Nimal Laksshapathiarachchi was a veteran broadcaster and pioneer of private broadcasting in Sri Lanka. He was the founder of Sirasa FM and Sirasa TV stations, which marked a turning point in Sri Lanka's radio and television industry. [1] Lakshapathiarachchi played a significant role in revolutionizing radio broadcasting and popular culture in Sri Lanka, challenging the established norms and introducing innovative programming formats.
Born in 1954, [2] Nimal Lakshapathiarachchi began his radio career in the 1970s with Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.
Lakshapathiarachchi's most notable contributions were the establishment of Sirasa FM in March 1994 and Sirasa TV in 1998. Sirasa FM quickly gained popularity, becoming the market leader within a year of its launch. The station introduced innovative practices such as presenting news in spoken Sinhala, providing a more friendly and accessible format compared to the traditional written form. Lakshapathiarachchi and his team also pioneered the concept of covering news every hour on the hour, setting a new standard for other channels to follow.
Nimal Lakshapathiarachchi was the father of two children. His son Vishva later became a popular social media content creator. Lakshapathiarachchi passed away on July 19, 2012, in Colombo. He was 57 years old at the time of his death. [3]
Vernon Corea was a pioneer radio broadcaster with 45 years of public service broadcasting both in Sri Lanka and the UK. He joined Radio Ceylon, South Asia's oldest radio station, in 1956 and later the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. During his time he presented some of the most popular radio shows in South Asia, including The Maliban Show, Dial-a-Disc, Holiday Choice, Two For the Money, Take It Or Leave It, Saturday Stars, To Each His Own, Kiddies Corner, and Old Folks at Home. He was well known not only in Sri Lanka, but right across the Indian Sub-Continent from the late 1950s to the 1970s – this was in the heyday of Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia.
Nimal Mendis (1934–2015) was a Sri Lankan singer and songwriter, and was one of a handful of Sri Lankan musicians to appear on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops (1968). Mendis was a longstanding member of the Performing Rights Society and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society of Great Britain.
Mass media of Sri Lanka consist of several different types of communications media: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and Web sites. State and private media operators provide services in the main languages Sinhala, Tamil and English. The government owns two major TV stations, radio networks operated by the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), and newspaper titles in Sinhala, Tamil, and English.
WDAS-FM is a commercial radio station, licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It carries an urban adult contemporary radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia. WDAS-FM is widely regarded as one of the originators of the Urban AC format, mixing R&B hits of the last 40 years with contemporary R&B. The studios and offices are located in Bala Cynwyd.
Karunaratne Abeysekera was one of Sri Lanka's most famous Sinhala broadcasters. He was also a poet and songwriter and was widely admired for his excellent command of Sinhala.
WILL-FM is a public, listener-supported radio station owned by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and licensed to Urbana, Illinois, United States. It is operated by Illinois Public Media, with studios located at Campbell Hall for Public Telecommunication on the university campus. Most of WILL-FM's schedule is classical music with NPR news programs heard in weekday morning and afternoon drive times. Weekends feature classical and other genres of music, including jazz and opera.
Independent Television Network Ltd also known as ITN Ltd or simply as ITN is a Sri Lankan state-governed television and radio broadcaster located in Wickramasinghepura, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka. It is a Shrama Abhimani Award winner , broadcasts content to a wide demographic within Sri Lanka as well as the expatriate community. The programmes are broadcast in three languages: Sinhala, Tamil, and English. The ITN broadcast coverage extends to 99% of the island of Sri Lanka.
Shakthi TV is the first Tamil television service of Sri Lanka. It is the number one Tamil station in Sri Lanka. This general entertainment channel broadcasts serials, films, sports, current affairs, news and children's programs. It mainly airs programs from Sun TV (India). Shakthi TV is available worldwide through YuppTV.
Sirasa TV is a digital, terrestrial television network in Sri Lanka. It is the sister channel of 'TV 1' which was established in 1992. Sirasa TV was started in 1998 as a sister to its radio network Sirasa FM. Sirasa TV is owned by the Sri Lankan business conglomerate, Capital Maharaja Group together with Gregson Holdings Ltd. Since then, another multi-national company - International Media Management - has also invested in MTV. It broadcasts its programs mainly in Sinhala.
Dialog TV (DTV) is a direct broadcast satellite pay TV service provider based in Sri Lanka. A fully owned subsidiary of Dialog Axiata PLC, Dialog TV was launched in July 2005 under the name "CBNsat". It was later renamed to Dialog TV in February 2007 after the company was acquired by Dialog Axiata PLC.
Api Nodanna Live was a Sri Lankan comedy sketch television show that was broadcast by Sirasa TV. It starred Gaminda Priyaviraj and Suneth Chithrananda as the characters Podi Malli and Chooti Malli. Both names connote younger brother. However, chooti usually has more emphasis, so Chooti Malli is probably to be considered the younger of the two characters.
"Master Sir" is a Sinhala pop song written by Sri Lankan singer/songwriter Nimal Mendis for the film Kalu Diya Dhahara, in which it was performed over the title sequence by Neela Wickramasinghe.
WGVL is a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. The station serves as Greenville's Black Information Network affiliate.
Lakhanda (Voice of Lanka) is a Sri Lankan radio station. It was started on 15 November 1996, under the ownership of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. Eventually the channel was amalgamated to ITN (Independent Television Network) on 1997 April 1 on a government cabinet decision. The programmes were transmitted on 88.5 F.M. 87.9 F.M. and 97.6 F.M. from transmitting points at Yatiyanthota, Karagahatenna, Bandarawela, Deniyaya and Colombo. Lakhanda was renamed as ITN FM by its main government body Independent Television Network Ltd (ITN)
News First or News 1st is a Sri Lankan news organization owned by the Capital Maharajah Organization Ltd. News 1st primarily broadcasts news, live on three TV channels (Sirasa TV, Shakthi TV, TV 1, five radio channels, three websites in Sinhala, English & Tamil languages, and social media platforms.
| owner = Capital Maharaja Group, Sri Lanka
The following events occurred in radio in 2009.
Sydney Chandrasekara, was a Sri Lankan journalist, lyricist, director and a prominent media personality. One of the iconic figures of Sri Lankan media, Chandrasekara has contributed for several television programs over a career spanned for more than four decades.
Mudalige Don Buddika Lahiru, popularly as Lahiru Mudalige, is a television journalist as well as a media manager, producer, social media personality, music video director, and an actor in Sri Lankan cinema, and television. Started as a child artist, Mudalige became one of the popular television presenters in Sri Lanka by hosting the musical programs Hithata Wadina Eka, Handa Radi Peya and chat program Coffee with Lahiru and Muditha in a career spanning more than two decades. Apart from that, he is also the founder of popular YouTube channel Hari TV. He pioneered in establishing talk-show based subscribe community in Sri Lanka on social media, mainly on YouTube and bringing the concept of “Good Journalism on Social Media”. Apart from that, he introduced legacy media models within social media platforms.
Sirasa FM is a Sinhala language radio station in Sri Lanka. MBC Networks, a subsidiary of Sri Lankan conglomerate Capital Maharaja Group, operate the radio station. It is one of the three successful radio stations started by MBC Networks in the 1990s. The other two being Yes FM and Shakthi FM. The programming of the radio station includes talk shows, and Sinhala and Hindi top hits. Sirasa FM is the first private media organisation to be allowed to broadcast news in Sri Lanka. However, Sirasa FM was banned broadcasting news after the station broadcast a false report of a nonexistent countrywide curfew. The ban was not lifted for two months.
