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February 14, 2001. Pioneering Hawaii Radio Engineer Dies Alan Roycroft, 78, president of Broadcast Services Inc., died last night in Hilo. He had suffered declining health over the past four years, "after a couple major strokes," says Buddy Gordon, general manager of Big Island Radio, which operates two AM and six FM stations on the Big Island. Roycroft was widely known as a broadcast engineer to Hawaii's radio stations. "He had something to do with just about every single station on the air, in some form or another," says Ernie Nierman, a 12-year employee of Broadcast Services. He says despite Roycroft's sometimes abrasive personality, "he was a genius in a lot of ways." Dale Machado, chief engineer for the seven Honolulu radio stations of Clear Channel Communications Inc., says Roycroft was "kind of an innovator in AM multiplexing on one antenna." While Machado doesn't believe Roycroft was the first, his work was valuable because of Hawaii's limited land space for broadcast towers. "He designed trap systems -- allowing more than one AM station to broadcast off the same tower," Roycroft says. Such arrangements remain common in the islands. Roycroft's other electronic passion involved amateur radio, and Bowen says his technical articles on the subject were highly respected. Services for Roycroft are pending.
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It was announced last night that Honolulu television station, KITV Channel 4, the ABC affiliate and the "new" Honolulu Star Bulletin will form a partnership to share news resources and features. The partnership comes on the heels of the Star Bulletin's new ownership change (effective March 15) to Black Press, Ltd. and the launch of the publication's morning edition. As of press time nothing about this announcement was made on the Star Bulletin website, but a short article appeared at Pacific Business News. More details will be forthcoming at Star Bulletin as well as KITV's highly promoted website, TheHawaiiChannel.com. The Honolulu Advertiser announced a similar partnership with KHON TV last month.
Baywatch Hawaii Cancelled Low ratings, a declining overseas market and cost concerns are the apparent reasons given for the cancellation of the Hawaii based television series, "Baywatch Hawaii." The show's cancellation was announced yesterday (Feb. 7) by Pearson Entertainment. The last new epsiode of "Baywatch Hawaii" will be shown late May after which the program will most likely be resold in re-runs to various stations and cable networks. The program airs locally on KITV Channel 4.
990 AM Switches to Business Talk Radio Clear Channel's KIKI AM 990, which has been simulcasting its urban contemporary FM format switched to a business-talk format this weekend. The station also changes its call letters to KHBZ, ending the use of one of Honolulu's oldest call letters on the AM dial. --------------------------------------------------------------------
A video series is set to begin airing on Olelo Channel 52 Fridays at 6:00pm, beginning February 9, 200l and running through June 29, 2001. Ê The series features internationally-acclaimed pianist-composer G.F. Mlely who will be discussing and demonstrating the art and craft of jazz piano. Mlely is described as "a very fine jazz pianist and has that annoying ability, like Chico Marx, to make playing seem so insanely easy." The piano segments in the studio (which take up most of the time) are interspersed with a few facts or observances from Mlely as he takes his hat off and chats in the park or rowing around the river. --------------------------------------------------------------------
The Honolulu Advertiser announced yesterday that they will increase joint collaboration on news and feature stories with Honolulu's KHON TV's news operations. Advertiser columnists and channel 2 reporters will participate in disucssion of news events and share expertise on various topics. KHON TV's weather girl Trini Kaopuiki will be featured on the Advertiser's weather page with tips and weather facts starting in March. Joint partnerships in KHON/Advertiser polls will continue with possible expansion into other areas of print, broadcast and internet coverage.
KAOI Radio Group Updates Online Webcasts Jack Gist of KAOI Radio Group announces that their radio station website is now webcasting the following stations and format on the web:
KNUQ 103.7 FM - Rhythm of the Islands KQNG 93.5 FM - (KONG radio from Kauai) KAOI Online - Quality Rock All of the webcasts are available from the KAOI Radio Group website: --------------------------------------------------------------------
Clear Channel's KSSK FM 92.3 topped the overall ratings battle for the Winter 2000 period. The station reclaims its vaunted spot after Clear Channel's upstart Island Music station, KDNN FM dominated the last book. Cox's KINE 105.1 FM which features a traditional and contemporary Hawaiian music format, has moved into the second spot while Emerald City's KUMU FM has risen from the 8th to the 5th to round out the top 5. In the morning drive, the morning duo of Michael W. Perry and Larry Price far outdistance their morning rivals. For more information and marketshare figures, visit the Radio & Records website and click on RATINGS, after which select HONOLULU from the scroll down menu. The latest ratings were released on January 23. Rankings are listed in the table below.
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