The Importance Of Hindi Services On The Sri Lankan Radio Ceylon In The Early 1950s

The event which I consider to be the most significant one in making the radio a global mass medium it is today is the launch of Hindi Services on the Sri Lankan “Radio Ceylon” in the early 1950s, which led to the launch of Vividh Bharati by the All India Radio (AIR).

After Independence, Mr B.V. Keskar became the very first Information & Broadcasting Minister in the Nehru Government from 1952 to 1962. As the I&B Minister, Mr Keskar always considered Hindi film songs of that time to be vulgar, cheap, degenerate and westernized. As an orthodox Brahmin, Mr Keskar proposed that Indians should listen to Indian Classical Music. Initially, he gave a 10 per cent quota on airtime for the broadcast of Hindi Film Music but later banned them in 1952.

Following the ban, Radio Ceylon which is the public radio broadcaster of Sri Lanka started Hindi Services programs like Binaca Geetmala (later Cibaca Geetmala, which was sponsored by the toothpaste brand Cibaca) & Lipton Ke Sitaare (sponsored by Lipton – a tea brand), which aired Hindi film songs on the radio. These programmes gave rise to legendary radio announcers such as Ameen Sayani and his brother Hamid Sayani, Sunil Dutt (who later became a successful actor in Bollywood), Hasan Razvi, Gopal Sharma, Ganjwar sisters (Vimla and Kamini) etc. Radio Ceylon also aired brand commercials. This posed as a competition for AIR, which led to the starting of Vividh Bharati on October 2, 1957, to begin airing of Hindi film songs of singers such as Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Geeta Dutt, Suraiya, K.L. Sehgal etc. Along with songs, this program also broadcasted interviews of the film celebrities of that time. It also started airing brand commercials which ranged from Lux Soap to Coca-Cola.

The reason that I find it to be the most important event in making Radio a global mass medium is that all these events took place at a time when Indian masses liked to listen to film songs because some of them could not afford vinyl records or did not have a record player at home. Just because of one person’s dislikes, you cannot ban anything which is liked by majority of India’s population. AIR, which is funded by the government started losing its listeners because the music and other related things which was of interest to the people was not being played (this included Cricket Commentary and Harmonium). However, with Hindi Services on Radio Ceylon, the Indian Masses could listen to their favourite songs of that time very easily as Film music had a growing audience in India and Mr Keskar’s decision to ban it on AIR allowed Radio Ceylon to capitalise on the opportunity. This was a jolt for the Indian radio which, in order to bring their audience back, AIR reinvented itself and started doing the same. The advertisements that were relayed made AIR financially viable and reinvigorated the broadcasting system.