TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Rumors rampant
but the truth
isn't bad eitherThe local media industry is a constant vortex of rumors about people, politics and positions.
Rumor had it that News 8 sports reporter and weekend anchor Eric Elizaga had given notice to pursue a career in pharmaceutical sales. It's true; he leaves in mid-March, according to Vice President and General Manager John Fink.
The buzz that pharmaceutical sales reps make good money has lured others from both the editorial and sales sides in the past.
A search for Elizaga's replacement is under way, spawning more rumors about who might get the job.
Most of the major sports commentators at the network level were once athletes, Fink said, bringing to mind images of John Madden, Dan Fouts, Boomer Esiason and Dennis Miller -- no, wait ...
News 8 anchor Howard Dashefsky, for instance, was a University of Hawaii baseball player before his broadcast career began; KITV weekend anchor Shawn Ching was a UH football player. Both were sports anchors before sliding over a seat or two to the news chair.
"I think we'll certainly pursue traditional sports experience but we need credibility on the journalism side -- someone who can write and present," Fink said.
"We're going to miss Eric," said KHNL News Director Seth Feldman, who will consider anything and everything during the replacement search.
"Sports has never been as exciting as it is now in Honolulu, especially with UH," he said. "And with our whole K5 connection we have a chance to become the sports station."
Change in the weather
There's also been a change of faces in News 8's weekend weather as Joann Shin has replaced Mary Ann Esteban as weather anchor.Before joining KHNL Sept. 10 as a general assignment reporter, she served as a reporter, "shooter" (as in news photographer) and did some weather for KVEW in the Yakima, Wash., area.
Shin will continue her reporting duties three days a week while Esteban has returned to her original role as part-time weather producer.
Shin is not the only former "shooter" on the KHNL reporting staff; Elizaga's first industry gig in Hawaii was working as a photographer for KHON, according to his bio at KHNL.com.
Former Honolulu City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura was also once a news photographer before his reporting days, which pre-dated his law school years and current role in public office.
But that's a whole other rumor vortex for somebody else's column.
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