Producer : Asia Broadcasting Corporation (Pvt) Ltd
Producer URL : www.hirufm.lk & www.sooriyanfm.lk
Producer’s Description
Hiru & Sooriyan FM radio chanel’s web sites allow radio accessibility around the world via the Internet. It brings on board a variety of radio interactivity such as 24 hours live chat with DJ, online song requests, rating chart shows, accessing archives and the latest news. The Entertainers Area allows listeners to display their talent be it singing or speaking, or anything they think is creative. The aim is to grow this to an online talent finding reality show.
Sinhala and Tamil speaking people living around the World can follow Hiru FM and Sooriyan FM through social Media pages like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter through their mobile phones. The popularity of Hiru FM is very evident from its official Face Book fan page which has a following of over 20,000. Twitter is another tool used by Hiru and Sooriya with each DJ "tweeting" his/her status on a regular basis allowing fans to follow them always.
Jurors’ Evaluation
Every year more than two hundred and fifty thousand Sri Lankans go abroad for foreign jobs and there are around 1.7 million Sri Lankan citizens living in countries across the world. Remittances from migrant workers, estimated at around $4.1 billion in 2010, is the most important source of foreign exchange surpassing earnings from apparel exports. Hiru FM and Sooriyan FM do yeoman service to this community keeping them close to their home in spirit although geographically distanced. Hiru FM and Sooriyan FM while operating successful radio stations locally have reached out to Sri Lankan across the world by Net Casting their channels. The many interactive features it has make it attractive to listeners, both young and old. The latest addition to Hiru FM is a Gossip page which takes an impartial look into the latest stories on celebrities and prominent personalities. Migrant workers use this channel to dedicate songs to their loved ones in Sri Lanka, sending messages, poems, joining in live chat with DJs and getting live information about the happenings ‘ back home’. Owing to the low band width required access via smart phones is facilitated. Currently hirufm.lk is ranked by Alexa (the global website ranking company) as 67th most visited site in Sri Lanka and the 48,125th in the world among 30 million web sites.