Starting in northwest China's dilapidated cave-houses and undergoing the worst-ever conditions in China's most chaotic years, the China National Radio (CNR) celebrated its 65th birthday on Friday.

The first Chinese national broadcasting station, the CNR has more than 700 million Chinese listeners, the largest in the world. Seventy-plus out of its 1,800 programs are satellite transmitted.

On Dec. 30, 1940, the CNR started in a cave-house in northwest China's Yan'an city, Shannxi Province, an important revolutionary base area that played a key role in the Chinese revolution in the 1930s and 1940s. Facing poor conditions during that time, the CNR staff used to generate electricity through truck engines.

The establishment of the CNR also marked the beginning of the Chinese broadcasting era. On Oct. 1, 1949 when new China was founded, Chairman Mao Zedong's words were transmitted electrically for the first time and could be heard in almost every part of China.

Yang Zhaolin, the former president of the CNR, once received a letter from a listener in the 1940s when he was a CNR editor. The listener said listening to CNR broadcasting was like seeing a lighthouse on a dark night.

"I was greatly encouraged in the chaotic years," said the listener.

The CNR, which now has become a modern broadcasting network using sophisticated digital technology, should go deep into the grass-roots and focus more on the public, said Liu Yunshan, head of the Department of Publicity of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, at the celebrating gathering here on Friday.

Currently, the CNR runs nine special frequencies including news, life, sports and financial information. Services like the Internet, digital radio, cell phone broadcasting, online radio and paid digital TV programs are popular among listeners.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2005)