In the News/Krishna Radio Hits Airwaves

[Guest guest]

Krishna Radio Hits Airwaves

Provo Daily Herald

by Todd Hollingshead

11/26/2004

 

caption for graphic: Vaibhavi Devi and Jai the parrot host one of the

morning programs.

 

After a four year hiatus, Spanish Fork¹s KHQN Krishna Radio is back on

the air.

The Indian devotee station, which plays dramas, devotional music and

lectures, among other spiritual content, started broadcasting again from

1480 AM about three weeks ago and can be heard on a clear signal throughout

Utah Valley.

For the past few years, the station has been leased out to the Spanish

language community, but now the Krishna's are back and their content is

better, said program director Charu Das.

³We¹re really excited about the format, and we think that people will

like it.² The type of music we choose will resonate with everyone¹s

innermost being, regardless if they¹re black, white, red, yellow, or green.²

Because of FCC guidelines, Krishna Radio has to reduce power after

sunset, but during the day the channel can be heard throughout the valley

and as far north as West Jordan, and parts of University of Utah campus.

KHQN is the only full time Indian devotional station in the United

states. Das started it in 1982 after he realized he could run a full time

station for the same amount he was paying to broadcast a weekly show in Los

Angeles.

He and his wife purchased the small Utah County radio station for $

130,000 after learning of the pious nature of the Provo area. With a small

amount of programming, Das began Krishna Radio in an album oriented rock

format for a couple of years with the hopes of converting the format to

entirely Hare Krishna religious.

In 1984, the station started a main menu of devotional programming, with

a line up of vegetarianism shows, serialized and dramatized Indian epics,

Puranic literature, stories and music.

But the broadcast struggled for funding, with only bake sales and

donations subsidizing the station.

In 1999, the Utah Krishnas started construction on the Krishna Temple and

the Spanish Language community approached them about using the station.

³They came at the perfect time,² Das said. ³ We were broke and it

provided needed cash.²

The temple, which has cost $ 1.2 million so far, opened in 2001. Now,

with the Spanish people moving on and the Krishna's solid on their feet,

they¹ve started to broadcast once again with new technology and more than

1,000 songs to play.

The station has a new solid state transmitter; the programming is all

digitally fed from computer, and Das has a trip to India planned for January

that will result in an even larger music collection.

³When we went off the air in 1999, there were several dozen people who

were bitterly disappointed, ³ Das said. ³We¹re not only back, but we¹re

better and the radio station paid for a chunk of the temple. It was all so

timely. Some day we¹ll write a book about all the supernatural events that

contributed to this project.²

For those who can¹t receive the signal, Krishna Radio is also broadcast

online at www.utahkrishnas.com.