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TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

Sports and food
fly through the air

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Bobby Curran and Jo McGarry have been united under one name.

The challenge of naming the new sports- and food-centered morning radio show on KCCN AM 1420 was thrown to listeners; more than 1,500 entries were received and "Sports Cafe" was chosen to replace "Sports Page."

The winning name was sent in by 10 people, necessitating a drawing to find prize winner William "Buddy" Moore of Honolulu.

He gets a round trip to the Big Island on Aloha Airlines and a three-day, two-night stay at the Keauhou Resort. "One of the night's dinners will be hosted by the chef himself," McGarry said, "He'll be preparing a five-course dinner." She indicated Moore wouldn't need to be accompanied by any columnists, "I think he's a popular guy right now," she said.

Sale dust settles

The previously undisclosed sale price of KCCN AM -- $750,000 -- has been revealed by industry publication Radio & Records, which also identifies the buyer as Blow Up LLC, headed by Duane Kurisu. State records show the company was incorporated last November by sole officer Kurisu, who also recently purchased a minority stake in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

While Blow Up was the entity that acquired the station, Kurisu's PacificBasin Communications LLC will manage it when the deal closes, according to PacificBasin President Floyd Takeuchi.

Ownership issues

The Federal Communications Commission yesterday extended until May 8 the "reply and comment" deadline for its rules and policies on multiple ownership of radio broadcast stations in local markets.

The Ohio-based United Church of Christ and its legal counsel, the Institute for Public Representation, requested the extension.

In this case the matter is the seemingly unbridled ownership consolidation of public airwaves.

"Despite IPR's efforts over the past several years to promote diversity of media ownership, the last few years have witnessed an unprecedented concentration of the mass media industry," said the institute, which is based at Georgetown University Law Center.

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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