Where will they go today? The Adventures of the Channel 4 News Team (1977-1981)

As ‘Ulu‘ulu’s Special Projects & Operations Archivist, Maile Morrell coordinates grant project activities and contributes to descriptive cataloging efforts for “Digitization of Hawai‘i Regional Broadcast News 1970 – 1981,” a project to preserve at-risk newsreels from Honolulu television stations KHVH, KGMB, and KITV.

In high school, I joined my school’s newspaper as an elective without entirely knowing what to expect. Within days, I was interviewing students I had never met for opinion pieces and attending sports games for the first time in my life.  As a naturally reserved student, I was challenged by my new responsibility to seek out stories and engage in student life like never before. 

I found myself reflecting on these experiences while watching KITV News Library Tapes from 1977-1981, which have been digitized with support from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Recordings at Risk grant. At this point in the project, I have reviewed roughly half of the 400+ items slated for digitization, and I have been consistently impressed by the extent of the station’s news coverage—both topically and geographically. Though most of the news centered on Oʻahu, reporters regularly travelled to the neighbor islands, across the Pacific, and even as far as Taiwan for a story.  

Here are a few of my highlights from the local news reporters of this era:

Emme Tomimbang Burns

KITV could count on Emme to go almost anywhere! Her time at the station helped shape Hawai’i’s broadcast landscape in such a fun way. She went above and beyond to engage with the people she interviewed and immersed herself into the stories she covered. Not only did she conduct an interview while running with a Honolulu Marathon winner, but she also braved blizzard conditions on the summit of Mauna Kea with skiers traversing the volcano. Her energy was unmatched, making it clear to me why she thrived within the local entertainment scene long after her time at KITV with her own show, Emme’s Island Moments—a program recently added to ʻUluʻulu’s collections!

Sandra Carney

“Sandi” as she often referred to herself, covered numerous multi-part series and connected with researchers and activists across the Hawaiian islands. Her work included coverage of the historic landing of Native Hawaiians at Kahoʻolawe and the evictions of Hale Mohalu patients on Oʻahu. Though one of my favorite segments took place in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, investigating the tourism industry and cultural exchanges with the people of Hawaiʻi.

Alan Loflin

Alan’s reports were often fun wild cards in the mix of hard news that characterized a typical daily broadcast. I especially enjoyed his food segments—many of which involved taste tests from restaurants no longer around, such as O’Toole’s Irish Bar and Alioto’s Restaurant. Outside of the food and drink scene, Alan also found himself reporting on geopolitical matters, travelling to Taiwan and Kwajalein Atoll to cover current event stories about the United States’ presence in these parts of the world.

Channel 4 Milestones

Amidst some of the absurdity that took place in the footage, the digitized broadcasts also shed light into milestones for Channel 4 News. One segment celebrated 25 years of broadcast news in the islands which was incredible because it featured footage that was considered archival at the time. Some of that footage is now over 70+ years old! The station also highlighted the first live telecast from Hawaiʻi to the U.S. mainland on November 19, 1966 by Mason Altiery from Waikiki Beach. The special broadcast also featured pioneers such as Betty Smyser and film editor Joe Konno on the way things were and how news broadcasts have changed throughout their careers. It is an interesting parallel to sit in their shoes now—albeit with far less broadcast expertise—and contemplate how much the nature of information sharing continues to change today.

Thank you to the KITV news reporters and camera operators who told the stories of Hawaiʻi and captured the daily lives of its people. Their commitment to hard news on events that have undoubtedly shaped the islands’ political, economic, and social landscape is admirable; but I also appreciate their dedication to special interest stories that document unique aspects of our shared history. Finally, thank you to the team at CLIR for supporting the digitization work so we could view these broadcasts for the first time since they were originally aired. I look forward to diving into the remaining news segments as the project continues.

This project is supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from the Mellon Foundation.