Car radios used to go silent when motorists drove a 77-mile stretch through the southern end of Hawaii island — the southernmost place in the country — until Pahala-based KAHU 91.7 FM went on the air June 28, 2010.

Since then KAHU, aka the Shepherd, has lived up to its name, serving as the sole emergency alert provider for the Kau District. The station kept listeners apprised of the fires in Pahala in June, has warned of road closures and informed the public of the threat of natural disasters such as a tsunami, as well as provided entertainment with a broad range of music.

But co-owner Christine Kaehuaea, who had taken over in November 2011 as general manager from her father, Wendell, has struggled to keep the radio station alive amid mounting debt.

"It got to a point that at Thanksgiving we were thinking we were going to close at the end of December," she said. "With over $100,000 in debt and not really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, it just came to a head."

But Kaehuaea realized that if the station shut down, the residents and visitors it serves would likely be without a radio station for years.

"If we turn in our call letters, there’s no window open for a new station," she said, adding the Federal Communication Commission does not simply issue new call letters just because a request is made.

So Kaehuaea took drastic measures to cut costs, and the community came forward to help because of the station’s supplemental role in civil defense. "Our creditors have kept us on the air because of being a second line of defense in the southern region," she said.

Kaehuaea decided to take down the broadcasting antenna and transmitter equipment at a tower in Naalehu, which cost $1,500 a month to rent. That was done Dec. 17, and the gear was moved to the station in Pahala, saving the station a big monthly expense.

Volunteer community members helped erect the antenna and equipment at the Pahala station.

Businesses like Ace Hardware in Oceanview and community groups made donations.

A 2-kilowatt transmitter will be sold.

The station’s 600-watt transmitter went down and was sent out for repairs, but the 150-watt transmitter is doing a decent job, and Kaehuaea expects the 600-watt transmitter to provide more coverage when it’s repaired.

Kaehuaea has received reports of strong coverage in Naalehu, Pahala and Puna­luu, with some coverage in Volcano, Oceanview and Kala­pana.

"One of the challenges is to get the word out to the people on the Big Island," said John Drummond, administrative officer for Hawaii County Civil Defense.

"That whole Kau area has traditionally been underserved as far as radio coverage," which "is spotty at best," he said.

The station "gave us another avenue to try to get the message out to the public," he said. "We enlist their help so we can get the message out."

He cited the Pahala brush fires as an example.

"Not everyone has a cellphone or a text-message service, especially the folks that are traveling," he said. "It does fill an important gap, and hopefully it will continue to do so," he said.

"Certainly my hope is they recover and continue to grow," Drummond said.

Gail Kalani, a Pahala resident and Bank of Hawaii Pahala branch manager, said she hadn’t been getting the station at work, but on Thursday it worked.

"It’s really nice when you listen to the radio station after not having it for years, and all of a sudden you get it," she said. "At home we actually try to patronize it. We have our radio on to the station constantly."

She said she enjoys local news and announcements of upcoming events. She appreciated the station during the Pahala fires, which lasted nearly two weeks and burned nearly 1,000 acres.

"They were right on top of it, letting people know the roads were closed, where to go," Kalani recalled. "That was really awesome. It was a big help."

Kaehuaea said she helped coordinate with fire officials and police, and even got landowners to allow motorists to take a detour on private roads.

Kaehuaea, born in Hawaii and raised in the Bay Area, left her Dublin, Calif., home and marketing and sales business to help out her father, 70, who decided to run for the state Senate. After an unsuccessful campaign, he retired from the day-to-day station management and is now strictly an announcer. She had no previous radio station experience.

Wayne Kawachi, president of O Ka‘u Kakou, a community service organization, said the group and its members have made donations to support the station.

"They let the community know what’s going on, any type of warnings," he said. "We decided we’re going to help and try to keep it open for that reason."

Members have also lent physical help in preparing for a farmers market fundraiser for the station.

"It still covers a lot of Kau," he said. "I think it’s a good thing. People like it. The only thing is the cost to keep it running. Pahala itself and the Kau area, we have the highest unemployment, the highest welfare. … We just don’t have enough people who financially can support it. It’s been a battle, not only the radio stations. We have a lot of businesses that open up and close. It’s hard to survive. We’re economically depressed."

Kawachi gives the station a "50-50 shot" of surviving, "but we’re going to try our best to keep it going. It’s going to be a long road."

It’s Kaehuaea’s commitment that engenders that support, he said. "She tries really hard, and she has her heart into it. She wants to make it survive."