Tommy Tong and his wife, May Chin Tong, were pioneering Chinese-American broadcasters whose legacy has been all but forgotten. They created the first Chinese-language radio program in North America in 1939 and continued these broadcasts from San Francisco for forty years.
Born in China’s Shandong Province in 1912, Tong Chun Choy arrived in the United States in 1915. He would adopt the Westernized name Tommy Tong and marry San Francisco native May Chin.
The Tongs founded Golden Star Radio Company. 
It was a radio shop with a recording studio in its basement that produced Chinese records. Their son, Ron Tong, recalls the family business also included a record store with listening booths as well as other enterprises.
In April 1939, the Tongs went on the air from their basement studio. That pioneering broadcast, known as “The Chinese Hour”, was heard on KSAN, then broadcasting at 1420 kilocycles.
The late-night live broadcast, heard six nights a week, was a mix of news, music, and other entertainment. Ron Tong recalls his mother was the “anchor” of the broadcast while his father handled the technical side. May Chin Tong would use a pair of scissors and a pot of glue to cut stories from various newspapers and paste them onto sheets of paper, creating her scripts.
In 1951, San Francisco Chronicle radio-television columnist Terrence O’Flaherty devoted an entire column to “The Chinese Hour”, calling it “a unique success in the entertainment world”.
By 1953, the Associated Press reported “The Chinese Hour” could boast an audience of 25,000 Bay Area listeners. The AP story noted that the broadcast “differs from a thousand other American record programs only in this respect—the music is straight from the Hong Kong hit parade, and the news is recited in perfect Cantonese.”
While May Tong handled the on-air content, Tommy Tong managed the business side, rounding up advertisers from within the Chinatown community. The broadcast played an important role for political and civic leaders outside Chinatown as well: photos held in the collection of the Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California show numerous powerful figures stopping by the Golden Star Radio studio.
“The Chinese Hour” moved from 1420 to 1450 on the AM dial when KSAN switched frequencies, and then to 1170, on which San Jose-licensed KLOK was heard. During the KLOK years, a Chinatown satellite studio was opened to great fanfare so the Chinese Radio Hour broadcasts could continue to originate from The City, though they were being transmitted from the South By. A final move carried the broadcast to the FM dial after KBRG launched in 1964 at 105.3 (the frequency now used by Audacy’s “Live 105”). The final “Chinese Hour” broadcasts took place in 1979.
”The Chinese Hour” has long been silent. Tommy and May Tong passed away years ago. But the neon sign that once drew customers into their Clay Street store remains a favorite photographic target.
