MAUI NEI

By RON YOUNGBLOOD, Staff Writer
After six years of working on Maui — including one year of scuffling as a freelance writer — I was out of a job. I’d quit as a Neighbor Island correspondent for a city newspaper to spend time exploring the island.

I’d quit a county gig as a hired typewriter to become the editor of a weekly newspaper. The publisher had the mistaken idea I was some sort of political insider. I’d quit the paper out of frustration with the shaky financial situation.

The start of this long and winding road was at a small Indiana radio station. They were looking for a kid who could read. I could. There were other radio stations, but all that was back in 1958-1962. Home in 1980 was a cottage in Olinda. To keep myself from going nuts, I’d spend at least an hour a day looking for work and the rest of the time staring morosely at the rain, an ua ho‘okina, from Thanksgiving to Easter that year.

My partner at the time suggested I try for a part-time job at KNUI. The boss at KNUI was Tom Elkins, who died last week. I don’t remember talking to him. I think he let the program director do the on-air hiring. His office was up front, and although he kept tabs on what was being done on air via monitors scattered all over the station, he pretty much stayed up there and left the hirelings alone.

The job began as the weekend midnight-to-6 a.m. disc jockey but soon included working news a couple of days a week. Tom was forever busting my chops for mispronouncing nuclear. I still can’t do it the way he wanted. At one point, he said, “I’d like to pay you more, but a newspaper guy is more valuable to a newspaper than he is to a radio station.”

Tom’s dedication to local news took more than one form. He had a full-time news director/reporter. He wrote editorials five days a week. He allowed air time for short reviews of theatrical productions. And, when I showed up he wanted a sort of broadcast version of letters to the editor.

It had been tried before but failed. Tom admitted he was the cause of the failure. When listeners called in with some opinion or other, Tom couldn’t resist an immediate on-air reply in acid terms. The calls dried up.

The giant answering machine was still under the counter in the newsroom. He offered a few more bucks if I’d give it a try. The machine was left on 24 hours a day. Once or twice a day, the recorded calls — all anonymous — would be turned into 90-second shows played a regular intervals during the day.

Tom still couldn’t resist replying, but one editorial a day didn’t leave him enough room when six or seven listener opinions floated out on the airwaves every day. A liberal idea of what was appropriate soon had the machine humming pretty much nonstop.

One morning the advertising manager came roaring into the newsroom. She was livid about a “Forum” she’d heard. It involved a listener complaining about an advertiser who was now threatening to pull his ads. I agreed I’d probably stepped over the line. It didn’t placate her. The third time she began ranting, I told her, “You can fire me, you know.”

Tom never said a word about the incident — not to me, anyway. I suspect he was the one who allowed me to continue collecting a paycheck.

The pay wasn’t that great. It never is in local radio. There are always people who will take the jobs just because it can be so much fun, particularly in a station where there are bright people and time for laughter and good time.

KNUI was a great place to work, mostly because Tom Elkins was a one-of-a-kind pro running the show.

• Ron Youngblood can be reached at youngblood@mauinews.com.