Switching places
Our friend Robert Kekaula’s move from sports director to news anchor is not unprecedented.
Decades ago, Joe Garagiola switched from doing baseball’s Game of the Week to the Today Show panel. Lately, it is Michael Strahan making the cross-over move. Curt Schilling actually does sports and news.
Hawaii’s television history is rich with those who made the switch from the sports desk to news anchor. Here are a few:
> Joe Moore: Back in the three-channel day, a famous trio was Sevey, Tindall and Moore. In addition to being KGMB’s sports director, he also was the Rainbows’ football play-by-play announcer. He then moved to news, leading to an incredible run atop the ratings.
> Howard Dashefsky: He holds the never-to-be-beaten record as serving as news anchor for four separate local news networks (a fifth, if you count his work with Oceanic). He also has played in the College World Series final. So there.
> Larry Beil: The son of radio legend Ted Sax, Beil’s resume includes ESPN, of course, and weekday news and sports anchor in San Francisco.
> Gary Sprinkle: People of a certain age remember when Sprinkle dependably delivered sports stories.
> Scott Swan: He has a Disney-esque name — in fact, he worked as a Disneyland communications director after leaving KITV — and now is a news anchor in Indianapolis.
> Steve Uyehara/Liz Chun: “Mr. Sunrise” used to be Mr. Sports. His wife, Liz Chun, was a video journalist before becoming KGMB’s first female sports director.
> Dan Meisenzahl: He went from sports to news to morning host. He now is the spokesman for UH.
> Russell Shimooka: A long, long time ago, Shimooka and the blog host took a sports journalism class at UH. Shimooka got an A-plus. The blog host got a B-plus. Shimooka, the obvious teacher’s pet, rubs it in every time he sees the blog host.
> Chris Tanaka: He was a sports director before co-anchoring Hawaii News Now’s 5 p.m. newscasts with Stephanie Lum. He now works in Lebron’s city of employment.
> Mike Cherry: After a long stint at Hawaii News Now, Cherry now delivers the news — and some of the wittiest tweets — at KITV.
> Ross Mihara: The former KGMB sports anchor is now a newscaster in Japan.
> Kristine Uyeno: Sure, you all know her as KHON’s reliable Wake Up 2Day anchor. We remember her as the Waipahu High grad who worked in The Advertiser’s sports department and knew everything about UH basketball.
> Lynn Kawano: We all have to start somewhere, and her first TV gig was as a KGMB sports reporter. She then went to Dallas, where she had a kick-butt news career before returning to Hawaii.
Don Robbs and Wally Zimmerman helped guide Kekaula, who, in turn, helped guide:
> Neil Everett
> Alema Harrington
> Rob Fukuzaki
> Rob DeMello
> Russell Yamanoha
> Kanoa Leahey
> Brandi Higa
Anyone else lose their snot every time the pop-up video pops up?
First!
Good morning Tsaikos!
Congrats to fellow Tsaiko, Mr. Kekaula.
Didn’t Shawn Ching start out on the sports desk?
Pop up videos are really annoying.
Hope to see all of you, including you, ST, at the SSC tonight.
GO WARRIORS!
GO WAHINE!
Carrying over my comment from last blog:
Wonder if they will make him wear a suit coat
(over his shorts). Or will he continue to make
fashion statements with his beautiful shirts.
Maybe make him show more cleavage…
🙂
Ted Sax, wasn’t that the Redondo Sausage ad genius?
Hey what dat noise video.
Marv Dog
Memory foggy, but wasn’t Russ Francis a sportscaster at KGMB (short-lived)?
Dating myself, but can’t forget Joe Moore losing it on the radio when UH scored against Stanford (“Touchdown! Touchdown! Hawaii scores, AHH………………..”) in a blowout at Honolulu Stadium in the early 70s. The moment of silence were broken by old-timer Jim Lathop saying, “You Okay?”
The list of people that Kekaula guided in sports-related TV is not complete: add Stephen Tsai. 🙂
Wait…does karaoke count too?
Congrats to Tsai-ko and singer Robert Kekaula!
I think Kekaula gets to wear an aloha shirt but not so bright as usual.
See Ross Mihara every week doing the NHK World news report.
To me, the greatest call was Bob Hogue who was doing the sports on Channel 2 with Joe Moore. In 1989, prior to the BYU-UH game, Hogue predicted who would win the game. In those days, UH could never beat BYU even though we came close and UH fans were tired of losing of them. As a long time season ticket holder, we all felt the sting of all those losses. Hogue on his sports report, mentioned how the game would go and in the dying minutes of the game a certain play was run and then before the outcoming was announced as to who won the game…..a pause….and then he says “Hawaii fans, YOU GOTTA BELIEVE! And that Saturday, UH finally kick the daylights of BYU and Heisman Trophy Winner Ty Detmer, 56-14 and Garret Gabriel from here on out is known as the BYU killer.
Simply amazing.
Joe Moore was a pretty fair football player at Aiea High…
shawn ching is a big man.
Guud Evening Tsaikos…Bootiful Evening!
Yes, I lose my snot every time the pop ups kick in. Very annoying. Seems SBA don’t know or care they irritating people.
Now back to regular programming…
New post: http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=41539