Department of Accounting and General Services

HONOLULU — “Never fear, The Posse is here!” are words that have been uttered on Hawaii’s largest radio station, KSSK, for years. Fans of the longtime Perry & Price Show on 92.3 KSSK-FM will recognize that familiar refrain as something the show hosts always said. The Posse refers to the listeners who became an informal Neighborhood Watch, known for helping catch criminals — though the concept evolved over time to represent the broader audience in general.

Now, historical episodes — which include audience members of The Posse — are in the Hawaiʻi State Archives, a division of the Department of Accounting and General Services.

Hawaii’s legendary radio program, The Perry & Price Show, aired six days a week for 33 years. On any given morning, 25% of people listening to the radio were tuned into Perry & Price during the 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. morning drive time, according to parent company iHeartMedia Honolulu.

During the week, The Perry & Price Show was in studio. On Saturdays, it traveled to a restaurant in the community where attendees participated in a live radio show from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. which included local and national performers. Michael W. Perry and “Coach” Larry Price were the hosts, with their trusty sidekick and show producer Sweetie Pacarro.

Pacarro roved around the room with a microphone to interview audience members live on the air. iHeartMedia Honolulu.says Saturday’s listening audiences reached upward of 100,000 people. iHeartMedia Honolulu taped the program from 1990 to 2009. The show continues to air today surrounding holiday occasions.

KSSK and iHeartMedia Honolulu’s President Scott Hogle recently donated 447 VHS tapes of the Saturday morning show to be digitized and preserved as part of Hawaii’s significant history. Hogle says, “The Perry & Price LIVE Morning show on Saturdays showcased our local culture and history and became a springboard for many local artists who went onto achieve national success in music and movies. It’s the greatest collection of Hawaiʻi’s heritage where we celebrate ‘local boy and local girls made good.’” National performing artists visiting this state often sought out the Perry & Price show as a way to inform Hawaiʻi they were performing in the Islands.

“The show is iconic, and it’s an honor to receive this slice of Hawaiʻi history,” says DAGS Director and Comptroller Keith Regan. “I listen to it. My in-laws listen to it. For decades, you couldn’t hear ‘Perry’ without thinking of ‘Price.ʻ It was a wonderful combination of information, entertainment and spontaneity, all wrapped up in a very local package. It embodied Hawaiʻi.”

“Having these shows archived plays a major part in preserving our rich history that Perry and Price started many decades ago at KSSK that we are so proud of,” adds Jamie Hyatt, KSSK Program Director and iHeartMedia Honolulu’s Senior Vice President of Programming.

Price retired in 2016. “The weekday show carried on as Perry & The Posse and continues to be Hawaiʻi’s highest rated morning radio program to this day,” Hyatt continues.

Perry and Price brought more than news and entertainment to our community; KSSK is an emergency broadcasting station and in times of weather events like hurricanes or tsunamis, they remained on the air — sometimes for hours — informing listeners where to get supplies, when the power would be back on, and other critical information.

“We had so much history and wanted to share it with the broader community,” Perry notes. “If you listen to a show, it’ll give you a cross section of what was happening in our Islands at any given time. We had every state Governor and most county Mayors, local celebrities, and many national stars like Oprah Winfrey, Bruno Mars, Arnold Swarzenegger, Drew Carey, Dolly Parton, Kenny Loggins, James Ingram, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Kristi Yamaguchi and so much more.”

KSSK donated other related artifacts, like some show notes of morning DJ Hal “Aku” Lewis, aka J. Akuhead Pupule. He was the predecessor to the Perry & Price Show, and his show had top ratings and entered the Radio Hall of Fame. After Aku’s passing, then-General Manager Earl McDaniel (now deceased) decided to pair Perry and Price; he felt they brought two distinct and complementary qualities to radio.

At the time, Perry was a highly successful, top-rated afternoon radio personality on KSSK, as well as a TV show host and sought-after commercial spokesperson. Perry was also a high-profile board member of a local rehabilitation hospital for years.

Price, a beloved former player and coach for University of Hawaiʻi football who spent time in the NFL, joined the station as its Vice President of Public Relations, then went on to television news, earned a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles became an educator at Chaminade University in Honolulu, and wrote a weekly newspaper column; all while doing the radio show.

Both are military veterans; Perry served in the U.S. Navy and Price, the U.S. Army. The two dominated Honolulu’s Arbitron ratings for decades; Perry continues to earn high radio ratings.

The Archives is now digitizing the shows and, upon completion, will make them available for the public on its website. It needs about a dozen volunteers willing to listen to each three-hour program in real time as it’s digitizing to listen for tape dropouts, and log who the guests are. If you’d like to be part of taking The “Coconut Wireless,” as the radio personalities called their show, into digital posterity, go to https://ags.hawaii.gov/archives/ for details.