Mysterious Sounds of Maui in Tennessee

A couple of days ago I was listening to the radio in my car on 90.3 FM. I meant to hit the seek button and just see what was out there to listen to, but I hit the tune button instead and it skipped up to 90.7. It was a somewhat staticy Hawaiian tune playing, so I let it finish. Then there was another one. I figured, at that end of the dial, it was probably a special show on a college station. I tried to tune it in better. I went up and down the dial and that was it. 90.7 was as good as it got, which wasn’t good. It faded in and out as I drove. The announcer came on and he started telling the community calendar events. They were all Hawaiian. I don’t mean things grand that a national show might mention. I mean local stuff like the Wailuku Rotary Club meeting. I got home and came in the house and turned on the stereo to listen some more with a bigger antenna. I could not get the station at all.

Yesterday as I was coming home from work, I remembered the radio station again and tuned it to 90.7. There it was again. I heard the noon news update. Then I heard the station announcement at last. It was 91.5 FM Mana’o Radio in Maui. Mana’o Radio.

I know that AM radio bounces off the atmosphere at night and can travel all over. I didn’t know FM did that. But, my best guess is that we here in North Knoxville Tennessee are at just the right angle for Mana Radio in Maui to deflect off the ionosphere and come down just slightly off the original frequency. Mana’o from heaven.

Maybe I have been receiving this signal in my fillings for years and that’s why I built the Hapa Haole Hideaway…

UPDATE: I just had to call them (had to because there is no email address on the site.) and indeed I got the DJ, JJ, that I am listening to. I told him my story. What he told me makes this even more remarkable. He says their signal only goes about 25 miles there in Maui!