Bauddhaloka Mawatha is a wide, tree-lined avenue in Colombo. It runs from Galle Road in the west towards Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, the administrative capital of Sri Lanka, in the east. The avenue runs past a few university playgrounds and several colonial-era buildings, now occupied by embassies and ministries in a leafy part of Colombo 7. The cluster of buildings across the side of the road leads to the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC).
The foundation stone at the entrance confirms it was once the famous Radio Ceylon. For a generation of South Asians, this radio station quite literally brought music (Sinhala, Western and Hindi pop) into our lives. Indeed, it was a must-visit place high on our personal bucket lists. It began in 1925, just three years after the launch of BBC, making it the oldest radio station in South Asia. By 1949, given the increased importance of radio services, the station was vested under the Department of Broadcasting of the Government of Ceylon and renamed Radio Ceylon.
It was transferred to the government of the newly independent Ceylon in March 1949. Radio Ceylon formally started operations in December 1949. Its operations were split between a National Service (broadcasting predominantly on medium wave) and the Commercial Service (utilizing the powerful shortwave transmitters). It was the latter service that was to become all the rage.
Broadcasting in English, Radio Ceylon’s range of programmes covered Western Music from pop, classical, country and Western to jazz and big-band swing, as well as a range of quiz shows. Extraordinarily for the time, it even aired live concerts, some from Colombo’s leading venues such as the Galle Face Hotel. Global greats who performed live on Radio Ceylon included Jack Teagarden, the Golden Gate Quartet, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington and Eric Jupp.
In 1943, broadcast station premises were shifted from Torrington to a bungalow named Bower in Cotta Road Borella, due to the Second World War. The Bower ceased broadcast by midnight of December 30, 1949. The name of Ceylon Radio was changed to Radio Ceylon and the station shifted to Torrington Square on January 1, 1950.
The 1950s were not easy times. The euphoria of Independence had given way to grim realities. The Second World War and its aftermath had drained the nation of resources. Partition had caused untold damage, economic as well as psychological. Life was difficult. Public transportation was more or less non-existent; except for the rich and senior government officials, very few owned cars or other personal transportation. Telephones were available only to the most privileged. The waiting list for a telephone connection extended to multiple years. The main entertainment and leisure, at least for the then younger generation in Sri Lanka was to listen to the radio.
There was, of course, no television. Those were the days of the Radio Ceylon monopoly. One could pick up some Western music on shortwave (with all its static) from the BBC, and have the luxury of a one-hour broadcast of the Western music request programme.
Commercial broadcasting from Radio Ceylon was inaugurated on September 30, 1950, to which Clifford Dodd was seconded for service via Colombo Plan. It was a ground-breaking experience where broadcasting in Ceylon was concerned. Clifford R Dodd is regarded as the ‘Father of Commercial Broadcasting’ in Ceylon.
On January 5, 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 of the Parliament of Ceylon, thereby assuring increased autonomy and flexibility in the operations of the new organization.
The organization acquired its present name, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, when Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka in 1972.
In the 1990s the SLBC lost its monopoly due to the many private broadcasters presently operating in the island. It did not lose the value of providing quality, unbiased knowledge and entertainment to listeners.
SLBC relied on mediumwave as its primary mode of domestic broadcasting until the 1990s. However, by the late 1980s, the first-ever experimental FM channel ‘City FM’ was introduced. This was followed by the ‘Island FM development project’ which was launched in 1995. By1999, more than 95 percent country’s total population was being covered by SLBC’s FM transmissions with nearly 90 percent of them receiving all six nationwide channels.
Radio Ceylon was enriched with five libraries Sinhala, English, Hindi, Tamil and Archive songs and materials. The backup of the English 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 78rmp records. 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 in SLBC since 2009 to present. It helps to protect and preserve existing materials for future use.
Creating quality entertainment, information and educational programmes, bridging the gap between the listener and the economy is a good sign of progress and the economic development of the island.
The SLBC should capture the young teenage group with much more interesting educational programmes, especially those awaiting examination results.
The original mission of Radio Ceylon was: “Carrying out radio broadcasting in such a manner as to improve the quality of life of the listeners by way of developing their skills, knowledge and attitudes relating to various fields such as economic, social, cultural, ethical, educational and entertainment.”
Radio Ceylon, the pioneer broadcaster in South East Asia which started broadcasting on shortwave (SW) is now offering its public services in the digital era with digital broadcasting, via the Internet, across the globe.
The voice of our nation – the pioneer in broadcasting, by the nation for the nation – the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation celebrated its 95th year of unstinted service to the nation on December 16, 2020.
