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Shaner OK despite
being out of festival
contest he created

DON'T WORRY, FRANKIE'S OK: "Where's Frankie B?" was the question in 2004 after Hawaiian 105 KINE morning guy Frank B. Shaner returned from vacation in January and was told he was off the show (the reason for the shake-up was never fully explained, but the station paid Shaner for the duration of his contract). Similar questions surfaced this month when it was learned that the Aloha Festivals has dropped Shaner's name from the falsetto contest he created and replaced him as emcee. Shaner says it's not as bad as it looks. "The crew that worked with me to build the contest for 10 years is gone so it seemed time for me to go, too," Shaner says, adding that since he'll have no input on the operation of the contest it may be better his name isn't associated with it ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: To Michael Cord and D.J. Pratt, who are celebrating Saturday ... also to Donald P. "Flip" McDiarmid III, Harry B. Soria Jr. and Ka'upena Wong (Sunday), Rudi Aquino, Jane Loo and Sonya Mendez (Monday), and John Koko (Wednesday) ...

REMEMBER HAWAII FOR AFRICA?: Ken Boland has every record produced in 1985 to raise awareness of starvation in Africa except "The Way of Love," Hawaii's version of "We Are The World," recorded by a conglomeration of artists dubbed Hawaii for Africa. Anyone willing to sell, loan or burn a copy can reach him at wushang@sbcglobal.net ...

A BUSY GUY: Eddie Maligmat is playing everything from techno to "Tiny Bubbles" in gigs with Little Albert & Friends, Soulz, Modern World and Don Ho. Pop music historians know Eddie and his brother, Little Albert Maligmat, as members of the Rocky Fellers and remember "Killer Joe," the group's Top 20 hit from 1962 ...

OLD TIME ROCK 'N' ROLL: It's no wonder the local Top 40 bands of the '70s and early '80s were so much tighter than most of the "oldies" bands today. Roy Yonashiro of Natural High, the band that headlined the Hula Hut for several years in the mid-'70s, recalls that his group not only played from 10:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. six days a week, but also rehearsed for four hours most nights after the club closed. Part-time musicians can't put that kind of time in ...