A slight click of a mouse signals the birth of a brand new online radio station.

China Radio International (CRI) announced in Beijing Wednesday its multilingual online broadcasting station started operation, the first of its kind in China.

"Audio and video programs have been increasingly popular on the Internet in recent years, so we decided to launch an online radio station to attract young audiences and to cultivate our brand through this rising media," said Wang Gengnian, the president of CRI.

The online station, www.inetradio.cn, has four language services including Chinese Putonghua, English, German and Japanese, which offer information, entertainment, music and language class programs.

In October 2004, CRI online had a trail run of its Chinese Putonghua program which turned out to be very fruitful, with the highest daily hits of 120,000. People from 107 countries and regions worldwide have visited the website and more than 80 percent are young people with higher education backgrounds, statistics from CRI shows.

CRI, founded in 1941, opened its website CRIonline in December 1998.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2005)