Bytemarks

On Saturday, Sept. 20th Hawaii Public Radio fired up its new transmitter effectively boosting the power level of KIPO 89.3FM to a whooping 29,000 watts. This power increase has been something in the works since 2005 when the station applied for a power increase with the FCC. Three years later, a new transmitter is installed at Puu Ohia up on Tantalus. On Saturday, the station was getting calls as far away as Kona on the Big Island saying that they could now catch the station signal. My story is less dramatic. I work only a couple blocks down the street and until the power increase was able to only get the signal mixed in with a lot of noise. Now it comes in loud and clear. The photo is of Michael Titterton announcing the cutover live over the air. There was what seemed like an extremely long period of static as the transmitter at Palehua was switch over. Once completed everyone gave a sigh of relief. Bytemarks Cafe, as the new kids on the block benefited from the years of work to get to this point. We’re 8 weeks into our show and already beaming across the state. Life is good!