A new Hawai‘i Public Radio transmitter was installed on Lana‘i, providing an improved signal for West Maui, Lana‘i, and Moloka‘i. The station, frequency 103.1 FM, is licensed to Kualapu‘u, Moloka‘i and went live on January 13. It broadcasts HPR-1 – news, talk, entertainment, and a variety of music – to areas previously difficult to reach. A terrain shield, the West Maui Mountains, had obstructed the signal being broadcast from Haleakala.
In November, HPR announced that it had acquired the Lanaʻi transmitter. The new signal was assigned the call letters KJHF in honor of Dr. John Henry Felix, who was HPR’s inaugural chair of its Board of Directors from 1979 to 1985.
This expansion is made possible thanks to the support and generosity of station members, underwriters, and other local organizations providing financial support to HPR. The vast majority of HPR’s operating revenue comes from the community; only five percent of the budget is received from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the organization that disburses federal funds.
[Disclosure: Kayian also works for Councilmember Kelly King.]
