3 - CEO Message 6 - TV Listings 18 - Partner Profile 4 - Cover Story 10 - Evening Grid 17 - Daytime Grid PROGRAM GUIDE MARCH 2018 VOL. 37 NO. 3 Fred Hemmings page 4 Hemmings on his MISTER ROGERS: favorite board, IT’S YOU I LIKE “Blue Max,” page 7 at the Mākaha contest in 1966. Courtesy of the Hemmings Collection Hemmings the Courtesy of | MARCH 2018 McKinley High School teacher Mara Kaizawa- Miyata and McKinley principal Ron Okamura McKinley High School presents $5,000 to PBS Hawai‘i Longtime Volunteer Turns 99 McKinley High School students recently presented PBS Hawai‘i with a check PBS Hawai’i helped celebrate for $5,000 from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, earned after longtime volunteer Masako Kawana’s completing more than 100 hours of volunteer work. 99th birthday. Masako’s grandson Through “Educating the Heart,” a program sponsored by the Weinberg told her she’s not old until she turns Foundation, the McKinley 11th- and 12th-graders worked under the supervision 100. Masako’s son Sanford and of teacher Mara Kaizawa-Miyata to produce public service announcements daughter-in-law Kathy, also helped promoting college enrollment. The PSAs, which helped the students celebrate. Masako shared stories exercise their digital storytelling skills, aired on McKinley’s daily student about country life in Hawai’i, before news broadcast. electricity and hot running water! BOARD OF DIRECTORS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM GUIDE Chair Vice Chair President and CEO Editor Jason Fujimoto Joanne Grimes Leslie Wilcox Liberty Peralta Secretary Treasurer Senior Vice President/CFO Graphic Artist Bettina Mehnert Kent Tsukamoto Karen Yamamoto Randall Choo Muriel Anderson Joy Miura Koerte VP Content Communications Susan Bendon Kamani Kuala‘au Linda Brock Assistant Jodi Endo Chai Mary Ann Manahan Emily Bodfish James E. Duffy Jr. Aaron Salā VP Integrated Media Matthew Emerson Julie Shimonishi Production Contributing Writer Jake Fergus Ka‘iulani Sodaro Jason Suapaia Emilie Howlett Jason Haruki Candy Suiso Noelani Kalipi Huy Vo VP Advancement Program Listings Ian Kitajima Bruce Voss Mariko Miho Emily Bodfish John Kovacich VP Communications Liberty Peralta Director, Learning Initiatives Robert Pennybacker Chief Engineer pbshawaii.org John Nakahira 2 CEO MESSAGE He was genuine, all right I love this line from a Jimmy Buffett song: was superb advice...He evidently thought of Leslie Wilcox “I got a PBS mind in an MTV world.” one child.” PBS Hawai‘i That describes the mind of the late Mister Indeed, when Mister Rogers later faced the President and CEO Rogers, too. camera in his own TV neighborhood, many In fact, Mister Rogers met a vacationing MTV children felt that he was speaking directly to news producer on a summer stay in Nantucket them, one on one. He addressed their and asked producer Ben Wagner about his job unspoken fears – about controlling their anger at the network, which favored and frustration; a loved one’s short, dramatic edits (“jump illness; the possibility of cuts”) and quickie soundbites. spiraling like water into the Rogers listened attentively and bathtub drain... told Wagner warmly: “I feel so In effect, Fred Rogers strongly that deep and simple is turned a mass medium far more essential than shallow into hundreds of thousands and complex.” of personal talks. In the Wagner, impressed at Rogers’ television/video industry, gentle truths and authenticity, we call this uncommon later produced an award-winning phenomenon “breaking documentary, Mister Rogers & Me. the glass.” This month, PBS Hawai‘i At a national PBS conference presents Mister Rogers: It’s You Mister Rogers that I attended, a speaker I Like on Tuesday, March 6 at in trademark sweater asked how many PBS staffers 8:00 pm. It’s a 50th anniversary had entered the field because celebration of the beloved longtime program they were inspired by Mister Rogers. Scores of that launched in 1968, Mister Rogers’ people stood up, many of them in their mid-20s Neighborhood. and 30s. Before Fred Rogers became “Mister Rogers,” As genuine as Fred Rogers was found to be he watched a commercial TV program featuring by those who knew him well, his caring manner people smashing pies in each others’ faces. He was parodied mercilessly by late-night comedy concluded there were better things to do with shows. the miracle of broadcast technology. Rogers shrugged off the barbs, even “You rarely have time for everything you want appearing on the shows that made fun of him. in this life, so you need to make choices,” he And he always assured children that “the said. “And hopefully your choices can come greatest gift you give is your honest self.” from a deep sense of who you are.” Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood welcomed us One of his choices was to learn how to into its cheerful, positive environs until 2001. present a different kind of television. Fred Rogers died in 2003, at age 74. Gaining TV experience as a floor manager on His observations remain more apt than ever, a kids show starring cowboy-actor Gabby Hayes including the theme that he shared those (a one-time sidekick to Roy Rogers), Fred decades ago with the MTV producer: Rogers picked up counsel that he wouldn’t What our society gives us is shallow and forget. He asked what the actor thought of as complicated. Life is deep and simple. he looked at the camera, knowing there were a lot of people out there watching. Aloha nui, “He said, ‘Freddie, I just think of one little Buckaroo,’” Rogers recalled. “And I thought this 3 | MARCH 2018 COVER STORY Fred Collection Hemmings the Courtesy of Hemmings By Emilie Howlett Tuesday, March 27, 7:30 pm As a child born and raised in Kaimukī by his Punahou School on financial aid, and initally did not fit in. Catholic Portuguese mother and English-Irish father, “When I was at Punahou, I was Fred Hemmings the Fred Hemmings was nicknamed “Bully Beef” for his Podagee, but when I got off the Punahou bus in Kaimukī, rough-and-tumble, hardheaded nature. I was a haole…because [people] perceived me as a While bucking up against the status quo would become Punahou haole,” he recalls. a frequent theme in his life, Hemmings eventually outgrew One place he didn’t have to fight to fit in was in the his childhood nickname, and leaned into other titles, like ocean. Hemmings grew up in a surfing family, with the father of professional surfing, state legislator, and Waikīkī as his playground. He reminisces about surfing author. Local Boy: A Memoir, his latest book published alongside celebrated waterman Duke Kahanamoku, who last year, is a love letter to Hawai‘i. In the book, he Hemmings considers the “most beloved citizen of recounts his adventures in surfing, politics and growing Hawai‘i” and a “true man of aloha.” up in the Islands. Hemmings would go on to make a name for himself as Hemmings spent some of his childhood navigating the an accomplished waterman. He won world surfing complicated social and racial aspects that continue to be championships in Brazil, Peru, Puerto Rico, and here at part of the fabric of life in Hawai‘i. While he came from home, at the Mākaha International Surfing Championships, modest means, Hemmings and his siblings attended four times. He was also a noted canoe paddler, participating pbshawaii.org 4 Courtesy of the Hemmings Collection Hemmings the Courtesy of Fred Hemmings and Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen canoe surfing at Old Man’s Bowl ca. 1974. Courtesy of Kimo Wilder McVay Courtesy of the White House Press Office The Duke Kahanamoku Surf Team was formed in 1965 by Kimo McVay, Fred Hemmings and his wife Lydia (center) meet with former owner of Duke Kahanamoku’s Waikīkī nightclub. Duke (center) poses on the First Lady Laura Bush in 2006 at a White House dinner for backers beach with (left to right) charter members Paul Strauch, Joey Cabell, Fred of Papahānaumokuākea, the world’s largest marine refuge in the and Butch Van Artsdalen. Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. in the Outrigger Canoe Club and Hui Nalu Canoe Club After his long surfing career, Hemmings worked in Moloka‘i-to-O‘ahu race from 1956 to 1988. promotions and marketing, then made the transition to Perhaps his crowning and most proud accomplishment politics. In 1984-1990, he served in the state House of has been bringing the sport he loves to the rest of the world. Representatives, and in the Hawai‘i State Senate from After many years as a recreational surfer, Hemmings 2000 until 2010, when he retired from elected office. worked to establish a professional surfing industry and During his time as a Republican State Senator, he organized televised pro-surf competitions like the Triple worked with Governor Linda Lingle and President George Crown in 1976 and the Pipeline Masters. Along with W. Bush to establish the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands surfing icon Randy Rarick, Hemmings also created the National Monument, Papahānaumokuākea, the largest first world pro surfing tour. protected area of any kind in the country and the world’s While he aimed to lay a foundation for modern-day pro largest marine refuge. surfing that was objective and points-based, Hemmings Hemmings says he’s never been satisfied to watch still speaks of surfing with an almost-spiritual reverence. from the sidelines. At 72, he doesn’t see the point in The pages in his book evoke the magic of the Mākaha mourning that his grandchildren won’t likely be able to Beach surf and the thrill of riding monster waves at paddle out to enjoy a surf break all to themselves. Waimea Bay. Hemmings has seen change firsthand, but his vision for Hawai‘i’s future retains a hint of optimism.