TheBuzz
TheBuzz
The going away party for KGMB-TV General Manager Lynne Mueller was May 31 at Chai's Island Bistro. KGMB GM bids
aloha and cheers"Too many friends, not enough time," she said, so she hasn't left yet.
"It was supposed to be my last day but in a weak moment I stayed on. I think it's avoidance behavior, I can't leave," she said.
But leave she will. Amid packing up her East Honolulu home, she's checking for messages and traipsing into the station sometimes because she was asked to stay on to give Emmis Communications Corp. officials additional time to hire a replacement.
A West Coast headhunter has interviewed a few qualified mainland and local candidates, Mueller said, declining to name names.
Emmis does not plan on announcing a replacement before Mueller's last day, according to Television Division President Randy Bongarten, "but we hope to have an announcement in the next few weeks."
An official appointment has not yet been made, according to Kate Healey, Emmis' director of media and investor relations.
Mueller's last day will be Friday and she leaves for Santa Rosa July 1 to hook up with her heretofore long-distance beau, who is based in San Francisco.
"We've done the long-distance commute for three years. We did it well for three years, but it's finally time to nest and have a home," she said.
Mueller would neither disclose the name of her airline pilot fiance nor the name of the carrier on which she'll receive the travel benefits to make return visits to Hawaii.
"I can travel anywhere and be stranded everywhere," she laughed. "But you have to have a good attitude and the key to having a good attitude is to have the latitude" -- as in not having to rush back to the demands of 9 to 5.
"I'm excited about my new life but sad to leave Hawaii, so I'll be back," she said.
She may be leaving part of her heart in Hawaii, but of San Francisco, some 55 miles away, she said, "I love that city." She's attracted to the city's music scene as well as its sense of vibrancy.
After a career in television, production and advertising at KGMB, KHON, KITV, the former McHale VideoFilm and the former Peck Sims Mueller advertising agency, "I'm going to take a break for a year ... and travel and grow grapes," she said. "We're trying to find some land. I want to do a hobby vineyard. Unfortunately, real estate prices are like they are here."
She and the hubby-to-be are in the market for three to five acres on which to build a home and the vineyard. "I'll be stomping those grapes," to make a very private label wine she chuckled.
Joked Kate Healy, Emmis director of media and investor relations: "I hope she remembers her friends."
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