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"The Mike Buck Show" is back on the air, on KHNR-AM 690, after a brief spate of corporate-ordered, downsizing-related unemployment.
His show resumed Monday in the 6-to-9 a.m. weekday time slot, and the phones "blew up" with tons of calls, he said. However, technical difficulties initially prevented Buck from getting callers on the air, which he hoped would be resolved quickly.
The slot was previously occupied by nationally syndicated host and former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Dennis Miller. Some changes in the duration of the show may come later, Buck said. The station also will air his sponsored Saturday morning shows including "Go Fish," "Homeworks" and coming in March, a medical show.
Buck was among those let loose before the holidays in the seemingly annual payroll trimming by Texas-based Clear Channel Communications Inc.
"It was a good 10 years-plus," Buck said. "I have no hard feelings." Vice President and General Manager "Chuck Cotton did everything he could," but nationally, 700 people were let go, Buck among them. Buck also "dodged a bullet" in the 2010 "bloodbath" when 1,300 people lost their jobs, he said.
He explored mainland options in markets near family in California, did interviews and "got a couple offers … but I really wanted to stay here," Buck said.
A local opportunity arose at KHNR, owned by Salem Communications Corp., which also owns and operates Christian and politically conservative formatted radio stations and other media products.
"I’m totally stoked, because it’s an election year" with topics ripe for the picking, he said.
The new gig puts Buck in head-to-head competition with former co-worker and fellow political conservative Rick Hamada, on KHVH-AM 830.
Radio listeners generally prefer FM radio signals, and the only AM radio station in the top 10 among 25- to-54 year-olds in the latest Arbitron ratings was KSSK-AM 590, which simulcasts the top-rated "Perry and Price Show" on KSSK-FM 92.3. Nevertheless, given that Hamada’s long been the only local choice for conservative political talk, the next several radio ratings periods may provide election returns of a different sort.
Aloha Arby’s
Kailua lost its Arby’s restaurant at the end of last year, and while the owner of the property on the corner of Kailua Road and Hoolai Street is talking with an interested party, there is as yet no agreement.
"We’re hoping to fill it with somebody that Kailua would want," said JD Watumull, vice president of Honolulu-based Watumull Properties Corp.
Arby’s had been open for about 10 years, but closed due to difficulties between the franchisee and Atlanta-based Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc., he said.
The two-level, 3,000-square-foot building with a drive-through configuration occupies a 16,000-square-foot lot that formerly housed another quick-service restaurant.
"We rehabbed an old gas station and made it a Burger King," Watumull said. The previous franchisee for that location also ran into financial difficulties, after which Arby’s opened in the spot.
Readers of this column often lament the absence of this or that fast-feeder in Hawaii, and after naming some for Watumull, he replied with a bit of reality. "No one’s going to make their first location Kailua," he chuckled. Still, he will welcome "brilliant" suggestions, he said.
There are eight other Arby’s restaurants in Hawaii — six on Oahu and two on Hawaii island — according to the corporate website.
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