Ho`olohe  Hou is now Ho`olohe Hou Radio!

Ho`olohe Hou the blog is now Ho`olohe Hou Radio – a unique and exciting new concept in Hawaiian music edutainment. 

Ho`olohe Hou the blog simply exploded last year. I published more than 750 pages of information on Hawaiian music artists and composers, and readers responded by clicking on the links that appealed to them. This served as an important form of market research. The more clicks an artist received, the clearer it became that the Hawaiian music-loving world longed to hear those artists again. Interestingly, many of the artists with the widest appeal on my blog also happen to be artists for whom few or no recordings have been made available in the digital era. 

If you are an avid follower of Ho`olohe Hou the blog, then you know that the source of the material for this life-long investigation into Hawaiian music is my vast collection of more than 25,000 recordings from Hawai`i dating back more than a century. But what you might not know is that I am also an avid collector of other kinds of music – from classic rock and pop to jazz, standards, the great vocalists (from Sinatra to Ella), Broadway and the Great American Songbook, country/western, R&B, and classical. And I am also a musician myself. So every time I hear one of these Hawaiian recordings, my mind begins to race with the various connections – some obvious, some less so – between the music of Hawai`i and music from other parts of the world. I have always been fascinated by tracing the evolution of Hawaiian music and observing where that story arc intersects with the evolution of other kinds of music. Despite being an island in the middle of the Pacific, Hawai`i and its musicians have been greatly influenced by music from the rest of the world and, at the same time, the world at large owes a debt of gratitude to Hawai`i and its musicians for their contributions. 

By last November this blog was receiving more than 8,000 visits per month. That is a startling amount of of interest in the music and entertainers of Hawai`i. But I was more impressed that more than 850 readers visited this blog on December 25th – Christmas Day, for many the most sacred day of the year – to find out what recording I had chosen as #1 in my countdown of the 25 Greatest Christmas Albums from Hawai`i. It was then that I truly realized that I was not alone in my ardent passion for the music and musicians of Hawai`i. And I realized that there were others like me for whom five minutes a day on a blog was not satisfying that insatiable passion. 

And, so, Ho`olohe Hou Radio was born. 

The concept behind Ho`olohe Hou Radio is simple. It is not merely music for the sake of entertainment. It is an attempt at educating those who are truly interested in the history of Hawai`i and its composers, singers, and musicians – what makes them historically and culturally important. It is a first ever attempt at Hawaiian music edutainment. Unofficially launched via Live365 on January 2nd of this year, the station was relaunched on July 3rd to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the first episode of Hawaii Calls radio broadcasts. And, so far, it is a tremendous success. Already the station has been heard by more than 20,000 listeners from over three dozen countries who have tuned in for more than 13,000 hours. However, to create an internet radio station with the bandwidth to support acceptable sound quality for the greatest number of listeners possible and disk space to house a library of more than 5,000 songs (about 20% of my collection), I had to make a tremendous investment to even pilot this concept. And so I am seeking assistance from you, the faithful visitors to the Ho`olohe Hou blog. 

I want you to know everything you want and need to know about Ho`olohe Hou Radio before you make a decision to lend your support. To find out more about the station, click here or on the link to the video above (labeled "POD"). Then visit the link on this page to “Ho`olohe Hou Radio” (under "Topics") for articles about how this station was born, what it makes it “go,” and why it should be important to Hawaiian music lovers everywhere. And, while you’re reading and considering, why not take Ho`olohe Hou Radio for a test drive? Click here or on the Live365 logo on this page to listen to the station and find out for yourself what it’s all about and what makes it special. When you decide to make a commitment of financial support to Ho`olohe Hou Radioclick here or on the Kickstarter logo on this page. 

Ho`olohe Hou the blog will continue to exist and will offer tie-ins with Ho`olohe Hou Radio such as additional information about the songs and artists you hear on the station. (See, for example, the many blog features on the stars of the Hawaii Calls radio program in support of the station’s month-long celebration of that program.) So you will hopefully return to this space time and again. 

Keep aloha in your hearts, and take Hawaiian music wherever you go. And now you can with Ho`olohe Hou Radio – available on your PC or Mac, iPhone, tablet, or Android device, even your home entertainment system courtesy of TiVo and Roku. I am excited about this exciting new adventure in Hawaiian music edutainment, and I hope you are too. Mahalo in advance for your consideration and your support. 

Me ka ha`aha`a,  

Bill Wynne

Direct download: Hoolohe_Hou_Radio_Final.m4v
Category:Ho`olohe Hou Radio -- posted at: 9:29am EDT

Ho`olohe Hou Radio - Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 12, 2015

 

For more information contact:

Bill Wynne

Ho`olohe Hou Radio

609-477-2629

hwnmusiclives@gmail.com

 

 

 

Giving New Life to the Forgotten Voices of Hawaii

The Surprising New Home of Hawaiian Music Radio Is New Jersey 

Ewing, NJ – Enterprising Hawaiian music lover and musician Bill Wynne has launched Ho`olohe Hou Radio from the basement studio of his New Jersey home via internet radio platform Live365. Unlike any previous endeavor in Hawaiian music radio, the station features primarily out-of-print recordings from Wynne’s archives of more than 25,000 Hawaiian music recordings – in various archaic media dating back to 1906 – which he has spent thousands of hours painstakingly remastering. More than this, the station is a first-ever attempt at Hawaiian music “edutainment” with Wynne offering commentaries throughout each programing day on the historic and cultural importance of the music and artists heard on the station. Wynne timed the launch of the station to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the world-renowned Hawaii Calls radio program which premiered on July 3, 1935, and in its first month of broadcasting, the station has already garnered more than 8,000 listeners in more than 30 countries and the endorsement of some of Hawaii’s finest musicians and cultural practitioners. Now Wynne is seeking to fund the station for its first year of operation through a Kickstarter campaign. 

For over 40 years Wynne has collected every record from or about Hawai`i that he could get his hands on – a collection which now spans two floors of his modest home. Entertainers from Hawai`i or their families have acknowledged Wynne as a “keeper of the culture” by entrusting to him unreleased recordings, home video, candid interviews, recordings from private parties, jam sessions, and even handwritten lyric sheets. All of these treasures Wynne has both studied and meticulously filed for future reference. Throughout 2014, Wynne wrote more than 750 pages on the history of Hawaiian music and its musicians and composers for his Ho`olohe Hou blog – information which in many cases could not be found previously in any other source.  Wynne has revealed mysteries about Hawaiian music that even ethnomusicologists had not to date explored, and he has discussed the evolution of Hawaiian music and its relationship to jazz, pop, country, and other influences from outside the islands. And Wynne is uniquely qualified to do this since he is not merely a Hawaiian music archivist, but also a performer, having learned from an early age to play the instruments which help define the Hawaiian music tradition – ukulele, slack key guitar, and steel guitar – and sing hundreds of songs in the Hawaiian language – an amazing feat for a child born and raised on the East Coast and who boasts no Hawaiian lineage. Wynne’s specialty is the rare art of Hawaiian falsetto singing for which he was awarded First Prize in both the singing and Hawaiian language usage categories in the Aloha Festivals Falsetto Contest in 2005 – earning him a recording contract with Honolulu-based Hula Records.

Even Wynne’s approach to fundraising is unique. It is a rare Kickstarter campaign that guarantees funders a return on their investment as Wynne has already built and launched the station. The fundraising period concludes on August 31st, and because he has made a substantial personal investment in the station, it is Wynne’s sincere hope that the early interest in his experiment in Hawaiian music “edutainment” just as quickly translates into listener support. 

Contact 

For additional information about Ho`olohe Hou Radio or Mr. Wynne, visit the Ho`olohe Hou blog (www.hawaiianmusiclives.com), Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/hoolohehou),or Kickstarter page and video (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hwnmusiclives/ho-olohe-hou-radio) or call Mr. Wynne at 609-477-2629.

Category:Ho`olohe Hou Radio -- posted at: 8:20am EDT