Sri Lanka marks the 91 years of
completion in radio broadcasting tomorrow. Sri Lanka commenced the radio
broadcasting in 16th December 1925 under the patronage of then British Governor
Sir Hu Clifford. Sri Lanka was the first country in the Asian region to start
the radio broadcasting under the British rule. Thereafter Sri Lanka broadcasting
service commenced under the supervision of telecommunication regulatory
department. Radio Ceylon commenced its broadcasting services as a state
department in October 1949.
Mr. John A Lampson who was the
senior announcer at BBC and served as manager in three centers of European
region was appointed as the first director of Broadcasting Department. M.J
Perera was the first director of Sinhala Service of this department. The
commercial service commenced on the 30th of September 1950. The Broadcasting
Department was transformed as Broadcasting Corporation on the 5th of January
1967.
The first Chairman and Director
General of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation was Nevil D. Jayaweera. The SLBC
is now having many language services including Sinhala National, Commercial,
City FM, Tamil and English services under its belt along with online
services.