The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation to this day is one of the finest radio stations in the world. It also happens to be the oldest radio station in Asia and the third oldest in the world.
On December 16, 1925 the then British Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford inaugurated broadcasting services in Sri Lanka. It was first known as Ceylon Radio. In 1943, the broadcasting station premises were shifted from Torrington to a bungalow named ‘Bower’ in Cotta Road, Borella due to the Second World War.The ‘Bower’ ceased broadcasting by midnight on December 30, 1949. The name changed to Radio Ceylon and the station shifted to Torrington Square on January 1,1950. On January 5,1967, it became a State Corporation and this year the SLBC commemorates its 95th year.
Commercial Service
Commercial broadcasting from Radio Ceylon was inaugurated on September 30,1950 and to which Clifford Dodd was seconded for service via the Colombo Plan. It was a ground breaking experience as far as broadcasting in Ceylon was concerned. Clifford R Dodd is regarded as the Father of Commercial Broadcasting’ in Ceylon.
Dodd was ably assisted by Lankans Tim Horshington and Livy Wijemanne who later moved from the National Service to the Commercial Service.
Vernon Corea, Greg Rozkowski, Karl Goonasena, Jimmy Bharucha, Eardley Pieris, Percy Bartholemeuz, Norton Perera, Ronald Campbell, Errol Alphonso, Geoff Fruigtneth, Prosper Fernando, Sita Jayawardana Ferin Rustomlee, Rohan Candappa, Dan Durairaj (the first Tamil Commercial Service announcer), Shirley Perera, Myrle Walpola (Williams), Vijaya Corea, Leon Belleth, Nihal Bharathi, Stephen Alagaratnam, V. Rajendra, Noelin Honter, Harold Fernando, Bevil Palihawadana, Dudley Jansz, Mahinda Wijesundara, Arun Dias Bandaranayake, Mahes Perera and a few more came over the airwaves of the Commercial Service.
The eighties included veterans such as Indrani Senanayake, Niranjan Abeysundara, Tilani Peiris, Kumar Samuel, Chris Bandara, Yusuf Noordeen, Caryl Sela, Richard De Soysa, Ravi John, Eric Fernando, Savithri Rodrigo. Rajan Vairavanathan, Krishna Vairavanathan, Sunil Simon, Gladwin Willie, Dayan Candappa, Viran Corea, Saunthi Thavam, Lavani Selvanayagam, Virangika and Steve Moreli.
English Service
And today, the English Service is full of talented young , announcers representing the youth of the society like Shareefa Thahir, Chandima Weerakoon, Victor Raj, Mario Wijewardana, Geethanjali Ramanayake, Sabrina Savahir and many others..
They entertained the listeners who looked forward to listening to their presentations and the right pronunciation through the English Service.
The backup music library which includes more than 70,000 records has been quite often described as the best in Asia dating back to those breakable low fidelity 78rpm records with metadata. Usable substantial materials of the 40s, 50s and 60s music on long playing Hi-Fi records are still being used. Thanks to the updated maintenance the turntables are still usable . The digital archiving process is one of the ongoing projects at the SLBC since 2009 to the present. It helps to protect and preserve existing materials for future use.
Radio Sri Lanka
This year Radio Sri Lanka completed its 70th year. Radio Sri Lanka offers a wide music genre range from pop to hip hop, to country Motown, jazz and the best of the classics. Other Spoken Word programs including the Morning Show, interviews and education programs catering to both young and old listeners around the globe.