During the 1990s, Sandra Sagisi Moser reported and anchored the news at KGMB. This month, we look back on her career and catch up with her.
Sagisi Moser was born in Laoag City in the Philippines. When she was 6 years old she moved to Kauai, living on the Kapaia Plantation. "It was complete with termite-eaten shacks and cool outhouses," Sagisi Moser said.
In 1980, she graduated from Kauai High School and in 1983 completed her studies at BYU Hawaii, earning a degree in fine arts. The following year, Sagisi Moser went on a Latter-day Saints mission in Bristol, England. She married Kendall Moser in 1986 and earned a BA in communications from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in 1987.
Journalism had interested Sagisi Moser since she was a young girl. "Since age 10, I wanted to be like Linda Coble and report for KGMB someday," Sagisi Moser said. She eventually attained that goal, after reporting and anchoring stints at TV stations in Utah and Florida.
In 1990, Sagisi Moser returned to Hawaii and landed a job at the station she grew up watching, KGMB.
She reported the news, producing and covering health and weather during her early days with the station.
Sagisi Moser also worked with some of the people she followed closely in her youth: "Bob Jones was a great writer and taught me hard news. Leslie Wilcox taught me to be a decent live reporter, and with Tim Tindall, I learned how to have fun during commercial breaks."
While at KGMB, Sagisi Moser was diagnosed with breast cancer and decided to make her story public, co-producing a special on cancer survivors in 1993. The special also emphasized the importance of early detection.
Sagisi Moser co-anchored the KGMB Weekend News with Dave Carlin and they forged a friendship that went beyond the newsroom. "Carlin took me to my chemo treatments and we have a bond. We even shared a dressing room together," said Sagisi Moser.
She has been cancer-free for more than 20 years.
Carlin, who now works as a reporter in New York City, recalled working alongside Sagisi Moser: "Sandra’s best news stories were deeply personal and very revealing. It took guts to tell her own cancer survival story and later to travel with a cameraman to try and unlock mystery surrounding the assassination of her politician father in the Philippines. These won awards and succeeded because they were finely crafted and told straightforwardly without traces of judgment or self-pity."
After leaving KGMB News in 1998, Sagisi Moser worked at her alma mater, BYU Hawaii, as director of student activities.
Since then, she worked in public relations and as a mortgage broker and served under former Mayor Mufi Hannemann as deputy director and public communications division administrator.
In 2005, Sagisi Moser made the transition into the real estate business, a job she loves. "It is making people’s dreams come true. I have fun every day. Real estate is more like a hobby, not a job. … I get to showcase the best areas of Hawaii, by promoting Hawaii, a place I know so well," Sagisi Moser said.
Currently you can see her on the national television show "Hawaii Life," which airs Sundays at 9 and 9:30 p.m. on the Home and Garden Network (HGTV).
"Filming our reality real estate TV show is such an uplifting experience. The show profiles a new wave of Hawaii visitors moving to the islands to live out their dreams and the lifestyle we all enjoy," she said.
Recently, the TV news business has become a family affair as Sagisi Moser’s daughter Ashley Moser followed in her mother’s footsteps. Ashley Moser worked anchoring the news in Ohio and will soon begin working for KITV as a reporter and weekend news anchorwoman for their morning show.
"I enjoy seeing my second-generation broadcast kid grow into a hard-news journalist," Sagisi Moser said.
And would the proud mother ever entertain a return to the news desk? "What I would do to go back. I still think broadcast journalism is the best job ever. I would go back in a heartbeat," she said.
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A.J. McWhorter, a collector of film and videotape cataloging Hawaii’s TV history, has worked as a producer, writer and researcher for both local and national media. Email him at flashback@hawaii.rr.com.