Merrie Monarch 2009 Kudos

Now that I’ve recovered from the 2009 Merrie Monarch Festival I thought it would be a good time to appreciate those who were part of the great event.

First thanks to all of the halau who put in many tireless hours of practice. It seems as though the performances get better every year.

Thank you to those who put on the Merrie Monarch Festival. It was great to see founders Aunty Dottie Thompson and Uncle George Naope attend the final night. A big mahalo to Thompson’s daughter Luana who now runs the festival.

The crew behind the scenes that scrambled to put on the broadcast, in HD for the first time. KITV Engineering Director Rodney Shimabukuro was everywhere.

The broadcast talent was great as always, but here is where I really wanted to go. The biggest thanks and my amazement goes to KITV’s Paula Akana. Paula lost her father one week before the Merrie Monarch broadcast started.

She is made of sterner stuff than most. Despite her tragic loss, she managed to finish putting her Best of Merrie Monarch and Backstage at the Merrie Monarch shows together in the days after her father’s death. She then went on to show her professionalism by hosting the festival for six hours plus a night.

Paula has kept her pain private and is obviously still grieving, but she felt she couldn’t let down the public or the station by stepping down from the Merrie Monarch Festival broadcast. Send your thoughts, prayers and aloha.

Primary Election Day Coverage

The crews are pouring into the station for tonight’s primary election coverage. We’ll have KITV’s Daryl Huff at the Capitol to report on anything that may happen there, plus provide analysis. Keoki Kerr will be at Mufi Hannemann’s headquarters, Jodi Leong at Ann Kobayashi’s headquarters and Jill Kuramoto at Panos Prevedouros’ headquarters. Dick Allgire is on the Big Island to cover the mayor’s race there.

Paula Akana and Shawn Ching will anchor our coverage. UH political science professor and KITV political analyst Neal Milner will provide an in-depth look at the races and the voting results.

Here on the Web we will give you all of the results and we’ll track the candidates.

Stay with us. Our coverage on TV begins at 5:30 p.m.

Shawn’s DNC Coverage

Shawn Ching has been filing stories for the Web from Denver at the Democratic National Convention via his Blackberry phone.

He has shot dozens of pictures for our site. He’s had the opportunity to meet ABC’s Charlie Gibson, Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts. Roberts told Shawn she might do an interview with him at a later time. ABC’s press person told Shawn Roberts has since left the convention.

Check out his blog at http://www.kitv.com/politics/17269140/detail.html

Hopefully he will have more nuggets from the DNC later.

Brent Suyama

Congratulations To Jill Kuramoto!

After months of being a growing trooper at news stories KITV’s Jill Kuramoto gave birth on Tuesday.

Jill gave birth at 3:20 a.m. to a nearly 6 lbs boy named Jace Randall. Everyone, including mom baby and new father David are doing well.

Jill will be off the air for a couple of months while she cares for her newborn. We wish her and the new family the best.

By the way, Jace’s birth comes just days before Jill’s birthday.

-Brent

She’s What? I Couldn’t Tell

 Many times KITV’s weekend anchor Jill Kuramoto goes out into the public to do a story and many people are shocked to find out that she is PREGNANT.

 That’s right. You might not have been able to tell with the way the studio camera operators creatively shoot Jill.

 My own mother was surprised to see how far along Jill was when she saw her at Easter service.

 Time is ticking. Jill has only 3 weeks left before her due date. She and her husband David are having a baby boy. It is their first child.

 Jill said the baby’s room is ready, but they are still gathering items they still need.

 ”The reality is starting to set in. We are really excited and nervous at the same time, but we are really looking forward to being parents,” Jill said.

 They are still trying to decide on a name.

 We wish Jill a great delivery and good health for her new child.

- Brent Suyama