The Honolulu Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • 15

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 5, 1992 The Honolulu Advertiser TOMORROW: Show Biz Wayne Harada's Hawaii's very own VIDEO SCENE D5 Al Harrington to retire RA TV, Highlights B6 1 1 success UH athletics, Fox have buoyed KHNL By Vicki Viotti Advertiser Staff Writer The building at 150-B Puuhale Road used to be a crematorium. That conjures rather creepy fiages. So the KHNL-TV people who now work there rould rather think happy thoughts, about rising from the ashes, in a manner of speaking. For Starters, they came pretty close to bumping a Honolulu "Big Three" network affiliate out of hird place during last November's ratings period.

I And, more recently, the Nielsen ratinp people informed them that KHNL-Channel 13 is now the country's fourth-most-watched independent television station during those cherished prime-time hours. Success has come in gradual doses to KHNL, which was known before its 1984 reliccnsing as KIKU-TV, a Japanese-language station. The steepest climb began in 1986, when the station 'py ICS i ff Advertiser photo by Gregory Yamamoto Ann Casey in her camouflage garb: "It's so much nicer to do the show in peacetime." 'Mardi GrasV is more fun in peacetime By Wayne Harada Advertiser Entertainment Editor Ann Casey has been selling the "Mardi Gras Follies," as box-office honcho and business manager, for years. But when the Awa Lau Wahines of the present this year's extravaganza, starting Feb. 13 at the Pearl Harbor Officers Club, Casey will be in the footlights.

"I've never been on stage before the last time, I was Little Red Riding Hood in the became affiliated with the fledgling Fox network. Since then, the KHNL prime-time "share" (percentage of the audience with their sets switched on during the survey period) has nearly doubled, from 8 to 15 1. '5r- xZu- Ai "Fox has been a major second grade so I might be a bundle of part of our growth," said Doug Armstrong, general manager. "But I don't think it's nnv rm thincr 1 WHAT: 'Mardi Advertiser file photos UH Wahine volleyball and Fox's "90210," below, are two of KHNL's top show's. GraB Follies." produced by the Awa Lau Wahine Officer Wives Club.

WHEN AND WHERE: Premieres at 8:30 p.m. Feb. 12, at the Peart Harbor Offl- cers.Ctub; repeats at 8:30 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays, through Mardi 7. "Aloha Night," when performances are open to the general public, win be Feb. 20, 27.

28 and March 5. TICKETS: $22, includes a buffet dinner, from 6:30 p.m. RESERVATIONS; Casey Lee Travel, 488-7757. nerves, she said. Her moment of glory comes as a member of the Kuwaiti Sisters, where she will be joined by Eloise Smith and Jan Towell in camouflage fatigues, to-belt out "Honey Bun." The segment is a peacetime folly that -pays tribute to Stormin' Norman (played by Bill Roland) and Operation Desert -Storm.

Every February for the past 38 years, the Awa Lau Wahines -a tri-service club comprised of Navy, Coast Guard and Marine officer spouses put on their dancing shoes and costumes to stage a benefit that has generated more than $500,000 for civilian and military charities and scholarships. This Armstrong "Beverly Hills "The Simpsons" and other Fox shows have fared well in the ratings, but Armstrong said the KHNL movies and its coverage of University of Hawaii sports have added their punches. UH Wahines' volleyball coverage ranked 11th in Hawaii's November Nielsens and was KHNL's top-rated offering. Armstrong took over the reins two years ago from Rick Blangiardi, who moved to Seattle to manage KHNL's sister station, KING. Blangiardi came to KHNL from KGMB-Channel 9, where he was a sales executive and sportscaster, leading several of his Channel 9 colleagues in the exodus.

Among these are three who remain at KHNL: program director Dan Schmidt, Marketing director Terry Joiner and sports director Jim Leahey. Bob Turner, program director at KGMB, gives Blangiardi and his initial investment in sports frogramming a lot of credit "When King Broadcasting took over, Rick Blangiardi did a helluva job out there," Turner sjaid. "If they didn't have University of Hawaii sports, those numbers probably wouldn't be as high." Armstrong has continued that emphasis, using the appeal of UH sports programming as a draw for Neighbor Island viewers. Last fall, the station contracted to" use the state's microwave television links to transmit home football games, which then are telecast on Neighbor Island cable channels. This way; Neighbor Islanders get to watch the games live, even though the games can't be aired live on Oahu unless they're sold out.

Armstrong is hoping to have access to "deeper pockets" through a deal that should close in February or March. That's when the family-owned King Broadcasting Co. will sell its TV and cable divisions to Providence Journal a diversified media company what Armstrong calls a "positive ownership change for us." He also points gleefully, to a chart that shows the combined prime-time share of Honolulu's network affiliates plummeting from 90 percent in 1980 to 62 percent in 1990. And, among stations rated last November from sign-on to sign-off, Channel 13 lagged by only one rating point behind KITV-Channel 4, the ABC network affiliate. Richard Schaller, KITV general manager, acknowledges the major network decline as a national trend, resulting from the growth of cable television as well as independent stations.

"It's more competitive now," he said. "We all have to work harder, I guess, to maintain what we have." KHNL has "gone after the standard niche of an independent with Fox, and they're fulfilling that pretty well," added Al Hoffman, program director at Honolulu's top-rated KHON-Channel 2. Hoffman added that an independent probably won't soon topple a major network affiliate in a city of Honolulu's size, although it does happen in larger markets, where -even more competing stations fight each other off. Armstrong thinks his chances are better than that, although he added that he hasn't set any year gross is expected to top $75,000. "Last year, when we put on the show, many women in the cast didn't know the fate of their husbands in the Gulf War," Casey said.

The decision that the show should go on resulted in a full-page Time magazine feature. "But it's so much nicer to be able to do the show in peacetime." Writer-director Jack Cione, who is See KHNL, Page B2 The spirit of their music is timeless mounting his fifth consecutive "Mardi Gras" this year, said he's poking gentle fun at Saddam Hussein and is easing Casey into her first-ever performance. "The military training and discipline separates this amateur group from others," Cione said. "They're real easy to work with, they're eager to rehearse." For Cione, 65, "Mardi Gras" is but one feather Cione Like Robert Beaumont, the late singer with Olomana, Kaui was only beginning to enjoy the fruits of his success at the time of his death. The CDs are a welcome addition to the Island discography and a savvy addition to any library (those archaic long-playing albums must be scratched and worn out by now).

Unfortunately, none of the reissues come with annotated notes about the act or the music even though Country Comfort yielded a couple of prolific artists during its short existence, including Chuck Lee, Randy Lorenzo and Jimmy Freudenberg. Also out on CD. "Choice of the Heart" (Hoomau HICD 1002), Ho'okena's second album, listing such rapturous tracks as "Lumahai," "Pauoa Like Ka Lehua" and "Lei Ola'a." "Ho'oluana" (Poki SPCD 9049), the Makaha Sons of Ni'ihau's part-Hawaiian, part-English treasure chest of favorites including "He Inoa No Piilani," "I'll Remember You," "Hualalai" and "Take a Walk in the Country." By Wayne Harada Advertiser Entertainment Editor The late Billy Kaui and his onetime group, Country Comfort, are back in the musical mainstream with the reissue of three vintage recordings, available on compact disc. The simultaneous arrival of the packages one by Kaui, two by Comfort reflects a productive and prolific time among the early pioneers of contemporary Island music. The albums also are a tribute to the late producer, Irv Pinensky, whose visionary efforts to expose young talent via recording was instrumental for the industry at large.

The reissues: "Country Comfort" (Trim tRCD 1984), featuring such tracks as "Hello Waimanalo," "End of the Line," "Pretty Girl" and "Mama." "We Are the Children" (Trim TRCD 1980), listing "Railway Stations," "Waimanalo Blues," "Make It With You" and the title song. "Billy Kaui" (Mele MCD 6522), showcasing "Mr. Reggae," "Working on the Railroad," "It Doesn't Matter Anyhow," "Words to a Song." --twV in his gloried show biz cap. Now a retired senior citizen himself, he brings 30 years of experience to the production after a colorful Island career producing a range of revues large and small, from Chinatown strip shows to legitimate Waikiki showroom spectacles since the late 1950s. "It's my kind of show with Las Vegas glitz and all with leggy show girls, first-rate singers, spectacular dancers and a Rockette-style line-up number," Cione said.

"For me, it's a chance to turn amateurs into pros in six weeks." For Casey, it's an opportunity to momentarily leave aside her business-world duties. "There's such a wonderful sense of family." she said of the sprawling cast, aged 26 to 71. "Mothers and daughters, working side by side." She's one of the elders but won't reveal her age. "I was at an audition and I happened to know one of the songs, so Jack looked at me, and said why don't I do it0," she said. Casey was more shocked than thrilled at the time but she said that her husband agreed that Cione wouldn't put her in a See 'Mardi Gras', Page B2 Advertiser photo by Gregory Yamamoto Kaui and Country Comfort music, reissued on CD: A productive time The songs are nostalgic in the sense that the group long has disbanded, but there is a sense of timelessness in the spirit of the music, fusing Island rhythms and thoughts with contemporary modes.

Kaui, who died in 1978, remains a key figure in the history of contemporary music here..