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April 21, 1999 Short Takes The biggest local news continues to be the Baywatch TV series, which is now a done deal. The show had a recent casting call which attracted several hundred applicants. On the local dial, KITV News 4 anchorperson, Tina Shelton left her post last Friday (April 16) night. She has been replaced by Paula Akana who now does both the 6 and 10pm newscast with Howard Dashefsky. Radio station KQNG AM on Kauai recently changed their format to news and talk. Radio Free Hawaii may be back as an internet only operation.
Baywatch Coming to Hawaii If you haven't heard by now, the TV series Baywatch will be filmed in Hawaii starting this summer. After weeks of antsy negotiations, all parties concerned with bringing the series to Hawaii have come to agreement, with taxpayer money kicked in at the last minute. The series will be renamed "Baywatch Hawaii" and producers say that Hawaii will be emphasized. Casting for 2 local parts as well as a call-up for about 150 support personnel will be taking place soon. Article Links to the Baywatch Saga:
From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April 2, 1999
Teamsters offering "Baywatch" concession
Other News KHON TV announced the retirement of longtime broadcaster Jack Kellner on Wednesday night's Channel 2 News. Kellner has been with KHON TV for a number of years and is the familiar voice behind the Channel 2 news opening sequence and the civil defense siren warnings. Pacific Business News reporter Erika Engle says that Honolulu TV stations KHON and KITV have recently come on top of the latest Nielsen ratings despite their changeover to "clock time", which meant a reduced number of local commercial inserts into prime time programming in order to have their late evening newscasts start on time at 10:PM. Read the PBN story:
Finally the Honolulu Star Bulletin has a piece on upcoming broadcast sons Robbs and Leahey. And we're not talking Don or Jim. Read about Kanoa Leahey and Scott Robbs here.
KORL May Be Going With Hawaiian Music Radio station KORL at 99.5 FM may be switching to a Hawaiian music format. It was recently reported by Star Bulletin columnist Dave Donnelly that KKHN morning guy, Kimo Kahoano may move over to KORL to do a Hawaiian music morning show. KORL was recently sold to the same firm that owns KKHN, KQMQ and KPOI.
Donnelly's column mention can be found at this URL: KORL is currently playing an all Beatles music format.
"Baywatch" Coming To Hawaii? UPDATED: It is reported that last minute negotiations between the producers of Baywatch and their unions are taking place. The unions have resisted a request for concessions in order to move the program to Hawaii.
The highly popular syndicated 1 hour television show, Baywatch may be coming to Hawaii. Producers of the program have been scouting locations in Australia and Hawaii for possible relocation. Political flak from Australian locales have sparked a lot of speculative talk regarding the show's move to Hawaii, though nothing is final according to various reports. The series relocation to Hawaii remains tentative at best, due to several unions not wanting to give in to contract concessions. Baywatch started back in the late 1980's on NBC before moving into syndication where it has been aired in markets all over the world for 10 years. Locally, KHON TV 2 airs the program on weekends, while the re-runs of previous season shows air on the USA Network. Other Baywatch articles: (from Starbulletin.com)
Short Takes KGMB TV aired the "Checkers & Pogo Remembered" special last night, featuring interviews with all of the principle players that brought the show together for 15 years. The program was filled with nostalgic memories, trivia and video clips. If you missed it, KGMB will show it again on April 4. Visit the Checkers & Pogo website for more information. Pacific Business News ran a story on Hawaii radio stations broadcasting over the internet. The story alluded to the internet's potential on creating a larger market for an otherwise local medium. Several radio stations use the internet for extended broadcasts. These include KONI 104.7 FM, KAOI FM 95.1 and KKOA 93.5 FM on Maui as well as KKCR 90.9 FM on Kauai. Several Oahu stations are also broadcasting over the internet. Most use the highly popular Real Audio software for their webcasts.
PBN Article Outlines More Changes to Honolulu Radio An article penned by Pacific Business News writer and former KQMQ radio personality Erika Engle reports more changes to Honolulu's changing face of morning radio. Among other things reported in the article titled "Morning Radio Tuning Up Format" are the departure of Mark & Brian from KKLV 98.5 FM radio, Ron Jacobs' leaving the KCCN 1420 AM talk radio line-up and KQMQ's experiment with an all female morning drive duo. The entire article can be read at the following URL at PBN's website: http://www.amcity.com/pacific/stories/1999/02/22/story2.html
Morning Radio Promotions Spotlighted In recent weeks, focus has been made on various Honolulu radio station promotions. An article in Sunday's Honolulu Advertiser (Feb. 21) compiled several issues that have made recent impacts on the public's perception of radio promotions. It was noted that several morning radio shows are engaging themselves in outlandish promotional stunts ranging from cockroach eating to Star 101.9 FM's "Mile of Meet", a promotion where 50 bachelors were exhibited on a city street and offered to women who called into the station. A recent television commercial run by KPOI 97.5 FM drew the ire of many upset TV viewers, to a point where the station was forced to pull the ad, which featured their morning show jock, Jeff Blazey and bikini clad women. Many people complained about ad's sexual content. One parent of a KPOI listener who won a contest after jamming a nail up his nose, has banned the station from her household. The recent slew of radio promotions have all been undertaken to get better ratings in the crowded Honolulu market. Whether or not the promotions do transfer to higher and consistent ratings are deemed questionable by many.
Oceanic Cable Channels to Be Realigned Several cable TV channels on Oceanic's system will be relocated to new numbers starting on March 1. Viewers of the channels should note where their favorites will be and make appropriate changes to their VCRs, TVs and cable boxes. A card sent with the last billing statement to Oceanic customers outlined the channel line-up changes. More information is available from Oceanic Cable's website.
KGMB TV To Air "Checkers & Pogo" Special Checkers & Pogo fans need to mark Thursday, March 18 on their calendars. The popular kids show from the late 60s through the early 80's will be remembered on a new KGMB TV special entitled "Checkers & Pogo Remembered". KGMB producer/director Lawrence Pacheco reports " I'd like to inform you that we are currently producing a one hour retrospective to air on Thursday, March 18th at 8 p.m. entitled "Checkers & Pogo Remembered." I've recently travelled to 4 cities to interview the original cast members such as Jim Hawthorne, Jim Demarest, Morgan White, and Jerry Cox. The show will also include local interviews with Dave Donnelly, Rob Hearn, and others. During the hour long special fans will once again hear the 'Checkers & Pogo' and 'On the Go' themes, and learn the full history of the show!" For more information visit the KGMB TV website and click on the link to "Checkers & Pogo".
On the Tube This Week Interesting to note that KHON TV is airing 2 weeks worth of Wheel of Fortune shows that were taped in Waikiki last month. The programs featuring a line up of local resident players, air at 6:30 PM Monday through Saturday on Channel 2. Meanwhile, KGMB TV is airing a series on "Hawaii's Radio Waves" on their 10 o clock nightly newscast.
Joe Moore, Shawn Ching, Kim Gennaula Top KHON TV 2 news anchor Joe Moore was voted as Hawaii's most popular newscaster in the recently completed 3rd Annual Hawaii Radio & Television Guide media poll. KITV 4 sportscaster Shawn Ching got more votes than Moore to assure himself as being Hawaii's favorite TV sports guy. KGMB TV's Kim Gennuala was chosen as Hawaii's favorite weather person. She also garnered some votes for news anchor, a position she has during that station's early evening newscast. The most popular TV news station was KITV 4, though none of their reporters or anchors except for Shawn Ching garnered any significant amount of votes. News 4 was perhaps chosen for their better balanced news and in-depth reports. On the radio front, votes reflected the wide variety of choices available on the local dial. Two Pacific Star stations emerged to take the #1 and #2 positions as being the most popular... they are Hot I-94 (KIKI FM) radio at the top position and local talk station KHVH at the #2 position. Favorite radio personalities are Rick Hamada and the duo of Perry & Price, though none got an overwhelming majority of votes. The poll was taken during a six week period from November 1 to December 16, 1998. The results were reported late due to obligations I had over the holiday season. Click here for survey results.
KIKI AM 990 Dumps Country, Reverts Back to I-94 Simulcast Radio station KIKI AM 990 which for nearly 2 years played a mix of country music dumped its format and converted to an AM/FM simulcast with sister station Hot I-94 FM (KIKI FM). The format on both stations is I-94's long running contemporary/urban/dance mix of music. The Honolulu market is still served by KKHN 102.7 FM for country music.
KGU / KHNR Websites Feature Sports, Stock Tickers Radio stations KGU and KHNR's websites now feature sports and stock ticker services. KGU's website features ESPN's ticker service, which according to station GM Jim Carroll, "constantly up dates the sports scores". Meanwhile, KHNR Radio's ticker " gives constant stock updates". Carroll added that both KGU and KHNR will carry a ticker service for the National Center for Missing Children. "We feel that this is a very important cause and hope that some of our colleagues will follow our lead and add this link to their sites as well." KGU's website is located at this URL: http://home1.gte.net/kgu/. The station is located at 760 on the AM dial and is the oldest radio station in the state. Their programming consists mainly of live sports and sports-talk. KGU's email is at kgu@gte.net KHNR's website is located at this URL: http://home1.gte.net/khnr/. KHNR broadcasts at 650 on the AM dial and carries a format of national and local news. KHNR's email is khnr@gte.net The stations' updated link and email info have been added to the Hawaii Radio & Television Guide Oahu Radio dial listing and address pages.
FM 99.5 Changing Format Soon KORL radio at 99.5FM went off the air on Tuesday only to return with a temporary "AC/Hawaiian music" mix of progamming. KORL will be unveiling an yet unannounced format according to the latest station on-air promo. The station dropped its tourist oriented Japanese programming last month and aired Christmas music during most of the holiday season and a few days beyond.
Suddenly It's 1999 The new year is underway and the Hawaii Radio & Television Guide is going into its 4th year on the web. This is the first update for the year since my return from a 2 week Christmas break.
Hawaii Public Radio Unveils New Website, Hawaii Public Radio (HPR) has a new website. HPR News director Jean-Pierre (JP) Muntal writes, "Mahalo for your listing hpr. Please note we now have a website although still under construction, contact and programme listings are available as well as "real audio" from our news department. You may find them at http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org. Also FYI, thanks to a recent partnership with Radio Australia, we are the only media organization in Hawaii to provide extensive daily coverage of the Asia-Pacific region. Also as a result of this partnership, Hawaii Public Radio News is heard via some 150 radio stations throughout the Pacific, plus world wide shortwave radio and over the worldwide web." HPR operates radio stations KHPR FM 88.1, KIPO FM 89.3 and KIFO 1380 AM on Oahu and KKUA FM 90.7 on Maui. They can be reached at phone (808)955-8821 fax (808)942-5477 or e-mail hprnews@lava.net.
TV Stations Go To "Clock Time" Two of Hawaii's broadcast network stations, KHON TV Fox 2 and KITV 4 (ABC) have adopted their new "clock time" policies for prime time viewing. The stations have promoted this policy to correctly align all of their prime time programming to start and finish on published times, which will be a benefit to VCR time shifters. The 10:00 PM news at these stations now start at 10:PM instead of the previously late times ranging from 5 to 10 minutes after 10. CBS affiliate KGMB TV and NBC affiliate KHNL TV have not adopted "clock time" but will both look into the situation as time goes by. "Clock Time" siginifcantly reduces the amount of local commercials carried by the network stations.
The WB Debuts on KFVE TV Viewers of shows like "Dawson's Creek" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" will be happy to know that KFVE TV is now carrying a limited schedule of Warner Bros. network offerings in both prime time and daytime. The UPN affiliate are carrying some of the WB's prime time slate during the 9:PM hour, after UPN programming ends. KFVE will eventually become a fulltime WB station by 2001.
Checkers and Pogo Information Lately I have received a number of inquiries regarding the old KGMB TV kids show, "Checkers and Pogo." Fans will be happy to know that the KGMB TV website has a lot of information on this classic local show. Look for the link to "Checkers and Pogo" there. The site is nicely maintained with bios and photos of the 3 actors who portrayed Mr. Checkers as well as Morgan White, who played Pogo. There are also photos of "Super Spy McPig", C & P memorabilia, and the Checkers-mobile at the site.
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