In 1977 Larry Price gave a speech that would change his life. His friends don’t remember the specifics, only what happened next.
As Price spoke at a public gathering, Cec Heftel, then the owner of KGMB AM-FM radio, watched how the former University of Hawaii-Manoa football coach mesmerized the audience with wit and humor. Heftel decided right then to hire Price.
“He said, ‘I want this guy on my team. I don’t know what he will do, but I want him on my team,’” recalled Dale Machado, who had been hired by the station only two months earlier. “I remember they gave him an office in a storeroom. There was junk in the room, and he had his desk there.”
Inauspicious as that was, the job put Price on a path to the top of Hawaii radio and a 33-year command of the morning airwaves. Although Heftel gave Price a public relations job, he paired him with Michael W. Perry in 1983, and “The Perry &Price Show” quickly became the No. 1 choice for morning listeners — a position the show has maintained with few interruptions ever since.
But on Thursday, Price, 81, retired from the show as it broadcast from a statewide cruise on the Pride of America.
It was a low-key departure, with nothing said at the end of the broadcast.
“Nobody really talked about it,” Machado said. “Larry is a very private man. He didn’t want to make a big deal of it. Nothing special was said.”
Price’s departure, announced last week, doesn’t mean the end of “The Perry &Price Show.” KSSK plans to continue airing it under the same name, but with Perry as the solo host. And Price will co-host a weekly sports show on sister station KIKI-AM 990.
Price, who is married to the former May Kawakami and lives in Honolulu, declined to be interviewed, and KSSK said Perry would not be available for comment.
Price’s friends, however, were not shy about singing his praises.
“What you see is what you get,” Machado said. “He is not a showbiz guy.”
The Price-and-Perry chemistry was undeniable, Machado said.
“The magic of that team is that Mike was always the professional radio guy and Larry brought the local guy, regular dude. And the combination just works,” said Machado, chief engineer for iHeartMedia Honolulu, which owns KSSK, the station that broadcasts “The Perry &Price Show.”
PRICE’S EVERYMAN sincerity isn’t an act, Machado said. A staunch supporter of education with a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California, Price has often helped co-workers pay for college.
“He doesn’t talk about it, but he has helped a lot of people,” Machado said.
That assistance was keenly felt at Chaminade University, where Price taught labor relations, human resources management and negotiations in the M.B.A. program from 1982 to 2013. Price donated his salary, as well as what he earned from writing a weekly column at MidWeek, to a scholarship fund for that he established for low-income students. He also donated nearly $40,000 to retrofit a classroom with high-tech equipment.
“Gosh, I don’t know if words can really describe him,” said Be-Jay Kodama, the university’s director of alumni relations and a former student of the teacher affectionately known as “Dr. Larry.”
“He is so active and involved and gives back to the community,” she said. “He cares about education. He is a philanthropist. He wants the best for everyone.”
Julia Norton-Dennis, news anchor for “The Perry &Price Show,” said a lot of listeners might not know this side of Price.
“I want people to know there is this whole other side of Larry that is a caring and giving and sensitive person,” Norton-Dennis said. “He is the last person who will admit that. He doesn’t want people to know that. But he goes and buys computers for the public schools.”
Price is something of a workaholic who often comes in on his days off or while on vacation, Norton-Dennis said.
“Work means everything to him,” she said. “If you work hard, that’s golden. I don’t know where he gets it from. He is just a hard worker.”
Price’s best quality, one that comes through on the morning broadcasts, is his ability to listen, Norton-Dennis said.
“He has been a sounding board for me several times over the years,” said Norton-Dennis, who started working at the station in 1992. “He will sit back and then offer some sage advice. And if you ever need anything, I have never heard him say no.”
During the early to mid-1980s, Price worked in radio and TV at the same time, filing investigative reports for KITV and boasting in on-air promotional spots that he knew how to get information, even if it took a case of beer.
Price’s roots are in sports, which is the reason he’s called Coach by some.
After graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1952, Price attended UH his freshman year but was drafted by the Army during the Korean War. He remained in the Army for eight years before going back to UH, where he played football well enough to be invited to try out as a free-agent offensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams in 1967.
PRICE APPEARED in a few National Football League exhibition games, but the pro ranks were tough. So instead, he became an assistant coach on the UH football team that year. He worked at night as a hotel security guard because the football gig paid nothing. By 1974 he was elevated to head coach and led the team for three seasons.
Price got involved with football again in 1989, this time as a play-by-play announcer for OIA football games broadcast live on OC-16 — an idea that Price successfully pitched to the league and the station.
He covered the Friday night games for many years and was a revered presence, said sportscaster Kanoa Leahey, who worked alongside Price for eight years. Leahey marveled at Price’s work ethic and his intellect.
“Even though he spoke with a pidgin tone and dialect, there was no questioning his knowledge on various topics,” Leahey said. “I kind of always thought that he really enjoyed when someone would underestimate his intelligence based on how he spoke. I think he loved being prejudged.”
Price suffered his greatest on-air faux pas during a morning broadcast of “The Perry &Price Show” in May 2003. That’s when he triggered a storm of criticism when he questioned the honesty of state Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser on the basis of his blue eyes and California birth.
“There is no room for this type of insensitive language that I used,” Price said on air a few days later. “I have learned from this, and I hope that Sen. Hooser will accept my apology.”
Shortly after the apology, Price’s KSSK partner, Perry, said on the air, “I think you’re crazy. You don’t have to apologize. … The Senate has to apologize.”
Last week, iHeartMedia Honolulu staffers wept on his last day in the studio, knowing that his farewell would be delivered from a distance.
It wasn’t easy to watch, said Machado, who was there in the Dole Cannery studio.
“People broke down,” he said. “Everyone had a tear in their eye. He’s this presence who has been there all these years.”
How the dominant show will fare now is anyone’s guess. There’s only one thing for sure, Machado said: “You cannot replace Larry Price. That is impossible.”
