Sometimes radio programmers spend months conducting research, building perceptual studies, analyzing music scores and sitting through meetings trying to figure out what listeners think about a station. And sometimes the audience saves everybody a tremendous amount of trouble by essentially saying, “We don’t care what you renamed it. We’re still calling the damn thing KOOL.” That appears to be the wonderfully simple lesson behind one of Mālama Media Group’s first major programming moves in Honolulu, where KKOL-FM has dumped the “Decades 107.9” identity and brought back a name Hawaii listeners apparently never completely let go: Kool 107.9.
That’s right.
KOOL IS BACK.
Not Kool-ish.
Not Kool 2.0.
Not “107.9 The Greatest Super Awesome Variety of Yesterday and Today.”
KOOL. 107.9.
And in an industry that occasionally works extraordinarily hard to solve problems listeners never asked us to solve, there is something refreshingly straightforward about this move.
THE LISTENERS APPARENTLY NEVER GOT THE MEMO
KKOL had operated as Decades 107.9, but the Decades name apparently never completely replaced the station’s previous identity in the minds of some Honolulu listeners.
That’s important.
Because programmers can change a logo overnight.
We can change imaging in an afternoon.
We can rename the stream, repaint the van, order new T-shirts and have somebody screaming the new positioner between records before dinner.
What we cannot instantly change is the brand sitting inside a listener’s head.
And if the audience is still calling your radio station by its old name years after you changed it?
PAY ATTENTION.
That’s not necessarily audience confusion.
That can be brand equity waving its arms at you.
Mālama apparently noticed.
The company’s own station materials aren’t being subtle about the resurrection, either. Mālama now describes Kool 107.9 as the return of an established Hawaii radio brand, with a musical center built around familiar favorites from the ’80s, ’90s and other decades.
Translation:
Somebody finally put KOOL back on the building.
ENTER RICK THOMAS
The timing is especially interesting because the change comes with veteran programmer Rick Thomas recently taking a senior programming leadership role with Mālama.
And this is exactly the kind of move that tells you something about a programmer before you’ve seen six months of ratings.
Thomas isn’t merely changing the name.
The larger assignment is to reimagine what that name means now.
That’s the difference between nostalgia and strategy.
Bringing back Kool simply because people remember Kool would be easy.
Bringing back Kool and building a contemporary, locally relevant radio product around the equity already attached to the name?
That’s programming.
The new station is positioning itself around an upbeat collection of familiar music, while Mālama’s corporate materials put considerable emphasis on local programming, community participation and the idea that its stations should sound and behave like Hawaii stations—not distant products being shipped into Hawaii.
That last part matters.
A lot.
HAWAII IS NOT JUST ANOTHER MARKET ON THE SPREADSHEET
You cannot program Honolulu exactly the way you program Phoenix.
Or Denver.
Or Dallas.
Or Kansas City.
Yes, music research matters everywhere.
Yes, clocks matter.
Yes, rotations matter.
Yes, Nielsen remains Nielsen.
But Hawaii has its own rhythms, culture, community relationships and expectations of local media.
A radio station there needs more than a transmitter located on an island.
It needs to belong there.
Mālama is leaning heavily into precisely that proposition. The company identifies itself as Hawaii-owned and operated and says its strategy is built around serving local businesses, listeners and communities rather than approaching the islands as merely another geographic market.
That’s a powerful starting point for Kool.
Because heritage branding works best when the station doesn’t merely remind listeners of yesterday.
It reminds listeners of home.
AND THIS IS WHY “DECADES” WAS ALWAYS A DIFFERENT KIND OF NAME
“Decades” tells me what you’re doing.
“Kool” tells me who you are.
That’s a significant distinction in radio branding.
Decades is descriptive.
It communicates musical breadth.
Perfectly functional.
But Kool?
Kool can become a personality.
Kool can own events.
Kool can have attitude.
Kool can become shorthand in conversation.
“Put Kool on.”
That’s what programmers dream about.
Nobody wants listeners saying:
“Would you please activate the radio product currently providing a multigenerational selection of familiar popular recordings?”
NO.
You want:
“TURN ON KOOL.”
Four words.
Branding accomplished.
AND THE NEW KOOL IS ALREADY SHOWING SOME PERSONALITY
The station’s new digital presentation offers another clue about where this thing could be headed.
Kool’s website is pushing listener interaction, song requests, station membership through the “Kool Hui,” streaming and its mobile app. It is also teasing a “Vinyl Cut” feature built around spotlighting music on vinyl.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
Because the opportunity here isn’t simply:
PLAY OLD SONGS.
Anybody can play old songs.
Spotify can play old songs.
Apple Music can play old songs.
A flash drive purchased at Walgreens can probably play old songs.
RADIO HAS TO DO SOMETHING WITH THEM.
Tell me why the song matters.
Give me the memory.
Put a local personality between the records.
Take requests.
Show up somewhere.
Introduce me to something I forgot.
Make me feel like I’m listening with Hawaii, not merely listening to an algorithm that happens to know Hall & Oates.
That’s where a station like Kool can separate itself.
THIS IS ALSO A BUSINESS DECISION
Don’t overlook the sales side.
Heritage brands can carry enormous commercial value when listeners already recognize them.
You’re not asking advertisers to learn an entirely foreign product.
You’re reviving something with existing market familiarity and attaching a refreshed strategy to it.
Mālama’s own sales positioning describes Kool as a recognizable local brand capable of connecting advertisers with a loyal audience.
That’s not incidental.
That’s part of the strategy.
Programming people occasionally forget this because we’re busy arguing over whether a song should be playing 14 times or 17 times per week.
THE RADIO STATION HAS TO MAKE MONEY.
A recognizable brand can help.
A loyal audience can help.
Local credibility can help.
And a station that sounds noticeably different from the rest of the dial can definitely help.
THERE’S A BIGGER MĀLAMA STORY DEVELOPING HERE
Kool isn’t operating by itself.
Mālama’s Honolulu portfolio also includes Country 97.5 KHCM, 99.5 The Word KGU-FM and AM 690/94.3 The Answer KHNR, giving the company a collection of distinctly targeted products rather than four variations of essentially the same station.
And with new ownership comes the inevitable question:
WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO WITH THESE THINGS?
Now we’re starting to get answers.
The Kool restoration is particularly revealing because it suggests Mālama isn’t afraid to examine what it inherited and ask whether the existing strategy is actually the strongest one.
That’s exactly what new ownership should do.
Don’t change things because you’re new.
Don’t preserve things because you’re scared.
Figure out what works.
Figure out what doesn’t.
Figure out what the audience already loves.
Then build.
WELCOME BACK, KOOL
There is something almost poetic about listeners continuing to use an old radio name until somebody finally decides:
Fine. You win.
Because ultimately?
They do.
The audience always gets the final vote.
We can write positioning statements.
We can design logos.
We can conduct auditorium tests.
We can spend $40,000 researching whether listeners prefer “Greatest Hits” to “Favorite Hits.”
But if thousands of people have already decided what they’re going to call your station?
Maybe listen to them.
KKOL is Kool 107.9 again.
The music is being reworked.
The local emphasis is being turned up.
Rick Thomas has programming decisions to make.
Mālama has a new group of stations to establish.
And Honolulu gets an old friend back with a new owner and a new opportunity.
Sometimes radio’s next great idea isn’t hidden in an AI dashboard, a consultant’s presentation or 137 pages of research.
Sometimes it’s sitting right there in the market’s memory.
Honolulu kept calling it Kool.
So Kool came back.
And that may be the KOOLest programming decision anybody could have made.
— On The Dial
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