Honolulu's Dynamic Radio Duo Will Ride Out Hurricanes in Vegas. How's THAT for a Commitment to Public Service?

Perry and Price, here today and gone to -- not Maui tomorrow-- but to Vegas. 
(Think George W. flying over New Orleans and looking down on Katrina damage.)

I WOULD NOT HAVE BELIEVED IT IF I HADN'T HEARD IT WITH MY OWN TWO EARS.

Two major storms have Hawaii in their sights, and both will arrive as hurricanes or tropical storms in our first week of visiting Eric and our grandkids. That's not the almost unbelievable fact, though.

Almost unbelievable is the fact that the two radio personalities who dominate the airwaves on KSSK radio in normal weather and assume the mantle of EMERGENCY BROADCASTERS SUPREME during blackouts, earthquakes, storms and floods ARE LEAVING THE ISLANDS BEFORE THE STORMS ARRIVE!!!

My Hawaii friends may vaguely remember my emergency communications website that has been critical of KSSK's performance during emergencies over the years. The basic complaint is that this highly-rated broadcasting duo simply moves their weekday morning entertainment mindset into their coverage of whatever emergency period that is befalling Hawaii at any given time. They continue to "entertain" notwithstanding the need to "emergency communicate" during the islands' collective trauma

So what will this entertainment-centric duo be doing when Iselle and Julio arrive in the next few days? THEY'LL BE IN VEGAS -- entertaining! They said so themselves on their radio show this morning. But not to worry, Hawaii: "We could do our show from Albania," Mike Perry said more than once. All they allegedly need is a microphone, a telephone line and the regular KSSK staff, all of whom are decamping to Sin City in the hours before Iselle arrives. In other words, they'll keep their listeners' calls a-comin' and put them on the air -- which of course is the exact opposite of how responsible emergency communicators would treat a crisis.

Let's hope ‪#‎Iselle‬ and ‪#‎Julio‬ are minor inconveniences for Hawaii, with no power outages, no damaging storm surges and nothing more noteworthy than extra-hefty trade winds. Because if the storms generate much more than that, most residents and visitors will be hanging on every word during KSSK's "emergen-tainment" show, if ratings are a predictor of the listening audience. And as you can read at the links elsewhere in this blog, ratings are what's important to Clear Channel. Hawaii citizens deserve better.