Now in Japan, newsman remembers isles fondly

Though Ross Mihara enjoys his current job in Japan, he fondly remembers the KGMB newsroom where he got his start in covering sports. This month we look back on his work in the islands and catch up with him.

Mihara was born in Los Angeles, but moved with his parents to Aiea when he was 5 years old. After graduating from ‘Iolani in 1981, Mihara majored in business administration at the University of Washington. After college, he worked as a loan officer at a bank in Seattle, but decided to pursue a career in broadcasting.

"Given that 23 years of age was too early for early retirement, I finally thought about what would be an ideal job. Turns out it was right in front of my eyes my whole life. Ever since I was a little kid, I would watch the evening news with Bob Sevey," said Mihara.

With no experience in the news business, Mihara was surprised to land a job as an assignment desk assistant at KOMO, the Seattle ABC affiliate. "After working a year at KOMO, I knew I wanted to be on-air. I sent out a résumé tape to stations across the country, to small towns on the mainland I never heard of. And of course, I contacted the news directors at the three Hawaii stations.

"Wally Zimmerman was news director at KITV at the time. He didn’t offer me an on-air gig, but said that if I wanted to move back to Hawaii, he would give me an assistant producer job. I took it," Mihara said.

In addition to working at KITV, Mihara also worked as a deejay for K105 radio. In June 1989 he became a sports producer for KGMB and began working as a sports reporter. In March 1990 Mihara was promoted to weekday sports anchor when Howard Dashef­sky changed stations.

Mihara anchored sports alongside Bob Jones and Leslie Wilcox."That was a lot of fun to sit next to people that I grew up watching," Mihara said. He also worked with Jade Moon, Janet Wu and Dave Carlin.

Mihara said the sports story that stands out most in his memory "was UH routing arch rival BYU during that wonderful 1992 season when the Bows went to their first bowl game (the Holiday Bowl in San Diego) outside of Hawaii," said Mihara.

In 1994, after Mihara left KGMB, a new career door opened up for him. On a trip to Tokyo, his former KITV co-worker Dalton Tano­naka introduced him to the managers at NHK, where he worked.

NHK was looking for a play-by-play announcer for sumo. Mihara was hired and learned the unique style of announcing sumo from his broadcast colleagues, Tom Quinn and former KHON and KITV sports reporter Dave Wiggins.

Adjusting to living and working in Japan came easily for Mihara. "The biggest hurdle was the language — which was especially hard for me since I look Japa­nese. But everything else, the food, the transportation, was a breeze," Mihara said.

He still continues to broadcast sumo events, but moved over to news as an anchor for NHK Newsline in 2007. The biggest news story of his career came last year. "No doubt the March 11 (tsunami) disaster last year — the devastation was unreal," Mihara said.

He visits the islands a couple of times a year to see family and friends, but enjoys life in Japan. "There are L&L Drive-Inns, Kua ‘Aina burgers and dozens of other locals who live here. I have never been homesick in my 18 years living here. I also enjoy trying new restaurants, so I’ll write reviews every so often," Mihara said.

NHK World’s Newsline airs weekdays at 1 p.m. locally on PBS Hawaii where you can catch Mihara anchoring or online at www3.nhk.or.jp/nhk­world.

A.J. McWhorter, a collector of film and videotape cataloging Hawaii’s TV history, has worked as a producer, writer and researcher for both local and national media. Email him at flashback@hawaii.rr.com.