ISKCON Goes on the Air in Memphis

Every Tuesday night in Memphis, Tennessee, the transcendental sounds of a two-and-a-half-hour Hare Krsna radio show fill the Southern airwaves, courtesy of station WEVL, 90.3-FM. The program, aired live, includes a variety of guest interviews, comedy/satire, and music-all centered on the dynamic philosophy of Krsna consciousness.

Station manager Dennis Badson explains that the community-owned station seeks out unusual programs not normally broadcast on commercial radio. Not long ago Brahma dasa, the president of ISKCON's Memphis center, offered to do a show called "The Cheaters and the Cheated." He told the station's board members that the show would expose the shortcomings of modern society and present the alternative society-one based on God consciousness, "simple living and high thinking." Program director Bart Lipman liked the idea and asked to hear more.

Brahma dasa took the opportunity to explain, "We want to show how the big leaders have systematically conditioned ordinary people to search for happiness under a completely false conception of life. They have directed people toward acquiring useless paraphernalia that only drives them deeper into the realm of hopelessness. The leaders are misguiding everyone into thinking that advancement means concrete, steel, money, and the selfish pursuit of pleasure. As a result, everyone feels constantly driven and repeatedly frustrated by an unending network of artificial desires. And, of course, that mentality simply results in crime, poverty, and social unrest. Then the masses-and even the so-called leaders-try to shelter themselves from despair with alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, pornography, and so forth. We should rise to a higher state of consciousness and happiness. Unless we realize that the real goal of life is God consciousness, we will never achieve any real advancement-only a shadow advancement that leads to chaos and destruction."

Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/9dd/back-to-godhead-magazine-12-09-1977/every-town-and-village/iskcon-goes-on-the-air-in-memphis