TUBE TALK: Looks like KGMB 9 will be hiring a male anchor to team up with Kim Gennaula, beginning this fall. Keahi Tucker, who was an intern-associate producer at Channel 9 before joining one of KGMB's sister stations in the Midwest, will join the CBS affiliate in September. As Noel Tucker, he has been on WBAL in Baltimore, where he is a reporter and weekend anchor. Insiders say he'll debut as a reporter, then segue into the anchor slot. Tucker did a reading with Gennaula a few months ago; KGMB recently tapped him to cover the Pearl Harbor BRAC and Akaka bill hearings, so you might have already caught a glimpse of him. ...

RANDOM NOTES: Hawai'i fans of 'ukulele whiz Jake Shimabukuro now must wait till Oct. 4 for the release of his "Dragon" CD, already a huge hit in Japan, where it debuted at No. 15 on the Oricon charts (the Japanese version of Billboard), the highest ever for an instrumental disc. ...

Jon Yoshimura, former Island newsman and councilman, has been working for Sen. Daniel K. Akaka as communications director of his Washington, D.C., office. Yoshimura said the Society of Seven, the Las Vegas-based act led by Tony Ruivivar and featuring Filipina songbird Lani Misalucha, gave a show recently at the Strathmore concert hall in Bethesda, Md., which attracted a few thousand, including Hawai'i expatriates, metro D.C. Filipinos and other SOS fans. Many in the crowd stayed to get autographs of the performers; even Sen. Akaka signed a few John Hancocks at the prodding of SOSer Bert Sagum. The SOS also performed in the Chicago area. ...

DINING OUT: Keo Sananikone, owner of Keo's in Waikiki, Keone's and Mekong, hosted a group of 22 Thai officials last week in his flagship Kuhio Avenue restaurant. The group, here to learn more of the tsunami-warning process (timely, because of the weekend quake and alert), brought along a homegrown appetite — which meant Sananikone had to order and prepare items (organs, intestines) not on his usual menu. Of course, he also served fresh mangoes and papayas from his Mokule'ia farm, along with pineapples. Comedian Rip Taylor stopped by Keo's for his usual feast, this time armed with a digital video camera, taking panoramic shots of the flora and fauna (grown at Sananikone's farm) to show his celeb pals. ...

Sunset Grill swept the recent Great Honolulu Rib Cook-off staged by Murphy's Bar and Grill as a benefit for the Hawai'i Children's Cancer Foundation, earning first place (people's choice and celebrity judges' nod) for its ribs. So diners can nibble away on a $16.95 rib plate special while supplies last. The chef, Bobby Miller, is the new chef at Sunset and moonlights as an aide to caterer Steve Ozark, for celebrity backstage feasts. "Bobby's Ribs" were part of the menu for Snoop Dogg's Waikiki Shell concert, "Bodog Salutes the Troops," last Saturday, with Ozark also preparing his famed blackened 'ahi and BBQ chicken. ...

Nice to see wine wizard Chuck Furuya at Hiroshi's at Restaurant Row, where he assists diners with wine selection for Hiroshi Fukui's inventive tapas menu. ...

AROUND TOWN: The Aug. 3, 10 and 11 add-on performances are probably the final extension for Diamond Head Theatre's blockbuster musical, "Beauty and the Beast," so if you don't have tickets for the show (closing Aug. 14), you'll miss one of the season's theatrical highlights — big in ambition, tall in talent, masterful in mounting. David Spangenthal as the Beast (doubling as director and choreographer, too) is immense fun to watch, Shawna Masuda radiates with innocence and spunk as Belle, and secondary players Jimi Wheeler (Gaston), Douglas Scheer (Lumiere), Dennis Proulx (Cogsworth) and Katie Leiva (Mrs. Potts) look, sound and breathe the inanimates with canny precision. In short, it's a beaut, on all fronts. ...

When saxophonist Gabe Baltazar performed a tribute to Artie Shaw at a recent Sunset on the Beach, he remarked to Abe Weinstein, honcho of this weekend's Hawaii International Jazz Festival, that the bandstand was just yards away where the old Breakers Club was, the site where Shaw had performed during World War II. Baltazar used to crawl 'neath the barbed-wire fence to get a close listen. He played Shaw's "My Blue Heaven." ...

Keith and Carmen Haugen end a two-year run tomorrow night at Neptune's Garden at the Pacific Beach Hotel. No more live sounds weeknights, but there's jazz on weekends with Benny Chong and Byron Yasui Fridays, Jim Howard and Bruce Hamada Saturdays. ...

And that's Show Biz. ...