During the October 2006 earthquake, when both highways into Kohala were closed until well after dark, and hundreds of Kohala houses here were off their post and pier foundations, none of the radio or TV stations received in Kohala provided any information about road closures and damages here. We relied on the coconut wireless, ham radio operators, and cell phone calls to friends here and around the world.
In 2007, when the North Kohala Community Development Plan was created by a local Steering Committee, the information gathered in over 60 small group meetings showed an interest in a local radio station, and the North Kohala CDP passed into law in 2008 included a recommendation for a local radio station, saying it “would be a huge enhancement to the community’s emergency communications,” and offer benefits like “communicating community events and information, networking, and educational opportunities.”
To get a radio station you have to apply to the Federal Communications Commission. To get a station for a community the size of Kohala, you have to wait for the FCC window to open for local community stations. Such a window opened in the fall of 2013 for nonprofit and educational applicants. The FCC made it clear that this would be the last window for small communities to apply. It was then or never.
The Kohala High School, Middle School, and the North Kohala Community Resource Center applied, and it appears at this point that a construction permit from the FCC to build a Kohala station will be issued.
While the broadcast signal would be designed to reach from Mahukona to Pololu, the content would also be streamed on the internet. This would allow Kohala alums to listen to a Cowboys basketball game from their main- land dorm room, for example.
The ultimate vision is to have another information and entertainment resource for our multi-cultural community. The goal would be to create interesting local programming for North Kohala’s diverse population.
But the questions are: (1) Do we want it? and if so, (2) What do we want it to be?
Responses to these questions from the community will be the basis for whether we move forward or not. “Creating a low-powered FM station for Kohala will be a major and costly venture, and will be great for our students, but we need to be supported in the community by listeners and donors to make it work,” says Alan Brown, Kohala Middle School principal. “We need to know how the community feels about taking this step.”
written by Cris Michaelis