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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Breakfast broadcast does
boffo at the box officeThe new Perry and Price Saturday Morning Show at John Dominis is sold out.
Not just for the first week or two, but for the whole month of December.
The first reservations were accepted Oct. 28 and by Nov. 6 the whole month was booked, according to restaurant General Manager Alvin Yim.
That's roughly 1,000 audience members at $25 for adults and $15 for children ages 5 to 12 going, going, gone in 10 days.
"People are calling us for January already," Yim said.
"If it's going to be like this, this is going to be great.
"We couldn't ask for anything better," Yim said.
The breakfast broadcast on KSSK-AM 590 and FM 92.3 had been at the Hanohano Room of the Sheraton Waikiki for 19 years, but was forced to move due to renovation plans that would render the room unsuitable for the show's needs.
"We're thrilled to be able to find a place that's going to have a tropical atmosphere," said Chuck Cotton, market manager for KSSK and the sister stations belonging to Texas-based Clear Channel Communications Inc.
Christmas music marathon
It's just about all Christmas music all the time on KSSK-AM/FM and it has been since the day after Thanksgiving.Exceptions to the rule are the request show, "The 70s at 7" and weekend syndicated programs, according to Paul Wilson, director of programming.
Response has been all positive, he said. "People seem to be in the mood for it."
The stations have begun playing holiday tunes earlier and earlier for the last couple years, but with the short, four-week season this year, Wilson decided they should just jump right in.
It didn't seem like too much of a risk to take during the ongoing Arbitron ratings period, he said. It ends next Wednesday and the next doesn't begin until Jan. 8, so the last few weeks of December will not figure into the stations' fall 2003 numbers.
KSSK-AM/FM are among the latest stations belonging to colossal Clear Channel to make the seasonal switch, but Wilson wanted to make it clear there was no corporate directive to do so.
"There is no company policy," he said.
Wilson said he and other programmers review each other's results and make their own decisions. He cited a Clear Channel station in Phoenix that has gone all-Christmas music in December for the past five or six years "with great success, and that's a warm-weather market."
Wilson has nearly quadrupled the stations' Christmas music library to 400 songs, including some duplication of titles recorded by different artists.
"It's mostly fun, uptempo familiar songs like 'Jingle Bells' and I'll save the deeply religious songs until later in the season," Wilson said.
Mouse in the house
The ongoing grousing at the House of Mouse (please see Page C2) apparently has had no adverse impact on registrations for today's daylong seminar by the Hawaii Employers Council.Some sessions will have more than 200 attendees, according to an Employers Council spokeswoman.
The "Disney Keys to Excellence" full day of training by the Disney Institute at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel will accept last-minute attendees at the registration table, open from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each session costs $79 or $99, depending on membership in the Council.
At the highest levels of Disney, board member and Walt Disney descendant Roy E. Disney Jr. was among two board members who have resigned, demanding the resignation of Chairman Michael Eisner.
The harsh criticism leveled at Eisner makes the session titles scream off the page: "Leadership, Disney Style," "Management, Disney Style," "Service, Disney Style," and "Loyalty, Disney Style."
Ongoing controversy notwithstanding, the Disney brand has long stood for exceeding the customers' expectations to the point where its exported trainings are revenue engine for the huge company.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com