Hawaii Radio & Television Guide

Clear Channel’s Radio Free Hawaii Signed On

admin — Sun, 25 May 2008 09:30:27 +0000

At around 9:00 a.m. today, Clear Channel Communications activated their version of Radio Free Hawaii at KUCD 101.9-2 HD digital. Kathy with a K, who is a full time personality on KSSK FM and one of the original RFH deejays from the 1990s, started the broadcast by playing music selections from the 50 ballots the station claimed to have.

Later in the day the station switched over to an automated program that is supposedly playing music voted for by the listeners. Other than the occasional reminders to visit the new Radio Free Hawaii site on Ning to vote, there is currently little or no personality to distinguish this brand from the other Clear Channel HD stations or from the original incarnation of the monicker.

For those without an HD radio set, the new Radio Free Hawaii stream can be heard from this link:

Clear Channel’s Radio Free Hawaii Audio Stream

KFVE Gets New UH Sports Deal

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:04:04 +0000

KFVE TV got a new sports deal from the University of Hawaii to continue broadcasting the school’s sports events. The 6-year contract will pay KFVE over $14 million. Oceanic Cable will continue to faciliate the broadcast of pay-per-view games under the new contract.

KFVE has been broadcasting most of the University of Hawaii sports events for the past 25 years. Oceanic and KFVE teamed up to bring certain games as pay-per-view events. The contract covers those games that are not broadcast by national networks such as ABC TV and ESPN.

More Information: StarBulletin.com | KFVE TV | University of Hawaii Sports

10 More Years for Joe Moore

admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:45:00 +0000

TV news anchor Joe Moore announced last night that he will be at KHON TV’s anchor desk for another 10 years. Moore’s new contract runs through the year 2018. Terms are undisclosed. From Erika Engle’s column in today’s Buzz:

Joe Moore has a new 10-year deal to anchor the KHON-TV news. He has been leading up to the announcement on last night’s 10 o’clock news since Friday, when he began talking about his 40 years in news as a prelude to a statement about his future.

Go to this link for more details: StarBulletin.com | Discussion Topic | KHON TV

Former TV Journalist Bill Bigelow Dies

admin — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:39:32 +0000

Bill Bigelow, a former Hawaii journalist, actor and marketing executive died yesterday (May 18) after a long fight with cancer. He was 75. From HawaiiReporter.com’s story:

A former U.S. Navy officer, he lived in Hawaii for over 40 years and is a well known local radio and TV journalist, having been a reporter and news anchor on KHON-TV and KGMB-TV, plus drive-time radio news anchor on KCCN and KHVH in Honolulu. He was host & producer of the popular Hawaiian music international radio program “HAWAII CALLS” in the early 1990s, and recently hosted a weekly TV program called “NOW HEAR THIS” sponsored by the Navy League of the U.S.

More details at HawaiiReporter.com.

Dog the Bounty Hunter Coming Back

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:50:57 +0000

It is quite apparent that “Dog the Bounty Hunter”, the A&E network reality show featuring Duane “Dog” Chapman and his bail bonds business and posse is coming back to the airwaves. A media advisory was recently released:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Honolulu, HI – Hawaii press are invited to a private media-only event with the cast of A&E’s Dog the Bounty Hunter, including Duane “Dog” Chapman and Beth Chapman, as well as Niger Innis from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and A&E Television Network executives.

A&E’s Scott Lonker, vice president, nonfiction and alternative programming, will introduce the panel, and announce the popular reality series’ return to television this summer. One-on-one interviews with the Chapmans, Innis, and A&E will be conducted following the announcement and group photo ops.

Here is a summary:
WHO: Dog the Bounty Hunter Cast, Niger Innis (CORE), and A&E executives
WHAT: Media event and one-on-one interviews
WHEN: Starts at 11:00 a.m. - May 14
WHERE: The Kahala, 5000 Kahala Avenue.

HOW: Only media receiving this invitation are invited

For regular updates and the latest news, please visit www.dogthebountyhunter.com.

Honolulu Winter Radio Ratings

admin — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:48:10 +0000

The latest Arbitron ratings for the Winter period is reported today in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. There are no suprises as the morning show team of Michael W. Perry & Larry Price on Clear Channel’s KSSK FM & AM lead the pack of prime-time morning shows.

Overall the top 5 radio stations in the Honolulu market are:

KSSK 92.3 FM
KINE 105.1 FM
KRTR 96.3 FM
KCCN 100.3 FM
KPHW 104.3 FM

Ever wondered who the bottom dwellers are overall? You can see them at the Radio & Records Website. The 3 Honolulu Radio stations at the bottom of the Arbitron pile are:

3. KKNE 940 AM
2. KLHT 1040 AM
1. KGU 760 AM

The entire listing of ratings for all Honolulu stations overall are at the Radio & Records site.

Traditional radio listening is on the decline. How many of you regularly listen to the radio all of the time or at least some of the time? Leave a comment below.

ABC-TV’s “Lost” to Wrap Season May 29

admin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:44:11 +0000

Apparently fans of ABC-TV’s “Lost” which is filmed in Hawaii will have to settle for an abridged 4th season, due to this past winter’s writers strike. It was announced today that the series will fall 5 episodes short of their original episode run and that the last episode of the current season will air on May 29 as a 2-hour finale.

From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin website:

“Essentially, one hour of television is 41 minutes. As a result of trying to cram that story in, around the finale the rubber hit the road, and we realized it all felt very rushed and we were shortchanging our emotional moments, our character moments,” said “Lost” co-creator, executive producer and writer Damon Lindelof. He and executive producer/writer Carlton Cuse spoke to members of the national press last week in a conference call from Los Angeles, and deftly hinted at future plot lines without revealing too many details.

The TV series resumes its current season on KITV Channel 4 this coming Thursday night starting at 9:00 p.m.

Additional Links

KGMB TV News Wins Awards

admin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:46:21 +0000

KGMB TV’s news division has won 3 regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for stories they did on the Hawaii Superferry and the Hawaiian Language. Their website at kgmb9.com was named as “Best Broadcast-Affiliated Web”. KGMB was the only Hawaii based station in the awards competition.

KGMB, KITV, KITV, KHNL and KHET TV are also in competition for the Northern California regional Emmy awards.

More details at this link.

KHNL’s Earth-Sea Project Continues to Make Waves

admin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:54:32 +0000

The Office of the National Marine Sanctuary Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently commenced a partnership with television stations KHNL and KFVE (K5) in Honolulu, HI. The Earth and Sea Project: Going Green in Hawaii is a year-long series of environmental reports on KHNL News 8 and K5 News.

The Earth and Sea Project focuses on local environmental preservation and protection. Topics include sustainability, global warming and specifically what individuals, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and corporations are doing to repair and enhance the environment on land and in the ocean.

Allen Tom, the Pacific Islands Regional Director for the National Marine Sanctuary Program, is proud of this exclusive partnership. “In the history of NOAA and the Sanctuary program, it is unprecedented for a news organization to make a commitment to environmental coverage of the scope, breadth and depth of The Earth and Sea Project,” said Tom.

“KHNL and K5 kicked off the Project with stories on saving our Pacific coral reefs, protecting ocean life and how Hawaii’s community groups are actively working to preserve our precious environment,” added Tom.

KHNL/K5 Executive News Director Dan Dennison commented that partnering with NOAA and National Marine Sanctuaries is already leading to unparalleled access to resources, expertise and content.

“While the support and partnership of the federal agencies lends great credibility to the project, story ideas and content will also come from conservation organizations and individuals involved in front-line environmental projects and efforts,” Dennison said.

In addition to weekly Earth and Sea Project reports, KHNL is producing a series of vignettes highlighting steps people can take to help protect Hawaii’s fragile terrestrial and ocean environment and is planning two half-hour special reports in 2008.

Scheduled weekly Earth and Sea Reports air on KHNL News 8 on Wednesdays between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. with a replay at 10 p.m Wednesday nights. Other reports air on all seven of KHNL/ K5’s daily newscasts.

The National Marine Sanctuary is proud of unique partnerships with different organizations, such as KHNL-TV and Outrigger Hotels, who are supporting the International Year of the Reef with a number of special projects.

Student Videos Honored at 2008 Pele Awards

admin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:35:49 +0000

Work produced by Hawaii Student Television (HSTV) was recognized at the 2008 Pele Awards Celebration on Saturday, April 5th at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Tapa Ballroom. A special Exhibition Category was designed to celebrate the outstanding work being produced by HSTV and Hawaii’s Elementary, Middle, High School and College students. The best student television video in this Exhibition category was for Hulihe’e Palace on the Big Island. HSTV’s Therapeutic Foster Parent PSA, which was created for Child & Family Service and Hawaii Foster Youth Coalition Anti-Drug video were also recognized. The awards ceremony was hosted by TV personality Andy Bumatai.
“As I have said many times and on behalf of Hawaii’s students must re-emphasize, even though HSTV is very grateful to receive such recognition, we are just the administrators that connect the dots. It is Hawaii’s students and schools that participated in creating these HSTV productions, along with their mentors and the supporting organizations, that deserve the real credit and recognition,” commented Robert Olague, HSTV President/Executive Producer.

The Pele Awards is the most prominent advertising award in Hawaii designed to recognize the best advertising and design work created in Hawaii. The Hawaii Advertising Federation (HAF) is the largest unifying voice for advertising in Hawaii. Their mission is to promote the business of advertising and communications through professional education, recognition of excellence, government relations, self-regulation and public service.

LINKS

HSTV Website

List of Pele Award Winners

South Kohala’s KWYI Launches Website

admin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:14:35 +0000

South Kohala’s KWYI at 106.9 FM recently launched their new website which can be found at http://www.kwyi.com/. The site features tabs for contact information, music charts, advertising, links and station information. KWYI plays an adult contemporary music format and has been under the same local ownership for more than 10 years. Their chart link features the Radio & Records top 30 hits.

“Radio Free Hawaii” Coming Back as a Clear Channel Brand

admin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:11:27 +0000

Erika Engle reports in her Buzz column that Clear Channel radio is ressurrecting the “Radio Free Hawaii” brand with a new HD broadcast of the format.

Radio Free Hawaii coming back, in HD

Radio Free Hawaii, which prided itself as the island’s anti-corporate radio station in the 1990s, is being resurrected — by the ultimate corporate radio entity.

The seven-station cluster owned by Texas-based Clear Channel Communications Inc., will launch its Radio Free Hawaii format May 24 on 101.9-2, which requires an HD radio to hear.

COMMENTARY

It remains to be seen whether or not Clear Channel and their programmers can keep the brand true to its original format. As stated in the article, the station will never be the same without the presence of the original format’s founder, Norm Winter of Jelly’s Books and Records.

It also remains to be seen whether or not this will contribute to the growth of HD broadcasting and set ownership in Hawaii. The entry price for an average HD radio is around $200, which is quite steep if Clear Channel wants to go for a young demographic. Young people also prefer to listen to and program their own music on an iPod, so that should also be considered competition.

News Tidbits

admin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:58:00 +0000

Some of the items listed here may be dated, but then again, this is the first post since I updated the site today. The last official news post occurred in mid November 2007. Consider this post the official re-start of the News Over The Air section of this site.

HawaiiMagazine.com has a profile on KIPO’s weekly Hawaiian music show called “Kanikapila Sunday”. The program airs Sunday afternoons 1 to 4 pm and is hosted by Derrick Malama. The program also streams over the internet.

Pacific Business News founder and publisher George Mason died on Monday, March 31. He was 84. Mason was the publisher of PBN since its founding in 1963 until he sold it in the mid 1990s. He also worked in government and on radio. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, April 12.

Ivan Dixon who is best known as the character “Kinchloe” on the old Hogan’s Heroes TV series died last month on the mainland. Dixon was not very well known as a Hawaii broadcaster. He built and founded KONI 104.7 FM radio which has studios on Maui but broadcasts from Lanai. The station started with a top 40 music format but eventually changed to an oldies format that it employs today. Dixon sold KONI a few years ago.

The Federal Government is distributing coupons for people who need a digital to analog converter box in order to receive free over the air reception with analog equipment after the February 2009 deadline. On February 17 analog over the air TV broadcasts will cease as the industry is mandated to convert to digital by then. People without digital equipment or cable will not be able to get the digital signal without the converter boxes. The price for a converter box range from $40 to $70. The coupons are good for a $40 taxpayer subsidized discount. Details at this link: http://www.dtv2009.gov

Speaking of digital, the hot topic on our message board this past week was KITV’s non-HDTV broadcast of the annual Merrie Monarch Festival from Hilo. Cost has been attributed to the non-high-def broadcast.

Finally a short video aired this week on a number of local TV stations after the closure of Aloha Airlines. The 30 second video pays homage to the people and history of the historic airline that was forced out of business due to bankruptcy, a fare war, a changing marketplace, high fuel costs and management decisions.

Still a Work in Progress

admin — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:19:32 +0000

Updated April 6, 2008.
This post updates the previous ones that were on this page for a long time.

Tell you what. I am trying to get this website put together with still another new blog template. This template has its own set of problems than the previous one. So I am still manually encoding some stuff.

What I probably need is a WordPress installer genius to help me upgrade to the latest version of WordPress which I found out is Version 2.5. I think after that is upgraded, hopefully I can then go ahead and tweak this “theme set” or even go back to the other one that I think I still like better, and get the site up and running again.

What I am finding problemsome is to create static pages that can handle tables so that the dial lists can be put in a more prominent place and linked to as such. Regular readers of the previous site which is still included on the links shown below, may remember that each dial list is a separate page that stayed the same except with the occasional update for new stations and format changes. I am going to set this up so that there will be at least 5 main dial pages: Hawaii TV, Oahu Radio Dial, Big Island Radio Dial, Maui Radio Dial and Kauai Radio Dial.

Sorry I have not been updating the site as I would normally want to, but lately I have been swamped with other matters. Hopefully I can pay more attention to keeping the Guide current.

Need to reach me? macpro3000@yahoo.com.