Skip to main content

Golden Star Radio, First Minority Foreign Language Radio Hour in the US

There is an ancient neon sign from the 1920s at 850 Clay that says 金星 "Golden Star Radio", cross street is Spofford Alley. 

Golden Star Radio Sign @ 850 Clay
by author

Turns out there's a story behind this... Golden Star Radio was the sponsor of the first all-Chinese radio program in the US, called "Golden Star Radio Hour". It was recorded that Thomas Tung and his company sponsored the first all-Chinese radio program on April 22, 1939, transmitted by 1450 KSAN-AM in San Francisco. According to the book Cathay by the Bay via NerdsEyeView the program called for 15 minutes of news, 15 minutes of Cantonese Opera, 6-7 different commercials, and the last half dedicated to contemporary music from Hong Kong. 

Golden Star Radio Co was Founded in 1936 at 846 Clay by Thomas Tung, it started as a radio sales and service company. The company primarily served as a radio seller and repair depot for Chinatown during the day. But at night, in the basement, Thomas Tung's wife Mary Chin Tong delivered the nightly news plus the aforementioned programming. The radio show lasted until 1979, according to history, even though KSAN switched to R&B in 1958. It was unclear to which station the radio show continued on until 1979, when it finally went off the air.

According to SFWeekly, Golden Star Radio originally started as a way to get their own name out among the community as a place to get radio and repairs done, but provided so much more than that, as they managed to translate President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's fireside chats to Chinese and present that as news to their audiences.  According to Arcane Radio Trivia, the translation was probably by Gilbert Gang Nam Woo, a journalist who also worked with the radio program, and later, worked as a translator for President Truman. 

Golden Star Radio Co Letterhead
courtesy Discogs https://www.discogs.com/label/1517466-Golden-Star-Radio-Company/images

(Historical note: "All Negro Hour" by WSBC in Chicago debuted on November 3, 1929, but that's in English, and was started by a White-owned radio station, so it's not really aimed at minorities. )

According to Discog, Golden Star Radio Company also published two records in the US, which appears to be recordings of Chinese or Cantonese Operas. There were probably a lot more, but they're not cataloged by Discog. 

Today, Golden Star Tattoo Company lives right under the sign, to carry on the name. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

About the author

Kasey is a professional tour guide and amateur historian who specialized in Chinatown History and Tours. You will often find him guiding groups sampling delicious food and learning interesting historical tidbits about Chinatown most weekends.

Popular posts from this blog

Dragon Gate and its Surprising History

You can't come to SF Chinatown and leave out Dragon Gate, aka the Chinatown Gate, at the corner of Bush and Grant. But do you know its history?  Chinatown Gate, aka Dragon Gate, San Francisco Dragon Gate (aka Chinatown Gate, aka Dragon's Gate) was designed by Clayton Lee and others in 1967 in response to a mayoral competition, and his was the winning entry. Originally two gates were proposed, but the other gate leading to Barbary Coast was dropped due to lack of funds, and cost overrun.  The gate itself was designed after a Chinese "pailou 牌樓" or "paifang 牌坊", which were the "gates" that marked separate fang 坊, or "ward" within a city. However, later it evolved into a purely decorative element. As with tradition, the gate faces South, and is composed of a large gate with two smaller side gates.  The gate has a lot of its materials donated by Taiwan (Republic of China) including artisanal tiles, roofing, and the two guardian lions. Despite...
Post a Comment
Read more

So What Exactly Are the Tongs of Chinatown?

The Tongs of Chinatown started off as an attempt to do good, but ended up corrupted by greed and turned into a term of evil. But what are they really?  Tong 堂 literally means the main room or a hall. It could be termed an "association", and they still exist today in San Francisco Chinatown.  Hop Sing Tong, or 合勝縂堂 (lit: united victory main hall) photo courtesy of Wikipedia / Wikicommons The Tongs started as immigrant associations serving people with common former residency, common dialect, or common ancestry. The tongs will help people fresh off the boast to adapt to the new culture. If you can find a tong that is affiliated with your village or your clan or speak your dialect, you will be welcomed. You will be given a bed for the night, then help to find a job, and find proper housing.  The tongs also offered both physical and legal protection. By 1854, the Chinese have been ruled to have no right to participate in the court system . In People vs. Hall, a Chinese witnes...
2 comments
Read more

Origin of Chinese Laundry: How Chinese-Americans Turned Discrimination Into Opportunity

One of the oddities during the Gold Rush years of San Francisco was the extreme imbalance between males and females. It is believed the ratio was like 20 to 1. And remember, back in the 1800s, men do NOT do laundry... It was supposed to be women's work or domestic servant's work. Most men don't even know how to do laundry. Not to mention two buckets of fresh water would cost a quarter. This resulted in some very odd pricing, such as the cost of laundering a dozen shirts being $8-12 dollars, due to very few women available to do the laundry. A few men will try, but give up after a while after they either destroyed the shirts or lost all the buttons. The situation was bad enough, laundry was sent across the ocean to be laundered. A ship can carry back several hundred dozen pieces of laundry .  Hawaii, seeing an opportunity, started to offer $6 per dozen washes and a much faster turnaround.    Some folks in Chinatown recognized the profit potential, being close to the p...
Post a Comment
Read more