Perry and Price mark 3 decades of top-rated radio

Giving the public a chance to win $1 million ensured the Perry and Price morning radio show team a strong start in the ratings, but could not guarantee their 30-year legacy now documented in a book and upcoming TV special.

An advance copy of the special provided to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser shows people on the street talking about the duo.

"They’re always entertaining," said one.

In 1983, Michael W. Perry and Larry Price succeeded Hal Lewis, aka "J. Akuhead Pupule," as morning-show hosts on KSSK-AM 590, then known as K59, following Lewis’ death from lung cancer.

Lewis had enjoyed a 17-year run as the highest-rated radio personality in Hawaii and one of the highest paid disc jockeys in the United States. Following his death, fill-in announcer Larry Price decreed that henceforth, Lewis should be known as "The Legend."

Career broadcaster Perry was the station program director and afternoon host, while Price was the vice president for community relations and an investigative reporter at KITV. His broadcast career followed an earlier career playing football in the Army, for the University of Hawaii and the Los Angeles Rams, and years spent coaching football at UH.

Now in its 31st year of morning drive time at KSSK-FM 92.3/AM 590, "The Perry and Price Show" has far surpassed its predecessor in duration.

"We don’t smoke," Price deadpanned in a recent interview with the Star-Advertiser.

The new book by former Honolulu resident and longtime television writer and producer Larry Fleece chronicles the duo’s long run, and an upcoming TV special by executive producer Phil Arnone illustrates the tale in living color. The special is narrated by Linda Coble, the former KGMB-TV news anchor who went on to anchor news for Perry and Price and host a consumer-focused feature on KSSK.

Neither Perry nor Price could have imagined their long run in the beginning.

"Not after Day 1," Perry said, noting that just as with any relationship, it takes time to acclimate to each other’s rhythms and habits.

Not long after their debut, as they discussed a current topic and took calls from listeners, one caller told them they were all wrong about the issue at hand, Perry recalled. The listener, who had dialed in on the request line like everybody else, was Honolulu Mayor Eileen Anderson.

"Maybe we’re on to something," Perry remembered thinking at the time.

After some time on the air, an Arbitron survey revealed that 25 percent of Honolulu’s morning radio listeners tuned in to "The Perry and Price Show."

In a meeting with the late then-General Manager Earl McDaniel, he said, "Do you know what that means?" Perry recalled. "It means three quarters of the (expletive) island isn’t listening to you; it’s not good enough."

The team, which has an almost uninterrupted string of being No. 1 in the ratings, now garners about 18 percent of morning listeners.

Despite all the branding work, marketing efforts and promotion of their memorable "Perry on the left, Price on the right" slogan over the past three decades, it still is common to hear people say they love listening to "Larry and Price."

Also, "people still call me Coach," Perry said. Price, the former football player, is known as "Coach" on the air.

Perry, shaking his head, said the mix-up doesn’t matter to him.

"Which one was MacNeil, which one was Lehrer? I never knew," Perry said. "Which was Starsky and which one was Hutch? I didn’t care, they were just together," same for Cagney and Lacey, he added — though "I knew Laverne and Shirley, and Laurel and Hardy."

The pair last year signed a new five-year contract and will keep working toward their show’s next milestone anniversary.

Note: Erika Engle worked at KSSK radio from 1980, when Hal Lewis reigned the airwaves, to 1994.