Inside “Sunrise on KGMB9″
I make more than 50 public speaking appearances a year and most of them are speeches followed by questions. After people are done asking about the economy, they sometimes ask about what it’s like to work on “Sunrise.”
On the occasion of our one-year anniversary, here are some of those questions and the answers to them:
Do you guys get along as well as it appears on the air?
Yes. Steve, Grace, Jeff, Ramsay and I get along very well, and we could tell we would from even before the show went on the air, when, before my start date with the company even, we gathered on several occasions for photo and promo shoots.
We also get along with each other’s spouses, children and dogs, and with our colleagues Taizo Braden, Malika Dudley, Billy V, Amy Kalili and the large off-air component of the crew. It’s a cordial, kidding, collegial crew — very helpful at four in the morning.
How many people work on the show anyway?
A lot! Scott Humber, Anna Gomes and Terri Inefuku put the show together (Scott, Anna and I collectively put in hours of work online from home the evening before, and all three of them are at work before I get there) and Jen Cravalho, who operates the TelePrompTer during the show, is the principal guest coordinator. Malika comes in to do weather when Jeff is off but she also comes in for kidcasters and other segments, and Taizo, whether on the air or not, is in every morning to backstop Jeff.
Even that only scratches the surface, because I haven’t mention Byron Furukawa, who controls the studio cameras, or John Yasunaga, who shoots Ramsay in the field, or Joel Ugay and Paul Omengkar, who edit video on the fly or fly out to stories with cameras, or, in the control room, director Michael Harris, technical director Peter Chien, and sound director Craig Kaleikini.
Who do you like best?
Hah! I love them all! But my relationship with each one is different.
I really feel in tune with Steve’s wit, which tends to be self-effacing and yet also sometimes edgy. I can’t feel close to someone who doesn’t have a vibrant sense of humor. As for Grace, I don’t know if it’s because I have four sisters or because I’m an experienced husband, but she and I get along so naturally, it’s as if we’ve known each other forever. I don’t know how else to explain it. Jeff and I have to be careful not to get into too many intellectual discussions because we could talk forever instead of working. Ramsay and I have the easy comradery that comes from sharing the first half hour and having parenthood in common. Billy V and I are the old radio hands and both of us have a kid-in-the-candy-shop attitude about doing television. Joel Ugay, Craig Kaleikini and I usually talk about music. I could go on but you get the idea.
The only people on the crew I knew before are director Michael Harris and assistant producer Anna Gomes. Anna, I knew from the Gridiron satirical revue that the Society of Professional Journalists does annually to fund newsroom internships. Michael and I worked previously at KHON and PBS Hawaii and we are old friends.
Is it unusual for a newsroom to be so happy?
I’ve worked in happy newsrooms before but never one as uniformly cohesive as this one. And I try to keep it that way. Good morale is too important to leave to management. Fortunately, however, both our news director and our general manager work hard for good morale.
Chris Archer, the news director, worked in the ranks in San Francisco and vividly remembers how important esprit de corps in the newsroom is. Chris is supportive, low-key and has confidence in his hires, which means we don’t get micromanaged.
Rick Blangiardi, the general manager, is an athletic coach who found that managing like a coach is an effective way to run a company. I’ve worked for non-coaches who tried doing this and bungled it utterly (one imbecile I worked for on the mainland in the 1980s thought coaches yell a lot, so that’s what he did) but as a real coach Rick understands how to play to people’s strengths and benefit from their self-improvement.
Are you really in the newsroom when you do the reports with the cat in the background?
Yes. That’s the real newsroom, adjacent to the studio. I can hear Scott Humber hollering to people in the field while I’m on the air! And let me tell you something about that. The microphones we use are little tiny ones that clip on the shirt. I fish the cord underneath my shirt front. There is a different one at the anchor desk for the history feature or Crisis at a Glance, and still another one for the interview couch, and yet another one for standing with Ramsay and Jeff at the end of the first half hour of the show. That’s four microphones in one show, all of which have to be fished underneath my shirt.
How do you decide what we see behind you?
I always put the bearded cat behind me because everyone seems to like it. Grant Kageshiro made that years ago and sent it to me as a kind of welcome present.
On the other side I choose something that represents some of that morning’s news, a plane or ship from a company I’m talking about.
If there’s nothing that appropriate, I look for something that hasn’t been displayed in awhile.
Do you write all your own stuff?
Yes. Or adlib it, if there’s no time to write it. I spend two hours online at home every evening writing stories for the morning. There is enough time in the morning to write up breaking stories but I were writing it all from scratch I’d have to get up even earlier and write faster, increasing the chance of mistakes.
The other big difference between writing it at 5 p.m. and writing it at 4 a.m. is that I can contact someone or do some online research to confirm a story that some other media outlet got first. Also, a lot of business news is self-announced by the companies involved, and press releases often leave out details that can change a self-congratulary blurb into a genuine story. Finally, I don’t trust my memory and like to take time looking up facts to make sure I remember them correctly.
Is everything written for Steve and Grace?
You would be surprised how much they do write. Mostly their stories are written for them, since you can’t anchor and write at the same time — and yet they both have computers just below the anchor desk, visible through clear spots on the desktop, and I’m astounded at how often they are working on stories during commercials.
They also use those computers to spot bulletins and “urgents” from the news agencies, which appear automatically in the software we use to write stories.
You look thinner in person
I’m 5′10″ and 250 lbs. That makes me equal to any two regular television people so I have double the work load. I look fatter on the air because the camera lens makes you look bigger (and makes people look farther apart from each other than they really are). I look thinner in person because I’m solid.
Fatness is common among earlybird radio people because sleep deprivation increases hunger and caffeine stimulates appetite. I’ve known several 400 lb. disc jockeys.
Do you wear makeup?
Not on KGMB9. PBS Hawaii insists on it. They have different lighting.
Is Steve really such a big eater?
No, it’s just a running gag. If you think I look thinner in person you should see Steve with his jacket off. I think Jeff comes closer to being obsessed with food than Steve and even he falls a little short of being manic about it.
What kind of dog is Sunny?
A Rhodesian Ridgeback. No, actually I have no idea. But “Sunny,” which is her air name (in real life she has another name), is a delightful little cur. Any time you see me holding her on the air, it’s because she ran up to be held at that moment.
Are Steve and Grace a number?
No, though they adore each other. Grace is spoken for, and Steve spends his spare time working out and thinking of relationships that didn’t work out. His memories are hazy so he also thinks of what might not have been.
Are Steve and Jeff a number?
If they were, it would be an irrational number.
Are Jeff and Taizo a number?
Okay, now you’re scaring me.
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