Radio Ceylon: King of the Airwaves in the Mid-Twentieth Century Source:Thuppahis Gaston de Rosayro, in Daily News, 13 February 2017 where the title reads “When Radio Ceylon was King of the airwaves!” World Radio Day was first celebrated in 2012, following its declaration by the UNESCO General Conference. It was subsequently adopted as an International Day by the organisation. The theme for the 2017 edition of the event is ‘Radio is You!’, a call for greater participation of audiences and communities in the policy and planning of radio broadcasting. In reality, Sri Lanka should be at the forefront of the festivities and has every right to hold such an exalted position. Few may be aware that this nation was a pioneer among broadcasting nations and was the first among South East Asia. In actual fact, the history of Radio Ceylon dates back to year 1925, when its first precursor, Colombo Radio, was launched on December 16, 1925. Certain historians ...

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“VALE’ CHRIS GREET” – By Des Kelly It is with great sadness that I inform all members of eLanka of the passing of not just a very good friend, but also of someone who was a true legend of our beautiful Motherland, Sri Lanka. There were only a very few Sri Lankans of this halcyon era in Lanka that that didn’t know Chris, be it even only his dulcet tones on Radio Ceylon, if not personally. The era I write about was during the 1950’s. We were both young & carefree, Chris, just a few years older than me owned a second-hand Mayflower car, in which he would pick me up in order to attend a few rehearsals of my song Dreamworld, and on the way, the car would inevitably break down, and Chris would then get out, kick the closest tyre and say to me, “don’t worry Desmond, she ...

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