On the move: Cherry, Leahey

A new year has brought some changes to local television.

> The past Friday was Mike Cherry’s last day as the head sports guy at Hawaii News Now. He joins KITV’s morning show, with his first appearance set for the end of this month. It appears rising star Mark Carpenter will be handling all of HNN’s sports segments until another sports person is hired.

> Kanoa Leahey will be spending the next several Wednesdays on the mainland as play-by-play announcer for ESPN’s telecasts of Pac-12 games. His assignment is expected to put the critically acclaimed “Leahey & Leahey” show, which airs Wednesday nights on PBS, on hiatus for at least a few weeks.

kakaako kid January 5, 2015 8:45 am

Right on Kanoa
Turfwar January 5, 2015 8:50 am

The local sportscaster is a dying breed. TV stations simply do not see much of a value in it anymore. Good for Mike. Morning news is still a vibrant commodity.
letsgowarriors January 5, 2015 8:54 am

another week of dead period. boring
Stephen Tsai January 5, 2015 8:56 am

letsgowarriors:
Dead period goes through Jan. 14.
letsgowarriors January 5, 2015 8:59 am

another week and a half
Andrew January 5, 2015 9:05 am

Is he going to be a main anchor on the morning show?

Also what ever happened to Liz Chun? I know she left for family reasons but did she ever go back into sports reporting? I thought she was really good.
tom January 5, 2015 9:17 am

GOOD MORNING, HAWAII!
John January 5, 2015 9:19 am

Just saw an article in HMSA Island Life that Liz is working at Pali Momi while juggling another tough job of being a mother of two kids with Steve Uyehara
SteveM January 5, 2015 9:33 am

Good morning everyone!

A good stint for Kanoa Leahey. Maybe a big opportunity?
Da Punchbowl Kid January 5, 2015 9:44 am

Mark Carpenter does indeed look like a rising star. He’ll do well me thinks.

Kanoa’s rise is a sign that the Leahey mana is growing in him.

Maybe media darling Stephen Tsai could sit in for Kanoa on L&L.
A-House January 5, 2015 9:53 am

Andrew #6:

Liz Chun had #2 baby and stay at home mom until something comes up.

I too liked her with sports news.
gigi-hawaii January 5, 2015 10:01 am

Liz Chun works for Pali Momi in the philanthropy dept.
hatakeman January 5, 2015 10:02 am

HNN’s weekday evening sports coverage is allocated just a few short minutes so they are limited to the number of sporting news topics/items they can cover. KITV’s sports coverage is twice as long, so they have the time to cover more stories. So while Mark Carpenter may be the rising star for HNN, KITV’s sports coverage reigns on top, in my opinion. They just spend more time to deliver a more complete sports news package.
Former UH Athlete January 5, 2015 10:04 am

Congrats to Leahey on his new Pac12 gig. I like listening to him on the games he’s calling. He has a smooth delivery that’s easy to follow.
SteveM January 5, 2015 11:19 am

RE: #9
Great suggestion, DPK!
RK has ST well groomed (literally 🙂 ) for TV. The “Leahey & Tsai” show…

Imagine the possibilities, guests, and “family fights”…Kanoa better watch out.
SteveM January 5, 2015 12:12 pm

Today’s Star-Advertiser editoral is titled”UH Special Funds due for overhaul”.
Note what the editor says about where David Lassner stands on athletics in the editorial:

… Which brings us back to UH athletics. Of the 17 funds faulted, the University of Hawaii at Manoa Intercollegiate Athletics Special Fund is arguably the highest profile.

The audit recommended it be repealed because it has reported deficit balances since fiscal year 2002 and therefore does not meet the requirement that a special fund be self-sustaining. The fund, which helps pay for sports at UH-Manoa, derives revenue from ticket sales, concessions, television and radio broadcasting rights, and corporate sponsorships.

In response to the audit overall, UH President David Lassner agreed with most of the recommendations and observations, but differed on several key points, including the recommendation to repeal the athletics special fund.

Lassner emphasized UH sports’ value to the broader community and welcomed the Legislature’s “participation, insight and assistance in addressing the financial sustainability of this program …”

That’s a polite way to ask for more money, and the start of a general-fund conversation that is long overdue.
Andrew January 5, 2015 12:23 pm

10 & 11

Thanks
jojo January 5, 2015 12:57 pm

People’s habits of watching the telly for news has changed substantially. My secretary commented that young people don’t own tvs because of the use of smart phones. The news people have to adapt. It’s good that Cherry and Leahey are adaptable. ST is moldable. Moldible?
(Jesse)James January 5, 2015 1:39 pm

Jojo…At least they didn’t say ST was moldy….LMAO
Ipu Man January 5, 2015 1:50 pm

Mike Cherry was better than the guy that replaced him. However, I like the new guy Mark Carpenter whose energy and digger of facts are refreshing. And wish
Robert Kekaula had a blog… 🙂 But the little guy on channel two still gives the best sports reporting in my book.
bowwar January 5, 2015 1:53 pm

I always liked Liz Chun, as she brought a different vibe to sports news in Hawaii. She always had a good spirit about her and was very good in doing sports features. Simply, a go-getter…I wish her well with the two kids/family and her job with Pali Momi. We definitely need someone like Liz in Hawaii sports news.
Ipu Man January 5, 2015 1:53 pm

And the L&L producers should buy Jim a telephone and name the show
Leahi and You, and let the audience phone in comments, something like
call the coach show.
Tiki808 January 5, 2015 1:56 pm

TV audiences tuning into the game vs. Ohio State Buckeyes, with Marcus Mariota and Hawai’i or Oregon, which ever way you view this game; 9,000,000 people nation wide. From 300 people to 9,000,000 audiences for this Hawai’i star. 12th, Jan. 2015.
Tiki808 January 5, 2015 2:00 pm

Not from where I view it. Just for the fun is more like it for them. Really?
A-House January 5, 2015 2:03 pm

ST:

your earlier comment on those waiting to transfer to UH and be “player” eligible” in 2016

I’ll presume that most, if not all, are from here or have strong Hawaii ties and will transfer in 2015; most likely before July.

Can you give us a “round about number” cause never know what will happen to their request to be released from their current scholarship and position?

jus to “wet” our appetite for the future
leron January 5, 2015 2:18 pm

Ipu Man- the aforementioned “little guy” also produces L&L
Nanakuli January 5, 2015 2:22 pm

Rob Demello should host with Papa Jim. I think he’s their producer and a close friend.
hatakeman January 5, 2015 2:37 pm

Lassner is a keeper. Need to identify those state legislators that are not supportive of UH Athletics so we can vote for those that are supportive.
hitman January 5, 2015 3:18 pm

aloha all !! the “Leahey & Leahey” show, is a good show !! they show a lot about UH on there !! did they ever had norm chow on there? i know there just jj there not that long ago . and for the show bring in John Veneri to sit in for Kanoa. and let them do a show about da next UH AD !!! OR BRING IN Stephen Tsai to talk UH about UH sports !!
Kazu January 5, 2015 4:32 pm

6. Saw Liz Chun and her family on the magazine cover of Island Scene. Didn’t know that she’s married to Steve Uyehara.
mytake January 5, 2015 5:28 pm

K. Leahey is the best sportscaster in Hawaii by far. I wish Jamai Webster stayed here cause I would have placed him 2nd followed by Kekaula.
3-Prong January 5, 2015 6:19 pm

The Leahey Tradition of Sportscasting….One of the Good Things…
SteveM January 5, 2015 6:53 pm

3-Prong — last night you asked what was the “9:00 pm Rule”…

The “9:00 pm rule” or “2100 rule” was ST’s first step in the recovery/comeback of the blog in it’s crucial first year. The Tsai-kos, then with 2 blog parties and the first few Cattle Calls behind them, drove the blog to new heights in the 5 F’s: Football, Food, Friends, Family, and Fun. OK, I admit we were running amok…a little bit… 🙄

Many joined in or read the antics–and with a national audience (the mainland Tsai-kos I was trying to identify), the blog hit count soared and the blog became a national community center of sorts. But there were those unseen people who thought the blog should be exclusively football news and their comments. There were complaints, and apparently ST was getting heat from his bosses– so he kinda put the squash on things.

What resulted was a mostly serious blog with around the same number of comments today. [take notes, gang] Many Tsai-kos who posted 10-20 times a day were absent (like now). The blog was in a tailspin and morale and posts were down. It was not fun and informative anymore. Then on April 8, 2007 ST attempted to salvage the blog by “officially” establishing the “9 pm rule” in response to a pivotal comment from Al…

Comment from: Stephen [Member]
Al:
I didn’t ban food talk.
I just reminded folks about the importance of trying not to stray too far off topic too often. That
stems from two observations:

1. Topics initiated here often are debated in other forums. I think it’s easier to discuss our topics
here.
2. The readers are basically in charge of the “comments” section, so they can discuss the topics
they wish. I just want to make sure that we’re not excluding too many people.

However, I did discourage — OK, ban — talk about home security particularly when it appears to
be an end-around my no-flaunt rule.

So here’s my new, new, new rule: Free talk between 9 p.m. and the next day’s post, as long as
we abide by the no-name-calling, no-asking-anyone-to-be-fired rules.

And one last rant:
If somebody is having problems with another member of the board — yes, we’re looking at you,
Mr. brew — please don’t complain to the higher-ups. My life is difficult enough without the bosses
asking me to intervene with on-line spats.
On that note, hope all of you are having a happy Easter.
04/08/07 @ 15:31

But note the blog had mainland and international bloggers–and it was always 9:00 pm somewhere in the world… and we had las vegas/rasu begsu back then . 🙂
http://stevem.altervista.org/mainintpost.html

Later, ST really righted the blogship when, with the help of the mighty Prideperiod (Kifi), set the full moon over the blogship…where it flew as her battle ensign in the days to follow… and still flies there now in my opinion. See the Tsai-ko Caricature page for more on this. Later, the blog often reached 300 comments per day and broke 1,000 several times.
Bryson January 5, 2015 7:43 pm

Stephen any chance that Clune goes back to Utah State since their D-Co is on his way to Houston?
islandman January 5, 2015 7:48 pm

28. hitman –i think i remember Norm was on Leahey and Leahey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4aPiIuatuE
3-Prong January 5, 2015 8:36 pm

SteveM: Thanks for the history lesson. Long live the Blog!
J January 5, 2015 9:40 pm

Been one of the many absent…or maybe just absent-minded.

ST, know if any Scripps Ranch High Falcons are on the recruiting list for men’s volleyball? I was editing some club volleyball video and…
pollypicador January 6, 2015 3:16 am

You would have to admire how local tv news does it-

make changes, shuffle the lineup, bring the best product…

pull the trigger.

Ratings are key.

Good journalism, appeal, substance captures audiences.

One can only wish that local newspapers, namely sports, follow

the model local tv follows in giving the viewers the best product

by making (long overdue) changes….and looking to improve.
LizKauai January 6, 2015 7:16 am

Happy New Year!

Yea for Mike and Kanoa… New career horizons!
Stephen Tsai January 6, 2015 7:38 am

New post: http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=26856

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On the move: Cherry, Leahey

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