Hawaii's 50th anniversary and the history of its radio stations are being highlighted with a contest run by the New Zealand-based Radio Heritage Foundation.

“;The purpose of the competition is to draw attention to our nonprofit Pacific-wide radio heritage activities,”; said David Ricquish, founding chairman. The foundation is “;using Hawaii's 50th anniversary as the reason to focus on the Art of Radio Hawaii story for this competition.”;

The foundation invites you to answer the following question to perhaps win a prize:

“;What is the callsign of the Hawaiian AM radio station that began broadcasts in 1957 from the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki?”;

Don't rack your brain. It is an open-book “;test”; and the answer appears online, along with a wealth of scanned images of old radio station logos, letterheads and old-fashioned listener cards, mailed to listeners who contacted stations, to confirm their signal reception.

Answers are to be e-mailed to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with the subject line “;Art of Radio Hawaii Competition.”;

Ricquish expects entries from a wide range of people.

All correct answers will be entered into a drawing and the prize is - radio geeks, please sit down to still your beating hearts - a brand-new 2009 World Radio TV Handbook.

Among its contents, a list of all 32 AM and 57 FM radio stations in Hawaii as well as many Web site details for those who want to listen to stations' online streams from far-flung places.

So as not to cause your head to explode while trying to figure out if the entry deadline is Greenwich Mean Time minus 10 (Hawaii time) or GMT plus 12 (New Zealand time), Ricquish set the entry deadline as 11:59:59 Feb. 14 local time, so it matters not on which side of the International Dateline or GMT meridian a contestant resides.

The foundation site has sparked large interest, primarily from broadcasters, including a chief engineer of KRHO in Honolulu circa 1944, and folks from the Pineapple Network of Armed Forces Radio Service that operated on Oahu during World War II with the call letters WVTZ, “;Yes, a W call in K territory,”; said Ricquish.

The Radio Heritage Foundation plans more give-aways during the year, “;with other prizes such as retro KPOI 1380 T-shirts and other more Hawaiian-themed goodies as we can get them donated,”; Ricquish said.