Tattva-viveka
Audarya Radio?
Syamasundara - January 22, 2008 3:05 am
When I am at home I mostly listen to my 246 devotional mp3s in iTunes, or I log onto utahkrishna.com, still in iTunes.
It's a nice radio station, managed by Caru das, sometimes I start my working day late because I want to listen to the end of a show or another. The shows are mostly audio narrations from the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Nectar of Devotion, Krsna book for kids, SP memories by his disciples, sometimes they have some classes, then Caru das has a show of his own.
They have the largest collection of devotional music on Earth, including Agni's!
The only drawbacks are that I don't know how devotional most of that music is, both the Indian and the Western. Also, they play all kinds of mayavadi songs, meaning Krsna das and other such people, and the bhajans to Durga, Ganesh, Siva, Omkara, and Krsna are imbued with that consciousness.
Personally, I wish there was a real Gaudiya Vaisnava radio, with a GV feeling, no Rama bhajans (no offense). So I thought, why not make our own online radio? Maybe not right now, maybe bilingual from Costa Rica, with select music and classes only.
I just don't know how feasible that is. For example, in Milan they had the seat or RKC (Radio Krishna Centrale) which is now run by the non-Iskcon, non-pretty-much-anything Rome devotees, and I remember that they had to discontinue it, because by law a certain percentage of their time on air had to be live, and they didn't have the staff.
It really feels like Caru das is just playing his iTune files and connecting that to the internet. I sincerely doubt he's paying royalties to all those devotees and professional singers.
Anyway, it'd be great to have Audarya Radio. All you need seems to be iTunes, and internet connection, a microphone and some software.
Plus, with the internet, we can do wonders. We can have one in charge, say me in Costa Rica, then, whether GM is there physically and wants to get interviewed, or he gets interviewed in Santa Rosa by some yoga freak, whether the Finnish or NC devotees record their bhajans and classes on specific days or go around making their own interviews, memories, etc, everything can be sent over to the seat of the radio over the internet (say via yousendit.com) and then aired. Pretty cool, huh?
Not only, sometimes on Utahkrishna.com they just read transcripts of SP's talks with a cheesy music in the background. We could do the same with our GM, Dhira Lalita and I can do it in French, too, I can do it in German and Spanish and Italian, the Poles and the Fins can do it, too. However, that might lose the interest of those who don't understand that language; so maybe we can do it like a live class: we play a class by GM and at every sentence we inject our voice with the translation.
Just some ideas. I am so enthusiastic and passionate lately, and so impotent and poor.
Zvonimir Tosic - January 22, 2008 3:19 am
Anyway, it'd be great to have Audarya Radio. All you need seems to be iTunes, and internet connection, a microphone and some software.
Podcasts are also cool, and also easier to do, because they're not "live in air". They don't require someone to talk and manage radio station all the time, like radio does. You can download podcasts, listen them on your iPod, store in your digital library and so on.
Syamasundara - January 22, 2008 3:47 am
Maybe both things can be combined. Podcasts seem static to me, although I like the fact that you can download and listen to again. Every time I come home, I click on the utahkrishna.com link in my iTunes, wondering: "Who knows what they are playing now?", most of the times I am disappointed, but it's still the best online Vaisnava radio so far. The Bombay one has a limited repertoir, and they air a loooot of Damodarastakas and Jagannathastakas that fill the time well. The Italian and the L.A. ones are enamoured with Krsna Prema and his pseudo devotional music. I told Caru dasa he should have a schedule and post it on their website, so you know what plays when, but it hasn't happened, so I remain logged in, hoping to get the Mahabharata and find out why Yudhisthira wasn't concerned when Duryodhana found them out one day before the end of the exile.
Also, the radio is something you listen while you cook or... do pottery 
, it plays for you. With podcast you have to make your list every time, no?
An online radio is not so high maintenance. For example, my devotional music folder alone can play for 1.6 days from beginning to end.
Nanda-tanuja Dasa - January 22, 2008 4:46 am
Let’s not forget about issues with copyright. You cannot just start transmitting somebody else’s intellectual property.
Syamasundara - January 22, 2008 4:56 am
Like whose? And who among us is not willing to cooperate?
Zvonimir Tosic - January 22, 2008 5:38 am
Like whose? And who among us is not willing to cooperate?
It's music mostly. You have to make sure you do everything according to law, respect copyrights etc. It's not easy at all. Running radio is like running an advertising company. You can create some content of your own, but most of the time you have to pay other artists, pay for sounds, pay royalties (to use anything protected by copyright), pay tax , keep a record of everything, etc. Also, fresh content is what keeps a radio station alive and makes it interesting to many. New music, news, anything new.
What I find to be interesting in a radio program like that is a devotional perspective on all things happening in global and local news. Some fresh, challenging and insightful comments from a devotional perspective can be really refreshing and in that way you can comment on just anything, any day. But of course, new music is appreciated too. So you have to convince part of the music industry to write new devotional music exclusively.
The world as is now works in favour to many everyday radio stations: horrible and disturbing news are coming from everywhere, and bad music is produced in truckloads all around the globe and served to you on a plate. But for a good devotional radio station you have to work much harder to make it happen, especially in the music department.
Syamasundara - January 22, 2008 7:03 am
Actually, one such online radio is in NC, maybe Madan and Gaurangi can get some info about it. It's mostly off the air, though.
You guys seem to think more in terms of a real radio, like there are many around, with newscasts, music, advertisements, talk shows. That's fine and a good way of preaching, but at least at the beginning I was thinking of something almost internal. And for the content, news or talk shows are a very nice idea, but as to the music, I was thinking of real devotional music, as in raganuga Vaishnava, and by anuga I need anybody who aspires to that, but not any Vaiyasakhi or Krsna Prema who were initiated in a raganuga sampradaya, I meant kirtan with our GM and us, or just us in a good consciousness (and the best musical skill we can employ), or say, we go to Vrndavana and record Giri maharaja, or whoever else GM deems qualified. The nice tunes can be heard in all the other radios. They play stuff by Bhagavan (ex goswami), or that blond lady who sings in the chorus of Agni's CDs, or Krsna das, or the famous meat-eating nice-voice professional lady singers Narasingha maharaja is so fond of (frowning upon).
Jananivasdas - January 25, 2008 11:03 am
here's one example of a netradio:
"The Radio Show that brings Ancient Vedic Culture to the Modern World.
Vaishnava Bhajans, Kirtans, Pravachans, Audio Theatre and Information."