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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 23, 2003

Hawai'i Public Radio's April fund-raiser may be delayed

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i Public Radio may postpone its April 2-11 on-air fund-raising drive for three weeks to allow for coverage of a war with Iraq, station officials said.

HPR needs about $425,000 to pay for programming for six months on KHPR and KIPO on O'ahu and through KANO and KKUA on the Big Island and Maui.

"We are of course anxious to stay in business," General Manager Michael Titterton said. "But if we are actively dropping bombs on another country, it probably would be fairly tasteless for us to be fund-raising during that time."

The drive usually involves hundreds of volunteers working the telephones while announcers rally listeners to pledge money during interludes in regular programming.

Titterton says HPR will try to remain the listener's "companion" during a war, by providing the news information, context, discussion and interpretation that listeners will be most interested in during the crisis.

"After Sept. 11, we went to a total news coverage format on all stations 24 hours a day for about three or four days, and then gradually phased it back," he said.

"But with that situation, the big story happened and the rest was reaction; in this case the big story may keep happening, or happen over and over again."

When the station returned to regular programming, "our classical programming was tempered and shaped by the national mood after 9/11," Titterton said.

"We went from being a total news operation to an organization providing comfort and reassurance."

He said he would have to make a decision about the fund-raising drive about a week before it is scheduled to begin April 2.

The station could operate for only two months without the money that would come from the drive, he said.

Titterton said anyone interested in making a pledge or donation to the station in advance of the fund-raising drive may do so by calling 955-8821 or writing Hawai'i Public Radio at 738 Kaheka St., Honolulu, HI 96814.

Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.