Kamasami Kong sets the mood for Japanese longing for their Hawaiian vacation

Illuminage is a family-run business. In 2011, in wake of the northern Japan earthquake, Nishimura’s father wanted to give hope and light to the victims.

“My father started his first Illuminage event in Kobe — a city that has recovered from the devastating Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 — and started the Himawari ‘Sunflower’ Project to help the people in northern Japan,” said Nishimura.

She said their Hawaii office has partnered to design and produce past Illuminage events, but this will be the first one with a Hawaii theme.

The colorful course gives people in Japan an opportunity to see all of the key tourist spots. While “visiting” Hawaii, the island mood is set by a prerecorded, custom-made radio program narrated by Kong, along with Eri Sano who provided information in Japanese.

Since it started in December, there are songs like “Mele Kalikimaka” and “Local Boys” by Na Leo to create a Hawaii atmosphere targeted for Christmas time.

“And I know we had ‘Local Boys’ by Na Leo because I produced the first version of that song,” Kong added. “They were the winners of Brown Bags to Stardom back in… I think it was 1984.”

Kong recalls taking Nalani Jenkins, Lehua Kalima and Angela Morales to the studio to record the original version of “Local Boys.”

“And it was so funny because the song starts off singing:

Blue eyes and blonde hair don’t thrill me
‘Cause I’m in love with the local boys

And every time they came over here to perform in Japan at Billboard Live, they would say, ‘We’re sending this song out to the blue eyed, blonde hair boy, Kamasami Kong, up in the bleachers up there. This song is for you, Kong!’ Angela would always say something like that — and it was just kind of ironic,” he said.

PUTTING A STOP IN TRAVEL

Currently living in Tokyo, the 72-year-old radio legend hasn’t been back to the islands even before the COVID pandemic hit. He used to go back every week.

“I would be in Hawaii for 10 days. I’d be able to get together with friends, go visit shows, go to local restaurants, see my dentist, my doctor, my accountant, my attorney, you know, take care of all my business at home,” Kong said. “But then I guess, about five years ago, I just felt like I’ve had enough traveling.”

For 18 years, Kong was traveling from Honolulu to Tokyo, then to Osaka and Taipei, then back to Tokyo and Honolulu. Lather, rinse, repeat.

“And I was doing that like every 10 days in a 747, and I was flying either business or first class all the time, and it was simply because I was such a frequent flyer, so I was always upgraded,” Kong explained. “It was kind of like a resort in the air for me for 18 years doing that.”

When the COVID pandemic hit in March 2020, Kong spent his time recording out of his laundry room.

“It’s because there are so many clothes around, and it deadens the sound. So you don’t get room echo, right? ‘Cause if you go to a normal room, your voice will bounce off the wall,” he said.

It was also the same time when Kong was asked to create a show for MSC Cruises after they got a new ship called the MSC Bellissima, which was scheduled to dock in Yokohama. The plan was for Kong to do a show from the ship and send it back to Tokyo to be broadcast on-air there. During the one-week trip, the ship would leave Yokohama for Osaka, then go to Fukuoka and change course.

“And while I’m on the ship, interview passengers and the skipper, the captain, a couple of the various chefs to talk about the food and bring that stuff and put it on to my regular daily program,” he said.

That project was supposed to begin in March 2020, but then COVID hit.

“So, we’ve been holding our breath, waiting for restrictions to lighten up and for the cruise liners to be able to go back into business, and then maybe we will do that, but that would be really cool,” said Kong. “I think it would be a real treat to be able to broadcast from a giant ship.”

In the meantime, Kong’s voice can still be heard across channels from Love FM in Fukuoka to FM Cocolo in Osaka and on Tokyo FM. He’s moved out of the laundry room and can now walk to the Tokyo station where he does his broadcast mainly in English because they want him to, Kong said, but he’ll do the phone numbers and contest information in Japanese.

“I should be much more fluent than I am, but, you know, everybody speaks English,” said Kong.

Kong works with four other people who get to choose music for various programs — it’s all done by hand, not by a computer. They just think about what sounds good and which songs go together.

“I could never, ever, ever do that at home with the way radio stations are programmed because the playlists are so tight and there’s no wiggle room,” said Kong, “but here, I can play Twice followed by Led Zepplin, followed by the Carpenters and then followed by Utada Hikaru, a Japanese artist.”

PLAYING THE ROBOT GAME

Back home, the changing medium meant no more room for personality — and Kong has a lot of it. This, he said, is the reason why he left.

“They wanted basically robots at that time,” said Kong. “I did that for a while. I played the robot game, and it was boring. It was just so boring not to be able to put any personality or do anything to grab attention because of course they didn’t want you to become popular.”

If you became popular, then you would have some power to ask for more money. You’d have some bargaining power, and they didn’t want any DJs to have that, according to Kong.

“No, no, no. They wanted to keep you under control, and they wanted you to play the music and read the script — and that was it,” he said. “Everything became a formula, which is what remains today, which is why you don’t hear any wild DJs doing crazy things, fun things. They just squeezed the fun out of radio.”

But back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was a “really good time” for Kong after he moved from Oregon to Hawaii in 1976.

GETTING TO HAWAII TO LIVE OUT THE GOOD OL’ DAYS

“I was working at another radio station in Eugene, Oregon, and I hated it there because it was raining all the time,” Kong recalled. “I was looking in Billboard magazine… and I came across one ad that said, How would you like to live and work in the most beautiful place in the world, Honolulu, Hawaii?“

Kong headed straight to the stamp collectors store and bought all kinds of foreign stamps to send his audition tape and resume.

“I just wanted my package to stand out, and it worked,” said Kong.

When the tape arrived on Lan Roberts’ desk at KORL, he wanted Kong to fly out right away.

“I was doing a wild and crazy kind of show, like a Wolfman Jack kind of show, and I changed my name to Kamasami Kong and things just started to take off,” he said.

HOW KAMASAMI KONG GOT HIS NAME

Before Kamasami Kong, there was Bob Zix.

“I was using my real name,” said Kong. “It’s a very unusual name, and the program director said, ‘You’re going to have to stop using that name and starting tomorrow, we’re giving you the new name of Jack Stone.’ I thought, Jack Stone? What a terrible name? I don’t want to be a stone. I don’t want to sink to the bottom of the pool. I don’t want to be in the bottom of the creek or the lake. Jack Stone sounds like a name of a porno star. Definitely don’t want that name.”

Kong was then tasked to come up with his own name. He wanted something like onomatopoeia.

“Like Nick *knocks* Knock! Or Dan — ding! Or Bill — bell! See — saw! And have the sound effect of a saw,” Kong explained. “So I was listening to a sound effect record, and I came across the sound of a gong, and I thought, gong? That’s good! I like the sound of gong.”

The next night, Kong hit the gong and went on to sing, I call myself Gooooong! And in those days, they were taking song requests with six phone lines coming into the studio.

“You push the button, you’d say, ‘Hello, this is KORL. What do you want to hear?’ And usually a young person would come on the phone say, ‘Eh brah? Da kine? You can play that song by Kalapana?’” said Kong.

Then, a little girl called that changed his whole career.

“She said, ‘Eh brah? What’s your name?’ I said, ‘I call myself gong.’ And she said, ‘Ah?’ I said, ‘I call myself gong.’ She said, ‘Kamasami Kong?’ And I thought, oh yes, yes, Kamasami Kong. That’s the name! So it went from, I call myself gong to Kamasami Kong.”

Kong said that changed everything for him. He was now a character he could step into. He could be this wild and crazy guy on the radio, having fun without thinking about anything else.

But when he stepped outside the studio, he was back to being Bob.

“If I would have stuck with my real name, I never would’ve been able to have accomplished the things that I’ve done,” Kong said.

Kong would also do singing requests asking people to perform their talent over the phone.

“As a result, you know, a lot of kids were listening to the program,” he said. “The ratings came out, and I became number one.”

BOB BECOMES KONG AND TAKES OVER HAWAII

Then, Rob Jacobs — a member of the founding 5 who started American Top 40 — wanted in.

“He was listening to my program while he was living over on Maui, and he came back to Honolulu and took over programming at KKUA. And he called me, and he said, ‘I’d like to hire you right away,’ like that,” Kong recalled. “And so I started working at KKUA, and that’s when things really took off.”

Kong kept busy doing the telephone talent show and a TV program called Hawaiian Moving Company. When disco died, he moved on to Breakin’ Hawaii then created another program called Brown Bags to Stardom with his colleagues at KIKI radio.

“It was a really good time back in the late ’70s, early ’80s,” said Kong. “There was no internet, so we were really the center of what was going on in Hawaii.”