It’s the annual Turkey Trot at Kaaawa School today, a fun competition in which students can win a turkey. Now that the date has managed to sneak up on me, I realize I’m guilty of failing to deliver a contribution on time, but I’ll be there today with my camera. I guess I’ll hand-deliver a contribution as well. Here was the scene last year, and I imagine today will be more of the same.
If you missed Leslie Wilcox’s PBS Hawaii interview last night with Bob Sevey, formerly the dean of island news, you missed a great one. It was fascinating to hear Sevey’s description of the era in which KGMB dominated the broadcast news, with one memorable newscast claiming 90% of viewers, and averaging in the 50s.
Sevey had nothing but praise for station owner Cec Heftel. According to Sevey, his news budget consisted of a directive to spend what was necessary to produce the best news product this side of the Rocky Mountains. That’s something you won’t hear anywhere today.
Sevey also told the story of his resignation in response to the arrival of the new breed of corporate news managers and cookie-cutter consultant-driven news decisions. In his telling, he resigned after a particular newscast during which management repeatedly insisted that they go live to a fire which produced a lot of smoke but caused no injuries and only insignificant damage. On the third return to a live view of the fire at the end of the news, Sevey said he ignored the video and finished with the weather, but was then told in no uncertain terms that he was not the one who would make such decisions. He then gave two weeks notice and was gone.
Sevey’s list of those who he hired at KGMB was like a whos who of island news. Amazing. The interview repeats on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., and Part Two is scheduled for next Tuesday night. I know we won’t miss it.
I also noted a report yesterday that CBS news writers who belong to the Writers Guild of America might also strike, following television writers to the picket lines.
I would guess that the odds are pretty good that there’s more to this story about a company doing a sales blitz in Hawai for a Philippines condotel investment. The project is being sold “as an alternative to social security systems that are on the verge of going bankrupt and Pension Plans that are failing left and right and will continue to fail as many are glorified ‘Pyramid Schemes’ or rely solely upon the ‘never ending chain’ principal.”
That pitch should raise all kinds of red flags. Are our state regulators watching?
What we were watching yesterday morning was a return of Kaaawa’s latest visiting seal. She was spotted a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday morning was snoozing on the beach before 7 a.m., much to the delight of the regular crew of dedicated morning walkers. Just click on the picture for a larger version, or click here for an alternate view.
She’s been identified as RK28, a seal from Kauai that was last spotted on Oahu back in 2005.
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I enjoyed the Sevey interview a lot. I grew up watching him and used to be amazed when I visited the mainland and more populated cities and saw really rinky-dink newscasts. He actually enlightened me on the situation of the time. I also remember the smear politics done to Heftel. And another against Abercrombie when he was running in a primary against the current mayor of C&C Honolulu.
Remember when he read the whole newscast as usual, on that day in a suit jacket and tie, and at the end, rose and walked off in his underpants?
But that aside, I loved the way you could tell there was a fine intellect organizing and editing the information he presented. He was much more credible than anyone I can think of now, no offense to current newscasters.
Wow, Bob Sevey, now that’s a blast from the past. When I was growing up, too young to know better, I always associated him with Conkrite, like we had our own “Hawaii version”, I think that’s because they would have followed each other time slot wise. (Funny the PBS Hawaii page makes the Conkrite reference as well, so maybe this was a common association, even back then).