Two well-known, Hawaii-raised faces have returned to the local screen to talk tech to the women with the hands that rock the cradle and do all that other stuff that’s part of motherhood, which these days includes navigating the use of technology to help manage the lives of their families.
It’s not just about posting pictures to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites. The Internet features a jungle of sites for tech geeks and gadget freaks, such as Mashable, Gizmodo, Engadget and too many more to name. Cable TV has TechTV, G4 and other channels and shows as well.
However — and with apologies to Burt Lum and Ryan Ozawa, who host "Bytemarks Cafe" each Wednesday afternoon on Hawaii Public Radio — neither the sites nor the programming "speak our language," said Maria Quiban, former KHNL-TV weather anchor.
"There was a vacuum," she said, enabling her and a production partner to fill a "special niche" for families.
Quiban established MommyLovesTech.com and its companion YouTube channel about a year and a half ago to create programming, host live chats and produce other aspects of the online resources designed for busy moms who want to take advantage of today’s technology to make their lives easier, or at least to help them navigate the morass of mobile and other devices.
Now, Quiban and former Miss Universe Brook Lee have joined forces to launch the "Mommy Loves Tech" TV show on OC16, which debuted Saturday and which will repeat through this week. Each new episode will air at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays.
"Honolulu … was the best place (for the new show) to go," she said. "First, it’s our home, where we try to go all the time. We still have family and friends there."
The hope is that viewership is good enough for the show to expand to other markets.
Quiban, who has been at Fox owned-and-operated KTTV in Los Angeles since 1998, is the "Good Day LA" morning weather and social media anchor.
She discovered that Lee, who also had moved to Los Angeles, "lived right down the road from me," Quiban said. Lee has since moved "about 35 minutes away"; nevertheless, the two joined forces and Lee is now "one of our Mommy Tech ambassadors," Quiban said.
Lee appeared on the "Today" show on NBC to promote "Mommy Loves Tech."
Production partner Dennis Lovelace sought to assure would-be viewers that the show "is not just for moms, but all tech-savvy citizens."
In each episode, the pair "will bring you the latest must-have gadgets, the latest news and information for tech news, best websites to bookmark, plus fashion and entertainment too," he said in a statement.
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On the Net:
» www.mommylovestech.com
Aloha, y’all
"Hawaii’s Kool Gold" KKOL-FM 107.9 morning man Ed Kanoi will leave for Kauai at mid-month for a new phase in his career as general manager and program director for three stations owned by HHawaii Media’s George Hochman.
Shortly after his arrival, on a date yet to be determined, he’ll also take the wake-up reins at "Rooster Country" KTOH-FM 99.9 as the morning man.
"It’s neighbor island radio, a small operation, so you wear many hats," Kanoi said.
No word on whether one of those hats will be a Stetson or a Larry Mahan.
He gave notice to longtime employer Salem Communications Corp. late Thursday morning and told his Facebook friends Friday morning he believed he was doing his last show on Kool Gold.
"I’ll hang around till the 7th," to help out in whatever way he can, he told TheBuzz, "but I have to be on Kauai by June 17."
This will be a return to Kauai for Kanoi, who previously worked for another station group for about a decade, from 1988 to 1998, with Ed Kaahea, famously from the comedy troupe known as Booga Booga.
He had only intended to stay on Kauai a year, to get his Top 40 radio chops back after playing country music at KDEO-AM 940. He also has worked in radio on the Big Island.
"It was just one of those phone calls that came, with a really great offer," he said.
While he has loved working in radio on Oahu, where he started his career in the 1970s at the old KKUA-AM 690, he said he views this new role as "not really leaving, I’m just sort of changing addresses. Nowadays you can listen to radio from around the world" online. As it happens, HHawaii Media does offer online streaming of its stations.
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On the Net:
» hhawaiimedia.com
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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
