LIHU‘E — One Kaua‘i country radio station was knocked off the air in Tuesday’s electrical storm. KUAI 720AM has been off the air since late Tuesday night when “something from the storm” impacted both the power and telephone communication systems,
LIHU‘E — One Kaua‘i country radio station was knocked off the air in Tuesday’s electrical storm.
KUAI 720AM has been off the air since late Tuesday night when “something from the storm” impacted both the power and telephone communication systems, said Ron Middag, chief engineer and operation manager for the KQNG radio group.
Middag said the Kaua‘i Island Utilities Cooperative was able to get a crew to restore power to the antenna and transmission tower.
The tower is located in the Kaua‘i Coffee field in the McBryde/Miller area. Middag said the tower has “always been there since there were sugar cane fields.”
He said Hawaiian Telcom was hoping to reach the tower today but their crews were experiencing a heavier repair load than usual from the storm on the Westside of the island.
“Without either we are dead in the water,” Middag said of the audio and power circuits in the tower.
He said both the power and telephone systems need to be operational before he can assess if there was any damage to KUAI’s equipment at the studio.
“When the power goes down traumatically, we need to get the phone lines operational to diagnose if the other equipment is okay,” Middag said, adding that it’s possible for lightning to travel through wires and down into equipment.
Middag said there is no estimated time as to how long it will be before KUAI is back up on the air.
