In 1981, Hawaiʻi was just 22 years old as a state. The population was nearly 500,000 less than today's 1.4 million. Not one, but two major newspapers covered stories about Governor Ariyoshi preparing for a third-term run. Kahoʻolawe was added to the National Register of Historic Places, the Brothers Cazimero won big at the Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards, and Rap's Hawaiʻi made its debut. Life in Hawaiʻi was free of cell phones, email, and social media.
On Nov. 13 of that year, KHPR went on the air for the very first time, with founding General Manager Cliff Eblen playing Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). The single station served Honolulu only, and went off the air at midnight.
Hundreds of community members stepped up to support Hawaiʻi Public Radio into existence that first year. We are thanking many of those charter members by name on air this week.
We are shaped by those who came before us in countless ways. The staff and I are immensely grateful for every single supporter, volunteer, staffer and board member who have been a part of HPR's 45-year history. Thousands of people have made this key component of civic and social infrastructure possible over decades. I have deep gratitude in particular for my presidential predecessors: José A. Fajardo, Michael Titterton, Anna Kosof, Al Hulsen, and Cliff Eblen.
Every single person involved in this journey — and every single dollar donated — has enabled Hawaiʻi to have a trusted community service for all, and to...
... build each tower, bit and byte of tech to expand this public service across the islands, and then onto the internet.
... hire journalists and build a newsroom that spreads trusted, helpful information and compelling stories.
... champion music and the arts not as nice-to-haves but as foundational elements of functioning societies.
... emerge from the elimination of federal funding to public media in 2025, and the subsequent shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with strength and optimism.
I was recently going through old station files with Valerie Yee, HPR's Chief Community Giving Officer. She found a memo from Win Healy, former board member and Punahou principal, detailing our origins before our first moments on air. In 1974, seven years before we played that Mahler movement, there was an expansion grant from CPB to help get us launched, along with malasada sales. Win described a group of “enthusiastic incompetents” who met at Coco's Coffee House in the fall of 1975 “to try and breathe life into something we didn’t understand.”
We are so grateful for 45 years of a shared commitment to trusted information, inspiration and connection across the islands.
May HPR's future anniversaries celebrate the enduring strength of a service that supports a functioning democracy, spreads art, truth and understanding across our islands and beyond.
With deepest aloha to those who came before us, and those who are with us now, as we move forward, all together.
— Meredith
