Hawaii News Now’s "Sunrise" morning news program and its 6 p.m. local news will be simulcast on normally sports-focused KHKA-AM 1500 beginning on Labor Day, Sept. 3.
The radio station is known for carrying San Francisco 49ers football games as well as nationally syndicated sports-talk programs.
KHKA, branded ESPN 1500, is the sister station of KKEA-AM 1420, also a sports- and sports-talk station branded as ESPN 1420.
Both are licensed to Blow Up LLC, headed by Duane Kurisu, a minority investor in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. KKEA/KHKA General Manager Mike Kelly could not be reached.
The Hawaii News Now "Sunrise" morning news program will air from 5 to 8 a.m. weekdays on ESPN 1500, said News Director Mark Platte. Hawaii News Now is the broadcast media partner of the paper you are reading.
ESPN 1500 also will air the 6 p.m. edition of Hawaii News Now on weekdays, as does KHNR-AM 690, "so it’s going to be on both," Platte said. KHNR also airs the 6:30 to 7 p.m. HNN news.
The simulcasts may occasionally be pre-empted by CBS network programming, Platte said, though such instances would be rare.
While KHON-TV’s 6 p.m. news has been simulcast on KSSK-AM 590 on weekdays for years, no other local TV station’s morning show is believed to air simultaneously on local radio. Platte also was unaware of any such a.m. arrangements.
ESPN 1420 airs the long-running "Bobby Curran Show" from 6 to 9 a.m. The station’s website indicates the show is replayed on ESPN 1500 from 9 a.m. to noon, but the rebroadcast has long since been discontinued.
Morning shows traditionally bring in the lion’s share of a radio station’s advertising revenue, as they typically have the station’s largest audience of the day.
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On the Net:
» espn1420am.com
Guy Fieri on Campus
Before anyone on any Hawaii college campus gets too excited, there is as yet no indication that repeat isle visitor and Food Network rock star Guy Fieri will open an eatery in Hawaii.
Fieri and global institutional food service operator Sodexo have partnered to start a chain of on-campus, fast-casual eateries — at least 15 in the next five years.
To be called Guy Fieri On Campus, or GFOC, the operations will offer a range of the "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" host’s favorite flavor palates including Italian, Asian and Mexican.
The first location will open in the fall at Montclair State University in New Jersey and will serve sandwiches, pasta, tacos, quesadillas and burritos, rice bowls, salads and soups.
Appetizers, sides and snacks will include fries served a variety of ways — with buffalo sauce and bleu cheese, with garlic and parmesan, and with sea salt. Chicken wings also will be served with a choice of barbecue sauce, spicy soy sauce and honey "Firecracker Sauce," and garlic butter with hot sauce.
Guy Fieri On Campus was "designed to create a fun and relaxing spot on campus for students to enjoy great food while letting their hair down, or in this case spiking it up," Tom Post, president of Sodexo Education-Campus, said in a statement.
But again, there is no hint that isle-loving Fieri will open in Hawaii anytime soon, or at all.
"Right now, Sodexo is focused on opening the first Guy Fieri On Campus location," a spokesman said. "Once we launch there, we will begin the process of determining future on-campus restaurant locations."
In the meantime, your columnist has given Hawaii’s food-fancying college students yet another thing about which to daydream.
You’re welcome.
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
