2011-01-06 TCROWN CASTLE - Laserfiche WebLink

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KAHU radio Station,like Yamada Construction, the time, we started putting this thing together in 2004. And just about 2 ½ years ago we finally got approval from the Federal. The Federal is not into community radio station. They’re more into supporting commercial radio stations. But 2 ½ years ago the Federal said they’ll open up the window nationwide; and they were giving everybody only 30 days. You can’t put an application together in 30 days. But we had our application together two years previous to this window opening. , So I put in the application, and used one of the nation’s top engineersDon Mussell. So we put it together. When the opportunity came, we applied for it. And then there were 5,000 of us nationwide that applied for it, 69 of us in the State of Hawai‘i. Till today, 2 1/2 years later, KAHU is the only one that we got approved by the Federal. The reason why -they have a community radio station on Ka‘uai, one on Ka‘uai, MPR on Oahu, and one on Maui - there’s no community radio station on the Big Island, so the Federal gave it to us. So in the last seven months we’ve been on the air. Everybody on the community radio station is avolunteer. Nobody gets paid. And all our source of income is by grants, donation, and what you call underwriting. It’s similar to advertising. So what I did, we got the radio station up there in Pahala. And we cover from the 32-mile marker, once you pass the, within the National Park, Pahala, and three subdivisions in Na‘alehu, along with Na‘alehu, up to . But we need to extend our services to Ocean View and Miloli‘i, and up to Kainaliu. But the only way we can do it -. We checkedwith the owner of the tower site that Crown Castle is on, Chris Manfredi. He said he can’t do much but he can recommend us to be on this tower with Crown Castle. And my engineer contacted Crown Castle; and we also have a support from another gentleman, Edmund Olson. He’s pretty big in Ka‘u. So he got about four sites in Oahu that he leases out to Crown Castle. Crown Castle is in the business of making money, you know, cause they rent out to Verizon and Hawaiian Tel. You know, community radio station is not in the business of making money. We’re just community service; and we’ve been doing a terrific job for the last seven months. And the Civil Defense, both here on the Big Island, is really helpful and they’re really amazed that we’ve got signal into the Ka‘u area; and they’re working with us. Along with Texeira of State Civil Defense, he’ll love us on the South Point area. But we need to get on that tower. So what we’re trying to do is, I’m not putting pressure on Crown Castle but we have to do something, cause we wrote letters and talked story with Eric back there, my engineer. So, you know, we really can’t afford to pay what Verizon and these other guys are paying. So we’re asking Crown Castle, and we’re asking you folks to consider of us once they put the new tower up, if we can get on that tower. What it is, right now our transmitter and our antennae is on a pole in Pahala. So the antenna and the transmitter is going to be moved up there once we get the approval with Crown Castle. Then we’ll have a microwave shooting up to that site. That site is going to be terrific. From that site, right now we’re in the National Park, or just outside the National park. That site is going to take us all the way to Mt. View School. That’s the Hilo side. And that site is also going to give us Ocean View,Miloli‘i, and Kainaliu. So we’re going to have the whole basin for Civil Defense communications and everything. But we support this development for Crown Castle and we wish them well. But we also want to be attached to that tower for a minimum fee or no fee at all. So we support what they’re doing. Thank you. KERN: Okay, any questions? WOODWARD: Thank you. KERN: Commissioner Woodward. 7 EXHIBIT B