Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 3, 1 March 1994 — Hawaiian language radio newscast debuts [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian language radio newscast debuts

by Jeff Clark "Ke aloha nui e ko Hawai'i ..." That phrase, expressing greetings and aloha to all of Hawai'i's people, launched what is believed to be the first-ever regularly scheduled Hawaiian-lan-guage radio newscast on Jan. 31. "Ke Aolama," or "the enlight-

ened world," is a five-minute newscast being aired Monday - Friday at 6:08 p.m. on Hawai'i Public Radio. KHPR/88.1 FM on O'ahu and KKUA/90.7 FM on Maui. Outer-island listeners may hear Ke Aolama through their cable television service (see box). lnitiated by musician, teacher, and 'ōlelo Hawai'i student Keith Haugen, the historic program is being coordinated by students and faculty members at the University of Hawai'i-Mānoa. Haugen credits 'Ioli'i Hawkins, Hawaiian language coordinator in the Department of IndoPacific Languages, and instructor

Kamoa'e Walk, saying, "a lot of the work is falling on their shoulders." Hawkins approves the courses that enable students, three translators and four readers, to earn credit for putting the show together. They get their news from the Associated Press and

The Honolulu Advertiser. KHPR news director Scott Kim selects the stories and faxes them to UH in the morning; students translate them; Walk proofreads the copy before it goes on the air; and the students tape the broadcast at HPR's Kāheka Street studio in the afternoon. For the first broadcast, Lloyd Kumulā'au Sing and Leilani Poli'ahu gave the news about the big "pā'ani pōpeku" between "ke Cowboys a me ka Bills" (the Superbowl), the possibility of "pākaha mai ka lewa i nā Serbs" (air strikes in Bosnia), "halehale maila nā nalu ma ke kapa kai 'Ākau" (high waves on the North

Shore), "ka male 'ana o nā kanaka i like ke 'ano" (same-sex marriage), "ua emi hou ihola ka pihana o nā lumi hōkele" (the decrease in hotel room oeeupancy), and the "e hō'ole ana 'o Kōlea 'Ākau i nā māka'ika'i noi'i nukela" (the refusal of North Korea to allow nuclear

I weapons inspections). Other news readers are Hailiopua Baker and Kaleimakamae Ka'auwai. Translators are 'Analū Okimoto, Liko Rodgers and Kaliko Baker. Baker says, "It's a lot of work, plus we have to get used to I the news lingo. There's I a lot of new words, I like 'nuclear' - that's I not a word you use all I the time in everyday I conversation." Not a problem, thanks to a group of Hawaiian language experts that coins new words and periodically publishes updated lexicons: the word is "nukela." Haugen has been

pitching the idea of a

Hawaiian-language radio newscast for 25 years. Since the late 1960s, eommercial radio stations have been telling him sponsors wouldn't support such a program, that without advertisers a commereial radio station can't survive. Now, a quarter of a century later, Hawai'i Public Radio has gone for it in a big way. HPR has committed to airing the show for a oneyear trial period. Two sponsors, Queen's Medical Center and Bank of Hawai'i, are buying air

time to support it. The station may eventually rebroadcast the newscast the following moming,

Kim says. "The percentage of people who actually speak and understand Hawaiian is probably not that great among our demographics, but it's a way for us to help perpetuate the Hawaiian lan-

guage, says K.im. l think it's important just to get something on the air," no matter how brief. "They're really backing it," Haugen said of HPR. "(Station president) A1 Hulsen is really excited about it, and it's so niee to have a person who's in a position to say 'yea' or 'nay' to be excited about something like this." Haugen is oddly enough targeting the nonHawaiian speaking audienee as well, and says one of the program's purposes is "to show the public that it's not just an academic language. ... if they heard it in a live,

'today' format, maybe people would realize it's a living language."

UH-Mānoa students Kumulā'au Sing, left, and Leilani Poli'ahu read the nightly news in Hawaiian over Hawai'i Public Radio. Photo by Jeff Clark

UH-Mānoa Hawaiian language instructor Kamoa'e Walk supervises students in producing Ke Aolama, and he also reads the 'ōlelo no'eau that close eaeh broadcast. Photo by Jeff Clark