Aloha Programmers, Board Members, CAB, and Friends of KKCR,
Here are updates on the latest happenings at KKCR: |
3-28-09
Aloha All, Here's the latest news on KKCR...
- We just received our second (of 2) CPB Grant payment of $38,221 for 2009! After spending countless hours filling out our online annual report for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I hit the "submit" button and, voila! The check arrived in the mail a couple days ago! This tremendously helps our current financial condition and provides a welcome bridge of funds that, combined with our upcoming Membership Drive, will help get us through the next 6 months.
- Last Saturday, I was invited by Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha (KKNOK) to give a presentation regarding our remote broadcast to a group of 13 Hawaiian Language Charter Schools. Director of KKNOK, Haunani Seward, and her staff were participants at a Charter School conference being held locally at the Aloha Beach Resort. The other Charter Schools were mostly from the Big Island and Oahu. Haunani was asked to give a "show and tell" style presentation to the entire group and she wanted to highlight the success of their partnership with KKCR and their weekly broadcast. So... I attended the meeting along with Haunani, Brada Kelley Phillips, Hokulani Cleeland, and Jim Lucas. Jim showed a short 9 minute video of the inaugural broadcast and then we all discussed the "ins & outs" of running a remote broadcast - the software and technical requirements along with how the format of the show was established and is managed. The leaders of the various schools were all quite intrigued, so I imagine radio stations on other islands may be getting phone calls from their local charter schools! KKCR leads the way!
- KKCR is now on Facebook: www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=61636050657 Katherine set up a Group Page on Facebook as an online "meeting place" for KKCR family & friends. You can check it out and add KKCR to your list of groups by clicking the link above. Let us know what you think!
- The "6 Pack" is now a "5 Pack". The old "6 pack" CD Player in the main studio finally gave out and was retired after many years of service. When I went looking for a replacement, I discovered that style of multi-CD player (with a "cassette" of CDs) was no longer available. The only style I could find was a 5 CD carousel type player - a Tascam model that is intended for heavy-duty use. Hopefully, we'll get many years of use out of it as well. Please note that CD's are loaded with the label side up and that there is also a remote control for it that can be used to set it for "shuffle play" if desired. Specific instructions for how to use it will be posted soon, but it's pretty self-explanatory.
- Great Membership Drive Meetings. Mahalo Nui Loa to everyone who attended the Membership Drive meetings. Attendance was outstanding and I and the Staff truly appreciate everyone's participation and enthusiasm!! As I mentioned before, we are doing a number of things differently this time around and it was important for everyone to get this information. And... as I promised, we actually did manage to keep the meetings relatively short and sweet! For the handful of people who couldn't make one of the two meetings, we have a video that can be viewed at the station starting next week. Please arrange with Jack to view the video sometime between now and April 22. Arriving early enough before your show or staying a little longer after your show are convenient ways to do this. Please respect my request on this matter.
- Speaking of the Membership Drive, we received our first $500 matching sponsor - Jackson Browne's Management Team & Record Label! Much Mahalos to Richard Fernandez for bringing this in! And Mahalo to Ken for coming up with the "Matching Fund" concept!
- The new forms for Spring 2009 Early Birds, Waveriders, and Premium Donations are available. If you know of individuals or businesses or other organizations who want to become Early Birds or Waveriders or who have gifts or services to donate, please be sure to pick up some forms at the station and spread the word! The Waverider form can also be downloaded directly from the KKCR Homepage or by clicking here: www.kkcr.org/docs/WaveRiderFormspr09.pdf. The other forms will also be posted soon.
By the way, people can also become Members and receive our cool new Mahalo Gifts directly on the KKCR website at www.kkcr.org/donate.htm. As one way to help us gain new members and raise funds, you might consider emailing this link to all your friends and family and encouraging them to join today! Everyone who joins before April 22 on the web will be an automatic Early Bird and will be entered in a drawing to win a free 90 minute massage. These are in addition to the standard premiums at whatever level they choose to join.
- As a reminder, Jerry & Lyn will be out of the office next week (except for the Wiz's Show on Monday at 12 noon) attending the NFCB Conference in Portland, Oregon. If you have a volunteer or training related question, please see Jack. For all other questions and/or issues, please see Ken. Ken will be manning the office all week (even on his day off!) If any emergency situations require an "executive decision", then John Gordon can be contacted or Jerry can be available by cell phone.
That's it for this week.
If you're able and so inclined, please tune in to the Gee-Whiz Show at noon on Monday where The Wiz and DJ Debacle will be discussing the art & craft of songwriting! For more details, visit www.kkcr.org/djs/whiz.htm.
Aloha,
Jerry |
3-18-2009
- First of all, there's some GREAT news to report: The CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) just approved our annual report and gave the "OK" for us to receive the 2nd grant payment of $38K for 2009. This will arrive within the next 10 - 12 business days and will be a big help towards bridging our funding needs to the next Membership Drive and over the next 6 months.
- Kahili Transmitter Update: Because of the amount of work involved and the number of people who will need to help, and the fact that Don Mussell will be leaving for the mainland for a few weeks, there simply isn't enough time left in March to organize and complete a trip to Kahili to install the new metal housing for the transmitter. HOWEVER, Don does plan to make a short trip up to the mountain for other purposes and, while there, will do some general maintenance and make sure the transmitter is as happy as possible for our upcoming Membership Drive. Then, in the May timeframe, we hope to (finally) complete the project. Thanks to everyone for your patience.
- Any non-Programmer volunteers who want to help during the Membership Drive are invited to attend one of our two upcoming meetings:
- Sunday, March 22, 4:00pm at the Hilton Kauai Beach Resort in Shutters' Lounge OR
- Monday, March 23, 7:00pm at the Princeville Neighborhood Center
At this meeting, we will be going over numerous changes we are implementing for this Drive.
- Speaking of which... To help support other non-profits and further our Community Outreach efforts, we are offering something we think is really nifty during this next Drive: Last time, most of you will recall that we offered to make a donation to the Food Bank in lieu of premium gifts for donations over $100. This time, for pledges over a certain amount, we will run an underwriting message for the pledge's choice of 1 of 5 pre-determined non-profits. The basic idea is that we will give 1 message/week for 4 weeks for every $100 received. (In other words, if someone pledges $200, we will provide 8 weeks of underwriting at 1 message/week for the non-profit they designate!) The 5 non-profits will cover: ocean, animals, human welfare, land, and plants! The exact details and non-profits will be announced in the Membership Drive meetings.
- Also: If you know of any businesses, organizations, or individuals who would like to become "WaveRiders" or make donations of goods or services to be used as premiums for the Drive, please let us know. We will have updated forms at the meetings and will also post them on the website within the week.
Aloha Nui,
Jerry |
3-11-09
- First the Bad News: Bank of Hawaii has turned down our application for a line-of-credit. We had asked for a $50K unsecured line-of-credit to be used to help bridge our funding needs between membership drives. In today's uncertain economy, the bank is being extremely conservative and, since we are a non-profit, simply doesn't feel we are a good credit risk. They didn't even want to consider a lesser amount. The decision was made at BOH headquarters in Honolulu and our local advocate was very apologetic. If we can find a member/supporter who is willing to co-sign the loan as a guarrantor, then we could re-apply. Even in that case, there would be no guaranty of getting the loan, but our chances would improve greatly. So... if you know of anyone willing to co-sign a loan, please let me know.
Now lots of good news...
- This past Sunday, we had our very first broadcast of Ka Leo Ni'ihau with no streaming drop-outs! I believe we have finally resolved all the bandwidth issues, internet streaming issues, and audio signal quality issues! The show came through loud and clear, without distortion. It sounded GREAT and experienced NO stream drop-outs! Yay! We've learned a lot through this process and I feel confident we can now move forward with setting up other remote broadcast locations around Kauai.
Speaking of which...
- On Wednesday last week, we had four visitors from Kauai Community College to the station in Princeville. This was the core group of folks who are partnering with us to launch the first broadcast from the KCC campus. They came up for a tour and also some preliminary training. KCC has already set aside a room for the remote broadcast location and they are in process of ordering & setting up the necessary equipment. They are also outlining the content of their first month's worth of broadcasting and are identifying the students who will be the Programmers. These students will then receive formal training from KKCR. We hope to launch the first broadcast within the next couple of months. Watch for updates in future Gee-Whiz reports.
- On Friday last week, I met with Mark Jeffers and a group of folks out at Storybook Theater in Hanapepe. We discussed the necessary equipment, logistics, and other parameters for doing remote broadcasts from that location. Everyone was excited about the possibilities and we targeted June for an initial test broadcast.
With Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha already on board and KCC and Storybook Theater in process of coming on board, we are well on our way to realizing our vision of "distributed broadcasting". As we establish these remote locations, it is my hope that we will draw in more volunteers and members from the neighborhoods around those locations and create communities of localized supporters of KKCR, centered around those locations... a "network of neighborhoods" for KKCR.
- We have started production of our next Talk Story series. And, we are happy to announce we are highlighting the Cruz family - 1 CD each of John Cruz, Ernie Cruz Jr, and Ernie Cruz Sr! On Friday, we hosted John Cruz at KKCR. He was on island to appear at and support the Malama Koke'e effort up at Camp Sloggett and also appeared on Sandy Swift's show at KKCR between 10 - 11AM. He then stayed at the station for several more hours to record an interview with Ken Jannelli and a number of songs. We got some great material. We will next work on recording Ernie Cruz Jr and Sr. I hope to have the new series done well before the Fall Membership Drive.
And, finally, a bit of good news from the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting)...
- CPB Funding for 2010 looks safe. KKCR gets aproximately 20% of our annual operating funds from the CPB and I just received this email from them:
Last night (March 10), the Senate passed the $410 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 omnibus appropriations spending package comprising nine bills left over from last year, including funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other public broadcasting programs. The House had passed the bill last week and, because the Senate made no changes prior to passing it, the omnibus now goes to President Obama for signature. He has indicated that he will sign the bill.
That's it for now.
Aloha,
Jerry |
02-27-09
1) REMINDER - Spring Membership Drive: You all received an email a couple days ago regarding our Spring Membership Drive. Again, as a reminder, the dates will be:
The kick-off will be at 12 noon during The Garden Show on Wednesday, April 22. (Coinciding with "Earth Day")
We will end the Membership Drive at 12 noon on Sunday, May 3 at the end of Kamran's "Oasis" Show.
More details will be available next week.
2) Hawaii Community Foundation Grant update: A few weeks ago, we applied for 2 grants through the HCF. The first is a $5K grant to support our efforts at launching the new "distributed broadcasting" model, particularly to help cover costs for updating & making better use of MemSys, for creating a Community Outreach plan that will leverage a partnership with KCC, and to develop a new set of Volunteer training materials and handbook to go along with setting up remote broadcast locations. This grant would allow me to increase Lyn's and Jack's paid hours to get this work done. The second grant was for $48K to match PTFP funds for upgrading our transmitter and fiber-optic link. So, here's the good news and the bad news... I spoke with one of the Foundation people today and she said it looks very good for getting the $5K grant. The bad news is that they typically do not make capital grant awards, so the bigger $48K grant will probably not be awarded. Both grants will be reviewed in committee during the first week of April and we will know the decision shortly after that. (By the way, HCF is the same group that awarded us a $5K Strategic Planning grant last year, so they are already familiar with us. They like the fact that we successfully completed work from the first grant and are now building further on that work.) Stay tuned...
3) Annual CPB Reporting: I have spent a few days preparing and submitted the required annual reports to get the second part of our CPB grant. This takes a tremendous amount of time (sorting through our audited Financial Statement to find various numbers to plug into the CPB report). I will be complete with this by mid-week next week. This means we should be able to receive our CPB funds on time by early April. These funds will help bridge our needs until the Membership Drive in late April/early May.
4) New State Reporting Requirements for Non-Profits: As if non-profits don't have enough to do already, the State in its infinite wisdom has decided that all nonprofits must now register with the State Attorney General and submit annual Income Tax returns. (Previously, we only had to submit returns to the IRS... And, if you've ever seen the "990-EZ" tax form, there's absolutely nothing "EZ" about it!) One of my days this past week was navigating through pages and pages of internet forms and cryptic explanations in order to get us properly registered, which we are now. Whew. Glad that's over.
5) And, in the "Adding Insult to Injury" category: The State legislature wants to remove the "exempt" status for all non-profits from the General Excise Tax. If this law is passed, then all non-profits will have to start paying 4% on ALL GROSS INCOME. This is BEFORE expenses... that means all non-profits would lose 4% right of the top of everything they collect for income! Yikes! I only heard about this yesterday morning and the House was hearing testimony for & against the bill at 2PM yesterday. Fortunately, I did have enough time to write and submit some testimony before the hearing on why this is a bad thing. I'm not sure when the legislature will actually vote on the measure, but I'll let you know as I get more info. I just don't get the thinking: "The economy is bad, so let's just take money away from the non-profits!" Blechh.
So... This gives everyone a good idea of how I spend a huge amount of my time - grant-writing, report writing, and testimony-writing!
Well, that's it for today.
Best Regards,
Jerry |
2-19-09
- "Managing in Tough Times: How Kauai Nonprofits Are Coping". This was the topic of a special seminar that I attended this past Tuesday, given by the KPAA and hosted at the Humane Society. Within the past year, most of our local non-profits have seen revenue drop 20% or more. At the same time, there is growing demand for the services they provide. One glaring example was provided by the Kauai Food Bank - They are finding that people who used to donate to the Food Bank are now standing in line to receive food. Many of the attendees expect that the situation will get worse before it gets better - that 2010 will be worse than 2009.
Our situation at KKCR is consistent with other nonprofits - our membership drive was 20% below goal and our Federal grants were significantly reduced this year over last. HOWEVER, we have several advantages that will help us weather the storm:
1) A terrific set of over 80 dedicated volunteers who help us reach out into the community, especially during fund-raisers and membership drives. This was highlighted in our recent FUNd FEST which was a "free" event that netted almost $5,500! This was thanks to a LOT of volunteers who donated their time and talents to make it successful.
2) A hard-working and dedicated staff - Ken, Lyn, and Jack work harder than any set of people I have ever been associated with. They continually look for ways to make KKCR better, to reduce costs, and to raise money. AND, they don't just talk about it. All three are quick to put their ideas into action. We are all blessed to have them with us on this journey.
3) Unlimited access to the airwaves. As a radio station, we have a unique way to reach a wide audience of listeners all over the world. This is a tremendous advantage that we can continue to leverage.
Our bottom line: So far in 2009, we are doing OK and we are doing really well compared to some other nonprofits. We have been watching our expenses and spending money only in critical or strategic areas. At the same time, Ken has been doing a great job at bringing in new Underwriting revenue. He has been reaching out to new accounts and we are finding that they are very receptive to the value of supporting community radio - that they can make their marketing dollars go farther. In addition, we anticipate receiving the 2nd portion of our annual CPB grant in mid April and we will hold our next membership drive at the end of April. These will help us make it through to Fall.
- Shed What You Don't Need and Share What You Do - This is the basic philosophy I have adopted for making sure we get through the tough times. As mentioned above, we are spending money only where necessary or strategic. (This is the "shed what you don't need" part.) At the same time, we will be sharing what we do need - the airwaves. During the seminar, I offered for each and every nonprofit in attendance to visit KKCR and go on the air during one of our Public Affairs shows to tell their story. So... it gives me great pleasure to announce that Tracey Schavone has volunteered to be the "point-person" for nonprofits who want to take advantage of this offer. As nonprofits contact me, I am forwarding their contact information to Tracey who will then work with them to set up an interview, either on her show or on one of our other talk shows. If you're interested in helping with this effort, please let me know.
- Registration Deadline for the NFCB Conference - This is the annual national Community Radio conference that will be held from April 1 - 4 in Portland, Oregon. For more information, please visit www.nfcb.org. So far, there are three of us who will be attending - me, Lyn, and Marj Dente. If you would like to attend, you will need to do so at your own expense. However, you can save (a little) money by letting me know by tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 20) because it is cheaper if we register as a group.
- MEMBERSHIP DRIVE - MEMBERSHIP DRIVE - MEMBERSHIP DRIVE - Yes, it's already that time again... We are starting to plan the next Membership Drive. The dates are still tentative, but it looks like we will begin the drive on Thursday or Friday, April 23/24 and end it on Sunday, May 3. Please watch for more details soon. Now, more than ever, we will need everyone's help and support.
- Remote Broadcast - I am continuing to work through the details and testing of what is needed to begin broadcasting remotely from any location. We are still having a few "drop-out" and audio quality issues with our Ka Leo Ni'ihau show that I'm working to solve. At this stage, they are more annoyances than show-stoppers. As soon as these are solved, then we can confidently move forward with remote broadcasts from other locations, including our own portable remote broadcast equipment. In addition to talks we've already had with KCC, I will be meeting with Mark Jeffers at Storybook Theater in Hanapepe on March 6. I hope to have both of these locations up & running within a couple of months. As we do this, there is another complication that must be addressed - the legal aspect. We will be seeking advice from an FCC attorney regarding any legal "gotcha's" that might arise. We don't know what those might be yet, but I'm sure the attorney will tell us and we will be able to work out the details to everyone's satisfaction.
That's plenty for now.
Aloha,
Jerry |
02-11-09
- Our FUNd FEST netted about $5,500 after expenses. Not a huge money-maker for us, but a whole lot of GREAT PR! In addition, we added 7 new members from such diverse places as Berlin, NH; Williston, VT; Anchorage, AK; Portland, OR; and locally from Anahola, Kapa'a, and Wailua.
We have posted several photos by Aaron Feinberg on our homepage. In addition, Aaron has put a whole gallery of photos up at http://afeinphoto.com/KKCR_Fundfest/Pages/Best_Of.html#grid. Check these out... they are really awesome!
- As of last Friday (Feb 6) our Internet Bandwidth into & out of the station has been increased by almost 4 times! This means our ability to download Democracy Now & Free Speech Radio News, and our ability to stream the weekly Ka Leo Ni'ihau show from the Westside has been greatly improved. A Huge MAHALO NUI LOA to Lava.net for making this happen! This is one more step towards building out a reliable infrastructure that will allow us to stream shows from other locations and from live venues. There are still several things we need to do to our internal network & computer systems to finish shoring up and testing our reliability, but we're getting closer day-by-day.
- I met with our local Bank of Hawaii again this week regarding our application for a line of credit. She had several questions regarding the 10 pounds of documents I already gave her, and I need to send her some more info. I think we're getting closer to a decision. The next step is for her to send our Application Package to the main BOH office in Honolulu. (After I send her yet more information on Thursday this week.)
- We need to start planning the next Membership Drive. Currently, I anticipate it will be in late April or early to mid-May. Please stay tuned for dates and additional info in a subsequent message.
That's it for now.
JB |
02-04-09
KCC Meeting - Lyn and I met with the Chancellor (Helen Cox) and an interested group of about 10 of the KCC staff last Thursday (1/29) at KCC regarding a partnership between KKCR and the Community College. Everyone at KCC is excited about starting up a radio program with us. Initially, it will be developed by Dennis Chun and the Hawaiian Studies group and will probably be a once/month program that centers around college and/or community news. They will be submitting a written proposal for the program within the next couple of weeks and then come visit the station in Princeville for some basic radio broadcast training. We will plan to use the same internet-stream technology that has proven successful at Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha. Then, over time, their programming is expected to expand to weekly. This is yet another branch of our new Community Outreach strategy. I'll provide more updates as new information becomes available.
Fund Fest update - Please watch for an article to appear on the front page of the Lifestyle section of this Friday's TGI along with a photo. This should be good PR for us. The momentum has been building and we expect 500 - 1,000 people to attend! We hope everyone who reads this email will also be there. It will be a ton o' fun!
NFCB Conference - I am planning on attending this conference in Portland, OR from April 1 to April 4. There is still plenty of time before we need to register for the early fee (Feb. 20) but the more that go from KKCR the cheaper it will be for each of us. (The cost will be somewhere between $250 - $350, depending on number of people.) If anyone is interested in attending, please let me know. You'll have to pay your own way, but the more of us who go, the cheaper it will be for each of us. So far, Marj Dente will be attending.
"Out of the Box" Announcement - Mayor Bernard Carvalho has confirmed he will be a guest of
KKCR on March 19th, from 4:00-5:30 during "Out of the Box" with hosts Dave Gerow, John Gorden, and jonathan jay. Questions for the Mayor are now being actively solicited. Please send your question or comment for Mayor Carvalho to Out of the Box's brand NEW email: OB@kkcr.org
Hawaiian Archive Computer Update - As many of you know, the Hawaiian Archive has been acting up again lately. This time, rather than the hard disk drive, it was the computer. Well... the computer has been replaced with a brand new Mini-Mac and is back up and running. With both a new hard disk AND a new computer, hopefully the Hawaiian Archive will once again be reliable.
Increased Inter
net Bandwidth - MAHALO NUI to Lava.net!!! Beginning on February 6, our internet bandwidth into/outof the station will be quadrupled! This will make it more reliable for us to download programs such as Democracy Now and Free Speech Radio News. It will also make the remote broadcast capability (from Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha, KCC, and others into KKCR) more reliable. Over time, with help from Adam & Steve ("Computer Connection"), we will be taking a few additional steps to improve our streaming capability. Solidifying our internet stream infrastructure is key to our remote broadcast ability, so this is all good stuff. By the way, MAHALO also to Auntie Maria for whipping out her cell phone and calling Pali (President of Lava.net) when I mentioned to her I wanted to increase bandwidth. Within that very same day, Pali had his people working on it and, as I mentioned, it will be ready to go on Feb. 6.
91.9 update - Unfortunately, it's "same old/same old." As of late last week, Don & Dean began planning a trip to the mountain for the end of this week. However, once again, the weather hasn't been very cooperative so, we may put it off yet again. This particular trip will be fairly complex because we need to install the new housing, take the good transmitter from the station to the mountain, and bring back the old transmitter from the mountain. Overall, Don & Dean estimate it will take 4 people, 2 trips up, and 1 trip back, and will require all day on the mountain for the 4 people.
That's it for now.
A Hui Hou,
Jerry |
01-27-09
This is a short one, but there are still a number of exciting things to report...
- 91.9 is back up. The rainy weather continues to haunt us, but I've had discussions with Dean & Don about getting up to Kahili near the end of this week if at all possible. I'll let you know.
- The first-ever Fund Fest is shaping up quite nicely. We have printed posters and Ken has been placing them around the island. In addition, we have been running promos, and we now also have our first sponsor! Mahalo to KIUC for signing up to help support the event! Also, a press release is going out to The Garden Island and to Kauai People first thing tomorrow. The momentum is building and we expect to draw between 500 - 1,000 attendees. Jack, Lyn, Ken, and I have been very busy with the planning and we need everyone's help to make it successful. Please contact Jack to sign-up to help. And watch for more details within the next few days.
- We have implemented a new script to introduce our Underwriter Messages - Rather than saying "This program is brought to you in part by (underwriter name)", we wanted to emphasize our listeners and the concept of partnerships more. So... we now say "Presentation of (program name) is made possible by listeners like you, in partnership with (underwriter name)" We hope you like the change. The idea is to recognize the value of our listeners in addition to the underwriters.
- Matching Donations - A couple of our KKCR Members have submitted the necessary paperwork to their companies to match donations that they made to KKCR. This includes Home Depot and Johnson & Johnson. I'm sure there are many other companies out there who will provide matching donations to non-profits as well. Please check with your company... maybe you can double any amounts you donate to KKCR!
Regards,
Jerry |
01-21-09
PROGRAMMERS - Want to create or update your KKCR Web Page? Our own Laura Christine will do this for you for no charge! That's right, no charge! Simply email her with any text and photos you'd like on your page. She will handle the rest. I encourage everyone who has a show on KKCR to have their own personalized web page. Let your listeners know who you are! Mahalo, Laura!
First Ever KKCR Fund Fest - Jack will be contacting all volunteers to help with this great one-of-a-kind (until we do the next one) event! Please lend your support to help keep us on the air! For more info, visit the KKCR Fund Fest Web Link!
The Mount Kahili 91.9 Transmitter is down again - The transmitter weathered the really big winds and rains last week but, for some reason, decided to go down again during the light rains of two nights ago (1/19). We were off the air throughout yesterday and continuing into today. Don Mussell is off-island, but I'm hoping we can schedule a trip to the mountain sometime during the next week, if the rain will just hold off for a few more days.
Auntie Maria has volunteered to update the "Events" calendar on the KKCR website. Yay! It will be wonderful having this regularly updated once again. (This is in addition to her recording the broadcast Community Calendar every few days.) Mahalo, Auntie Maria! Please note that if anyone wants to submit an event, we should direct them to the online form on our events page. Simply click the link that says "Click Here to Submit Your Event". This form is arranged so that we can quickly copy and paste the submitted information into the Events Page. This saves us valueable time versus trying to gleen info from email submissions.
Cousin Rich and Steve are presenting a special show on Martin Luther King today (Wednesday) in the 5 - 5:30 PM time slot. Thanks, Rich & Steve for continuing to bring our listeners interesting information on various holidays!
A friend of Tracey Schavone has stepped forward to help write a Grant Proposal for matching funds for the new transmitter and microwave uplink. The deadline is February 2. Hopefully, between this proposal and the one we already submitted to Bank of Hawaii last week, one will come through so we can get on with this project.
That's all for this edition!
Aloha,
Jerry |
01-16-09
Since everyone just received a lengthy email from me earlier today regarding the First Ever KKCR Fund Fest, I will keep this one fairly short.
Bank of Hawaii Charitable Foundation Grant - Thanks to writing help from Maren Orion, we have applied for a 2 year grant ($24K/year) through the BOH to match the funds we were already granted by the PTFP for our replacement transmitter on Kahili and our new uplink to the transmitter. The deadline was January 15 and they take approximately 90 days to review. If this is approved, we will be able to start our upgrade by Summer. If not, then we still need to find the matching funds. This leads me to...
Hawaii Community Foundation Grant - We have already had some past success with the HCF and they know us, so we will be applying again. It turns out they will grant up to $40K/year for 3 years to cover a wide variety of things including... "Technology upgrades"! This is due on February 2nd, so I have to get moving on it.
Membership Analysis - Lyn has been working hard on updating MemSys from the last Membership Drive and is starting to get some really interesting info from it. For example, it can tell us donation amounts, number of pledges, etc. by Zip Code. Kilauea has the most number of pledges, followed by Kapa'a, and then by the Mainland! Next (in descending order) is Hanalei, Princeville, Kalaheo, Lihue, Koloa, and Anahola. It is painfully obvious that the South and West sides are missing, so we definitely need to work on increasing our support of these neighborhoods in order to increase membership correspondingly.
Volunteer Services & Training - Jack has also been very busy: helping Programmers learn how to record their own shows if desired using the CD Burner, working with some new volunteers, updating the email/phone list, helping Tina sort through left-over Premiums that can be used in the silent auction at the KKCR Fund Fest. And, maybe most importantly, he has updated the "Emergency Protocol" sheet that tells who to call and what to do in emergencies. This is posted on the glass window in the studio by the console. Please, everyone, familiarize yourself with this and ask questions if anything is unclear. Jack is also in process of updating the volunteer handbook and training programs. More info on these will be available soon.
New Underwriters - In addition to keeping good relations with all our music sources and bringing in new CDs, Ken has been calling on and getting several new Underwriters signed up! He has also been putting a lot of effort (as has the rest of us) in planning the Fund Fest. Thanks to Ken, we will have a really GREAT line-up of musical entertainment all afternoon at the Fund Fest, including Kauai's own Bill Kreutzman and quite a number of our own volunteers. Thanks to everyone who has stepped forward to help the cause so far!
New Program - Well, it's not really "new", but it does help fill one of our early morning spots. Starting next Tuesday morning, Steve Yoder and Sandy Brodie will host "Your Morning Paper" from 6:30 - 7:00AM. Thanks Steve and Sandy for bringing our listeners more news!
KCC Partnership - Lyn & I had a great meeting with the folks at the Hawaiian Studies program at KCC on Thursday. It looks like they might very well take the Wednesday, 5 - 6PM time slot, doing a remote broadcast similar to Ka Leo Ni'ihau that we've successfully been broadcasting from the Westside. If you look at the demographic/geographic info out of MemSys, these two programs could help bring a lot of new KKCR members & listeners. If all goes smoothly, we will probably meet again soon with the new Chancellor and launch the program within a few weeks. Stay tuned for details.
Hmmmmm..... I guess this one wasn't as short as I thought it would be. Oh well.
That's it for now. It's Friday night and I'm goin' to go kick-back!
Aloha,
Jerry |
01-09-09
Here's the Gee-Whiz Report for Friday, January 9, 2009. It's another fairly long one, but there's lots of good stuff here:
Great Mele O Kauai show last week! As most of you already know, Nathan Kalama of the Malie Foundation organized an island-wide cooperative effort between multiple stations to simultaneously play the songs of Kauai for 2 hours, 8 - 10AM last Friday, January 2. In researching the library, Auntie Maria found there are actually over 7 hours of songs about Kauai! So... she and Sandy Swift worked together to expand the time slot on KKCR and provide a full 4 hours of programming on this theme. Another highlight - during the show, Nathan called in and talked about "The Year of Hawaiian Music." By the way, as part of the PR, Nathan ran a big ad in the January 1 issue of The Garden Island newspaper and the KKCR logo was prominently displayed. (In fact, we were the only one of the radio stations to have our logo displayed!)
Good News/Bad News category: Good News - Mt. Kahili is still up and running despite the continued rain. More good news - Don Mussell tells me the new waterproof housing for the transmitter will fit into the back seat of the helicopter, so no need for an expensive sling to get it to the mountain top. Bad news - It's still too wet to fly up and install the housing. I'll keep you all posted on this endeavor.
New Fund Raising Efforts: As you all know, our last membership drive fell short of our goal by $15,000. This means we will have to take some extraordinary steps to make up the difference. Here's what's up...
For the immediate future, we are planning the "KKCR Fund Fest". This needs to be soon enough to help bridge the gap to the next membership drive, yet far enough out that we can effectively plan and promote it. Also, just finding a date that fits between all the other island concerts and nonprofit fund-raisers has become a challenge. We have settled on a date of February 8, pending the location of a suitable venue. I am talking with the folks at Kilohana and it looks like that might be do-able. I will know more in the next couple of days. Anyhow, the idea is to make the Fund Fest an all-afternoon, fun-filled event with something for everyone. It would start at around 12 noon and finish by dark, around 6PM. We would have a continuous line-up of entertainment including Hawaiian artists, Reggae, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Rock, Blues, etc. We would also have several of our Programmers emceeing throughout the event. Basically, it would be like a live version of our daily program line-up. This will give our members a chance to see us in action! We won't officially charge for the event, but we WILL be asking for donations and have a table set-up for people to become KKCR members. In addition, we will have plenty of ways for people to donate their money... silent auction, drawings for various cool give-aways, etc. We plan to make more details available and start actively promoting the event sometime next week.
Secondly, we need to organize and run our next membership drive. While we normally hold these every 6 months, I feel we must hold the next one somewhat earlier than originally anticipated, probably in the March timeframe. That means it's just around the corner! Again, more details will be announced soon. By the way, Lyn has been going through MemSys and the membership pledges from the last drive. Zip Codes from the South and West sides are notably (and understandably) absent. In our next drive, I will be asking everyone to use their personal networks to help encourage those parts of our community to become members. And, regarding members in general... for the long-term, I'd like to set up a program that provides local business discounts and other benefits to "card carrying" members. We will also be sending personalized "thank you" letters to all angel members and maybe even those at the $100 level and above.
In the "visualize it and it will appear" category... For some time now, I have been thinking about calling to introduce myself to Helen Cox, the new Chancellor at KCC and setting a meeting for how we might partner together to establish a remote broadcast facility on the KCC campus. Then, out of the blue, Jimmy Trujillo calls me on Wednesday... "Hey Jerry. I was talking to one of our Hawaiian Studies instructors (Josh Fukino) today and he was asking about radio and how to set-up a radio station. I said, well it can be pretty expensive and complicated to do it on your own. How about partnering with KKCR? I'll call Jerry and see if we're interested..." Based upon that short interchange and Jimmy's subsequent call to me, the result is that Jimmy and Josh will be setting up a meeting with the Chancellor and we will start the dialog on how to partner. By the way, Lyn will also accompany me to this meeting. For those of you who don't already know, Lyn has an extensive background in technology, education, and successful grant writing, and will bring a lot to the table in getting this going. Please stay tuned for updates.
The Next Kekahu Foundation Board Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14, 7PM at the Lihue Public Library. In addition to various other topics, the Strategic Plan is being presented for Board approval. As always, the meeting is open to the public.
Open & Available Programming Slots: Last, but not least, there is a weekly timeslot available on Wednesdays from 5 - 6PM and we'd like to fill it with public affairs or news programming. (Currently, it is open for "special" programs 5 - 5:30 and we run Free Speech Radio News 5:30 - 6PM. However, we would make the entire hour available and eliminate FSRN as we have already done on Mondays and Fridays.) If you have an idea for a program and are interested in filling this hour every week, please send me a short written proposal.
Also, we
have (4) 1 hour slots available between 12noon - 1PM throughout the year on the "5th Monday" of various months: March 30, June 29, August 31, and November 30. If you have ideas for a 1 hour special (or specials), please submit your proposal to me.
All program proposals must include your name, names of other co-hosts, name of program, goals of program, intended audience, and short synopsis. Typically, 1 page is sufficient.
That's it for now!
Aloha,
Jerry |
12-30-08
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
1) 91.9 remains up - So far, so good. Even with the continuing rain, our main transmitter remains on the air. Don Mussell is currently off-island, returning at the end of the week. He has checked in with the helicopter company and they are taking measurements to see if the new waterproof housing will fit in the back seat. If not, then we will have to carry it up to the mountain in a sling. Hopefully, that's not the case because it would be more expensive. In any case, we continue to monitor the weather and conditions on the mountain with the hope of getting the new unit installed as soon as possible in the new year.
2) Speaking of the transmitter: Because 91.9 was down during the inaugural show of Ka Leo Ni'ihau, we will be rebroadcasting that show this coming Sunday, January 4 in its usual 3 - 5PM time slot. Since it keeps raining, as a back-up plan in case 91.9 goes down again, we willl postpone the re-broadcast and switch to music from our Hawaiian Archive. Bradah Kelley is putting together a playlist for us that would be appropriate for their main target audience of Ni'ihau and Westside listeners.
3) The next Kekahu Board Meeting will be January 14, 7PM at the Lihue Public Library. The Strategic Planning Committee will be presenting their results of the past several months meetings to the Board at that meeting. It is open to the public and all interested parties are invited to attend.
4) Jack and Lyn will be starting their new part time roles beginning Monday, January 5. For reference, Office Hours for each staff member are posted on the office door. In addition to regular office hours, Jack will also have 2 "floating" hours to spend with volunteers as needed during mornings, nights, weekends.
5) I (Jerry) will be appearing today (Tuesday, 12/30, 4 - 5:30PM)) on Karlos' Kauai Soapbox show in a segment we're calling "Ask the Station Manager". Sorry for the late notice on this session, but if you get this message in time, feel free to listen and call.
That's it for this round.
A Hui Hou,
Jerry
|
12-24-08
Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Hanukaha me ka Hau'oli Kawanaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!
(I hope I said all that correctly!)
Anyway... From me and the staff at KKCR - whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice or any other holiday that you observe - may it be Happy and Joyous! Also, here's wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!
Here is a short update on "the happenings" at KKCR:
1) 91.9 is back up again! It came back on last Saturday, Don Mussell came to the station and brought the power up to about 800 Watts, and it's been running ever since - I've been holding my breath! So far, so good. We were especially happy that the West side could hear Ka Leo Ni'ihau on Sunday in the 3 - 5PM time slot. Hopefully, the transmitter stays up and the weather continues to improve so we (actually probably Don & Dean) can go up on the mountain and install the new waterproof metal cabilnet for the transmitter equipment.
2) 2009, "The Year of Hawaiian Music" - Nathan Kalama (Malie Foundation / Mokihana Festival), Carol Yotsuda (Garden Island Arts Council), KKCR, and the Kauai Music Festival have teamed up to promote 2009 as "The Year of Hawaiian Music". This is actually Nathan's theme for his organization, and Carol and I are supporting him with this theme.
As part of this partnership, a number of radio stations including KKCR have agreed to broadcast special 2-hour segments as follows:
KKCR, KONG, KUAI, KSRF and KESU have all agreed to participate in the promotion of Hawaiian music on the following dates:
Jan. 2 8-10am Na Mele o Kaua'i (featuring the Songs of Kaua'i)
July 3 8-10am Na Haku Mele o Kaua'i (featuring the Composers of Kaua'i)
In addition, Nathan will be calling in to Auntie Maria and/or Sandy Swift on these Fridays for a short phone interview about his theme and these special broadcasts.
That's it for now.
Again, Happy Holidays!
Jerry |
12-18-08
1) 91.9 was down, then up, now down again. Apparently, the heavy rain is causing the transmitter to go down occasionally and, when it finally dries out, can be powered up again. This was the 3rd or 4th time in the past 2 months. The good news is that the new water-tight housing is here and Don Mussell has contacted the helicopter folks to see how soon we might be able to get up on the mountain to install it. This is probably a 2-trip job. First, install the housing. Then, move all the equipment into the housing. We hope to get this done within the next couple weeks, but is heavily dependent upon the weather. We really need a few days of dry weather, trade winds, and a clear outlook before attempting it. When it's done, the only thing that will take us down is a power-outage.
2) The Hawaiian Archive is back up! The hard disk crashed and took all the music with it. However... Mahalo Nui to Auntie Maria for making her digital Hawaiian music library available! We installed the music on a new hard disk, updated the Operating System on the Mac, and installed the latest version of MegaSeg. It works better than ever (no "missing file" error messages)! AND, since the previous archive hadn't had any new music added for about a year, the new one is more current. Also, MegaSeg has been set up to automatically insert Legal IDs at the top of each hour and non-legal (farm fair) IDs on the half hour for the night time stream.
But wait. there's more - another Mahalo to Auntie Maria & Bob for "Santa's present" of a brand new 17 inch monitor for this computer! THANKS, Maria & Bob!
3) The inaugural show of Ka Leo Ni'ihau on Sundays from 3 - 5PM went very smoothly with only a couple minor glitches. (except that 91.9 was down) We will re-broadcast it at a future date. We will also be recording a promo for the show that we will start running soon. I am working with the school to have them record it.
We are using internet technology to stream the audio from the westside to the station. If this continues to work well and prove itself, we hope to adopt the same technology for other remote broadcasting purposes.
4) Results are in for the "What to play on Christmas" survey. Mahalo to everyone who responded - there were 20 of you. As it turns out, it seems we will have live Programmers in the studio throughout the day, so no "automatic streaming music" is required during the day. Here's the schedule:
7AM - 11AM: Auntie Maria (She is sitting in for Kilipaki and will launch Democracy Now at 11)
11AM - noon: Democracy Now!
Noon - 2PM: Thomas will do his Jungle Jukebox show
2PM - 6PM: Lyn will be playing an eclectic selection of wild & interesting Christmas music, covering Dayne's show, "Out of the Box" and "Free Speech Radio News"
6 - 8PM: Jack will be covering "Acoustic Luau" for Mose & Maren
8 - 10PM: I believe 4WORDS will be doing his usual show, but am waiting to hear back.
10PM - 12midnight: Slim will do his "Mystery Train" show.
THANKS to all these Programmers who will be covering Christmas for us!
By the way, even though we don't need to stream music through the day, the results of the survey were as follows:
20 people responded
6 voted for regular hawaiian music (30%)
4 voted for all Christmas music (20%)
9 voted for a mix of Hawaiian and Christmas (45%)
1 voted for "other" (5%)
Hence, between now and Christmas day, we will be streaming a mix of Hawaiian and Hawaiian Christmas music throughout the night.
5) I am in the process of interviewing 4 candidates for the Volunteer Services Director opening and plan to make a decision within a few days.
That's all for now.
Aloha,
Jerry |
12-11-08
****IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ: Princeville Security dropped by the station this morning to tell us that the golf course is completely shut down and that THE GATE WILL BE LOCKED ALL WEEKEND. (It used to be unlocked for a few hours on Saturday mornings.) SO... IF YOU DON"T HAVE A GATE KEY AND NEED ONE, PLEASE SEE KEN on Friday. I will be out of the office on Friday.
1) Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha update: We got the streaming capability set-up at Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha on Tuesday this week and successfully tested the broadcast today! (It streamed perfectly into the console for the hour between 11 - 12.) Yay! As a reminder, the inaugural show will run this Sunday, December 14 from 3 - 5PM. I will be at the station to help Gaby with the hand-off at 3PM, and will stay until Red Brick arrives for his show at 5PM. For reference, there is now an Internet Explorer icon on the desktop of the "streaming computer" labeled Ke Kula Niihau O Kekaha. Please do not remove that icon. That's the one we will click on to start their stream every Sunday. The show is officially called "Ka Leo Ni'ihau".
2) Hawaiian Music Archive: Unfortunately, the Hawaiian Archive computer is down again and it looks like we will have to build a new hard disk database from scratch. I am hoping we can get this done by early next week and be back online by mid-week. In the meantime, your patience is appreciated!
3) We have a few more program changes to announce:
- "This Just In" with Ken Janelli is now weekly.
- Robert's "Reggae Foundation" has moved to Thursdays, alternating with "The Melodic Flow" with Dayne.
- We are sad to report that Dustin will be leaving the island, and his show "Counter Currents" will no longer be playing Thursday/Friday midnight to 2AM. We wish Dustin the best of luck in his travels and new endeavors.
4) I have received many responses regarding my question about Christmas & New Years Day shows and streaming music. I'll compile the responses for the next Gee-Whiz Report and let you know the results.
5) Volunteer Services Director Search: A number of people have already stepped forward to apply for the VSD job. I will be contacting everyone who applied and setting up interviews next week.
***PLEASE NOTE A CHANGE IN JOB DESCRIPTION & HOURS: Dove has graciously volunteered to continue helping with the Teen Radio Show on Saturdays. Therefore, I am removing that function from the job description for the VSD and changing the hours to Monday - Friday, Noon to 6PM. (remains at 30 hours, permanent, part-time)
6) New Transmitter Housing: The new aluminum housing for the Kahili Mountain transmitter has arrived! Don Mussell will be picking it up at the freight company in Puhi and we will work out a schedule for installing it soon. Once it's in place, our transmitter will be much happier and much more reliable! I'll keep you posted on progress.
That's it for this edition.
Aloha,
JB |
12-02-08
This is the first in a series of periodic emails I'll be sending out in an attempt to keep all interested parties updated on KKCR related things. I won't promise any set schedule for these, but will be sending them out when enough interesting activities and info accumulates.
First of all, I want to say "Mahalo" to everyone for welcoming me so warmly into the KKCR Ohana. I'm (still) glad to be here and am looking forward to a great 2009! : >)
I've "bulletized" the list to make it quick & easy to read:
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
- Again, thanks to everyone who participated and helped make it a success!
- As you know, our Membership Drive was very strong in spite of the current state of the economy and the unfortunate fact that our transmitter was down on both the 1st & last days of the drive. The fact that we made slightly over $60K in pledges shows the wonderful support we have from the community in spite of hard economic times. This is a tribute to each and every programmer, volunteer, and staff member who has helped make KKCR what it is today.
- We had 75 members opt for the Food Bank donation rather than receive premiums. This means we were able to write a check to the Food Bank to help feed 75 families! We already hand-delivered that check to be sure it could be used in time for the holidays.
- Dove and a team of volunteers and programmers are currently in process (this week) of inputing data into MemSys, creating & mailing out invoices, running credit card payments, and packaging & mailing premiums. Mahalo Nui to Dove, Tina, Paul, Amy, Rich, Steve, Jack, Slim, and Lynn who have already put in time to help. Also, Mahalo Nui to those others who will be coming in to help. (Sorry if I missed anyone.)
GRANTS
There are 2 areas of focus for the grants we seek:
1) Capital Funds: We need to raise matching funds for our recent PTFP Grants ($49K total to match) for the transmitter & microwave link projects. We need this during the first half of 2009 if possible.
2) Operating Funds: We need to find foundations that will provide grants for general operating funds. Due to government cutbacks and the fact that Kauai no longer qualifies as "rural", our CPB funding is roughly half of last year. Also, while the Membership Drive was strong, we really needed $75K rather than the $60K achieved. Given both of these, we need to raise roughly an additional $30K throughout this year through grants and other fund raising events just to stay even with needs.
- Yesterday (Monday, 12/1), we received a $1,000 grant from Bread for the Journey of Kauai. Mahalo to Callagher Stanny who heads up that organization here on Kauai. This grant will be used as seed money towards matching the PTFP grants mentioned above.
- I have applied for a $3,000 grant from Young Brothers for a similar purpose and am waiting to hear back.
- I am also researching other possibilities, including the A&B Foundation, United Way, Band of Hawaii, and others.
NEW SHOWS
- We will be launching a new "radio magazine" style community affairs program, originating remotely from the Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha charter school out on the west side. This show will be a mixed format (talk, call-in, music, news) in dual languages (English & Hawaiian) starting on Sunday, 12/14 in the 3 - 5PM slot. Lynn McNutt has graciously offered up this time slot and, to continue to provide for her World Music audience, will be playing more World Music in her 10PM slot. One of our main goals for this new program is to reach out to the Westside audience as well as to reach Ni'ihau. (We have confirmed through the school that our signal does indeed reach Ni'ihau!)
- We are also launching "Mixed Plate Monday", a new community affairs talk show in the 5 - 6PM slot each Monday. This program will start on Monday, December 8 and will rotate between 4 topics: Community; Hawaiian Sovereignty; Environmental Awareness and Action; and Youth of Today. Please contact Jimmy Trujillo if you have interest in helping (engineering, hosting, organizing, etc.)
- Beginning Wednesday, December 3, the new Himeni O Hawaii ("Hymns of Hawaii") show with Andrew & Loui Cabibe will air weekly. Welcome to a full time show, Andrew & Loui!
- In other news... Linda Lester's Mele No Ka 'Oi show is now on Monday & Tuesday, and Auntie Maria's Aloha Kauai show is on Thursdays & Fridays.
- We have a potential open slot on Wednesdays, 5 - 6PM for another public affairs program. Submit proposals to Jerry.
- We'd like to revive the news programming. I haven't had a chance to put any thought into this yet, but if you're interested, please let me know. Maybe a volunteer can take the lead on organizing it? We have some nice new equipment in the small production room adjacent to the lunch room for this very purpose and Don Mussell will be getting it set up soon.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
- In other "community outreach" news, we are teaming up with Nathan Kalama (Mokihana Festival), Carol Yotsuda (Garden Island Arts Council), the Kauai Music Festival, and the Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha school to celebrate 2009 as the "Year of Hawaiian Music". Each of those organizations, including KKCR, will be involved in this effort. Please stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
MISCELLANEOUS
- The Hawaiian Music archive is down... it's being repaired (1 disk drive crashed entirely & the backup is intermittent - We are loading up a new replacement drive now) Until fixed, we are using the 6-Pack loaded with Hawaiian Music CDs, set to random & repeat to get us through each night.
- Mose & Maren are helping research feasibility of New Year's Eve Party / fund-raiser at Kilohana. More info will be distributed as soon as it becomes available.
- As most of you know by now, Dove will be leaving his official staff role at the station as of 12/15. We are sad to see him go. However, he will still be around as a volunteer, so we will continue to see his smiling happy face around the station. Yes, I will be looking to replace him and I am currently revising the Job Description to reflect current needs. It will be more focused on Volunteer Coordination & Recruitment rather than on technical operations. I will be advertising and posting that opening soon.
- A new rugged aluminum housing for the Kahili transmitter has been ordered and is en route, to arrive mid December. When it comes, Don Mussell & team will go to Kahili to install & swap amps... this should provide much more reliability. (Recall, the transmitter was down during the first & last days of the membership drive when it was particularly rainy on the mountain.)
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
I am looking for volunteers who can help in the following ways:
- I need help researching appropriate grants and then with writing the actual grant proposals. This is a critical need. Please see me directly.
- Jimmy Trujillo is still looking for engineers, hosts, organizers, etc for the new Mixed Plate Mondays show. Please contact Jimmy or leave a note in his mailbox.
That's it for now. Seems like I've been typing for a looonnnnngggg time.
Aloha,
JB |
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