Listeners on the beautiful island of Kauai have not been able to pick up Hawaii Public Radio for some time, but the organization hopes to have service back on the air in July.
According to a post by HPR President/General Manager José A. Fajardo, the signals of KIPL on 89.9 and an HPR translator on 101.7 MHz are down.
“Kauai’s main transmitter, located on Mt. Kahili, is accessible only by helicopter and only when weather conditions make it safe to fly to the site,” Fajardo wrote.
“Unfortunately, when our engineer reached the site, he found damage to the transmitter that necessitated it being removed and brought back to Oahu for repairs. Backlogs in the broadcast equipment and parts supply chain further delayed the repair work, which is now scheduled to be completed by the end of this month.”
Don Mussell is HPR’s engineer. Fajardo said Mussell also discovered that safety-related repairs needed to be made, including reinforcing the foundation under the transmitter tower.
“This work is being handled by our landlord, who has scheduled a helicopter and work crew to perform the repairs at the end of this month. … The station is waiting for confirmation from our landlord of the completed site repairs and then we will schedule our contract engineer to fly to the site and reinstall the transmitter.”
Fajardo provided listeners with alternate ways to find HPR-1 and HPR-2, including streaming, smart speaker, mobile app and cable TV channels.
The station has special temporary authority for going silent due to the transmitter failure.
