Pali Ka'aihue – a businessman and leader of the Nā Hōkū Hanohano award-winning band Pali – and his fiancée Sachi Uchida will co-host two new TV shows in Hawai'i and in Japan starting in July. A third show, Pakele Live will showcase Hawaiian music. - Photo: Courtesy of Pali Ka'aihue

Local musican launches TV shows in Hawai'i and Japan

By Lisa Asato / Ka Wai Ola

Hawaiian musician and business owner Pali Ka'aihue will branch out into TV starting in July – with three new shows bringing Hawaiian music, culture and the stories of its people into living rooms across the Islands – and Japan.

He and his Japan-born fiancée, Sachi Uchida, will bring a little bit of Japan to Hawai'i with a show called DokoGaTV: JapanMania, which is designed in the style of the popular Japanese show Soko Ga Shiritai, which translates to “What do you want to know?”

The first episode of the pop-culture-focused JapanMania will feature the “world's best tonkatsu – 27 paper-thin slices of pork breaded and fried – so tender you can cut it with your chopsticks!,” as well as Fuji-Q Highland amusement park, and an interview with the director of a 3D anime blockbuster hit Appleseed Ex Machina, Ka'aihue says.

JapanMania's sister show, DokoGaTV: HawaiiMania, will air in Japan also starting this month. Ka'aihue calls this the “postcard-plus program,” – not your average show on the postcard beauty of the Islands, but a show that tells of the stories of its people, culture, music and happenings.

He, along with co-host and co-producer Uchida and director Raf Bacani, have already filmed segments with Walter Keale at a Kailua heiau, and with kumu Ululani Duncan and Ka Hula o Ululani as they performed during a visit to Wahiawa and the birthing stones.

The third show is Pakele Live, which will showcase Hawaiian music at Ala Moana Hotel's Pakele Lounge. The show has been streaming live on the web for the past year and now makes its TV debut July 30 at 7 p.m. on OC16. The half-hour show will be hosted by former radio DJ and producer Tony Solis, who is also the creator and host of OC16's Eh! You Da Kine Ah?

“We've been taping already in June,” says Ka'aihue, leader of the Nā Hōkū Hanohano award-winning group Pali. “We're going to feature Cyril Pahinui, Willie K., Brother Noland, Pilioha, Hōkū Zuttermeister and Weldon Kekauoha.”

“Part of the reason I wanted to co-create Pakele was to really share the Hawaiian music,” says Ka'aihue, who is the president of LavaNet, which he bought out in 2004 when the previous owner had planned to close operations. Pakele Live, he says, also gives musicians whose music falls outside the boundaries of radio airplay, a chance to share their talents. “So Pakele really allows everyone to showcase their music to a global audience,” he says, “and we've had fans from as far as Australia or London.”

PIHA MANA'O New TV shows DokoGaTV: JapanMania airs on OC16 Mondays at 7 p.m. starting July 28 DokoGaTV: HawaiiMania will air in Japan starting in July Pakele Live: will air on OC16 Wednesdays at 7 p.m. starting July 30 Musicians interested in performing for Pakele Live can contact Pali Ka'aihue at pali@pali.net. Episodes of DokoGaTV can be viewed on demand at dokoga.tv.