As a gift to ourselves, my friend Jerry and I traveled to Hawaii right after college graduation in 1986. The first of a handful of trips with others and family — including my honeymoon in 1992 — it was there that I discovered KSSK (590 AM), at the time the top-rated station in Honolulu.
Led then by the morning team of Michael Perry and Larry Price, who had been paired together just three years earlier, KSSK was the sound of the islands playing an adult contemporary format that somehow just fit. It was perfect as we drove around both Oahu and Maui — the AM signal reaching almost everywhere we went — listening to lighter rock songs, both old and ne,w such as the Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling.”
Yes, I often remember songs by which station I heard them on.
The entire station was superb, but Perry and Price were the real deal. Intelligent, local conversation combined with gentle humor made it work. They respected their listeners’ intelligence fully … Price, the local boy from Kalihi, Perry the transplant from Virginia. They consistently earned ratings in the 25s, far above the next-rated station.
I had a chance to visit Kauai last week, and was pleased to discover that things have changed very little since my last trip. Aloha spirit is still very much alive, it is still beautiful, the water is still clear and warm, mai tais and plate lunches are still delicious, surf is still inviting, and KSSK is still the top-rated station in Honolulu by a wide margin. Perry is still working mornings, though Price left in 2016 to host a sports show on a sister station. The on-air personalities are still superb, and the music still just fits.
Not everything is perfect. Now owned by iHeart, the station borrows elements from other stations. For example, they use the same non-vocal jingle at KSSK as they do here at KOST, even though “KOST 103.5” uses six syllables and “KSSK” uses four. Five seconds with an editor or an old-school tape system, and I could have fixed that. They also hype the iHeart app too much, as all iHeart stations do, including playing the awful “iHeart Radio” jingle. And the station slogan is the sappy “Hawaii’s feel-good favorites of yesterday and today,” instead of something better, like a simple “Hawaii’s favorite music.”
A few things have changed since the time I first found the station as a standalone AM station called at the time, K-59. A partial FM simulcast was added in 1993 when new owners changed KXPW (92.3 FM) to KSSK-FM. Eventually, the simulcast went full-time, and while the AM still has a killer signal and can be heard throughout more of the islands, the on-air announcing rarely mentions it … “92.3 KSSK” is the “official” on-air call sign.
When Price left the morning show after 33 years, Perry stayed on as host, creating “Perry and the Posse,” the posse referring to listeners who are active on the show, including the cell-phone “posse network,” in which station listeners act as the eyes and ears of the community. They call in traffic reports, for example, and even aid in crimefighting, such as when live updates are given on stolen cars or other crimes.
Call it radio neighborhood watch. The station discourages any active intervention for obvious safety reasons, but posse reports are so good that the local police have been known to listen to the station for information and updates. For every crime the posse successfully helps solve, a local bank donates $1000 to C.A.T.C.H. — Citizens Against Troublemakers and Criminals in Hawaii. KSSK listeners then vote to determine which local charity receives funds at the end of each year. That’s local radio at its best.
This all fits with the station’s longtime commitment to local service. It is the designated station for Hawaii’s emergency action and notification system, something it has performed for decades. During emergencies, the station takes to the airwaves with live updates, similar to our own KFI (640 AM) … also an iHeart station.
KSSK can be held out as a true radio success story. News reports run all day, surf reports are ongoing, DJs are excellent, and the overall presentation is top-notch. The June Nielsen ratings reflected this quality with a 13.6 share of the Honolulu audience, double that of second-place KHPR. The visit rekindled my love of the islands and of KSSK, and I have already added the station to my presets on the iHeart app so I can listen here.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email [email protected]
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