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played up beat music from the 1940s. In addition to his other traits, Aku was a prankster who caused thousands to show up for a non-existent parade one April Fools' Day. But while he loved to create havoc, he had a thin skin for critical press reviews, and while others saw him as an entertainer, he saw himself as a journalist. Aku would also read the news during his morning show. This "Coconut
Wireless News" segment would start off with a jingle that included sounds of coconut shell effects.
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Another version of this story is that at his first station, the station sales manager and his team brainstormed the moniker to explain to the innocent audience of post-War
Honolulu that this talkative Jewish personality looked like a crazy fish head. When the sales manager brought his young son (who
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Aku died in 1983, but managed to get the last laugh on the airwaves when he unleashed his own recorded announcements to stimulate a public mourning for his passing. A new era of radio was ushered into Hawaii following his death. Michael Perry and Larry Price replaced the late Aku and Hawaii finally
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Aku was thought to be charming and contrary at the same time. He is reported to have become the world's highest paid deejay while barely managing to avoid bankruptcy several times. His on-air presence was calm but his off-air presence was obnoxious. While others would spin rock 'n' roll records Aku
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When Mayor Frank Fasi forbid Star-Bulletin reporter
Richard Borreca to attend his press conferences, the newspaper sued and the case was heard by federal judge Sam King who ruled that the mayor's action was unconstitutional. When King lost his race for governor, Fasi personally attacked him. Aku
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Using the name J. Akuhead Pupule, he had his own short-lived recording label, Aku
Records. It had a green label, with a cartoon of Hal Lewis with an exaggerated nose. He persuaded Alfred Apaka to record on his label, with Aku backing him on violin. Aku also recorded himself singing and playing
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Aku's broadcast home for several years was the top of the
Advertiser Newspaper building in downtown Honolulu until he moved back to KGMB. At one time, one of the twin towers on roof of the Advertiser building had the KGU call letters in four foot neon lights. Aku had this changed to AKU in neon
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would be the third generation of his family to spend his own life on
Honolulu's airwaves: Harry B Soria), to the station, he was shocked the first time he saw Aku as he was definitely not the bald-headed aged grandfather figure that his radio voice had conjured in his imagination.
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adopted the morning team radio format already popular in the mainland United States. The "Coconut
Wireless News" continues on the Perry and Price Show as a ten minute long newscast that has commentary and opinions included in the broadcast.
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invited them to appear together on his popular morning radio program, where King attacked back. King later observed that he and Frank Fasi didn't bear each other any real enmity, but that Aku had gotten his show a ratings boost.
114:. Aku asked to speak to the station management and he made a proposal to buy the morning time slot from 6 AM to 9 AM in order to present his own breakfast show. Unfortunately the transmitter which was located in the
70:, where he had been an unemployed violinist. His cabaret act failed and he soon became a staff announcer at KGMB in Honolulu. According to his newspaper biography, he was so poor that he had to sleep on
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It was at KPOA that Lewis perfected his own style of presentation, which incorporated repetitious time checks, and it was this gimmick that caused him to get the name
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In 1965, Aku eventually managed to return to KGMB in
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Never one to stay still, Aku began jumping from station to station in Hawaii and in the process he built up a following. In 1955 he showed up in
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from a furious listener after he had given out the incorrect time on the radio. Lewis then dropped his own name for
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Sjarif
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He became a personality in his own right when he moved to Hawaii in 1946 from
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in strength during the evening hours and his proposal was rejected.
130:(The old KPOA) Aku broadcast from the "Tree House" at the
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Soria, Harry B. (Dec 15, 2013). "personal communication".
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Soria, Harry B. (Dec 15, 2013). "personal communication".
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Chicago Tribune: "Hal Lewis, 77, Legend of Hawaii Radio"
187:- see 1955 and offer by Aku to buy morning air time on
305:. Honolulu, Hawaii: Watermark Publishing. p. 71.
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http://www.oldradio.com/archives/stations/hihist.html
94:violin on "My Little Buckaroo," among other tunes.
291:(Boston: Bowman & Littlefield, 2008), 289.
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352:"Eddie Sherman, Emma Veary and Aku wed 1968"
327:"Still having fun (Honolulu Star-Bulletin)"
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301:King, Samuel P.; et al. (2013).
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110:programme listings magazine called
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422:By Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin
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420:energized Hawaii’s airwaves.
289:Communication Law in America
143:lights for several months.
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358:. 23 June 1968. p. 27
132:International Market Place
116:Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
303:Judge Sam King, A Memoir
163:Personal life and legacy
52:Herschel Laib Hohenstein
20:Herschel Leib Hohenstein
427:J. Aku Pupule Obituary
356:Honolulu Star-Bulletin
269:Cite journal requires
237:Cite journal requires
106:at the offices of the
126:KORL 650AM, Honolulu
138:KGU 760AM, Honolulu
38:, an AM station in
412:2005-02-19 at the
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312:978-1-935690-38-2
83:J. Akuhead Pupule
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407:Biography
378:Billboard
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179:See also
60:New York
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