72
Hawaii Public Radio’s new KIPM-FM 89.7 on Maui will sign on tomorrow morning with a simulcast of Oahu mother ship and sister station KIPO-FM 89.3. President and General Manager Michael Titterton will greet KIPM’s new listeners during “The Conversation,” the new 8 to 9 a.m. weekday program. KHPR-FM 88.1 is HPR’s first Hawaii station and its programming is simulcast on Maui via KKUA-FM 90.7.
KIPM garnered $187,625 in monetary support during a capital campaign to get on the air and pay for the first year’s electricity and “all but $700 were raised on Maui,” Titterton said. Significant funding came from Alexander & Baldwin Inc. and Maui Land & Pineapple Inc.
Attorney Paul Mancini and Yasuko and Pierre Langeron were instrumental in bringing the finances to fruition, he said.
A Federal Communications Commission radio station construction permit affords three years to get the station built and on the air. HPR’s permit for KIPM has a “drop-dead date of April 4,” which is Monday — and more stations are in the offing. “The dream all this time has been to get two program streams, one cultural, one news and public affairs,” to the entire state. “We haven’t departed from that,” Titterton said. KIPM’s signal will reach the Kona side of the Big Island “pretty well.”
