During the 1970s and ’80s, Courtney Harrington was a familiar name and face on island radio and television. His shows on KGU and KHON were No. 1 in their time slots. This month we look back on Harrington’s career and catch up with him.

Harrington was raised in Aina Hana. After graduating from Punahou, he served in the Air Force, earning a computer science degree. In 1967, Harrington joined the Burroughs Corp. as a field engineer in New York City and later Los Angeles. A friend of his worked in radio, so Harrington decided to give it a try.

"It was a great way to meet girls and looked like a lot of fun," he said. After attending the Bill Wade School of Broadcasting, he was hired as a deejay for KVFM radio in the San Fernando Valley. Harrington moved back to the islands a year later, working the afternoon drive time at KPUA in Hilo.

While at KPUA, Harrington spent 36 hours straight on the air to help raise funds for the Hawaii Heart Association. In 1972, he was hired as program director for KGMB radio, where he worked with Kim Chee, Ted Sax and George "Granny Goose" Groves and helped produce the morning radio show of legendary deejay Hal Lewis, better known as "J. Akuhead Pupule."

"He called me ‘Courteous Courtney,’" Harrington said.

Moving to KGU radio in 1974, Harrington’s midday show was the highest rated in Honolulu in 1978. Some of his KGU colleagues were Bernie Armstrong, Dick Cook and Chris Allen. "It was when ‘personality radio’ was in full bloom and we all had great freedom to do what we wanted as long as it was successful," he said.

After KGU was sold in 1980, Harrington moved on to television news as a KHON production assistant. "Barbara Marshall took me under her wing when I first started at KHON in 1980," Harrington said. He quickly moved into a reporter position and began co-anchoring the weekend news with Barbara Tanabe and Jack Wiers.

Harrington said he will never forget covering Hurricane Iwa in 1982. "The driving rain felt like bullets hitting me. It really hurt. I had bruises on my cheeks the next day," he said. "The utter devastation we saw the next morning — I can still clearly see the image in my mind of a long stretch of the road with deep sand covering it and every utility pole laying all over the place."

KHON aired the first morning news show in the islands in January 1983, with co-anchors Harrington and Mary Zanakis. "Kilauea erupted on our first show. We started out with a bang," he said.

Instead of local viewers receiving brief morning newsbreaks, they were getting a one-hour show written and produced by Harrington. The KHON morning show format would later become the norm for local morning news shows. The KHON morning show’s final ratings earned a 52 share, still tops to this day.

In 1987, Harrington left TV news and returned to KGU with a talk-radio program with Fred Hemmings.

"I loved TV news. We went places and did things the average person never would. It was a good career while it lasted," he said.

Harrington went on to work in various posts for Honolulu mayors Frank Fasi and Jeremy Harris. He was recognized in 2003 as one of the nation’s top specialists in government information technology. The city’s website was ranked first among major U.S. cities for digital technology in local government during Harrington’s tenure.

In 2005, he became chief technical officer for homeland security for the state, and since 2009 has worked for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, whose duties include military intelligence, surveillance and cyberspace operations.

"I work for an agency in the Navy in the area of national security. It is meaningful work and I’m happy," he said.

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.