Radio Sai in constant decline

The former long-term devotee who rejected Sathya Sai Baba from 2005 onwards, ‘Divya’, wrote the following for this blog:-

I noticed that ‘RadioSai’ emails are getting more prolific, touting all sorts of propaganda shouting about the radio station, so I did some research.

CLICK TO ZOOM

I remember being very impressed when the ‘RadioSai’ digital radio service was started while I was still living in the ashram in India, around 2001. (Another scheme of the disgraced Michael Nobel). I thought, “WOW, a channel fully dedicated to sai, this must surely show his fame will soon snowball and the entire world will come here!” Along with many other devotees, I went to the ashram shops to inquire about buying radio box and was told the service was ‘not yet available’ in the Americas. Though I had no plans to return to USA, I decided against a purchase. The prospect of 24-hour a day boring brainwashing did not appeal to me, even when I was a devotee.

Revealing enough, the Radiosai website has left up formerly published instructions and info – with more crossed-out text than not – on how to access the now defunct Worldspace radio satellite. Click on image to see this FAQ and Radio Sai’s home page info

Turns out, the stock of hosting company WorldSpace Co steadily plummeted from the first day of their IPO (see wiki article link below for details) and they finally filed for bankruptcy in 2008 – due in part to mismanagement and links to terrorist groups. ‘RadioSai’ quietly became just another website with audio content archives, and occasionally live streaming, though they still propagate about being a ‘radio’.

Worldspace  is apparently in terminal decline:- 

1worldspace, formerly known as ‘WorldSpace’, is an almost but not yet completely defunct satellite radio network that in its heyday provided service to over 170,000 subscribers in eastern and southern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia with 96% coming from India. Timbre Media along with Saregama India plan to relaunch the company.

The final fate of the original Worldspace satellite radio service still remains a mystery. Despite the company’s very public insolvency and the liquidation of all of its various commercial entities in 2008-2009, the company’s Afristar and Asiastar satellites remain in geostationary orbit. Currently, the channels WRN 1 and WRN 2 can be received on Afristar with audio. On AsiaStar, there are 2 channels broadcasting (the old Maestro channel and Sai Global Harmony which is an Indian religious channel). The precise commercial basis on which the Afristar and Asiastar satellites currently continue to be maintained in working satellite orbit by Intelsat is not known at the present time.  (from Worldspace History on Wikipedia)

So much for Sathya Sai Baba’s promised ‘Global Harmony’, it is as far away now than the promised ‘Golden Age’!