KTUH FM Honolulu, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s radio station, began broadcasting island-wide at its new frequency 90.1 FM with 7,000 watts on March 19.
The frequency switch was commemorated with an hour of Hawaiian music. KTUH now broadcasts at 90.1 FM in Honolulu and throughout the island; 91.1 FM remains to serve pockets on Oʻahu’s North Shore.
KTUH boosts reach
The student-run radio station hit the airwaves in 1969 as Hawaiʻi’s first FM-licensed, public/non-commercial radio station. KTUH added a North Shore translator and then increased its wattage from 100 to 3,000 watts in 2001, which extended Mānoa’s coverage to Waipahu and Hawaiʻi Kai.
Striving to expand further, KTUH began planning this current project in 2006. Fundraising started in 2009 and continued through the 2015 KTUH Pledge Drive last Spring, which secured the remaining finances. These funds allowed the station to move its antenna from the top of Saunders Hall on the UH Mānoa campus to the top of Tantalus, a colocation with Hawaiʻi Public Radio.
The new antenna comes with a new transmitter that boosts the station’s wattage from 3,000 to 7,000 watts; allowing KTUH to be heard island-wide at the new 90.1 frequency. The 91.1 FM translator frequency will remain to serve pockets on the North Shore. The Tantalus site’s 2,000-foot elevation and location offers KTUH coverage on both sides of the Koʻolau and Waiʻanae mountain ranges, as well as urban, central and rural Honolulu.
To find out more about the frequency change, please visit the KTUH website or call the KTUH office directly at (808) 956-5288.
