Local comedian and morning radio show host Augie Tulba will leave KQMQ-FM 93.1 “;The Zone”; after Tuesday after a little more than a year with the station.

Tulba posted, then deleted a message about the ending of his show on his Facebook page this week.

Tulba's show will still air on some neighbor island sister-stations that belong to Maui-based Visionary Related Entertainment LLC — he simply resigned from the Oahu position.

“;My contract was always with the neighbor island people,”; Tulba said.

He started his shows with VRE in July of 2007 and not having a morning show on a Honolulu station will give Tulba more freedom to promote his stand-up comedy gigs on stations that would previously not have given their competitor the time of day.

As for who will replace Tulba, “;We're looking at all the options,”; said KQMQ General Manager John Aeto.

The station will be ready to make an announcement within the next several days, he said.

On the neighbor islands, Tulba is “;going full-steam ahead, in fact, more than full-steam-ahead,”; said James McKeon, VRE vice president and partner.

Tulba's morning show will top KHEI-FM 107.5 in Kihei, when it signs on in the next couple of weeks. The station's debut “;is very imminent,”; McKeon said.

“;We're pretty excited about this.”;

KHEI will simulcast with KMKK-FM 102.3 in Kaunakakai and the format will be branded “;Radio Imua.”;

“;The simulcast will be much more contemporary (Hawaiian music) than KMKK is right now, while retaining the qualities Molokai has come to know and love.”;

Tulba's show also airs on KNUQ-FM 103.7 on Maui, KTBH-FM 102.1 in Hilo (technically Kurtistown) and KSRF-FM 95.9 on Kauai.

Separately, VRE is marking the 35th anniversary of KAOI-FM 95.1, where McKeon serves as morning show host. KAOI was the first FM station on the air outside of Honolulu, McKeon said, signing on in 1974.

Hope for newspapers

Newspaper industry news is all about doom and gloom these days, but this space seeks to be somewhat of a bright spot for reader eyeballs.

Honolulu's newspapers and the ink-jockeys who prepare them can be heartened by the fact that it is among the top six newspaper readership markets in the U.S., according to Scarborough Research.

Its study found that 82 percent of adults read a daily or weekly newspaper's printed or online edition each week.

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Reach her by e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).