Radio Ceylon
Colombo Radio, Radio SEAC (1925–1948) | |
Official website | www |
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Radio Ceylon (
History
The history of Radio Ceylon dates back to 1925, when its first precursor, Colombo Radio, was launched on 16 December 1925 using a mediumwave radio transmitter of one kilowatt of output power from Welikada, Colombo. Commenced just 3 years after the launch of BBC, Colombo radio was the first radio station in Asia and the second oldest radio station in the world.[1][2][3][4]
This new medium of mass communication not only became increasingly popular in the years that followed, but also quickly evolved into a medium of national character, which led to the "Radio Service" being organised as a separate department of the government of Ceylon (currently Sri Lanka) in 1949. Subsequently, in 1967, the Department of Broadcasting was transformed into its present statutory form of a state corporation by the Ceylon broadcasting corporation Act. No 37 of 1966[5][6] of the parliament of Ceylon, thereby assuring increased autonomy and flexibility in the operations of the new organization.
The organisation acquired its present name, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, with the transition of the state into the status of Republic of Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972. SLBC (Stands for Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation) has since continued in the same legal status as a state corporation, and is currently listed under the scope of the ministry of Information and Media of the Government of Sri Lanka.[7][8]
Transition from AM to FM
SLBC relied on mediumwave as its primary mode of domestic broadcasting until the 1990s. Some sporadic FM broadcasts were already introduced at several relay stations more as a means of expanding the broadcasts to medium wave repeater stations, however, by the late 1980s.
This was followed by the 'Island FM Development Project' that was launched in year 1995. The objectives of the project were to develop an Islandwide multi-channel FM stereo broadcast transmission network and to divest the costly domestic medium wave transmitting stations, which were typically broadcasting only one or two programme channels per transmitting station. By 1999, more than 95% of country's total population was being covered by SLBC's FM transmissions with nearly 90% of them receiving all six nationwide channels.[9]
Radio services
Currently, SLBC's domestic FM network broadcasts 6 radio stations on a nationwide basis, which are:
- Sinhala Swadeshiya Sevaya' (Sinhala National Service)
- Tamil National Service
- English Service
- City FM (Sinhala)
- Velenda Sevaya' (Sinhala Commercial Service)
- Thendral (Tamil Commercial Service)
Hindi service
Radio Ceylon had a Hindi service that was launched in the early 1950s. Millions of rupees in terms of advertising revenue came from India through the efforts of Dan Molina, Frank Courtney, and S. Hariharan. The three operated Radio Advertising Services as the advertising agents of Radio Ceylon. The station employed some of the most popular Indian announcers who played a vital role in establishing Radio Ceylon as the 'King of the airwaves' in South Asia, among them, the Ganjwar sisters, Vimla and Kamini,
Its most popular features were film songs. While the golden age of Hindi-language film music was in the 1950s and 1960s, the station popularised movie songs, including the ones from
Radio Ceylon also popularised English songs of Indian popular musicians - they went on to score huge hits, among them Uma Pocha (Bombay Meri Hai),
The station recorded jingles and beamed them on the All Asia Service - from Lux soap to Coca-Cola. Major brands queued up for their jingles to be broadcast live by the announcers of Radio Ceylon, such was the station's advertising power.[14]
Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation
Radio Ceylon became a public corporation on 30 September 1967 and the station's name was changed to the Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation. Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake appointed a distinguished Ceylonese civil servant, Neville Jayaweera to head the CBC.
When Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972 the station underwent yet another name change as the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC).
In December 2005 Sri Lanka celebrated its 80th anniversary .[15] On 5 January 2007, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation celebrated forty years as a public broadcasting corporation.
See also
- Clifford Dodd
- Desmond Kelly
- Edward Harper
- Karunaratne Abeysekera
- Tissa Abeysekera
- Kiddies Corner
- List of Hindi broadcasters of Radio Ceylon
- List of Sri Lankan broadcasters
- M. J. Perera
- S.P.Mylvaganam
- Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation
- Vernon Corea
- Greg Roskowski
References
- ^ History of broadcasting
- ^ "Gramophones of Ceylon". Archived from the original on 24 December 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
- ^ Clifford Dodd
- ^ Mixed Signals Radio Broadcasting Policy in India (page: 2176) (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
- ^ "Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts".
- ^ Radio in Sri Lanka
- ^ "Welcome to the Ministry of Mass Media and Information". Archived from the original on 1 December 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
- ^ List of ministries of Sri Lanka
- ^ "Sri Lanka Media Stats".
- ^ Roy, Sandip (21 September 2005). "ASIAN POP:The life and times of Asha Bhosle, enchanting songstress of Bollywood, now appearing with Kronos Quartet (San Francisco Chronicle, USA)". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 4 September 2008.
- ^ "That mesmeric voice (Metro Plus, Chennai-The Hindu, India)". Archived from the original on 22 March 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2008.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Reference to Greg Roskowski and the Binaca Hit Parade on Radio Ceylon on 'Who moved my Aiwaves?' (businessgyan.com)". Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2008.
- ^ "Reference to Ernest Ignatius and his hit 'I married a female wrestler'". Archived from the original on 6 August 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
- ^ "It's All in the Name(The Hindu, India)". Archived from the original on 23 March 2003. Retrieved 4 September 2008.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Eighty Years in Broadcasting in Sri Lanka (Daily News, Colombo)". Archived from the original on 25 September 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2008.
Bibliography
- Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation, 1969.
- Ceylon, Radio. - Standards of Broadcasting Practice - Commercial Broadcasting Division. - Radio Ceylon, 1950.
- Buying and Believing: Sri Lankan Advertising and Consumers in a Transnational World by Steven Kemper, (Paperback - 7 Jan 2002)
- Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War by ISBN 0674022602
- Encyclopedia of Business in Today's World, [Hardcover], Charles Wankel (Editor), Sage Publications, Inc (1 September 2009), ISBN 141296427X
- Handbook of the Media in Asia, [Hardcover], Professor Shelton A Gunaratne (Editor), Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd (8 June 2000), ISBN 0761994270
External links
- Vernon Corea The Golden Voice of Radio Ceylon
- Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation - Live Streaming
- Sinhala Radio Live Streaming - Test Archived 18 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- SLBC-creating new waves of history
- Eighty Years of Broadcasting in Sri Lanka
- Lata Mangeshkar and Radio Ceylon, in the Marathi language Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- A selection of articles on Tamil Announcers of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation