Olympic Audience in Beijing to Tune in Games

Visitors and locals in Beijing for the Olympics next August will be able to tune in Olympic information "anytime anywhere" via "radio caps", a major broadcaster said in Beijing Thursday.

"People to the Olympic Games have to wear a cap to shelter the summer sunlight anyway, if the cap happens to be a radio for the Olympic events, how can they refuse?" Xu Jun, director of the Olympic Radio of the China Radio International (CRI) said.

"Radio caps", an idea originated from radio workers, incorporate mini radios and stereo earphones into caps that allows cap wearers to "listen to real-time information of events, weather forecasts and services without the barrier of time and place," Xu said.

The round-the-clock radio programs are to be transmitted to the caps in  nine languages including Chinese, English, Russian, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and German, and will be largely from the CRI's Olympic Radio which was launched a year ago and is to broadcast the entire Games in August next year.

The special caps are to be distributed free of charge at game venues and hotels to tourists and game audience, according to Xu.