online country sri lanka availability national international owner government of sri lanka launch date 1925 radio 1967 incorporation former names colombo radio radio seac 1925 1948 official website http www.slbc.lk radio ceylon sinhalese lanka guwan viduli sevaya tamil ilankai vanoli is the oldest radio station in asia . broadcasting was started on an experimental basis in ceylon by the telegraph department in 1923 just three years after the inauguration of broadcasting in europe . contents 1 beginning 2 transition of domestic broadcasting from medium wave to fm broadcasting 3 programme channels radio services currently maintained by slbc 4 contribution of edward harper 5 notable announcers 6 the hindi service 7 clifford r. dodd 8 ceylon broadcasting corporation 9 quotes on radio ceylon 10 see also 11 references 12 bibliography 13 external links beginning edit the history of radio ceylon 1 2 dates back to year 1925 3 when its first precursor colombo radio was launched on 16 december 1925 using a medium wave radio transmitter of one kilowatt of output power from welikada colombo . commenced just 03 years after the launch of bbc colombo radio was the first ever radio station in asia and the second oldest radio station in the world . home of ceylon gramophones . 4 2 5 6 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 organized as a separate department of the government of ceylon as the country now sri lanka was then called by the call sign radio ceylon 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 7 8 of the parliament of ceylon 9 thereby assuring increased autonomy and flexibility in the operations of the new organization . the organization 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 stand 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 . 10 11 transition of domestic broadcasting from medium wave to fm broadcasting edit as was the case with many national radio stations with the same standing several decades ago slbc was relying on medium wave as the primary mode of domestic broadcasting until the dawn of 90s . some sporadic fm broadcasts had nevertheless been already introduced at several transmitting stations more as a means of relaying the broadcasts to medium wave transmitting stations . however by late 80s slbc was acting in recognition of the strategic importance of switching from mw to fm as the primary mode of domestic broadcasting . accordingly in 1993 the fm stereo broadcasting facility at colombo was commissioned with the technical assistance of the government of japan . 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 % country s total population was being covered by slbc s fm transmissions with nearly 90 % of them receiving all six nationwide channels . 12 programme channels radio services currently maintained by slbc edit slbc has throughout its history been committed to its mandated task of maintaining the public service broadcasting in sri lanka by way of providing the public with the information and entertainment and fostering the social cultural and economic development of the country and has maintained this commitment as the core guiding principle of its programming policy . despite the introduction of a certain amount of commercial programming into its operations in order to partially finance its predominantly public service broadcasting operations the respective station genres and the programming content are carefully designed to be within its programming policy guidelines . at present slbc s islandwide domestic fm network broadcasts six regular programme channels on a nationwide basis and those six national channels account for the major proportion of its domestic broadcasting . the six channels are 1 . sinhala swadeshiya sevaya sinhala national service 13 2 . tamil national service 14 3 . english service 15 4 . city fm sinhala 16 5 . velenda sevaya sinhala commercial service and 6 . thendral tamil commercial service while the first 03 channels are dedicated for public service broadcasting in the three languages sinhala tamil and english the fourth one city fm is maintained as a channel dedicated for the youth . the last two channels whilst representing an adult contemporary genre accommodates a certain amount of commercial content . besides the above six channels operated on a regular basis slbc also operates on nationwide basis a seventh channel namely the sports service which is a channel dedicated for sports but only during the times of major sports events such as international cricket matches . the other component of domestic broadcasting comprises 04 regional services each of which are originating from respective regional studio centres and 05 community radio services operated in five specific areas with substantial socio economic homogeneity . all of these regional and community radio services maintained by the slbc largely represent a public service broadcasting format with regional community focus . in addition to the above domestic services slbc is also operating a host of overseas services transmitting in short wave to the south & south west asia and the middle east in sinhala english hindi and several indian sub continental languages . 17 also there is a medium wave transmitting facility for broadcasting mainly to the southern regions of india . contribution of edward harper edit edward harper who came to ceylon as chief engineer of the telegraph office in 1921 was the first person to actively promote broadcasting in ceylon . in the first ever radio experiments in colombo gramophone music was broadcast from a tiny room in the central telegraph office with the aid of a small transmitter built by the telegraph department engineers from the radio equipment of a captured german submarine . 18 the experiment was a success and three years later on 16 december 1925 a regular broadcasting service came to be instituted in ceylon . the station was called colombo radio with the call sign colombo calling . harper also founded the ceylon wireless club together with british and ceylon s radio enthusiasts in the city of colombo . ceylonese engineers joined the ceylon wireless club and carried out radio experiments with edward harper . these were exciting times for radio in south asia . citation needed many who regard edward harper as the father of broadcasting in ceylon . during world war ii the radio station operations were taken over by the allied forces who operated radio seac from colombo . 19 the station was handed over to the government of ceylon after the war . radio ceylon came into being after the war and climbed broadcasting heights in south asia leading the way in the world of entertainment and news . citation needed the very first senior management officers of the station came from the bbc ; john lampson was appointed director general of broadcasting and pascoe thornton was appointed director of programmes of the national service at the station . 20 civil servant m.j perera was the first ceylonese director general of radio ceylon and another civil servant vernon abeysekera was appointed director of programmes . notable announcers edit broadcaster kailayar sellanainar sivakumaran . radio ceylon has produced some of the finest announcers of south asia among them livy wijemanne vernon corea pearl ondaatje tim horshington greg roskowski jimmy bharucha mil sansoni eardley peiris shirley perera bob harvie b.h.abdul hameed claude selveratnam christopher greet prosper fernando tony de costa the ganjwar sisters ; vimla and kamini the first hindi announcers on the commercial service ameen sayani of binaca geetmala fame s.p.mylvaganam the first tamil announcer on the commercial service 21 thevis guruge h.m.gunasekera a.w.dharmapala karunaratne abeysekera chitrananda abeysekera kailayar sellanainar sivakumaran mervyn jayasuriya vijaya corea elmo fernando eric fernando nihal bhareti leon belleth and v sundharalingam . pioneering broadcaster vernon corea left with fellow announcers in a studio at radio ceylon colombo in 1958 . other sri lankan personalities such as owen de abrew the most senior ballroom dance professional on the island 22 and top film director lester james peiris 23 who reviewed books for radio bookshelf were involved in radio programmes on the airwaves . this was in the heyday of radio ceylon the announcers and presenters particularly those who presented radio programmes on the all asia beam enjoyed iconic status . radio ceylon ruled the airwaves in south asia as millions in the indian sub continent tuned into the radio station . 24 people picked up radio ceylon broadcasts as far away as the united states of america . 25 the hindu newspaper placed ameen sayani and vernon corea 26 of radio ceylon in the top five great broadcasters of the world . 27 radio ceylon turned young ceylon s talent into household names among them the ceylon s musicians of the 1950s and 1960s nimal mendis 28 bill forbes 29 cliff foenander des kelly adrian ferdinands tissa seneviratne harold seneviratne douglas meerwald and the manhattans 30 to name a few presented by ameen sayani 31 on the overseas service among them . there was also a religious and cultural dimension to radio programming and radio ceylon broadcast buddhist hindu muslim and christian programmes . the station had three broadcasting arms the commercial service the national service and the all asia service . radio programmes were broadcast in english sinhala and tamil the all asia beam had many programmes broadcast in hindi . pandit w. d. amaradeva and other distinguished sri lankan musicians have all given concert recitals in the studios of the station . the hindi service edit radio ceylon had a very lucrative arm the hindi service of the station launched in the early 1950s . millions of rupees in terms of advertising revenue came from india . 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 vijay kishore dubey gopal sharma shiv kumar saroj vijaylaxmi ripusudan kumar ailawadi popularly known as kumar and manohar mahajan sunil dutt who went on to become a film star in bollywood ameen sayani and elder brother hamid sayani though not hired by radio ceylon became popular by using radio ceylon for broadcasting programs like binaca geetmala first broadcast in 1952 and lipton ke sitaare . group picture of announcers of radio ceylon in the year 1953 what captured the indian listener were the film songs the golden age of hindi film music was in the 1950s and 1960s radio ceylon was at the right place at the right time to reach out to the target market of millions of listeners the station popularised the movie songs including the talents of playback singers asha bhosle 32 lata mangeshkar k.l. saigal kishore kumar mukesh mohammed rafi s. janaki and others . this was a brilliant move by radio ceylon as bollywood film music was banned by all india radio and other indian radio stations at the time . 33 this led to increased listenership for radio programmes such as binaca geetmala . radio ceylon had a captive audience . the binaca hit parade was presented by happy go lucky greg roskowski it was a countdown of