A newsroom colleague shared the news that "restaurant ‘death row’ has claimed another one," and, sure enough, the less-than-year-old, Italian-American eatery that bore the storied Castagnola’s name has been shuttered.

Open since late last summer, the 3,900-square-foot restaurant was owned and operated by sons of famed restaurateur George "Cass" Castagnola — brothers George Jr. and John. It opened with help from Thomas Ky, a Castagnola protégé and owner of the chain of six Assaggio restaurants on Oahu.

Neither Ky nor any of the Castagnolas could be reached for comment, and the senior Castagnola has returned to the mainland, according to an Assaggio employee familiar with the closure.

Castagnola’s Pizzeria offered pizzas, pastas, salads and sandwiches at moderate prices served by staff rocking the signature Cass Castagnola red kerchief ’round their necks.

Officials of Pacific Office Properties, Castagnola’s landlord, could not be reached for comment.

Luster for local TV

Representatives of KITV and KHON-TV will be repeatedly going up to the stage to collect Mark Twain Awards from the western regional Television and Radio Association.

In the competition, 70 awards are up for grabs in television, radio and online divisions, and the winners are chosen in market-size categories.

KITV’s awards were in Best Investigative Reporting, Best News Broadcast (60 minutes), Best Serious Feature and Best Weathercast Segment, and it won the Bill Stout Memorial Award for Excellence in Station Spot News. KHON, whose reporters sign off each story with their names and the phrase "Hawaii’s News Leader," won the Best Light feature award for its "Korean Drama Kraze" story. Hawaii News Now did not enter the competition, according to News Director Mark Platte.

The APTRA will present awards June 4 at Disneyland’s Paradise Pier Hotel in Anaheim, Calif., during its annual convention, at which retired KITV reporter Denby Fawcett will be inducted into the APTRA Hall of Fame, as previously reported in this space.

Hot on the APTRA Awards’ heels will be the regional Emmy Awards, for which all Honolulu TV newsrooms, OC 16’s Howard Dashefsky, Juniroa Productions’ Heather Giugni and PBS Hawaii are in the running.

Retired KITV President and General Manager Mike Rosenberg is named in the station’s nomination for Station Excellence, the only Hawaii station in the running.

KITV, Hawaii News Now and mainland stations are up for accolades in the News Excellence category, as well as in the Historic/Cultural — Program/Special category. Juniroa and PBS Hawaii are competing for an award in the News and Program Specialty — Arts/Entertainment Special category; meanwhile, KHON’s Kanoa Leahey and Andrew Pereira are both entered in the Feature News Report — Light category, while Pereira also is a nominee in the Feature News Report — Serious Series subcategory.

Dashefsky’s "Sports People Hawaii" show on OC 16 and segments from it are the sole Hawaii nominees in four categories.

The regional Emmy Awards will be presented in San Francisco on June 11.

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Advertiser. Reach her by e-mail at erika@staradvertiser.com.