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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Halekulani, 20 years old,
gets present from
Travel Channel seriesIt's a big 20-year anniversary for the Halekulani hotel, with a year-long commemoration titled, "A Work of Art."
Not every business is lucky enough to get nationwide exposure for such an occasion, but Halekulani will.
Starting Monday, its luxe accommodations and amenities will be featured in "Great Hotels," a series carried by the Travel Channel into 70 million homes in the United States.
Host Samantha Brown will take viewers through the reasons behind the hotel's perennial accolades by top travel publications such as Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure.
The 30-minute show will air in Hawaii at 5 a.m. Monday, 9 a.m. Wednesday, 5:30 a.m. April 23 and 4:30 a.m. April 25. On Oahu, the Travel Channel is at channels 58 and 325 on Oceanic Time Warner Cable and at channel 72 on Craig Wireless Honolulu Inc.
The year-long anniversary celebration includes, "various series, such as programs on cultural arts, culinary arts and the art of well-being," said General Manager Fred Honda.
A series of Sunday sunset cocktail hours, accompanied by legendary traditional Hawaiian entertainers, started last weekend under the hotel's century-old keawe tree.
Marlene Sai, Beverly Noa, Kanoe Miller and the Hiram Olsen Trio entertained guests at the House Without A Key lounge from 5 to 8:30 p.m.
Other entertainers lined up for coming weeks include Kimo Kahoano, who gets to introduce local greats such as Nina Kealiiwahamana, Debbie Nakanelua, Hula Halau Olana, Robyn Mahealani Knuebuhl and her rather famous mother, Emma Veary, who will fly in from Maui for the gig.
"We expect a lot of people," Honda said. Those he has spoken with have told him they plan to come early to get good seats.
Double exposure
Sunday nights will give Ohana Road a hana-hou on KITV.The station has added a second airing of the 6 p.m. Saturday show, which will now also run at 11 p.m. Sunday.
The quality of the show and its ratings led the station to add the encore performance, said local sales manager Russell Elwell.
Ohana Road's Executive Producer "Bill Maloney has done a really good job of putting that together," Elwell said.
The show is designed for car enthusiasts and despite the niche-nature of the material, Ohana Road gets 10,000 viewers. "It's like having (the capacity of) Stan Sheriff Center tuning in," he said.
"Anybody who would be interested in the auto show would be interested in the show," said Elwell.
The just-opened First Hawaiian Bank International Auto Show draws tens of thousands of people each year, reflecting a larger potential audience for programs such as Ohana Road and Island Driver TV on Oceanic cable channel 16.
Local entertainer Anita Hall has joined the show as a segment host and will debut May 1. Her father served as chief photographer for the Indianapolis 500, igniting her interest in cars.
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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