Leslie Wilcox Blogs

My Father's Secret Password

     My father, Paul Wilcox, was a Hawaiian history buff. He saw modern Hawaii through the prism of what came before--and was always interested in "talking story" and engaging in palapala (paper) research to learn more about the background of Hawaiian places and people, language and customs.

     When he passed away in 1998, he left a wonderful collection of books--many of them second-hand and dog-eared but delightful, and reams and reams of hand-written research, bulging from home file cabinets.

      When I dismantled my dad's financial accounts, I found he always used the same number as a password.  I quickly divined that the number wasn't a special personal or family date or address. Knowing his passion, I figured the number had to relate to Hawaiian history. But for a long time, the connection was a mystery.

      Now I know. Because I just had occasion to read up on Hawaii's worldly King David Kalakaua, nicknamed the Merrie Monarch, whose life and times were of great interest to my father.

      My dad's secret password was the room number of the hotel room at the San Francisco Palace Hotel where the ailing King Kalakaua, in his mid-50s, died in 1891.

A New Future Home for PBS Hawaii

     In Hawaii's real estate market, this is a buyer's market. And PBS Hawaii became a buyer. Our purchase closed this week.

     We're the new owner of an acre-size lot with an older one-story building in the middle of it, just outside metropolitan Honolulu, on the corner of Nimitz Highway and Sand Island Access Road. Cost: $5.2 million.

      We're not moving in right away. A lot needs to happen first. For example, a capital campaign--to raise money for refurbishment and expansion of the current building.

       For a nonprofit organization of our size, this is a major step in extraordinarily uncertain economic times. But our board of directors and our staff believe in the future of quality noncommercial television and in serving future generations. 

       And--we must leave our present location.  Our longtime landlord and community partner, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, needs more space on campus for its own programs.  We're in talks with the UH Chancellor's Office for a short-term lease of five to seven years.  During our remaining tenure, we'll make repairs and replacements to ready the UH building for future occupants. In the meantime, we intend to lease the Nimitz property.

      In buying near the Sand Island industrial area, we secured a good price on a rare piece of Honolulu with pre-existing use as a TV station (KFVE  moved to new quarters last month.) 

     You may recall that years ago, in a bankruptcy sale, PBS Hawaii bought a smaller, vacant lot near our current location--1812 Kalakaua Avenue near McCully Bridge. That site has proven to be less than optimal for television in the new digital age. It's on the market.

       Our educational nonprofit media organization is thrilled to own property that will allow  public television to remain and to grow in the islands.  With hundreds more TV channels and an unlimited number of websites in the crowded digital universe, we're convinced that noncommercial television is more precious than ever.  

House Vote Defeats Digital Delay

   Is the battle over yet? First the U.S. Senate passed a bill to delay the nation's digital transition from February to June 2009. And now U.S. House members have defeated the bill.

   But proponents of the delay aren't done yet. They say the fight will continue, because some regions and many viewers are just not ready to lose their analog signals.

    The Feb. 17 deadline stands for now. Even if the date is moved to June 12 as proposed, there would be no penalty for television stations to make the Big Switch earlier.

    Hawaii remains the only state to have completed its digital transition. It took place Jan. 15, expedited by environmental concerns for a bird---the dark-rumped petrel--at  transmitter sites on Maui.

    The islands' digital transition went relatively smoothly. In fact, the problems encountered were not a function of digital technology. They were: 1) a brief wind storm that knocked out some Oahu transmitters  just as over-the-air viewers were scanning to get their new pictures; 2) the unrelated, necessary relocation of major TV transmitters which affected line-of-sight signals on Oahu and Maui, enhancing some coverage areas and reducing others.

     PBS Hawaii continues to receive some calls from over-the-air viewers converting to new converter boxes. Lately we've had a few surprises. Some residents of Honokaa on Hawaii Island, who'd been told the relocation of transmitters of the major broadcasters was likely to end their ability to receive over-the-air signals, triumphantly report they can see us.  

Matt Levi's "Other" Private Life

     My longtime friend Matt Levi is a private investigator who's so private he never advertises and he's not even listed in the phone book. Still, with his contacts as a former investigative TV reporter, he doesn't lack for clients. And they know he's very, very discreet.

     So it shouldn't surprise me that over the years, Matt has built a program helping children that is not at all well-known to the public. Just as quietly, the program has attracted the support of some of our top community leaders and community builders. It's called Kawalua, and it uses martial arts training as a foundation to give structure and discipline and mentorship to youths growing up in tough environments.

      Last Saturday morning, many of the program's influential supporters gathered at Hawaii's largest public housing project--Kuhio Park Terrace--to see a student martial arts exhibition and to hear of young participants' academic and other progress. Some of the students are there by order of the state's Drug Court in Honolulu.

      It was amazing for me to see, first thing on a Saturday  morning, attendees that included Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court Ronald Moon and at least three other judges, the heads of four private schools--Jim Scott of Punahou; Joe Rice of Mid-Pacific Institute; Betty White of Sacred Hearts Academy; and Mahina Eleneki Hugo from La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls; also, Kamehameha Schools trustee Corbett Kalama, former Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue, a contingent of Kalihi police officers, top attorneys, big bankers, public housing managers.

       I couldn't help but remember what visiting KPT was like for me as a crime reporter decades ago. I usually arrived just after the police, who were called time after time with reports of violent crime, family abuse, fires, theft. When police returned from within the sprawling high-rise to their blue-and-whites, they occasionally found them vandalized.

      No wonder Matt joked to Saturday's visiting dignitaries, "You don't have to worry about your car."

     Matt invited community members who support the program. And he said he wanted the young martial artists to meet people who had "achieved properly."

     The kids, a little nervous but excited, gave presentations that showed their commitment to training. And those who spoke talked about how their lives were changing with bold hopes, new prospects. Some are now attending private schools on scholarship.

     Matt's Kawalua program doesn't devote time to beating the drums of publicity. There's too much work to do--helping build new young lives is consuming. But in demonstrating both promise and results, Kawalua has a growing network of support.

     

  

Where's Your TV?

      Friends laugh when they visit and see that I have a nine-inch TV in a shelf alcove in our home's  master bathroom. It's an old TV; it's been sitting there for at least a dozen years but still works well.

       Why a TV in the bathroom? Because back when I was exec producer and anchor of the Channel 2 Morning News, I'd have to get ready for work about 1 am.  I'd leave my husband sleeping in the bedroom, close the door and turn on the bathroom TV. That way, I could apply studio makeup and listen to cable news and not disturb my husband. When I left the house for the newsroom, I had an idea of what was going on in the world.

      I'm not aware of any recent stats on Americans who have TVs in their home bathrooms. But a new study conducted for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting found that there are (slightly) more TVs in bedrooms than there are in living room/family rooms.  42 per cent of all household sets are reported to be in bedrooms (22 per in master bedrooms, 10 per cent in children's bedrooms, 10 per cent in "other" bedrooms). 27 per cent of household TVs are in living rooms and 14 per cent are in family rooms, for a total of 41 per cent. 

       In Hawaii, there should be a category for carport/garage TV sets--because there are plenty! For many island residents, the garage isn't for vehicles. It functions as a breezy family room.

       As of spring 2008, according to The Home Technology Monitor, 54 per cent of American TV households had sets with screens 30 inches or larger.  The percentage may be changing at this moment. Every January, the Super Bowl is motivation for purchases of large-screen TVs, even in poor economic times.

      

     

Catching Up With Skippa Diaz

     Retired Farrington High School teacher and coach Skippa Diaz is a big man, but his physical size is by no means the only reason he looms large in Hawaii.  Raised in the Mayor Wright public housing project in Honolulu, with so many siblings (7 birth siblings, 7 hanai'd) that the kids slept 2 or 3 to a bed, Skippa loved playing sports and found mentors at Palama Settlement who encouraged him in athletics and reinforced his parents' respect for discipline and education. 

    With his size and strength, Skippa could easily have gone to the dark side in his tough neighborhood and become an uncommon thug.

     But the big guy grew up with a love of books and history as well as football and track and swimming--and he pursued a life as coach and educator.  He molded and inspired many youths from hard-scrabble backgrounds like his own during his three decades in the public schools, mostly at his alma mater, Farrington High. His incoming football players remember his crushing handshake, an unspoken message that the coach was nobody with whom to trifle. 

    He was a leader among adults as well as teenagers. Upon DOE retirement, people cheered his appointment as deputy director of the City Department of Parks and Recreation. Skippa said he loved the job. Then, after a short time, he quit. And to the surprise of many, he  left his native state.

     Tuesday (Jan. 27) at 7:30pm on PBS Hawaii's Long Story Short, Skippa Diaz explains what he did for the last four-and-a-half years.  It's a moving tale of personal sacrifice, but in Coach's telling, he was blessed to have the opportunity.

      Skippa and his petite blonde wife Mary, also a retired public school educator, relocated to her family home in Wisconsin.  They worked side-by-side as 24/7 caregivers for her elderly father and mother and disabled adult brother. It was an exhausting period, both physically and emotionally.  Skippa had a close and joyful connection with his brother-in-law, who by chance had the same name as his birth brother: Butch.

      One by one, the fragile loved ones passed away. 

      And now Coach and Mary are preparing to return to Hawaii, on a full- or part-time basis.

       Skippa Diaz is an enormously likeable fellow. And when you hear him speak, you'll know that he remains, even in retirement, a coach and an educator.

National Digital Delay Looking More Likely

     That'll teach me to make a guess.

      Almost no sooner than I wrote here that I'm betting the federally mandated deadline for the digital transition (Feb. 17, 2009) will stand, there are developments that seem to be proving me wrong.

      The Senate draft version of a digital-delay bill has been revised--and it's looking very similar to the draft bill in the House. The new national deadline would be June 12, 2009.

       Is there critical mass for Capitol Hill to push back the federal deadline to June?

       Both bills specifically preserve the right of broadcasters to terminate analog prior to June 12, as long as they follow FCC rules.  And both bills extend the DTV converter-box coupon program. 

      I'm a  geographically distant but interested observer of what happens to the existing national deadline of Feb. 17, 2009. Because the state of Hawaii, where I'm CEO of the only public television station, became the first state in the nation to make the Big Switch last week.

A Humble but Sublime Dish

      What do these foods have in common? Spam. Green beans. Lup chong. 'Opae. 

      Stir-fry them together and you've got a very tasty meal, served on rice.

       Don't laugh unless you've tried it! It's humble but sublime. I just tried it for the first time the other evening and it instantly became my favorite comfort food.

       There's no catchy name for this dish on the posted menu board at Aku Bone Lounge, at Kona and Pensacola Streets in Honolulu. You just see a list of the four components, $8. 

       If you stop in,  consider yourself doubly lucky if the bartender (yes, the bartender) has made her delectable green tea cheesecake. But that's another subject. Another tasty subject.     

Digital Transition or Digital Delay?

        Television stations in Hawaii are still navigating some bumps in the road after last week's digital transition. But our full-power broadcasters have shut off their transmitters' legacy technology--and we're looking at analog in our rear window. Been there.

       On the continent, there are moves afoot to delay the Big Switch.

       Will the Mainland push back DTV for months after the currently mandated Feb. 17, 2009 date?

       I'm hearing no, it'll be a go. 

       There are two pieces of legislation on Capitol Hill to delay the date.

       They'd also extend the federal government's coupon program for converter boxes. One bill, from House Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman, would keep the program going to September 15. The other, from Senate Commerce Chair Jay Rockefeller, would support the DTV coupon program to July 31.

        President Obama has expressed concern that coupons aren't readily accessible to enough over-the-viewers. My best bet is that the coupon program will get an extension, but the nation's digital transition will not be postponed.

Father Damien on TV

      Father Damien did the most important work of his life in an isolated Hawaiian coastal colony, cut off from the rest of the island by steep cliffs, where people suffering from leprosy were cast off from society.

      The stocky Belgian missionary priest never sought celebrity or fame. But what Father Damien de Veuster did in Kalaupapa, Molokai became a story of international impact. Later this year, he's expected to be canonized.

      Coming up Sunday (Jan. 25) at 6pm, the TV show Religion & Ethics Newsweekly on PBS Hawaii looks back at the remarkable ministry of the man who spent more than a decade caring for Hansen's Disease patients who were banished to the settlement to die.

      Damien's legacy lives in Hawaii, where it's not difficult to find families who remember a loved one who was seized by the government and who disappeared, to Kalaupapa. At the time, the disease was believed to be a sign of uncleanliness or sin. Some families lost a second loved one, when a spouse or other relative voluntarily went with the patient to serve as a caregiver, or kokua. Back then, it was typically a trip from which there was no return.

     By the way, the same episode of Religion & Ethics Newsweekly also presents these stories:

--"Religion and the Obama Inauguration," providing an overview of the various religious events tied to the inauguration of Barack Obama.

--"End of Life Dilemmas," with Betty Rollin exploring the debate over the morality and the cost of aggressive medical treatments for elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's.