May 14th, 2008

Dog the Bounty Hunter Coming Back

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.

May 6th, 2008

Honolulu Winter Radio Ratings

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:

  1. KSSK 92.3 FM
  2. KINE 105.1 FM
  3. KRTR 96.3 FM
  4. KCCN 100.3 FM
  5. 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.

April 22nd, 2008

ABC-TV’s “Lost” to Wrap Season May 29

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

April 15th, 2008

KGMB TV News Wins Awards

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.

April 11th, 2008

KHNL’s Earth-Sea Project Continues to Make Waves

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.
Keep reading →

April 11th, 2008

Student Videos Honored at 2008 Pele Awards

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.

April 10th, 2008

South Kohala’s KWYI Launches Website

KWYI

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.

April 9th, 2008

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

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.

April 6th, 2008

News Tidbits

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.

November 17th, 2007

Still a Work in Progress

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.