Radio Ceylon and Binaca Geetmala

Radio
Ceylon
What is Radio
Ceylon?
❖ Radio Ceylon presently, the Sri Lankan

Broadcasting Corporation is a radio station based
in Sri Lanka and the first radio station in Asia.
The History of
Radio Ceylon.
Broadcasting was started
in Ceylon on an experimental
basis by the colonial Telegraph
Department in 1923, just three
years after the inauguration of
broadcasting in Europe.
❖ 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.
❖He launched the first experimental broadcast as well as

founding the Ceylon Wireless Club together with
British and Ceylonese radio enthusiasts. Edward Harper
has been dubbed the ' Father of Broadcasting in
Ceylon.'
❖ The results proved successful and
barely three years later, a regular
broadcasting service came to be
instituted.
❖ On December 16, 1925 the then British Governor Sir Hugh Clifford
inaugurated the broadcasting service. It was first known as Colombo
Radio. The name was changed to Radio Ceylon and the radio the
station shifted to Torrington Square on October 5, 1949.
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 (currently
Sri Lanka) in 1949.
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.
Broadcasting in English, Radio Ceylon’s range of programs 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 1956 Vernon Corea one
of the pioneers, joined
Radio Ceylon as a Relief
Announcer.
❖ He became well known as

The Golden Voice of Radio
Ceylon, representing shows of
popular music, baila music,
and western music.
❖ From 1956 to 1960, Vernon Corea and other announcers of Radio Ceylon
introduced the music of Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Louis Armstrong, Jim
Reeves, Hank Snow, and Cliff Richard over the airwaves of Radio
Ceylon/Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. They became hugely popular
in South Asia.
Subsequently, in 1967, the Department of Broadcasting was
transformed into its present statutory form of a state
corporation by the Ceylon broadcasting corporation Act. 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 and 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.
❖ Earlier 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’ that was

launched in year 1995. 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.
The historic record library of
Radio Ceylon (SLBC).
Radio Ceylon is enriched with five libraries consisting of
records
. in Sinhala, English, Hindi, Tamil languages. They also Archive songs
and other materials.
❖ The backups of the English library which includes more than 70,000
records has been quite often described as the best in Asia .
The SLBC also has the
biggest collection of over
Two Hundred
Thousand original
materials including old
Gramophone records
from the 1920s and
1930’s which the BBC
and the AIR (All India
Radio) do not have.
The SLBC lost its monopoly due to the many
private broadcasters presently operating in the
Island. It did not loose the dignity and the
value of providing Quality unbiased knowledge
and entertainment to listeners.
From this…. ….to this
Now, Radio Ceylon, the pioneer broadcaster in South East Asia

which started broadcasting on Short Wave (SW) is now venturing
its public services in to the digital Era with Digital Broadcasting via
the Internet around the world.
The voice of Sri Lanka – 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.
Binaca
Geetmala
The show that created the history of it's
own….
What is Binaca
Geetmala ?
❖Binaca Geetmala was a weekly
countdown show of top filmi songs
from Hindi cinema. It was popular
and had millions of listeners.
❖ It was the first radio countdown

show of Indian film songs.
The history of
Binaca
Geetmala.
In General Election of India in 1952,
the Indian National Congress party
emerged as the biggest winner and had
a landslide victory. The charge of the
Information and Broadcasting Ministry
(I&B) was assigned to Mr. Keskar.
Mr. Keskar was against the westernization of Indian filmy songs. He

supported Indian classical songs. He planned that and thought that every
Indian should listen only to Indian classical songs and Filmy songs should
be banned completely.
During the era of the non-airing of
filmy songs, Radio Ceylon saw the time as
an opportunity. Radio Ceylon
accordingly planned a show for ranking
Bollywood filmy songs resulted in the
renowned show called Binaca Geetmala.
The show was completely dedicated to
the Bollywood Filmy Songs and its
presenter Ameen Sayani made it even
more interesting.
Every Wednesday Indian listeners would

tune in to Radio Ceylon and listen to
their favorite songs with the host opening
the episode.
He made his stylist commentary and

filmy details during the play of these
songs and supports making the show
more popular
The show aired every Wednesday from 8 pm to 9 pm and the
listener could listen to the songs by tuning to the Radio Ceylon.
People were very passionate about the show and even used to
note down the song rank every week.
Over the years the name of the show
kept changing from Binaca
Geetmala to Cibaca Geetmala and
later to Colgate – Cibaca Geetmala
due to brand takeovers and change
of sponsors.
Geetmala not only become the most
popular filmy song countdown show but
also increased the popularity of Radio
Ceylon. This made the government of
India take back the decisions taken by
Mr. Keskar earlier.
Consequently, Indian Radio channel
Vividh Bharati was established on
October 3 1957 became part of AIR
that offered non-stop film music
broadcasts.
Vividh Bharati gradually lent towards

commercialization of songs and started
accepting advertisements too by 1967. In
the coming years, it became the key
source of entertainment in India by the
late 70s.
Then the how Binaca Geetmala was
shifted to the Vividh Bharati
Service of All India Radio network
in 1989 where it ran until 1994.
However, Ameen Sayani ran the

show very successfully from 1952
until the show ends in 1994.

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Radio

❖ Radio Ceylon presently, the Sri Lankan

❖He launched the first experimental broadcast as well as

❖ He became well known as

❖ This was followed by the ‘Island FM Development Project’ that was

Now, Radio Ceylon, the pioneer broadcaster in South East Asia

❖ It was the first radio countdown

Mr. Keskar was against the westernization of Indian filmy songs. He

Every Wednesday Indian listeners would

He made his stylist commentary and

Vividh Bharati gradually lent towards

However, Ameen Sayani ran the

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