Competing For Your Attention

I’ve been informed that one of our competitors (KGMB) has launched a flood of blogs and posts. Kudos to them.

It’s not easy doing more with less. We all face tough times with cutbacks and lean budgets.

I pledge to our viewers here at KITV.com that we will strive for excellence. We all make mistakes, but we will perservere to bring you updated coverage with extras that can help make you  informed of what is happening and how you can take advantage of the issues facing our islands.

We will unveil new products in the coming weeks that will help you be part of the KITV News team. Some of the products will also help you with you finances, traffic, voicing your opinion and more.

Aloha, Brent Suyama, Managing Editor KITV.com

Covering Power Outages

The good thing about technology is that it allows us to access some of our work wherever you need to. However, sometimes the technology lets you down.

I’m the managing editor of KITV.com and I work on the site from all over. One time I even did work from Paris on a vacation. However, no power — no can do.

I made it to my parents home in Wahiawa where they had power. No cable Internet service cut me out there. My mother’s AT&T wireless card worked for about 15 minutes.

Finally, I’ve had to come into KITV for the work. However, KITV is owned by Hearst-Argyle. They help us with a team of Internet specialists around the country. They provided updates to the site while I faced the hurdles of the power outage.

It’s always nice to know you have backup.

KITV is planning a 1-hour special news broadcast at 5 p.m. We’re getting the latest from HECO, the city and others up on the site as fast as we get it.

Stay with us and thanks for counting on us.

Brent Suyama KITV.com managing editor

Obama, Island Son, Becomes President

Hawaii now has its first locally-born president.

General Election Night

Nov. 4 will be a historic day for our nation’s top offices. Either we will have the first African-American president or we will have the first female vice president.

The fact that Sen. Barack Obama is Hawaii-born has strengthened the appeal for many Hawaii residents.

Locally, we will keep close track of the numbers for you. We will have live coverage from Mayor Mufi Hannemann’s party, Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi’s party, Obama and Sen. John McCain’s parties.

We also have crews on Kauai and the Big Island to follow the candidates of those mayoral races.

Check with KITV.com for the latest results. We also will have a page that has the electoral maps for the major news media outlets including: ABC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, FOX and The Associated Press.

You also have the chance to comment on the election at: http://www.kitv.com/politics/17850517/detail.html

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

Whale videos

Here are the links to the whale videos:

 

http://www.kitv.com/video/16260953/index.html

http://www.kitv.com/video/16255795/index.html

Long Lines, Scan Design Says Goodbye

After word in the Honolulu Advertiser that Scan Design’s Honolulu store is set to close and offer drastically marked down prices, people lined up down the block for a chance to get in.

I sit facing King Street, so I can see the line from my office window.

People trying to get to the sale are clogging nearby roads, including Ward Avenue and Hotel Street that runs behind Straub Hospital and Clinic and the Honolulu Police Department’s headquarters.

The store is shutting down after 29 years in the islands.

About 150 people waited in line for the store to open. The workers were limiting the number of customers that entered at a time. Only 10 people were allowed in at a time every 30 minutes.

Scan Design still has to empty its warehouse, so new product will be brought out each week until it’s all gone, company workers said.

KITV has a crew following the customers and the closing sale. Tune in at 6 p.m. for the story.

Recovering From Merrie Monarch

The Merrie Monarch Festival is over and I’m recovering from posting livestreams, videos, stories and stats.

We had thousands of people visit KITV.com for the festival from all around the world. We receive dozens of e-mails from people who watch the event online.

“Our Hawaiian club, Hui o Hawai’i, at Stanford has been watching online together for the past two nights. It’s been great to be able to bring a piece of home here to California while we are away at school. We want to send our aloha to all our ‘ohana and friends at home. Mahalo.”

“Expat local here and I just wanted to say that I’m watching from Italy.  I had no idea that there was an online version, so it was nice to be tipped off by a kama’aina!”

“How lucky we feel to be sharing in this beautiful evening of hula and mele.  Last night was wonderful (and of course Miss Aloha Hula night) and tonight is starting out  so colorful, lyrical, and energetic.   Another 4am night,.. and we wish there were more nights to follow.”

 

Not everyone who wrote in was happy. Some couldn’t get the livestream to work and others couldn’t get audio. I apologize. We are working each year to improve the system.

We have another 12 months to work out more of our kinks.

Aloha-

Brent

Aloha Dancers; It’s Merrie Monarch Time

The 45th Merrie Monarch Festival is in full swing. Last night, KITV broadcasted the Miss Aloha Hula competition.

It is a huge feat to coordinate everything. We have crews in Hilo and back here we have our head engineer monitoring the broadcast.

I’m in charge of the live video stream. I’m constantly monitoring the feed and fielding questions from viewers from all parts of the world about how to watch or helping them troubleshoot their problems.

It always amazes me to see where people watch from. Last night we had viewers from Italy, Thailand, Mexico, Japan and of course all over the nation.

We have Hawaii club members at colleges getting together and watch until the dawn for some of them.

Some West Coast residents get together for a luau on Saturdays.

It’s our effort to bring a bit of the islands to everyone. We hope you enjoy it.

- Brent