Radio Ceylon — a musical memory which never faded away from the time of its inception and was a major source of music for many decades!

Radio Ceylon was officially launched on 16.12.1925 as COLOMBO RADIO the oldest Radio station in Asia, founded by Edward Harper. The station was taken over by the British military during World War Il who renamed the station as SEAC ( SOUTH EAST ASIA CORPORATION) which used to broadcast across South Asia and station was officially returned to civilian control by the British army in 1949 and it became public service under the Ceylonese government on 1.10.1949! It was renamed Radio Ceylon after world war-2 and in 1967 Radio became CBC ( CEYLON BROADCASTING CORPORATION) and finally in 1972 CBC was renamed to Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation!

Radio Ceylon ( now SLBC) has completed its hundred years of broadcasting on 16.12.25!

Why radio ceylon has so much significance for Indian music listeners? The reason being is when India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Sh. B.V.keskar banned film music on All India Radio in 1952 on the pretext that film music was low-quality, erotic and excessively influenced by western style then music listeners switched to Radio Ceylon which started broadcasting Bollywood music! The ban failed to stop the popularity of the film music, Radio Ceylon encashed this opportunity effectively by hijacking the audience with Shows like, Binaca Geetmala, which was the first radio countdown show . This countdown show was massive hit, receiving thousands of requests from across India, turning it into a national obsession!

The presenter of the show the late-great shri Ameen Sayani had a unique voice , unmatched personality and the way he hosted the Binaca Geetmala programme was outstanding! Binaca Geetmala ended its 38 years run ( 1952 to 1988) on Radio Ceylon! The program which began in 1952 transitioned from Radio Ceylon to AIR's Vividh Bharati in 1989 and was branded as CIBACA GEETMALA!

After the tremendous success of Radio Ceylon's Asia Hindi service introduced other Hindi music and film based programs like Lipton k Sitare , Aap ki Pasand etc. , Radio also introduced services in Tamil, Telugu and other languages expanding its influence through out South Asia, but popularity of Binaca Geetmala was a major factor behind the success of Radio Ceylon!

The Radio Ceylon had given platform to some of the most popular Indian Announcers who played vital role in establishing Radio Ceylon as the king of the Air-service in South Asia among them were Sh. Vijay Kishore Dubey, sh. Gopal Sharma, Sh.Hasan Rizvi! Indian companies used Radio Ceylon for advertising and through advertising, huge revenue was generated by Radio Ceylon!

After seeing the success of Radio Ceylon, All India Radio was forced to launch its commercial services Vividh Bharati on 3.10.1957! This is how Vivid Bharti came into existence!

An interesting anecdote that comes to mind is from a little town called Jhumri Talaiya - Radio Ceylon popularized this town among it's listeners! In 1952 Jhumri Telaiya was part of the state of Bihar but in Nov, 2000 when the new state of Jharkhand was carved out of southern Bihar then Jhumri Telaiya became part of Jharkhand! It is famously known for being a major hub for song requests for Radio Ceylon! No song program was completed unless a song was played on the request of Sh. Rameshwar Prasad from Jhumri Telaiya - perhaps the most avid listener of Radio Ceylon. Most of the time he requested to play Sad songs, his choice of songs was heartwarming!

This is how Radio Ceylon celebrated and saved Indian film music and entertained music lovers.

You may be thinking why I chose this topic for my blog. The reason is very simple, please remember one thing that in journey of your life whosoever contributed whether it's Radio Station, a person or a group of people or an organisation who brings a smile to your face and gives internal peace and happiness, then we all should be thankful and grateful to them!

A VOID which was created by All India Radio in 1952 by banning film music was filled by RADIO CEYLON which gave all music listeners a chance to listen to songs they wanted to listen!

A BIG THANK YOU to Radio Ceylon for entertaining film music listeners and forcing All India Radio to Launch Vividh Bharati

With love, Rita 📻