Hawaii Public Radio

About Hawaii Public Radio

Hawaii Public Radio's original station, KHPR 88.1 FM, signed on the air in Honolulu on November 14, 1981, mostly playing classical music with NPR news shows. It began with a staff of two — general manager Cliff Eblen and music director Bob Miller — operating from rented space at the University of Hawaii, moving to its current studios in July 1987. A year later, HPR became a true statewide network with the sign-on of a Maui station reaching listeners on Maui and Hawaii Island.

HPR's programming choices expanded in October 1989 with a second program stream on KIPO 89.3 FM, which began with jazz and folk music. The network kept growing through the 2000s and 2010s — KANO in Hilo in 2000, boosters on Mount Kaʻala in 2010, KIPM on Maui, KIPH in Hāna, KHPH in Kailua-Kona, and KIPL in Līhuʻe — until in the spring of 2012 the two program streams were rebranded as HPR-1 and HPR-2, giving statewide coverage of both streams.

Today HPR is a private nonprofit organization whose stations originate from the Hawaii Public Radio Plaza on Kaheka Street in Honolulu. HPR-1 broadcasts news, talk, entertainment, jazz, blues, and world music, while HPR-2 is the home of classical music — the only classical music station in Hawaii. Its national programming comes from NPR, American Public Media, and other sources, and its digital home is hawaiipublicradio.org.