KOHO (AM)

KOHO was a Japanese language AM radio station active in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1959 to 2000. KOHO was one of two radio stations broadcasting Japanese programming on the AM dial into the 1990s; the other, which is still active today, is KZOO.^[1] The radio station is still licensed, now as KORL.

History

KOHO signed on in 1959, broadcasting on the 1170 AM frequency. (The station would move to 1180 kHz in 2006.)

In 1999, Utah-based Legacy Communications Corp. bought the station from Da Kine Broadcasting and its call letters changed several times until the station, then silent, was sold again in 2003 to California-based Salem Communications Corp. Icicle Broadcasting Corp., based in Washington, now uses the KOHO call letters for its station at 101.1 FM in Leavenworth.^[1]

Bomb threat and United 811

Shortly after the United Airlines Flight 811 incident occurred, a KOHO spokesman reported receiving a bomb threat via phone the previous month. The caller threatened to plant a bomb on an American aircraft unless a jailed member of the Japanese Red Army was released, but investigators said there was no indication that a bomb caused the hole in the airplane's fuselage.^[2]

Comedy sketch

Hawaii comedian Frank DeLima created a comedy sketch around the station, which he called "Radio KOHO." As DeLima explained, "My neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Yoneshige, were always listening to KOHO... and they were hard of hearing, so the radio was on loud, every day."^[3]

References