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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Radio station’s
grasp falls short
of potential audiencesRELOCATING a business is usually just a matter of finding a new lease and moving stuff in. Humbug, absolutely, but no big deal.
For radio stations needing to move only a part of their businesses though, it's a huge deal when that part is the tower. It's not like you can just load it into a U-Haul.
Hawaii Public Radio has long wanted to increase the reach of its second station, KIPO-FM 89.3, to a larger audience. Its east Honolulu perch, atop Wiliwilinui Ridge, accessible only by helicopter, has proven inhospitable and impractical. It is currently broadcasting at 3,000 watts and receiving complaints about nonreceipt of signal from would-be listeners.
"Putting up a new tower is quite properly a major undertaking," said Michael Titterton, president and general manager of HPR.
"There's no way to fix KIPO. It's going to be torn down," he said, which is not to say HPR is going to take it off the air.
Following a site search, HPR hoped to relocate its transmitter to a tower Verizon owns on Tantalus, but "Verizon doesn't want to talk to us," said HPR President and General Manager Michael Titterton. Verizon's local officials are not in charge of that decision-making and HPR has not received permission from officials on the mainland despite some two years of inquiries.
Hawaii Engineering Group Inc., which has worked on other tower construction projects, was hired by HPR to prepare a study on where to relocate the tower. The company met separately with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the HPR board of directors on Monday.
HPR needs state approval to build a new tower next to the Verizon site, though HPR would rather add its transmitter to Verizon's existing tower. The DLNR officials who met with the engineering company could not be reached yesterday afternoon.
"There is no question the board wants to move forward" with a new transmitter facility, after addressing all the potential pitfalls, Titterton said.
For the station's listeners, a wait of two more years appears more likely than one.
"We know we can build a tower next to the Verizon tower that is even less conspicuous than theirs and theirs is practically invisible," he said.
"What has to happen before we can do anything, even apply to DLNR, is present them with documentation from Verizon that Verizon will not allow us on their tower," Titterton said.
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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
