Radio group moving
to Dole Cannery site

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Star-BulletinThe Dole Cannery retail and commercial complex in Iwilei will get a boost next spring when seven radio stations consolidate their operations in a single 14,000-square-foot complex.

One feature will be a glass-front studio in the Shops at Dole Cannery, where shoppers will be able to watch their favorite radio personalities, such as Perry and Price of KSSK or Rick Hamada of KHVH, on the air from time to time.

The move of Pacific Star Communications Inc. and its stations makes sense because it brings together studios and offices that were scattered in different parts of Honolulu, said Bob Longwell, president of Pacific Star.

It makes sense, also, for Castle & Cooke Properties Inc., owner of the cannery complex and the surrounding land. Since the departure of several tourism-related stores over the past year or so, Castle & Cooke has been trying to steer the area into bringing in more business from residents.

Lucien Wong, Castle & Cooke Properties president, said the radio stations will fit in well with other attractions on the company's properties in the area such as the 18-screen Signature Theatres complex to open next year and the 130,000-square-foot Home Depot outlet to open early in 1999 on eight acres of land between Dole Cannery and Nimitz Highway.

The radio stations moving in are KSSK (AM/FM), KHVH-AM, KUCD-FM (Star 101.9), KKLV-FM (98 Rock), Country 990AM and KIKI-FM (I-94). Their immediate parent, Pacific Star, is a subsidiary of Capstar Broadcasting of Austin, Texas, which bought them last year. Capstar itself is being purchased by Chancellor Media Corp. in a $4 billion deal that still has some shareholder and regulatory hurdles to cross.