Radio Ceylon ( Lanka Guwan Viduli Sevaya, , ilankai vanoli) is a radio station based in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and the first radio station in Asia. Broadcasting was started on an experimental basis by the colonial Telegraph Department in 1923, just three years after the inauguration of broadcasting in Europe. History The history of Radio Ceylon dates back to 1925, when its first precursor, Colombo Radio, was launched on 16 December 1925 using a mediumwave radio transmitter of one kilowatt of output power from Welikada, Colombo. Commenced just 3 years after the launch of BBC, Colombo radio was the first radio station in Asia and the second oldest radio station in the world. This new medium of mass communication not only became increasingly popular in the years that followed, but also quickly evolved into a medium of national character, which led to the "Radio Service" being organised as a separate department of the government of Ceylon (currently Sri Lanka) in 1949. Subsequently, in 1967, the Department of Broadcasting was transformed into its present statutory form of a state corporation by the Ceylon broadcasting corporation Act. No 37 of 1966 of the parliament of Ceylon, thereby assuring increased autonomy and flexibility in the operations of the new organization. The organisation acquired its present name, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, with the transition of the state into the status of Republic of Sri Lanka on 22 May 1972. SLBC (Stands for Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation) has since continued in the same legal status as a state corporation, and is currently listed under the scope of the ministry of Information and Media of the Government of Sri Lanka. Transition from AM to FM SLBC relied on mediumwave as its primary mode of domestic broadcasting until the 1990s. Some sporadic FM broadcasts were already introduced at several relay stations more as a means of expanding the broadcasts to medium wave repeater stations, however, by the late 1980s. This was followed by the 'Island FM Development Project' that was launched in year 1995. The objectives of the project were to develop an Islandwide multi-channel FM stereo broadcast transmission network and to divest the costly domestic medium wave transmitting stations, which were typically broadcasting only one or two programme channels per transmitting station. By 1999, more than 95% of country's total population was being covered by SLBC's FM transmissions with nearly 90% of them receiving all