Books

In
this age of impersonal corporate radio, it’s hard to imagine a time when radio
stations were truly local institutions-familiar, a little amateurish and probably
broadcasting live from a neighborhood store near you. Such is the world conjured
by Kaua’i As it Was in the 1940s and ’50s, a collection of memories by Mike Ashman,
who, in 1940, was lured from San Francisco to be an announcer and engineer for
Kaua’i’s first station, KTOH.

The station was created in 1938 by the
newspaper publisher Garden Island Publishing Co. KTOH debuted with three solid
hours of live Hawaiian music. It boasted programming in English, Japanese and
Ilocano. It became a witness, and a mirror, to Kaua’i’s plantation society.

In
the 1940s, KTOH transmitted live from Lïhu’e Store, holding radio parties at which
housewives competed for free housecleaning supplies in contests of penny-pitching
and dart-throwing. KTOH was there, holding a microphone up to catch the sound
of the ribbon being cut at the opening of the Hanapëpë-to-Waimea highway. When
a new fangled technology became available-the tape recorder-KTOH went into neighborhood
schools, even into people’s kitchens, to record and broadcast daily life from
one Kauaian to another.

Reading Ashman’s memories, presented as a series
of episodes, is like tuning in to a transmission from yesteryear.

Published
by the Kaua’i Historical Society, distributed by the University of Hawai’i Press.
www.uhpress.hawaii.edu. $18.