a church organization would produce a television program introducing lethal weaponry. John Hei's take on this is that "making people aware of the power of armaments can help make them realize how dreadful war is."
The success of A New Look at Modern Weapons won KPS a 9 p.m. broadcast slot which had previously been used for government announcements. The time from 9:00 to 9:30 had long been known as "bath time"-it was a slack period with low viewing rates. But when KPS's program Acme was broadcast at this time, it gained full advertising bookings. Acme had a similar format to A New Look at Modern Weapons, but it extended its coverage of science and technology to cover all aspects of human life. It also greatly raised the public profile of its presenter Chien Yu-hsin, so that when he later stood for election to the Legislative Yuan he gained the highest number of votes of any candidate in his electoral district.
From Taiwan to Asia
In the 1980s KPS's operations expanded and its staff grew to over 140. With over ten programs being broadcast weekly on the three TV stations, audiences could see its products every day. For instance, one of its best known shows, Mother and Mother-in-Law, in which cloth puppets played alongside human actors, ran to 381 episodes.
KPS has also extended its program-making feelers overseas. In 1985, Father Jerry Martinson, documentary film director Lee Daw-ming and two colleagues braved many hardships to go to the refugee camps on the borders of Thailand and Cambodia and film the life of the refugees there. Their documentary Beyond the Killing Fields earned them awards for best short film at the Golden Horse film festival in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival.
KPS has been called a cradle of TV talent, but a very real problem confronting it is a high rate of personnel turnover. Particularly over the last few years, since the appearance of a large number of cable television stations, technical staff have departed in droves, sometimes recruited away in whole teams of dozens of people.
A former KPS employee says that the bottom line is that KPS does not pay high salaries, and cannot always be relied on for perks such as year-end bonuses either. As cable stations started up, the main thrust of KPS's business gradually turned from program production to renting out its studios. Cable stations such as Golden Entertainment and Sanlih made programs there, and CTS made pop music programs and Taiwanese-dialect soap operas. But once the new channels built their own studios, KPS's studio rental business dropped off.
When there were only three television stations, KPS had a regular outlet for its programs. But today its exposure seems inadequate, or rather it has been diluted by the hundreds of programs broadcast every day. Thus people have asked why, with so many cable stations being set up, KPS did not start one of its own. With its own channel, would it not be better placed to propagate the Christian ideal of universal love?
In the analysis of John Hei, formerly KPS vice president and now president of his own management consultancy firm, KPS missed several opportunities in the past, and this has reduced its influence today. When TTV and CTV were set up in the 1960s KPS did not try to become a shareholder. Later, the new cable stations all had to start from scratch, yet although KPS had hardware, program production experience and personnel, it let slip the chance to set up its own channel.
While John Hei was vice president he realized: "KPS is very much an old-style organization. Many decisions have to go through protracted channels." He comments that in today's commercial world, decisions have to be made quickly. Small media companies are more flexible, as decisions can be made by a few people. But if one has to wait for documents to go up and down the management ladder, by the time a program-making idea is approved it may have lost its relevance.
Still adapting to commercialism
On the question of KPS setting up its own channel, Father Raymond Parent notes that when he was a member of the Government Information Office's nine-member research team on cable television, he felt that the remit set by the GIO was too narrow, and the pace of legal reform too slow. With the chaotic situation of the time, when all cable channels were illegal, it would have been very difficult for KPS, with its limited financial resources, to enter this market.
Father Jerry Martinson says that because many of KPS's programs are made under contract for the three non-cable stations, KPS does not own the copyright in them. But there is a big difference in focus between operating a TV channel and doing production. Before running a channel KPS would have to strengthen its own capabilities, and increase the number of programs to which it owns the rights.
Hence over the past few years they have been adjusting the orientation of their production work. They have discovered that producing drama series is too risky and too costly, and cannot be relied upon to bring in a profit. Therefore they are now trying to concentrate on producing educational programs, and they sometimes contract out technical work such as dubbing and sound effects to save on personnel costs. Father Martinson acknowledges that KPS has not yet fully adjusted to the new highly competitive television environment.
"Not having set up our own channel is regrettable in theory, but to maintain a media outlet is very expensive, and requires careful assessment," says Father Parent. In his view, now may not be a good time to set up a channel, because few of the existing cable broadcasters are making money. Perhaps in a while, after some stations have folded and others have consolidated, KPS will still have the opportunity to find collaborative partners.
In contrast to Buddhist-supported TV stations, which often invite Buddhist masters to speak directly about religious matters before the camera, KPS has always been unwilling to produce programs in which priests expound the Catholic religious view. As well as such an approach being visually monotonous, says Father Martinson, "audiences don't like proselytizing, and the biggest challenge in making programs is how not to proselytize." Religious information and values, such as "blessed are the poor" need not be said directly-they can be understood all the better if expressed through stories.
The way ahead
Yu Ping-chung, director of Public Television Service's feature programs department, agrees that the highest achievement in program production is to make programs which are both instructive and entertaining, and he says KPS has done well in this respect. In today's era of free expression and intense competition, "everyone in the business has to think about how to define their own market position," says Yu.
Although in terms of staff size KPS has gone from its peak of over 100 to only 80-plus employees today, it is still in the big league among Taiwan's media companies. It continues to regularly produce four to five television programs at a time; it is just that among the large number of channels now in existence, this is no longer enough to give it a high profile. With its income from producing television programs, short commercial publicity films and English-language study CDs, and from other areas of business such as studio rentals, it has not needed any contribution from the church for the last decade. KPS is financially self-sufficient, but how to rise to new heights is a challenge for its decision makers.
"What they need most today is to find a niche, but that takes time and effort," says John Hei. He maintains that commercialization is not evil, and suggests that KPS should sit down with programming managers from Taiwan's various TV stations to ask them what kind of programs they need, and what services they feel KPS could provide them with. "In the past, people came to KPS for programs, but today they need to act on their own initiative," he says.
KPS, which has had a place in Taiwanese television audiences' hearts for 40 years, has seen glory days, and its ability to keep going in an era of intense competition between cable TV companies, when the orientation of programming has turned towards the commercial and the lowbrow, is refreshing. Its story not only bears witness to the history of television in Taiwan, but also represents an indelible chapter in Taiwan's development.
p.98
KPS had the first TV studio in Taiwan, and has produced a wide variety of programs, including Taiwan's first variety show Night of the Big Stars (middle), hosted by stars such as Pai Chia-li and Liu Wen-cheng, advertisements, and the seniors' literacy program Every Day is Reading Day.
p.100
Forty years have gone by since KPS was set up in 1958 as a small sound recording studio by Father Philip Bourret, an American priest.
p.101
The name Kuangchi commemorates part of the history of Chinese-Western cultural exchange: the 17th-century friendship of Ming-dynasty scholar Hsu Kuangchi with Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci.
p.102
KPS has also made programs overseas. In 1985 Father Jerry Martinson led a camera team to the frontiers of Thailand and Cambodia to film the documentary Beyond the Killing Fields.
p.103
In 1981 KPS launched A New Look at Modern Weapons, the ROC's first TV program introducing modern armaments. Presenter John Hei often went overseas to gather film material for the program. He is pictured here with a Tomcat fighter and its pilot. (courtesy of John Hei)
p.104
In one of KPS's most popular programs, Mother and Mother-in-Law, large puppets played alongside human actors.
p.105
For the past decade and more, Uncle Jerry's avuncular smile has regularly appeared on Taiwan's television screens. Here he is seen discussing the generation gap with cellist Chang Cheng-chieh (right) on Tzu Chi Television's program Filial Youth. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)
Forty years have gone by since KPS was set up in 1958 as a small sound recording studio by Father Philip Bourret, an American priest.
The name Kuangchi commemorates part of the history of Chinese-Western cultural exchange: the 17th-century friendship of Ming-dynasty scholar Hsu Kuangchi with Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci.
KPS has also made programs overseas. In 1985 Father Jerry Martinson led a camera team to the frontiers of Thailand and Cambodia to film the documentary Beyond th e Killing Fields.
In 1981 KPS launched A New Look at Modern Weapons, the ROC's first TV program introducing modern armaments. Presenter John Hei often went overseas to gather film material for the program. He is pictured here with a Tomcat fighter and its pilot. （courtesy of John Hei）
In one of KPS's most popular programs, Mother and Mother-in-Law, large puppets played alongside human actors.
十多年來,傑瑞叔叔親切的笑容仍不時出現在電視螢光幕前。圖為邀請大提琴家張正傑（右）為來賓、以兩代溝通為主題,在大愛電視台播映的《孝孝青春》節目。（卜華志攝）
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