KZOO

KZOO

City of license	Honolulu, Hawaii
Broadcast area	Honolulu, Hawaii
Branding	Radio KZOO
Slogan	Cherry Blossom Station
Frequency	1210 (kHz)
First air date	October 18, 1963
Format	J-Pop/Japanese Variety
Power	1000 watts
Class	B
Owner	Polynesian Broadcasting, Inc.
Website	www.kzoohawaii.com

KZOO (1210 AM) is a radio station catering to the Japanese community of Honolulu, Hawaii. The station offers a Japanese Variety and Pop music (aka J-Pop) format and is under ownership of Polynesian Broadcasting, Inc. KZOO also retransmits on Oceanic Time Warner Cable digital channel 888 for the entire state of Hawaii.

KZOO has been broadcasting continuously in Japanese since the station signed on October 18, 1963. It was not the first Japanese-language station in Honolulu (competitor KOHO/1170 signed on in 1959), but it is the only one still on the air today (KOHO changed in 1990).

History

The station has been owned by Polynesian Broadcasting since its beginning and managed by the Furuya family since 1967, when businessman Noboru Furuya took over KZOO's operations. Furuya's son David and his wife Robyn took over management of the station in the mid-1990s when Furuya's health began to decline. Noboru Furuya died in 2002 at the age of 82; David and Robyn Furuya (now the president and vice-president, respectively, of Polynesian Broadcasting) continue to run KZOO today.

Programming

Many of KZOO's current on-air staff have been with the station for decades, including Keiko Ura, host of an Okinawan language show on Sundays, who joined the station in early 1964; Maki Norris, one of the hosts of a popular daily talk show called "Moshi-Moshi Time," who has worked at KZOO since 1976; and Harumi "Danny" Oshita.

KZOO has a history of sponsoring Japanese speech (Nihongo Hanashikata Taikai, started by announcer Keiko Ura in 1965) and nodojiman and karaoke song contests in Honolulu, with winners going on to represent Hawaii at contests in Japan. The station's broadcast day also includes simulcasts of programs from Japan as well as local talk and advice shows on a variety of topics, from health to the law.

Disaster relief

When KZOO was knocked off the air by the 2006 Hawaii earthquake, the station's assistant general manager, Kaoru Ekimoto, contacted English-language adult contemporary music station KSSK, who put her on the air with disaster relief information in Japanese; the station also set up a hotline to answer listener questions. The station has since added a backup power source for its transmitter.

External links

Radio Stations in the Honolulu, Hawaii Market

By AM frequency	590 650 690 760 830 880 940 990 1040 1080 1130 1180♥ 1210 1270 1370 1420 1460 1500 1540

By FM frequency	88.1 89.3 90.3 (89.9/91.3)♠◊ 91.5♦ 92.3 93.1 93.9 94.7 95.5 95.9 96.3 96.7‡ 97.5 98.5 99.1 99.5 100.3 101.1 101.5♣ 101.9 102.3 102.7 103.5 104.3 105.1 105.9 106.7♦ 107.5♣ 107.9

NOAA WX Radio frequency	162.550

By Digital Cable Audio Channels^*	849 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 880 881 882 883 884 885 888

Digital radio	88.1-1 89.3-1 90.1-1 92.3-1 92.3-2 93.1-1 93.9-1 93.9-2 94.7-1 95.5-1 96.3-1 97.5-1 98.5-1 98.5-2 99.5-1 100.3-1 101.1-1 101.1-2 101.1-3 101.1-4 101.9-1 101.9-2 102.7-1 103.5-1 103.5-2 104.3-1 105.1-1 105.9-1 107.9-1

By callsign	K210DX◊ K217AA◊ K244EO‡ K256AS K268BE♣ K298BA KAIM-FM KBA99 KCCN-FM KDDB KDNN KGU KGU-FM KHAI KHCM KHCM-FM KHJZ KHKA KHNR KHPR KHRA KHVH KIKI KINE-FM KIPO KKEA KKNE KKOL-FM KLHT KMKK-FM KNAN♦ KNDI KORL♥ KORL-FM KPHI KPHW KPOI-FM KPRP KQMQ-FM KREA KRTR-FM KSSK KSSK-FM KTUH KUCD KUMU-FM KUPA KWAI KXRG-LP KZOO

Defunct radio stations	KEWA/1320

♣ KORL-FM translator, simulcasting its HD radio subchannel ‡ KPHI translator ♦ both KLHT-FM and KNAN are new stations that has yet to sign on ♥ Currently silent, but will return to air ♠ Moving to 90.1, pending FCC approval ◊ Both 89.9 and 91.3 are KTUH translators ^* Channels operated by Oceanic Time Warner Cable Hawaii radio markets Honolulu Other Hawaii radio regions Hilo Kauai Maui See also List of radio stations in Hawaii

Coordinates: 21°17′41″N 157°51′49″W / 21.29472°N 157.86361°W / 21.29472; -157.86361