Michael Titterton, who served as president and general manager of Hawaiʻi Public Radio from 1999 to 2016, and who oversaw an expansion of HPR's two stations across the Hawaiian Islands, has died at his home in Honolulu. He was 76.
Titterton was known at the station and in the community as a gregarious, enthusiastic and passionate figure. He took over Hawaiʻi Public Radio at a time of financial uncertainty and went on to nearly double the size of its membership, and triple the size of its budget. He later came out of retirement to lead the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra as president. The Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance recognized him as their 2016 Alfred Preis Honoree for his lifetime support of the arts.
He had a long career in public media, and came to HPR after serving as general manager of public radio station WHQR in Wilmington, North Carolina, which he helped to build, starting in 1983 and putting it on the air the next year. Earlier in his career he helped convert college radio stations into NPR affiliate stations at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Pennsylvania State University, where he also taught broadcasting.
Born and raised in London, Titterton earned a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Windsor in Canada, and a master's degree in rhetoric from Wayne State University in Detroit, where he also started working in radio, including reporting on the decline of Detroit's automobile industry for NPR.
In addition to a background in classical music and broadcasting, Titterton maintained a lifelong fascination with automobiles, engines, and mechanical engineering and loved to tinker in his metal shop. He was also an accomplished actor, appearing in productions ranging from Shakespeare to a guest role as the bartender in an episode from Season Three of “Lost.”
At HPR, Titterton not only masterminded and executed the roll-out of a statewide network of transmitters and translators, he was also well-known for his trademark performances of joyful exuberance during live pledge drives to raise money for the station. At one point, the station maintained a record of 15 straight years of increasing revenue during the campaigns, which eventually topped more than a million dollars apiece. While increasing numbers of regular contributors reduced the need to continually boost overall campaign goals, he maintained a unique on-air presence with staff and community guests alike.
In 2014, Titterton told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the business model of public radio is built on factors very different from logic:
“We put together a high-quality product and we give it away for free, and then we not only make it voluntary, but people get to decide whatever it is they want to contribute. What I liken it to is … I don't know if you remember the old-time buskers outside the theaters. You know with the one-man band and the monkey who would pass the hat around. That's kind of what we do.”
Titterton served as a mentor to a generation of broadcasters on both sides of the microphone in Hawaiʻi. He's survived by his wife Madeleine McKay of Honolulu, and his brother Ian Titterton of Portland, Oregon.
