Q. Have you taken a different approach as opposed to other PBS chief executives to be more visible?

A. Every CEO brings to the position their strengths. In the past we had an engineer who was the CEO and at that period in our history that was a key skill. There is a leader for every period of time and at this particular time is when our board of directors really wants us to expand local programming because Hawai'i needs to share its stories with each other. I'm the lucky one who gets to come in when the television programming is a key focus for the first time in years.

Q. Fundraising is always a big undertaking. How is that going?

A. There have been some changes in what we call our pledge nights, when we ask people to pledge their support. I know nobody likes to be asked for money, but I think most people realize it's bread and butter for us because we are viewer supported. What we've tried to do is do it with as much respect as possible in that we bring more television elements, more pacing into the live pledge nights and we just try to give people something rather than ask them. We try to show them what we've been doing to serve them because the goal of public television is to serve the community.

Q. You're looking for a new home for PBS?

A. That is very top of mind. This building in Manoa on the University of Hawai'i campus was built about 40 years ago expressly for public television by the state. Public television was a state entity then. Now, that long-term situation has run out. We're a private-nonprofit and we've gone to the UH Manoa administrators and said we'd like to have another lease even though we're a private nonprofit and not part of the state government. In many places throughout the country, universities really want public television on their campus. We have very good relations with the UH and our talks are open and friendly, but we do not have a long-term lease and we do need to have a secure home because there's a digital transition going on. We need to install quite a bit of new equipment and orient ourselves to an entirely new television age and so that's why that is my foremost mission right now.

Q. How far along are you?

A. We have no deal, no agreement. But we are going to be looking at nailing something down very soon because if we don't locate permanently soon, it will put our transition in jeopardy and it'll affect our ability to serve people. We have been without a long-term lease for years and it's time to cut bait for us. We either need to come to an agreement with the University of Hawai'i or be very serious about other options.

Q. What are some of your other goals?

A. I'd like to continue creating and presenting more locally produced programs. Certainly we'll keep opening windows to the world with those superb national shows, but I'd like to present more programs about public affairs, cultures and the arts, while focusing on our home, the Pacific-Asia region.

Q. Would that require more staff?

A. Yes. We're taking what I think of as baby steps now. We do have six locally produced shows a week, which I have to tell you is phenomenal for a station of our size. I think — and I know I'm biased — we are the hardest working public television station of our size in the nation. I'm not aware of any other that produces six local shows a week. But we'd like to do far more. We'd like to get our cameras out of the studios and out in the community. Those shows are much more expensive to produce. We have a beautiful studio and most of the shows that we do now are based there, but we would like to take our staff and cameras out. We're throwing open our doors to independent producers and we're offering to assist them and even mentor them in producing high-quality work to air. Maybe we'll even be able to present locally produced shows throughout the national system.

Q. How long have you been in the news business?

A. I was in the news business for 34 years, until I started this job about a year ago. I was very fortunate. I got a job when I was 18 years old working for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. It was a fluke because even at that time you had to have a college degree to get a job as a professional reporter. But I won a national writing contest and the Star-Bulletin actually had sent me to the Mainland to compete in the contest as a high school student. I was very lucky because a reporter had to go on maternity leave and I was in the right place at the right time. When she came back I thought somebody would tap me on the shoulder and say, "OK. That's enough. Go home now." But nobody did, so I stayed.

Q. Did you always want to be a journalist?

A. Yes. When I was in the eighth-grade at Niu Valley Intermediate School I was sitting in math class and I loved my math teacher, but I knew that wasn't going to be my lifetime path. I was reading the school newspaper kind of under the table and I thought: "I think I can do this. I'd love to do this because you get to find out about other people, meet them, talk with them about real things and not silly small talk. And you learn so much."

Q. How did you wind up doing television news?

A. It was never my dream to work in television. Bob Sevey, who was then the dean of the Hawai'i news anchors, called and offered me a job. I have to say that my main motivation at the time was the opportunity to make more money because I was a young woman supporting my mother and my siblings so the money made a difference. I also was going to school full-time, so although I really loved newspaper work and I wasn't a natural at all at television, I did move and was grateful for the chance.

Q. You became very successful in TV. Why did you decide to move from in front of the camera to PBS?

A. The timing was a little dicey because I was still under commercial contract for a couple of more years and was making pretty good money at Channel 2. But I thought I wouldn't ever get the opportunity again to be president and CEO of PBS Hawai'i. I've always had a heart for public television because of the kind of work that is done here and the mission that governs the work here. It was such a wonderful opportunity and it was also not the safest thing to do because I was doing OK where I was, but I really wanted to see if I could add something to the place and I admired the history of public television in Hawai'i. It had lost funding and went through a transition. It's been a very noble rise from a humbling experience, where now the leaders of this place rebuilt it and put it on firmer financial footing. Now I think it has a chance to fly again with really vibrant local programs about public affairs, and arts and culture, and Asia and the Pacific, while still bringing you that wonderful national programming that public television is known for.

Q. How was the transition for you?

A. I was an anchor and reporter and I also was very involved in leading the Lokahi giving project. That's also a very collaborative process. I'm familiar with working in highly collaborative, high-results teams and this struck me as an experience like that. So I actually had a very smooth transition and I feel very comfortable and I'm very familiar with the creative differences. There are a lot of creative people here and we're frank and we're open and we're respectful and we debate each other and when the decision is made, we move on.

Q. When you first started at PBS, were there things that you wanted to implement?

A. The first thing was to take "Island Insights," which was then a half-hour, taped program that sometimes drifted off key messages, and it became a one-hour, live viewer call-in show discussing top-of-mind public issues. I love that show because viewers drive the questions. It's not just a discussion show where the moderator talks about whatever the moderator wants to talk about. This is viewers driving the questions and they call from all over the state, especially Neighbor Islands. You don't see that on prime time in Hawai'i TV. In prime time the major affiliates are bound to national programming, but we can do local shows, locally produced shows at prime time at 7:30. Besides making that show an hour and a live show, we also started "Long Story Short," which is another 7:30 p.m. show on Tuesday and I get to host that one. It's a long-form interview show, which is a great chance to ask follow-up questions and really find out about events and values that have shaped the people you know. You know them in other ways, but this is a chance to get to know who they really are.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.