Front Street is ‘Great’ and KIMO is moving to Montana

Front Street in Lahaina is one of the 10 Great Streets in America for 2011, according to the American Planning Association, a nonprofit educational organization.

It is the first time any Hawaii anything has been recognized in this way by the association, which also named the country’s 10 Great Neighborhoods and 10 Great Public Spaces for the year on Tuesday.

Its Great Places in America lists were begun in 2007 to recognize unique and exemplary streets, neighborhoods and public spaces — which it feels are essential components of all communities. The lists are issued to mark National Community Planning Month each October.

“Our 2011 Great Places reflect a tremendous amount of history, diversity and economic vitality,” said W. Paul Farmer, association CEO.

The organization’s Great Places pages online describe each honoree, and about Hawaii’s entry it says, “Front Street packs in everything that makes Lahaina, Lahaina,” from wooden storefronts to tourists, children heading to school and the archaeological site that dates back to the year 700.

It does not, however, mention Lahaina’s long-absent but soon-to-be-resurrected Halloween celebration.

Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa earlier this year announced the return of Lahaina’s legendary Halloween festivities, which has revelers stoked — and kupuna, or elders, and others protesting.

The last time the county closed Front Street for Halloween was in 2007, according to www.visitlahaina.com.

KIMO goes Montana

You snooze, you lose.

No Hawaii broadcasters, established or otherwise, snapped up KIMO as the call letters, or “calls” as they’re known in the industry, for an AM, FM or TV station.

The uniquely Hawaiian-seeming call letters became available earlier this year when an Alaska TV station abandoned them for KYUR.

As for the castoff KIMO, “Those are phenomenal call letters for Hawaii,” said longtime Hawaii broadcaster Jeff Coelho, general manager of Salem Media Hawaii, at the time.

KIMO would present a local station with a “great local identity, great local branding,” Coelho observed. He predicted that within 72 hours of the publication of the item in “TheBuzz,” the call letters would become unavailable.

Nope.

The Montana Radio Company LLC obtained the call letters last month for 107.3 in Helena Valley.

“It’s an acronym for a name we’re going to use,” said Kevin Terry, owner. KIMO matches up with the branding and imaging they planned for the station, and when he saw it were available, he jumped on it.

The station is not yet on the air, as the transmitter site is being relocated from Great Falls to Helena Valley. A new tower is en route to Montana from Nova Scotia, “and we’re hoping to get it here (and erected) before the first blizzard of the season,” Terry said.

Whoa. Something Hawaii broadcast engineers needn’t worry about. Ever.

Montanans are apparently expecting their first snow this week. “We never even hit the 80s until the Fourth of July,” he said.

As for what KIMO will stand for, what its format will be, Terry would only joke around because apparently his competitors are aware of the Internet, and he didn’t want to tip his hand.

The new station “hits the air sometime after Halloween,” he said.

“It’ll be an all-Hawaiian format because Montana needs a little bit of luau,” he laughed.