KORL-FM (101.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to Waianae, Hawaii, and serving the Honolulu metropolitan area. The station broadcasts a classic rock radio format, concentrating on classic hits of the late 1960s through the early 1990s. It is owned by Hochman Hawaii-Three, Inc.. It also transmits on Oceanic Spectrum digital channel 883 for the entire state of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Its

radio studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for recording and mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enough to record a single sin ...

s are located in

Downtown Honolulu Downtown Honolulu is the current historic, economic, and governmental center of Honolulu, the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. It is bounded by Nuuanu Stream to the west, Ward Avenue to the east, Vineyard Boulevard to the n ...

. KORL-FM's

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is off Palehua Road in

Kapolei, Hawaii Kapolei () is a New town, planned community in the Honolulu County, Hawaii, City and County of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, United States, on the island of Oahu, Oʻahu. In 1977, the government designated it as the "second city" of Oʻahu, in relation ...

. It broadcasts using

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

technology. KORL-FM has three

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

s feeding three

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

s with different programming:

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

on HD2 and 101.5 MHz,

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...

on HD3 and 107.5 MHz, 1990s' and 2000s' hits on HD4 and 97.1 MHz.

History

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

in 1989 adopting an adult classic rock music format with the

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a Identifier, unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be fo ...

KLHI. By 1996, the format changed to a

modern adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

music, later evolving to a

modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college and commercial rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. ...

sound. In 2005 The

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) gave the station the green light to move the transmitter and its city of license to

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

. After the change was made, KLHI adopted the new

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

KORL-FM and dropped the

music format, moving it to a new frequency of 92.5 FM and serving the Maui area. At first after KORL-FM's move-in in 2006, the station originally played multi-cultural programming during the day and

at night and 24 hours on the weekends. But on June 9, 2008, KORL-FM dropped all of its daytime multi-cultural programming and went with smooth jazz full-time. On December 12, 2011, KORL-FM became the first station in the United States to have 4 HD subchannels. One duplicated the analog signal and the other three fed three different analog translators. The main channel flipped formats to

adult top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Syste ...

and moved the smooth jazz format to its HD2 subchannel and FM translator K268BE at 101.5 FM. The HD3 channel was launched with a Korean Contemporary -

K-Pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

format, rebroadcasting on FM translator K298BA at 107.5 FM. And the HD4 channel debuted with a Japanese Contemporary -

J-Pop J-pop (often stylized in all caps; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in trad ...

format, rebroadcasting on FM translator K246BR at 97.1 FM (switched from K244EF 96.7 FM. Programming on 101.5/101.1 HD2 soon switched from Broadcast Architecture's Smooth Jazz Network (which was also heard on the chief signal when it was a smooth jazz outlet) to a locally programmed smooth AC mix dubbed "Smooth FM Hawaiian Style". In the spring of 2013, the smooth AC format of 101.1 HD2 and 101.5 changed to

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

, branded as "K-Rock, Honolulu's Real Rock." 101.5 is an affiliate of the syndicated

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

program " Floydian Slip." On July 2, 2015, the J-pop format on 101.1 HD4 changed to

classic hip hop Classic hip hop is a music radio format focusing primarily on hip hop music from the 1980s, 1990s, and the early to mid-2000s. Although stations with such a format date back as far as 2004, the format was first popularized in October 2014, after ...

, branded as "Boom 97.1". However, shortly after, 97.1 had to drop the Boom branding, as Radio One has the exclusive rights to use it with its

stations. After briefly branding as "97dot1", the station later rebranded as "Hot 97dot1". In August 2016, KORL-HD4 flipped to all-1980s' hits as "Retro 97.1.". On January 1, 2017, KORL-HD3 flipped to country music as "Nash Icon 107.5". In March 2021, KORL-HD3 reverted to smooth jazz as "Jazzy 107.5.". On April 11, 2024, KORL-FM silently abandoned its oldies format and flipped to a classic hits format, primarily focusing on music released in the 1970s and 1980s. It rebranded as "KORL 101.1", incorporating the station's call sign. In conjunction with this change, H Hawaii Media also flipped KORL-HD4 from an all-1980s' format to 1990s' to 2000s' hits, still retaining the "Retro 97.1" branding.HHawaii Media April 11, 2024
/ref> A similar change occurred on its Maui sister stations, KQMY and KONI.

KXRG-LP

Prior to KORL-FM's move-in, another radio station broadcast on the same frequency, called "Energy 101.1" ( KXRG-LP). It aired nonstop dance music at around 2pm to 2am from Ala Moana to Pearlridge. Energy 101.1's frequency could not be heard from the windward areas such as

Kaneohe Kāneohe () is a census-designated place (CDP) included in the City and County of Honolulu and in Hawaii state District of Koolaupoko on the island of Oahu. In the Hawaiian language, ''kāne ohe'' means "bamboo man". According to an ancient ...

and Kailua. KXRG later signed off so KORL-FM could occupy the frequency. KXRG looked to move to another frequency. Due to its status as a low-power station and was off the air from 2007 to 2010, when it returned on a new signal, this time at 95.9.

Previous logos

References

External links

* * * * * * {{HHawaii Media ORL-FM Classic hits radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1989 1989 establishments in Hawaii