Hawaii’s highest-rated morning radio personalities, Michael W. Perry and Larry Price, mark 30 years of their on-air pairing Friday morning.
"I was sure I was going to get fired after a week," said Price, who started working at what was then KGMB-AM 590, or "K59," circa 1977 as vice president of public relations.
Filling in for Hal Lewis, aka "J. Akuhead Pupule," Price took a listener request for and played the "1812 Overture," complete with cannon. He thought he was doing a good thing, playing a listener request, he said, until General Manager Earl McDaniel burst through the studio door and asked, perhaps not in so many words, what he was doing.
His radio career survived the incident.
Partner Perry, meanwhile, joined the station later as afternoon host, having been recruited from KKUA-AM 690. He later became program director.
After a series of celebrities filled in for Aku, then in failing health, Price was placed in the slot.
Aku died July 23, 1983.
On Aug. 9, 1983, Perry and Price started their tradition of eating breakfast together, reading the paper and discussing what to talk about on the air.
The first shows were "chaos," Perry said, noting that neither had previously worked with the other except for one live telecast of a Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in which Price got Perry to jump into a pile of Jell-O. "And I’ve been exacting my revenge ever since," Perry laughed.
Since then the Perry and Price Posse of listeners has responded to requests to help find lost dogs, stolen cars and loved ones with dementia who have gone holoholo. With support from newscaster Julia Norton-Dennis, they have worked marathon hours on the air to see listeners through natural disasters, getting officials on the air to update the public, and sharing listener information about where lines for gasoline are too long to handle, and the like.
They have given away prize money, countless trips to Las Vegas and, thanks to their director of engineering, Dale Machado, pioneered live broadcasts from aboard a cruise line, Perry said. "All hail Dale," Price said.
Full disclosure: Your columnist worked at KSSK from 1980 to 1994, serving as news director for 12 of those years.
Both Perry and Price also worked in television — Price, as an investigative reporter at KITV and as a broadcast and cable sports announcer, and Perry as an executive producer and host of the long-running "Hawaiian Moving Company" show, among others. He also has acted in films. Price teaches Master of Business Administration classes at Chaminade University and writes a column for Star-Advertiser sister publication MidWeek, and both devote their off-air lives to numerous nonprofit organizations.
The list of accolades each has earned, whether academic or community-service oriented, and in Price’s case, in the world of sports, requires at least two sheets of paper using a small font.
The words "Perry on the left" and "Price on the right" were not carefully crafted by a public relations firm or branding and marketing expert.
The words simply described "how we were standing in the studio" that first morning, Perry said.
The stereo channel separation reflecting where they stand in the studio obviously does not delineate their political viewpoints.
"Not even close," Perry said.
"I’ve always worried about the little guy," Price countered, adding, "if not for Democrats, I wouldn’t have had the GI Bill," he said. U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga always reminded him that they paid for his education, Price smiled.
Clearly ensconced on the right politically, "half the island" feels Perry is "full of it," while the other half encourages him for "telling it like it is," Perry said.
Not all their business ventures have turned out well.
"Our biggest failure," Perry said, "was the total inability" to get Perry and Price slippers on the market. The idea was "to help people get dressed in the morning, with Perry on the left (foot) and Price on the right (foot)," Perry said.
Neither Perry nor Price imagined their pairing would endure as long as it has. Now they’re in it for the rest of their lives, they say.
"I’m dying on the radio, and the ninth caller will get my books," said Price, who will turn 78 in November. It could also happen during a live sports broadcast, said Price, still known as "Coach," given his tenure at the University of Hawaii as not just the head football coach, but also three years as head volleyball coach.
Perry, who turns 66 next week, also figures he’ll work until he dies, laughingly explaining that his wife "doesn’t want me around the house at 3:30 in the morning."
Numerous facets of a 30th-anniversary celebration are planned, including the Saturday morning breakfast show at Jade Dynasty Seafood Restaurant at Ala Moana Center and a cruise in September.
