 Aloha and welcome to this show. This is the state of the state of Hawaii on the Think Tech Hawaii live streaming network series Think Tech Hawaii broadcasts from our studio at 1164 Bishop Street at the core of downtown Honolulu I'm your host Stephanie Stoll Dalton and today our guest is Jose Fajardo who is president and general manager of Hawaii Public Radio referred to as HPR He is speaking remotely on Think Tech Hawaii from his HPR Caheca Street offices in Honolulu Thank you Jose Fajardo for joining us today for this interview conversation I'm happy to be here Stephanie, thank you for having me Great, thank you. Mr. Fajardo if I can call you Jose Of course yes please I just wanted to say that I would ask you for that informality but I might refer to you with the whole name and out of respect at some point But I know you came to the role in the Hawaii Public Radio or HPR in 2016 And you came from experience as a Florida based radio executive and where you had decades of work accomplished in the public media sector there And previously you served as the CEO of Central Florida's Public Broadcasting Stations And also served on the National Public Radio that's NPR and on the National Public Radio Board of Directors twice As a native of Puerto Rico you also bring familiarity with island life and the ways that applies to or can enrich the work of HPR here in Hawaii If you recall Jose in 2016 you presented after you were here not for very long to the Newcomers Club of Hawaii And that audience including me appreciated that you were a Newcomer like them I'm sure you don't feel much like a Newcomer now but not so new now Right not so new now it's been almost four years since my arrival here in Hawaii And you're right having some island experience having grown up in Puerto Rico Gave me a little bit of an advantage coming to Hawaii because I didn't have the fear of rock fever that a lot of people have For me it was natural to be on an island like is Hawaii But now it's been four years and why it still feels new and I'm still learning a lot about Hawaii and the culture here And how to do business in Hawaii it does feel like home and when I travel I always look forward to returning back home here in Hawaii Well I know that you described many but some of the challenges for broadcasting in Hawaii So you talked about the geography of the mountains and the ocean And I know that that's a capital issue you have to be able to provide that connection that way And I think you are the one that has provided it once you got here I don't think we were broadcasting as widely which you can comment on But the urban and rural sectors across the islands also include consideration from maybe very disparate points of view And also for reporting to fully reflect the diversity of the audience that's in this state So I wanted to ask you to share then as you've already started to do about your initial experience coming to the state to HPR And in maybe one of the most public roles as you look back on it and as you've thought about it or as you feel accomplished about it How did you find your way into the role that you deliver now? What has happened to you along the way I think is the question Yeah so I think as I mentioned at the newcomers club I fell in love with radio when I was very young around 8 years old 9 years old I started listening to radio in Puerto Rico and I just knew I had an affinity for being in broadcasting I knew I wanted to be in radio and when I was 12 I actually made the decision that I wanted to get into broadcasting So everything I did through high school and college was oriented to get into broadcasting I got into commercial radio right out of college and I did commercial radio at a country radio station for about 3 years And I did some behind the scenes work at the local public radio and TV station in Colleen, Texas And I eventually was hired as a TV producer director for the public TV station And then got promoted and became the program director for the public radio station became the station manager And then at the right age of 29 became the general manager of the public radio and TV station in Colleen And then I was recruited for a job in Orlando, Florida to run the radio station at the time in Orlando Which I did that in 1996 and over the years was promoted and became eventually the CEO president of the joint licensee of Orlando Which was a public TV and a public radio station did that for 17 years And then during the recession back in 2006 we decided to sell the public TV station to the local university And once that deal was accomplished I decided to retire from public broadcasting for a while I was a little burnt out from the process and when I ran the Chamber of Commerce in Orlando, Florida for 3 years And it was during that time that I received a call from the headhunter to apply for this job at HPR And the more, you know, Hawaii was actually not on my radar at all in terms of a career or a place to live And the more I learned about Hawaii public radio the more interested I got in the opportunity to take a station that was doing really, really good And taking it to a lot, you know, to a better, greater place So I came for the interview, was hired the job, took the job, came here And at the time actually Stephanie, the station already had a number of transmitters around the state of Hawaii And one of my tasks when I first arrived was to complete the statewide network So we added our transmitter in Hilo to allow us to add HPR1 and HPR2 to the east side of the big island And then just recently we acquired a new transmitter licensed to Molokai, located on Lanai And the purpose really is to serve West Maui and the island of Molokai and Lanai So we just turned that transmitter on about three or four weeks ago And so that brings us up to right now we're out of 18 transmitters, repeaters and boosters located around the state of Hawaii So we're almost, I would say we're 99.5% coverage of all the areas of population in Hawaii That's an accomplishment, that's a major investment too, isn't it? But it is a priority over these three years Yeah, it's one of our biggest expenditures in Orlando In Orlando we covered an area greater than the population of Hawaii with one transmitter and one antenna, one tower And here in Hawaii because of the mountains and the terrain, the oceans, we have to build this infrastructure of towers And all those towers, transmitters require power, electricity, maintenance So it's a big investment And then we also have backup generators because for example, a couple of weeks ago in Haldakala we had an ice storm Which knocked us off the air in our service to Maui And we had to put fuel into the generator to make sure that we maintain our statewide network So it's difficult, it's a fragile system, it's expensive, but that is why we raise the money from our local community Well, do you have any role in the emergency broadcasting system that you can share? Maybe it's a big secret, but what happens in under attack and that sort of thing to coordinate with the military and like that? Yeah, it's not a big secret, I mean we are part of the backbone of the civil defense and emergency system in the state of Hawaii We're not the primary station, that falls under the privilege of KSSK We have a system in our studio that if there is a national emergency or statewide emergency we are notified by the government We have a system in place that allows us to go on the air immediately and to transmit important information to our citizens And that's an important role that we play as public service to our community Well it sounds critical going forward especially and for some past events too But I wanted to say that you are claimed for spearheading modern programming And so I wanted to ask you what is an example of that kind of program and is it something you've done since you've come here to Hawaii and what difference did it make? Well, so a couple things, when I first came to Hawaii and HPR we did have two streams of programming but each stream was programed with what I call quilt patch programming So if you were a news listener you would start on HPR1 and then it would have to switch to HPR2 for midday news programming and come back to HPR1 for all things considered And I thought that was kind of not really good in terms of customer service but we should make it easy for our listeners to find their content So within a year of my arrival we initiated a program realignment of the stations and we moved all the news content to HPR1 And then made HPR2 an all classical music station And so what that's done is allowed us to make it easier for our listeners to find their content which has increased our audience size for HPR And it's also increased our membership contributions and our program underwriters And then we looked at our local news, right? So when we can make an impact and be relevant in our community is with local content So we made improvements to the conversation, we have a new host with Catherine Cruz We've invested additional dollars in more reporters so we have I think the largest radio news team in Hawaii And we make sure that our reporters are traveling to our neighbor islands So Casey Harlow for example was in Hawaii recently to cover the arrest of the councilman We have set reporters to Maui and the Big Island when news breaks there And so we have really improved I think our local news coverage That's where I think we can make an impact with our investments Well how do you judge success in your program? And thank you for removing the patchwork quilt and sorting some of that out I think we all appreciate that those of us who've been here for a while But how do you judge the success of your programs? What are your means of assessing your evaluations? Yeah, there's a couple metrics that we use in public radio We do look at audience metrics so we do get two rating periods twice a year once in the fall, once in the spring So we can see our audience is listening to HPR One of the metrics that we use is membership Are people paying for the value of public radio, HPR And where are people making those contributions when we have our fund drives And in both those metrics our audience has increased, our listening has increased And our contributions has increased We also do since my arrival we have done an annual membership survey Which we sent to our entire membership database to get feedback directly from our members And in those surveys we ask our members, is HPR, do you trust us? Do you value our content? And in all those metrics we're scoring above the average And then we also have a strategic plan that our board has approved And so we measure a lot of things to that strategic plan And then when I'm out in the community, it's not science But when I'm out in the community talking to people I hear what they have to say. We have a community advisory board that also gives us feedback as representatives of the listeners And we take all that into account to measure the success of HPR Well I noticed in the annual report for last year that you've had about almost 50 broadcasts of HPR programs on NPR So I wondered if that was a signal of a level of success that's important to this valuing of the work here Is it? Yeah it is. I mean I think what it is is a symbol of success of how serious NPR takes the coverage that we provided here at Hawaii Public Radio It shows that we have a level of professionalism that is accessible, acceptable by NPR So that some of our reporters, their stories end up not just on HPR But also end up on the national magazines and wanting additional things considered in marketplace So we've had a lot of reporters pitch their stories to NPR and they've been accepted And that just shows the level of the great work that we're doing locally is being acknowledged on the national level as well When you say pitch, that means that when they're preparing and when they're reporting or broadcasting That they're thinking of the standards of the national public radio as well as what And I know they overlap and are the same, but they have that notion in mind, the more national audience Because so much of the work that you did have broadcasts from there was very important beyond Hawaii Even though it was based in Hawaii, I mean like the research on the coral bleak chain and some of the topics that were majorly Yeah, it happens. It happens two ways. One, a reporter might have an idea that germinates here in Hawaii That thinks that it could be of a national interest and they will reach out to the NPR editors and pitch the story for national use And then sometimes what happens is NPR will call us and say, hey, this is happening in Hawaii or it's happening in the Pacific And we want your reporters to report on it on behalf, you know, for the audience of national public radio And this happened both ways for our reporters Well, that is very interesting. I think that that that is a standard that that's important and it helps Hawaii get the prominence It should have for work that goes on here that may only be known to the professionals who are associated with it I know that in your goals for next for this year where they are now 2020 That you're going to invest more in the community. So what does that mean that you're going to invest more in the community? I mean, is this like the role of the community advisory board or is this activities in the community or how is how do you work on that as a balance in your broadcasting? Well, I think what we mean to say is that we want to engage more in the community. So we have six broad goals and I have the copy of the strategic plan here with me But one of our you know, one of the goals is to make sure that we have Programming that our listeners want to listen to and that it's valuable in their lives We want to bring the community together to have conversations. So we not only want to be a station that talks to you through the radio with content information But we want to engage in the community so that the community is part of this conversation and the way we do that is through We have a daily show called the conversation In fact, I'm in the studio right now of the conversation. It's a daily Monday through Friday one hour program where we talk about local issues And oftentimes we'll open up the telephone lines and ask our listeners to call in with questions and they do and we've got the governor sitting right in this very room And senators and members of our legislature to take questions on the hot seat from our listeners throughout the state of Hawaii And then we also want to you know elevate our community and we do that by being active participants in our community And that's you know, that's not just with news but also with our organization. So we partner with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. We partner with the opera to elevate their programming Because when when they do better our community does better and we also make sure I'm Stephanie that we're doing this not just in the walkthrough You know throughout our entire neighbor island. So this past weekend I was in Maui meeting with donors and members and Maui the week before that I was in Hilo and we tried to do events throughout the islands of Hawaii. So we're not just a walkthrough center Which sometimes tend to be but really are intentional with being on our paper islands. We had an event with a show that we used to do called Aloha Shorts Which was a storytelling radio program and we took it to all the neighbor islands. So we had a sold out show in Waimea on the big island and sold out show Maui two sold out shows here in Oahu and a sold out show in Hawaii Yeah, it's a break even proposition but for us it's about being there and being engaged with our community So that's how we invest in our communities by being present and by elevating the conversation of what's important to the world That is an enormous effort and also a range very broad range of outreach and the scope of all of those topics And now I want to bring up another one that you mentioned is one of your goals too that has to do with the elections You're committed if I can use that word committed you said you would cover a lot of the national as much as possible We're out here far away and depend on that of course and then also the local elections So how is all of that going to work for you? Yeah, so nationally of course we rely on NPR to help us with the national coverage and we have preempted some of our open programs to bring natural stories We have a national call in show that's taking place after all the primaries so tomorrow during Super Tuesday we'll have a live show nationally But locally yeah you're right Stephanie so we know that a lot of our listeners tune into Hawaii public radio for the national news But what makes us relevant is our local coverage and we are committed to our local elections and the mayor's race is an important race here for our state of Hawaii And for those people living here on Oahu Yeah I was going to ask you more about the details of your coverage for the mayor's race That's the third executive high executive we have so what are you thinking about doing for that I think but there's six or seven candidates at this point Yeah so we'll probably be interviewing each candidate profiling each candidate on the conversation and during our local segments during morning edition all things considered We are trying to develop and maybe make plans for a debate but it's hard to get eight people seven people in one room at the same time And we may look at partnering with another media to do that but certainly we'll be profiling all the candidates and then on election day Election night will be during results and then we'll be doing commentary about you know the impact of those elections So what we do well is we don't do the headlines I mean that's what commercial stations do they do the headlines What we do is we go one level further till back the onion to have deeper conversations of what does this mean now to our community What does this mean for the future of Hawaii so besides the headline we're going to have a deeper dive into those conversations Well I think that is very interesting when we'll be looking to appreciate that and learn from it So I lodged you for setting up these goals to keep us informed and to give us those insights that people can have who focus on these topics and do the reporting You know I wanted to change over a little bit too I wanted to change topics too that you have attained fiscal stability from all that I'm reading about it Which is really quite good news you've already said that 95% of your funding comes from the community which is a very high bar And can you tell us a little bit about how you manage that what's the magic I love sharing good news about our fundraising so a chair that I worked with at National Public Radio once told me No margin no mission no mission no margin and that's a great way to approach I think public radio we have to raise money to do what we do so well And we've been very successful here at HPR we have a budget of about $6.4 million it's been a surplus budget for the last several years 95% of that money is raised locally through membership campaigns members who are sustainers of HPR we have almost 15,000 members of HPR and 54% of those are sustainers And that's a fairly new concept isn't it the sustainer support Right so and that's where our members give on a monthly basis instead of just once a year And what that has allowed us to do Stephanie is by increasing the number of sustainers we have become less dependent on on-air fund drive So on the upcoming spring fund drive instead of a 10-day membership campaign we're only going to have an 8-day membership campaign with no fundraising at night time And our goal where about three years ago our goal used to be about $900,000 it's going to be just under $800,000 And so we're very successful in that area but we also have been successful with local businesses who want to support a white public radio so that's grown We're now at about $1.7 million raised in businesses who support a white public radio And with that surplus that we've been generating every year, we've been able to grow our rainy day fund So we have about $2.7 million in a unrestricted account that we can go to if a transmitter blows up Exactly We have reserve money, it's almost six months of operating money if there's a disaster we can operate for six more months without any issue We also have an endowment Oh an endowment too We have an endowment of almost $6 million that we've been able to raise over the last couple of years And so we're a non-profit that's raising money not just to stay on the air and to pay our bills and to make cash and make payroll We're a non-profit that's raising money to grow the organization and that's really a thrilling place to be Well that is very good news and clearly described as to how it is all working now And those are some strategies that you've brought here and implemented, especially the Sustainer Ember I know that that's a national one too It was a national strategy but one that wasn't one that HPR had embraced fully yet And so we really embraced that, we also embraced the philosophy of really using our on-air fund raising time to recruit new members And so our emphasis during the fund drives is to add more new members to the station and that's where we've had a lot of success Well that is encouraging for the engagement and your commitment to the local community and also to fiscal stability which is the key to happiness I'm sure, I wanted to talk to you just a little bit about the reporting and the broadcasting, mostly the reporting I know you're committed to reporting that reflects the diversity of our listeners here And I wanted to ask how you think about that, maybe you could tell us a little bit about how you ensure that the viewpoints are respected and applied Yeah, so first of all I think our approach is that we're not Hawaiian public radio, we are Hawaii public radio So we don't pretend to be Hawaiian, but we are certainly of Hawaii and for Hawaii I think if you looked at pictures of our news team, even our entire staff, you would find that Hawaii public radio is probably one of the most diverse radio stations in the country We have a very diverse group of reporters, both representing the Hawaii culture We have a Hawaiian native speaking reporter and we have a couple of folks that are born and raised in Hawaii that are part of our news team Sandy Oshiro, who used to work for the local newspaper, went to California for a while, is back now as our editor Catherine Cruz, who's from Guam, but grew up here in Hawaii, a couple of our producers are from Hawaii So we're very sensitive to that, we have a position that's open in our local news team We try to hire a local, one that's easier because it's easier for some people to live here That's going to make the difference, and Jose, I appreciate all of that insight into what your operations are all about and we're out of time So we'll have to wrap it up, so we can do it again sometime as things go on here I'm Stephanie Stoldalton, this is the state of Hawaii on the ThinkTech Live Streaming Network series We've been talking remotely with Jose Fajardo about his leadership and achievements at Hawaii public radio I'll see you again in two weeks on the next state of the state of Hawaii. Mahalo for your attention everyone