Kailua to have
a bang-up FourthClear Channel stations and
businesses save the fireworks tradition
Kailua will have an aerial fireworks show this Fourth of July, after all.
The country's largest owner of radio stations, which owns seven stations in Hawaii, has teamed with five Kailua businesses to keep the tradition going.
"That's good news," said Chuck Prentiss, a 20-year Kailua resident. "It's almost a custom here. People look forward to it. It's a good time for old neighbors to get friendly with each other."
In early May the Kailua Chamber of Commerce canceled the show. That was when calls that the show must go on started coming in, said chamber President David Earles.
One of those calls came from Chuck Cotton, vice president and general manager of Clear Channel radio's seven Oahu stations (KSSK AM & FM, KHVH, KHBZ, Star 101.9, Island Rhythm and I-94).
Cotton offered to match advertising air time with all donations to the Kailua fireworks show.
Hardware Hawaii, Kaneohe Ranch, Papa John's Hawaii, Foodland, Mike McKenna's Windward Ford and Windward Volkswagen-Mazda, which have sponsored the show in the past, again contributed to the cause, a total of $22,000.
"Everyone wanted fireworks," Earles said. "When Chuck made the offer, that's what pushed us over the edge."
Earles, acting as a Kailua resident and not as chamber president, got together with Cotton and other Kailua residents and brainstormed the matter.
"We kind of got the ball rolling and tried to help them and give Kailua businesses an incentive," Cotton said.
Clear Channel will fill the role the chamber has played by collecting the donations and signing a contract this week with Don Paschual's Hawaii Explosives & Pyrotechnics.
Earles said the chamber had decided there are "better ways to support the Kailua businesses than spend $20,000 for a 10-minute show that does not directly support the businesses of Kailua."
While the chamber never funded the show, members did solicit donations from local businesses.
"When the chamber of commerce asks a business to donate to something, we feel that that solicitation should be for something that directly benefits the Kailua business community," Earles said.
Earles said for him, as part of a citizens group, to ask businesses for donations sends a different message.
The fireworks will provide the finale for Kailua's day-long July 4 celebration, which starts with a parade, followed by the first Freedom Festival. The chamber is sponsoring the parade and festival, with food and music, featuring two mainland high school bands.
Last year, the Kailua fireworks display was canceled for the first time since 1948.
High surf prevented a 15-ton barge, from which the fireworks would have been launched, from making it over the reef into Kailua Bay.
This time, Hawaii Explosives & Pyrotechnics, which has been doing the show for a number of years, will launch a barge from a boat ramp inside the bay.