Here’s Part 2 of my annual awards.

Linda Coble

Television News Trailblazer Award

If you watch the local television news today, you’ll see as many female reporters as male. But that wasn’t always the case. TV news reporters were all men until one woman broke through the glass ceiling in 1969. Her name is Linda Coble.

Coble was the first woman to earn a broadcast journalism scholarship to the University of Oregon. She graduated and knocked on doors at TV stations in Portland. “The personnel director at one station told me to return after I had more experience and a sex change operation! I was crushed.”

She moved to Hawaii and got a job at KHVH (now KITV) in July 1969, not as a reporter, but as a newsroom secretary. She swept the floors, emptied wastebaskets, answered phones and ran errands for $1.50 an hour.

She watched the reporters and learned what they were doing. One night there was a car bombing at Holiday Mart (now Don Quijote), and Coble was the only one in the newsroom.

“All the reporters had gone home for the evening, and I was still there,” Coble said. “They knew I had the skills. I had studied and shadowed reporters, so they sent me.”

A few weeks later she got another break. Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, a prominent Republican, stopped in Honolulu on his way home from Cambodia. Don Rockwell sent her to Hickam AFB, hoping she could get a shot of the plane.

“Goldwater was a buddy of my dad’s in the Air Force. I asked a sentry to tell Goldwater that Linda Coble was here to see him. My cameraman and the sentry looked at me like I was an idiot. But he walked across the tarmac and spoke to the senator.

“Goldwater poked his head out of the plane and waved,” Coble said. “We ran across the tarmac and had a great conversation about his trip and the war in Vietnam.”

“We should have nuked them,” Goldwater said, referring to the North Vietnamese.

“The suggestion that the U.S. seriously consider using nuclear weapons in Southeast Asia made huge headlines across the country,” Coble said. “It was early in my career, one of my first reports, and it was a huge scoop.”

In 1971 she was promoted as the first female co-anchor at a Hawaii TV station. A year later she left KITV and joined the KGMB evening news with Bob Sevey. For breaking so many glass ceilings for women, I present Coble with the Television News Trailblazer Award.

Walter Dods Jr.

Business Leadership Award

Few advertising campaigns last for more than five years. Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef? campaign ran from 1984 to 1985. Apple’s “Think Different” campaign ran just five years, from 1997 to 2002.

Fewer still make it to the 10-year mark. Yet one of the longest in the U.S. is First Hawaiian Bank’s “Bank That Says Yes” campaign. It’s been running since 1969. That puts it into the realm of some pretty heavy hitters:

>> Ford: “Built Ford Tough” (1944-present)

>> M&M’s: “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hand” (1954-present)

>> State Farm: “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There” (1971-present)

>> Nike: “Just Do It” (1988-present)

>> Jack in the Box: “Jack’s Way” (1994-present)

Walter Dods Jr. created the campaign as the new director of advertising and public relations at First Hawaiian Bank in 1969. The brash 27-year-old wanted to transform the bank’s stodgy image and attitude. To do that, he felt he needed to change the entire culture of First Hawaiian Bank.

Dods hired the advertising firm of Milici Valenti to break the bank out of its unexciting past. “I wanted to make us approachable. I wanted to humanize us. I wanted to adopt an extremely positive attitude.

“Copywriter Tom Baird said, ‘Well, you know, if that’s what you really want, what is the most powerful word in the English language? That word is yes.’”

Dods agreed. “The two of us in that room came out and, and that was it. First Hawaiian would be the ‘Bank That Says Yes.’”

Their first newspaper ad said, “We live by a word. And the word is yes.

“You only go to a bank for one reason. You need something positive. An easier loan. A handier credit card. A faster way to save. Or simply advice.

“What you don’t need is maybe. Or, we’ll see. Or, we’ve never done that before. Next time you have any need that a bank might serve, bring it to the people at First Hawaiian. If it’s humanly possible, we’ll find a way to say yes. That’s the word we live by.”

“We couldn’t always say yes to every customer request,” Dods said, “but we tried.”

The “Yes” campaign is probably the longest and most successful advertising campaign ever in Hawaii. Dods was promoted to CEO in 1989. He was 48.

Dods also developed the “Quiet and Effective” slogan for George Ariyoshi’s gubernatorial campaign. Frank Fasi said he lost the election because of it.

Dods retired from First Hawaiian Bank in 2004 and has stayed active in the business community. For this and all his philanthropic work, I present him with the Rearview Mirror Business Leadership Award.

Steve Sue

Aloha Spirit Award

I remember watching President Obama’s inauguration parade on TV in 2009. Punahou’s high school band went by, and he gave them a shaka. The newsman misinterpreted it. “He’s telling them to call him,” he said. Wrong!

While watching television last week, the shaka was used during a mainland commercial. A soldier parachuted out of a plane in a movie I was watching, after giving a shaka to his buddies. I was surprised. Has the shaka gone global? Do people outside Hawaii generally understand it?

The story of the shaka was, at one time, fairly obscure to me. Where had it come from? Who gave the first shaka?

Then, three years ago, I met Steve Sue. He was making a documentary about the shaka and asked me what I knew about it.

I put what I knew into a timeline. Hamana Kalili, who had lost his middle three fingers, was very visible “waving” to people in Laie as far back as 1915. Lippy Espinda called it “shaka” in his 1970 advertising.

Elvis flashed the shaka to over a billion TV viewers of his “Aloha from Hawaii” concert. Fasi adopted it for his 1976 mayoral campaign.

Because of Sue’s questions, the history of the shaka became clearer to me, although there were several gray areas.

Sue found many people who had firsthand knowledge of its roots. His timing was perfect. If he had waited 10 years, some of these sources might be gone.

He has recently finished “Shaka, a Story of Aloha,” and it is beautiful. He’d be the first to say he had a lot of help. Bryan Spicer, who brought the “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum P.I.” series to this island, was a co- executive producer. Henry Kapono wrote four songs for the film. The entire crew were UH students. Kameha­meha School funded the project.

“Shaka, a Story of Aloha” was shown at the Hawaii International Film Festival in 2024 and was given the Audience Choice Award for best documentary feature. It was also selected by the Utah International Film Festival and Tokyo International Shorts Film Festival.

Sue has taken shaka to new levels. The Legislature and Gov. Josh Green have designated shaka as the official state gesture. Drivers can now get a shaka license plate for their cars.

Sue is also working with the Department of Education to develop curriculum for public schools. A pilot program begins this month in Hawaii middle and high schools.

For his monumental commitment of time and effort, I bestow on Sue and all those who worked with him the Rearview Mirror Aloha Spirit Award.

Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.