Dan Boylan has stepped away from his role as moderator on "Insights," the PBS Hawaii show about current issues affecting Hawaii.
He had been the primary host and moderator for the show for about 23 years, since back when the show was called "Dialog."
Boylan notified President and CEO Leslie Wilcox "that I would not be back after the holidays," he told TheBuzz, because "I’ve been uncomfortable with the change in the management of the show."
He praised Producers Joy Chong and Colette Fox, "both of them are terrific to work with," adding he had been impressed with veteran journalists Treena Shapiro and Suzanne Roig, who are recent PBS Hawaii hires.
"I just find presently that morale around the show has been low, and I think it’s primarily become a bit micromanaged," he said.
"There’s not a lot of micromanaging of professors," he said of his 40-year academic career. Now a professor emeritus of history at the University of Hawaii at West Oahu, his other lengthy role has been as a political columnist since 1978, first in Honolulu magazine. His column has appeared in the pages of Honolulu Star-Advertiser sister publication MidWeek since "at least 1991," he said.
His role at PBS Hawaii was as a freelancer, and as such, he signed three-month contracts.
Given the relative freedom he’s had in each career track, he said, "It’s not a good fit for me anymore."
His days at PBS Hawaii began when the station was referred to by its call letters, KHET, or by the name Hawaii Public Television, around 1990.
"Bear in mind, ‘Dialog’ wasn’t always an hour show," he said. "Public television hit some hard times in the mid-’90s, and at one time the show went off the air for six or seven months and I tried to raise some money" to get the show back on.
It eventually returned as a taped show and later changed to a live, call-in show.
On and off, his co-hosts have included former radio and TV news reporter Melanie Granfors and longtime TV news anchors Lynne Waters and Leslie Wilcox, to name a few. Wilcox was named president and CEO at PBS Hawaii to succeed Mike McCartney in 2007.
Boylan hosted his last live, hourlong "Insights" discussion show about preserving shoreline access on Thursday.
Wilcox told the Star-Advertiser on Tuesday, "When I joined here, (Boylan) said, ‘You probably want to put me out to pasture,’" but she affirmed her desire that he stay on.
This Thursday’s "Insights" show, to be hosted and moderated by former TV news reporter Malia Mattoch, will focus on youth sports and head trauma.
As for the notion that viewers will miss him, Boylan said, "That’s what my wife says," but "we all think we’re irreplaceable and we’re not." Mattoch, "somebody or some group of people" will do a fine job succeeding him, he said.
Boylan will continue his MidWeek column and teaching at UH-West Oahu and laughs that he is grateful to be "70 years old and still vertical."
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
