S. P. Mylvaganam

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S.P.Mylvaganam was the first Tamil Announcer of the Commercial Service of Radio Ceylon. He was hugely popular not only in Ceylon but right across the Indian sub-continent. Mylvaganam received mail bags full of fan mail from India. Listeners likeD his relaxed style and they recognised his voice instantly when he uttered one word ' Vannakum ' in Tamil it means ' Welcome.'His wife Chenthimani Mylvaganam was the first lady news reader at Radio Ceylon. It was through his wife that Mr Mylvaganam was introduced to announcing .He presented a range of Tamil programs on the Commercial Service. He was trained by the Australian administrator Clifford Dodd who came to work for Radio Ceylon under the Colombo Plan and by Livy Wijemanne.

Mylvaganam belonged to that select band of announcers of Radio Ceylon who enjoyed iconic status in South Asia. Radio Ceylon now the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation is the oldest radio station in the region.

He helped popularise Radio Ceylon in India - millions tuned into the station. It was a time where announcers arose above narrow racial barriers, Mylvaganam had close friendships with Sinhala announcers who worked on the English and Sinhala services. He was a popular figure in Radio Ceylon. Mr Mylvagan was very involved with Tamil stars of yester years such as Shivaji Ganeshan, MGR and other popular stars. He and his wife were the catalysts who brought MGR and Saroja Devi to Sri Lanka on his first visit in October 1965, to judge a beauty pageant in Kandy, sponsored by the Independent Newspapers Ltd.It still remains very vividly in many peoples memory the day MGR and Saroja Devi visited Mr Mylvaganan's residence in Colombo. The railway tracks, the streets and the beach was spilling with crowds shouting and screaming to see MGR and Saroja Devi.

He was a very nice personality with very friendly attitude towards everybody even with much younger artistes of Radio Ceylon. In an Indian film titled "Poologa Rambai", Comedian Thangavelu goes to heaven and the first thing he hears is the voice of S.P.M and he says" Oh! He has come here too". He is the first Tamil Disc Jockey in the sense of western radios. He will not stop with announcing the title of the song and the singers name, he will say how it was recorded and how many insruments were used. Some times he will even elaborate how it was picturised. Actually he was present on these occasions as special guest of popular film stars and producers. It was told hat whenever he visits S.India, cars of big producers and actors will be waiting for him in Madras airport.