Hawaii Public Radio will launch its re-branding effort today to simplify its places in listeners’ minds, hearts and — given the ongoing pledge drive — their wallets.
Members and others who phone in pledges today and henceforth will hear a volunteer thanking them for calling either HPR-1 or HPR-2, depending upon which number they’ve dialed.
"For years we’ve been carefully expanding our reach to all the islands with both our streams," said Michael Titterton, president and general manager.
Hawaii has two public radio programming choices, unlike many other markets that have only one: classical music and fine arts programming with NPR newscasts.
"Now we’ve established seven different stations, each with its own call letters and frequencies, not to mention the translators and boosters in various places, to the point where it was actually creating a certain amount of confusion."
"We think that a distillation of all these individual identities might just be a lot simpler to deal with, ergo, HPR-1 and HPR-2," he said.
New logos representing the re-branding were created by graphic designer Jeff Nakama.
The HPR-1 stations are KHPR-FM 88.1 in Honolulu; KKUA-FM 89.7, Wailuku, Maui; and KANO-FM 91.1, Hilo.
The HPR-2 stations are KIPO-FM 89.3 in Honolulu and on Maui, KIPM-FM 89.7 in Waikapu and KIPH-FM 88.3 in Hana.
But wait, that’s only six stations.
The seventh station to which Titterton refers is FM translator K234AN in Waimea, on Hawaii island. It carries the HPR-1 signal through the terrain-shielded area previously unable to receive the programming.
The HPR-1 stations carry symphonic music, opera and concerts as well as news and locally originated classical music programming. Among its talk shows, local interview program "The Business of the Arts" explores Hawaii’s fine-arts scene and what it takes to keep it going.
HPR-1 stations this summer will rebroadcast the concerts of the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra, the organization that rose from the ashes of the bankrupt Honolulu Symphony.
HPR-2 stations are all about news, culture and ideas. The stations’ weekday broadcast lineup begins with "The Conversation," an hourlong, locally hosted news and public affairs show.
HPR-2’s afternoon talk and call-in shows include the science-, technology-, engineering-, math- and generally geek-and-guru-oriented "Bytemarks Cafe," as well as the long-running public affairs show "Town Square," among others.
Musically its local programming includes "The Real Deal" jazz show with Star-Advertiser copy editor and chief grammatical officer Seth Markow; "Jazz with Don Gordon"; and Ray Cruz’s "Sabor Tropical," featuring salsa, Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz, now in its 21st year on the station.
Other genres of music featured across HPR-2 stations include Hawaiian, Brazilian, blues, bluegrass, country and Frank Sinatra tunes.
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On the Net:
>> www.hawaiipublicradio.org
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
