TheBuzz Erika Engle

Dicus leaving PBN and KHON to join KGMB morning show

He leaves the weekly business newspaper at the end of the month and starts at KGMB in August, to prepare for the show, he said.

On its face, a simple hire.

Strategically, KGMB has effectively stolen the affable and popular Dicus from the top-rated KHON morning news show, on which he has appeared for years via a KHON-PBN partnership.

Because Dicus works for PBN, not KHON, there is no TV contract with a noncompete clause to keep him from crossing the street, as is usually the case with high-profile personnel.

KHON has not decided what Dicus' last day will be on the show, said Joe McNamara, president and general manager, but added, "We wish him well in his new endeavor."

McNamara and PBN Publisher Larry Fuller had swapped voice mails but had not discussed a replacement as of early yesterday afternoon.

Fuller could not be reached, but it is worth noting that recent PBN hire Chad Blair has broadcast experience from his days at Hawaii Public Radio.

Dicus does not think himself irreplaceable, but his departure could be viewed as a body-blow for PBN, where he wrote for the print and online editions at different ends of the day and filed reports on Hawaii Public Radio as well as KHON. He also represented PBN at many after-hours events and speaking engagements.

As a PBN ambassador he began hosting a half-hour show on PBS Hawaii, that will continue without the affiliation.

His long-running reports on Wash. D.C.'s WTOP-AM/FM will continue as will "Howard's Day Off" from 5 to 7 a.m. Saturdays on KHPR-FM 88.1.

"Some people collect baseball cards. I do that," he told TheBuzz.

KGMB President and General Manager Rick Blangiardi had tried to hire Dicus for KHON, when he led both stations.

"He communicates so well, he became very much a reason to watch that (KHON) show," Blangiardi said.

Dicus, calling himself a "professional explainer," will be "the guy in charge of explaining stuff that isn't apparent," primarily relating to business.

He has 37 years of radio on his resume and had never done TV before his 2001 move to Hawaii, he says. He is nontraditional on camera, but Blangiardi and News Director Chris Archer told him, 'don't stop being Howard,' Dicus said.

"Otherwise, they definitely could have hired somebody thinner or younger," he laughed.