North Kohala Rocks with KNKR Radio!
By Eila Algood
On the windy northern tip of Hawai‘i Island is the district of North Kohala. Whether you approach Hawi-town along the coast or over Kohala Mountain, once you’re within a few miles you’ll want to tune into 96.1 FM—KNKR-LP, North Kohala’s community radio station. KNKR (LP stands for low power) offers a wonderful array of programming. You may hear a duet of Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, Hawaiian falsetto Raiatea Helm, a country tune by Dolly Parton, a bit of Bob Marley, a talk show, or other special broadcasts. The shows and tunes change with the Kohala winds.
In general, community radio operates as a not-for-profit organization designed to serve a specific geographic area and group of people with relevant content often overlooked by commercial and public radio.
KNKR was prompted by the 2006 Hawai‘i Island earthquake, when retired businessman Bob Martin and Dr. Alan Thal had an idea for a local low-power community radio station. The two men recognized a need in their community to be able to communicate in emergency situations. With the help of an attorney, they applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); however, their efforts failed because there were 88 other applications for FCC funding in Hawai‘i at that time.
Not thwarted by their initial rejection, Bob and Alan once again began the application process in 2013 along with John Sullivan, David Ebrahimi, and Karl Toubman. Failure became their teacher—they were able to create a perfect application—which led to them receiving approval to proceed. They were elated!
For the next two years, many volunteers contributed their time, expertise, and money to help KNKR go live. North Kohala’s own community radio station had its first broadcast in July 2015. The initial broadcast was remote from a Kohala High School reunion, followed by many daily music and talk shows. The current tally of live weekly shows is 30 and there are 15 encore presentations.
KNKR is a listener supported, non-commercial, nonprofit community radio station in partnership with Kohala High and Middle schools. It broadcasts exclusively to North Kohala, although there have been a few Maui residents across the ‘Alenuihāhā Channel who have said they’ve tuned in on their radios. As many people affirm, it is clear that KNKR is an asset to North Kohala. Its presence has created a deeper experience of connection within the community.
The core KNKR ‘ohana consists of Bob Martin, general manager; Cecily Deville, volunteer coordinator and training manager; David Ebrahimi, program manager; and Robert Shoup, sound engineer.
The mission of KNKR is to:
- provide programming that attracts sufficient listener support to keep KNKR on the air.
- reflect the North Kohala community by offering programming by a wide variety of local volunteers.
- present local emergency broadcasting for the community.
- promote and broadcast local community activities and events.Encourage cultural diversity and provide a platform for creative expression.
A Day in the Life of KNKR
Let’s take a ride through a typical day of programming. Wake up your Monday with Uncle David’s Big Show by David Ebrahimi. David has been entertaining Kohala since the station went live with jazz, pop, world, Hawaiian, and, well, whatever David wants to play. He shared, “It’s all about bringing diverse music to the community and making the morning easy for listeners.”
Then comes Tani’s World by Tani Waipa. Tani is a talented musician—it’s great to have her at the station sharing her favorite island-style tunes.
Later, hosts Kelly Hyde and Devin Longfellow stroll in for Revolution Radio, “music with a message.” They have fun segments bantering together, in between reggae, folk, hip-hop, and spoken word. Devin shared, “I bring my passion for the empowerment of children and women to the show,” while Kelly (also known as Ka‘ahele) is a singer, songwriter, and musician who said she “believes music can bring about positive change in our turbulent world.”
Up next is Women’s Voices by this writer, Eila Algood, offering songs and spoken words by female voices from Kohala and around the world. I’m committed to continuing this show until half of all songs played on commercial radio are by women.
The evening shows begin with Healing Consciousness, hosted by April Lee who discusses the many facets of spirit.
While still floating in the ethers, Martini Mondays follows with host Pamela Huggins who said, “Music has been speaking to me my whole life and when I come to KNKR, I get to share it. I find it to be a powerful anti-depressant.” Pamela also does Friday evening’s Plush Lounge.
The programming is as varied as the imagination and lives of the DJs and hosts. There are even two bilingual Filipino music shows: Pinay’s Favorite Hits with DJ Analisa Marcom, who shares Filipino singers along with American 1980s love songs. Analisa speaks English and Tagalog throughout her lively show. Also, Bruce Kelly plays beautiful love songs on Love Drive. Their ability to switch from English to their native language is impressive as is their individual music selection.
Cosmic Cowgirl has mixed genres of Americana stemming from the southern US and Gulf Coast regions. Cecily DeVille created the show in 2015 and is on the air multiple days a week along with her Aloha Country show offering up Hawaiian and country sounds. Cecily also hosts the Goldstar Listening Library.
Michael’s Mix entertains listeners with blues, country, jazz, and rock by DJ Michael Foust. Musician Mila Polevia shares stories and island style music on Mila’s Lunch Wagon while Music Magazine by DJ Kathie Babben shares her love of music combined with a love of vegetarian cooking. “I love being on the radio playing music and introducing people to new ways of eating,” Kathie said.
The weekend is filled with encore presentations with the exception of two live shows playing blues, rock, and jazz: Funkle Greg by Greg Johnson and Riding Home with Karl Toubman who adds country and Hawaiian to the mix.
Then there are talk shows: Kukakuka with Kalani, by host Jeff Coakly, discusses topics relevant to the community. Holly Algood hosts Tūtūs Talkstory, an interview hour with older women sharing their wisdom and life stories. Holly said, “There are so few opportunities to hear our elders on the radio, especially female elders, and we have so much to learn from them.”
Lisa Ebrahimi and Josh Alt host a talk and music show, Working Hard/Hardly Working, complete with local news and conversation.
Donovan and Sammi Aiona greet other volunteers with smiles and hugs as if they were family each time they enter the studio to do their reggae show, Jah Works. Over the years they’ve brought students from the elementary school where students are taught how to record station identifications, providing the children with an introduction to radio broadcasting.
Songs in the Key of G by Ernesto Hernandez spins songs for the soul while on Free Form Radio by Jim Pedersen, any style of music goes. There’s even the 1950s Doo Wop show by Tom “Terrific” Knowles.
A few new shows came on the air in February: Intuitive Talk Story with hosts Michal Anna Carrillo and Eila Algood, Return to the Library with Bobby Hoyt, and Surfing Cowboy with Josh Alt.
With the option to stream the radio station on the web, many DJs report having listeners from other parts of Hawai‘i, North and South America, Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Many interesting and valuable programs over the past five years have included:
- talk show on environmentally-friendly practices and ideas with weekly guests.
- Sunday call-in show about health issues with a medical doctor and a naturopathic doctor.
- talk show with Kohala residents invited to have conversations on-air.
- bipartisan group discussions of local politics and issues pertaining to North Kohala.
- regular play-by-play coverage of Kohala schools’ sporting events.
- fishing talk show.
- special broadcasts have included: author readings by Hawai‘i Writers Guild members at North Kohala Public Library, interviews with politicians, Filipino Festival.
Looking forward, KNKR has a vision for continued growth in listenership and programming with more volunteers, DJs, and hosts. Volunteer Coordinator Cecily Deville says, “If youʻd like to be involved, letʻs get in touch!”
Tune in to KNKR-LP at 96.1 FM while in North Kohala. Stream live at KNKR.org or RadioFreeAmerica.com (which also offers an archive of all shows for two weeks after live broadcast).
In March 2020, the radio station was presented with a new challenge as the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic made its way to Hawai‘i. They decided to cease all live shows and, instead, broadcast encore presentations that had been recorded over the past year. Each morning one assigned person went into the on-air studio to set up the shows for the day on the computer. There was an 8am live Hawai‘i Island news update, which replayed at noon, then another live update happened at 5pm, which was aired again at 10pm. At the writing this article, KNKR was researching a way for eager DJs to record their shows at home and send via the Internet to the station.
Talk shows are available for replay as podcasts on Spotify, Radio Republic, and iTunes. ❖
For more information: KNKR.com, Facebook.com/NorthKohalaRadio
Eila Algood
Eila’s passion for writing began as a child, writing letters to her aunts. She has published “On the Road to Bliss,” “Rhapsody in Bohemia,” and other pieces in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. Her certification in Transformative Language Arts inspires her to bring spoken word events to the community. The pandemic restrictions motivated her to create via Zoom, a recorded YouTube show “Inside the Writers Studio” presented by the Hawaii Writers Guild, featuring a different writer each program. As radio deejay of Women’s Voices at KNKR, she plays songs and spoken word pieces by female artists.
