Leong quits KHNL;
CPB plays bingo

"I'm on vacation for 'A Chorus Line,' and I talked to (News Director Sue Levine) right before my vacation," Leong said.

Her departure was announced in the newsroom Wednesday afternoon.

The musical production at the Castle Performing Arts Center begins next Friday and runs through Aug. 7.

The show is directed by Ron Bright, for whom the theater building is named, and stars alumni and current students of the center. Leong is a Castle High School grad and first started learning musical theater under Bright's direction when she was 14.

"I'm having a blast and realizing how much I enjoy this and how much I need to continue being involved in theater because it feeds my soul -- and I'm unable to do that in my current shift," she said.

Anchoring is an honor that pays well, Leong said, but the pull of the theater and undisclosed other opportunities that would allow her to have it all led to her decision.

"I want to go back to this, not once a year, but as a regular part of my life," Leong said.

She said she will miss her friends and colleagues and the feeling appears to be mutual.

"I'll miss her," said co-anchor Howard Dashefsky.

"You spend a lot of time with somebody when you sit next to them on the anchor desk for five years."

Leong was previously a reporter and weekend anchor at KITV.

Her departure is the highest profile of four recent departures from KHNL's news operation involving a reporter, an editor and a news photographer. It also follows a spate of other media job changes at KHON, Honolulu magazine and KPOI-FM 105.9.

"It's like any other industry. People have opportunities and move around," said John Fink, vice president and general manager of KHNL and KFVE.

He wishes Leong well.

When "A Chorus Line" ends, her next theatrical performance may be in the Society of Professional Journalists "Gridiron," in October, which takes a satirical look at news events and newsmakers over the past year.

C-P-B-i-n-g-o

Hot on the heels of kicking off a hip and cool promotion offering an iPod for opening a certain type of account, the bank is pushing an educational campaign for senior citizens.

"You read all the time in the papers about seniors becoming victims of fraud artists," said Clint Arnoldus, CPB's chief executive officer.

So naturally, the bank is sponsoring blackout bingo on television.

Huh?

They'll combine the fun of bingo with the serious warnings of identity theft, financial abuse, health care fraud, caregiver abuse or neglect and mail fraud and consumer fraud. It will be aimed at seniors and anyone else who is watching KFVE at the right time.

"The primary purpose is to educate the elderly about how exposed they are to con artists in all these areas," Arnoldus said.

The bank is doing the project in partnership with the state Executive Office on Aging and the county-level agencies serving seniors.

Starting Monday, all 37 CPB branches statewide will distribute free "Come Play Bingo" cards for the six-week television promotion starring comedian Frank DeLima. Official rules will be posted at the branches and on the bank's Web site.

About 10 numbers will be announced at 6:58 p.m., from Monday through Thursday. Friday nights, starting at 6:30, additional numbers will be called to complete one game -- and then a second game will be played.

Weekly winners will receive gift cards from Tesoro Petroleum Corp. and will be entered to win the grand prize of a trip for two to Las Vegas.

The ultimate winner will be announced at a bank-sponsored Senior Day event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 6 at the Ala Moana Hotel.

In addition to the TV time, a team from the bank will travel to senior centers, clubs and group dining sites to "visit them where they live and where they go to have fun," Arnoldus said.

Arnoldus chuckled that promoting iPods and then bingo for kupuna is "getting both ends of the spectrum," but that "we've had a great response from seniors" for the iPod promotion as well.

"I love my iPod. It's the greatest thing ever," said Arnoldus, who doesn't like to think of himself as a senior citizen.

His iPod contains country and western music, rock oldies from the 1960s and 1970s "and there are some classical pieces I love, too, so it's a pretty good mix of everything," he said.