-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Goanetters annual meet in Goa is scheduled for Dec 27, 2005 @ 4pm | | | |The Riviera Opposite Hotel Mandovi, Panjim (near Ferry Jetty/Riverfront)| | Attending.......drop a line to [EMAIL PROTECTED] | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [A nice tribute to 'Radio Ceylon', whom many of us old-timers would recall. Radio Goa too played a similar role. I wasn't aware of the war-link in the first case. Are there any similar memories of the broadcasts out of Goa? I mean, just from the quality point of view, rather than the pro-'Liberation', pro-'Invasion' points of view? FN]
SLBC turns 80 years COLOMBO: Long before bullets and suicide bombers gave Sri Lanka dismal global headlines, even as its tourism scene and airline brought it a special aura, Radio Ceylon pioneered a revolution in broadcasting. Emerging as a trans-national broadcaster and introducing chatty engagement with listeners, it conquered South Asia's airwaves. For aficionados from the `radio generation' spanning the 1950s and 1970s, no day was complete without tuning in to Radio Ceylon, now called the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). As it turned 80 on December 16, the SLBC had long lost its position as the ruler of the region's airwaves. It now competes with a scattering of private broadcasters and has paid the price for not keeping up with the times. SLBC's precursor, Colombo Radio, started off a few years after broadcasting made its debut in Europe. Radio Ceylon, as it was called between 1949 and 1972, was catalysed by the shifting of the Radio SEAC (South East Asia Command) to the island in 1949. "We were the radio generation. Radio Ceylon was our introduction to Ceylon," recalls Nirupama Rao, the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. The SLBC's continued popularity in India was in full force a few months ago. When its Hindi service was discontinued, the Indian High Commission in Colombo was inundated with letters from India, and the programme was subsequently restored. Enthusiasts remember Tamil broadcaster Mayilvaganam for infusing life into the airwaves. A walk along the corridors of the SLBC building in Colombo — once a mental hospital — takes one along the bylanes of broadcasting history. Old studios retain the charm and romance of an era fast fading from memory. Massive investment is now on the cards. Sunil Sarath Perera, Chairman, SLBC, wants to digitise the collection of "over one lakh Sinhalese, Tamil, English and Hindi songs" and share them with the National Archives. Eric Fernando, who started his SLBC career as a broadcaster in the mid-1970s and was its Director-General between 1998 and 2001, is emphatic that "no radio station anywhere in the world can pride itself of such a collection of original material, including 78-rpm records of the 1920s and 1930s." These should be re-formatted digitally and form the basis for a range of attractive programmes, he said. Foray into commercial broadcasts earned Radio Ceylon a name for itself. But challenges from television, cassette-recorders and private radio stations, sliced away chunks of its audience and revenue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions | | | | Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages | | Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
