For two hours every Sunday, Pulse Radio in Geelong, 94.7 FM, is taken over by three men promoting the Hellenic message. The show, Hellenic Soul, started as a one-hour program on Sunday from 6.00 pm to 7.00 pm but after just a month was extended to two-hours due to the overwhelming response from the public.
“At first it was just the Greek community of Geelong listening to us but now we have the support from the community of Melbourne,” explains founder Kostas Papacostas. He said people from the Greek community of Yarraville, Essendon and Frankston started tuning in taking the show from the regional community of Geelong to the wider Melbourne areas. Most of their shows are topic based. They’ve had shows about education, migration, but the soul of the show is music. “The music that Greek Australians listen to, we don’t listen to in Greece,” Kostas told Neos Kosmos who came from Greece under a year ago.
“We don’t listen to dimotika or traditional songs in Greece. I try to put more modern music – pop, house, rap, anything modern. But the old people don’t want that but we always try and find a balance. When I first played Stereo Mike, I got such an amazing response by the young folk who wanted to know who he was. The young people want this music. So that’s what I try to do, to give the young people this, show them what’s happening in Greece now.”
He said his main focus for the show was to educate the young Greek Australians on what Greece is like now. But was quick to point out that when he first arrived in Australia it was a “shock” for him. “Even with my family, my auntie who is my mother’s sister, is totally different from my mother. I can not understand that.”
“In Australia, I split the Greeks into three categories. One is the the first generation Greek Australians, the migrants, they needed to live on this island. The second category is just outside the island, who are there because of their parents. The last category are the Hellenics like me, who have European education.”
Kostas, along with Piter Anapliotis and Angelos Gikofridis host the show every Sunday night and each bring their own personality and an added element of fun. “Piter is the technical person on the show, he helps me fix things, but the good thing about Piter is, with the show, he is learning more and more about Greek music. Kostas said Angelos brings the “fun to the show”. “Especially when the interviews are quite serious, he can lighten up the mood. And he knows a lot about sport.”
Listen to Hellenic Soul, on Pulse FM, 94.7 FM, from 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm every Sunday night.
