Page 15 - MidWeek - June 29, 2022

Shining A Spotlight On Hawai‘i’s Pressing Issues
FROM PAGE 14
tained a wealth of information, heartfelt sincerity and, at times, a hint of humor when it was appro- priate.
rupted run time, de Nies and Tsuji explain how Spotlight Hawai‘i’s virtual facet is an immense part as to why their guests feel comfortable enough to share their unhindered and authentic emotions about the state’s most momentous issues.
Award this month.
“Spotlight Hawai‘i really is an
“At the end of the day, we’re just having a conversation, trying to bring the audience along with us,” shares de Nies. “Because you’re on for 30 minutes with no commer- cials, it’s just like you’re having a conversation in the way you would if you invited the lieutenant gover- nor or Ernie Lau to your house to answer questions for you and your friends. You wouldn’t be serious the entire time. That, to me, just feels like you’ re playing news person. This is just us in our homes tackling serious topics.
“These people are doing their broadcasts from their own homes or in places where they feel com- fortable in as well, so we often get a different side of them in their re- sponses and how they want to proj- ect themselves and the messaging that comes across,” explains Tsuji.
amalgamation of all these different things that I’ve been exposed to and these different careers I’ ve had,” he says. “It’s allowed me to utilize what I’ve learned in the various jobs and roles that I’ve done, and the experi- ence that I gained — understanding the legislative process, knowing the players that are involved and their background.”
“But at the same time, we live here, too,” she continues. “We have the same concerns that they do — Ryan is a small-business owner in his other job, and I have two chil- dren ... so, we are very much with the audience.”
T
of cameras on them. They met at KITV, where de Nies and Tsuji an- chored the evening and morning shows, respectively. While they were on opposite schedules, the newscasters bonded over the fact that they’re Big Island kids (de Nies is from the Kona side, while Tsuji is from Hilo), which led to a solid friendship-turned-partnership in the years to come.
does,” he says. “We both have this desire and the same commitment to being involved. We both really love news and love being informed and being able to use our skill sets and things we’ve learned to get that out there to the community.
Beyond that, the concept of a live virtual show with an emphasis on audience engagement was on the docket for de Nies and Tsuji, though it was slated to be centered around the 2020 election. But when news of a catastrophic virus came to Ha- wai‘i’s shores — and everyone had a million and one questions to ask — de Nies and Tsuji got to work. Spotlight Hawai‘i hit the ground running on March 25, 2020, the first day of Hawai‘i’s first lockdown, and hasn’t stopped since.
In the episode with Lau, specifi- cally, he had to momentarily pause after getting choked up in the midst of speaking about the water crisis that has affected thousands of local residents.
suji and de Nies both know very well what it’s like to have a daunting number
“Having a lot of those commonali- ties and those experiences of working together has made this partnership very easy,” he adds. “We understand each other’s strengths and weakness- es very well and are able to play off of that when needed.”
called his name.
In college, he discovered a pas-
“He was so sad about what hap- pened to our water resources, and you just felt his emotion and his passion,” says de Nies. “After that interview, I remember thinking that we should enter this (for a Telly Award) because it was exactly the kind of content that we want to be bringing to people. You have a pub- lic official who is very passionate about what they’ re doing, and we had the full 30 minutes with him, so he really got to get into the details about what — as far as he knew — had happened at Red Hill, what it meant for our community and why he was so upset about it. You could feel the emotion and he was moved to tears, so I thought for sure we had to give that some recognition because it was such a moving in- terview.”
In addition to the show’s uninter-
Before they met, the pair walked down quite different paths that would, however, become incredibly beneficial once their journeys did, in fact, intertwine.
From elected officials to lead- ers in the tourism, education and health care sectors, guests joined “the Spotlight Hawai‘i stage” to share updates about their areas of expertise. And while Spotlight Ha- wai‘i still discusses the pandemic today, it’s evolved to now feature everyone from local actors and non- profit founders to political analysts and contenders for the upcoming election. (Coming up on June 29, de Nies and Tsuji will have a conversa- tion with the leading gubernatorial Democratic candidates: U.S. Rep. Kaiali‘i Kahele, Vicky Cayetano and Green.)
“Oftentimes, when you’re in an environment where you have 10 cameras on you and there’s a mi- crophone, it can be intimidating,” he continues. “I think being able to have that comfort level with us ... it really can lead to deeper discussions that may not be available on other platforms.”
By taking home two Tellys this year, Ryan Kalei Tsuji and Yunji de Nies are proving that it’s their time to shine when it comes to delivering award-winning news content to audiences.
on when her keiki were born. Tsuji, meanwhile, moved from Hilo to Honolulu after high school to attend University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He claims he is “wired dif- ferently,” likes to have his hand in just about everything (he teases that his next venture is in the food and beverage industry) and thrives in fast-paced environments, so it was no surprise that the vibrant city life
sion for coaching volleyball (and did so for about eight years, work- ing his way up to becoming assis- tant coach of the Rainbow Wāhine volleyball team), until he fell in love with a new pursuit: being on TV. He was asked to fill in as a sports commentator, then progressed to becoming a sports reporter for Ha- wai‘i News Now and eventually anchored at KITV.
The dynamic duo joined forces in 2017 for Honolulu Star-Adver- tiser’s Digital Billboard Network, a one-minute newscast that featured top headlines at dozens of kiosks around the state.
“I just love and respect Ryan so much,” enthuses de Nies. “He’s an ideas guy. He is so smart and inno- vative and he’s a very hard worker ... but beyond that, he’s really fun to work with.
A Yale and University of Cali- fornia, Berkeley graduate, de Nies was a reporter for mainland TV sta- tions before she was picked up by ABC News. She worked her way up to becoming the White House correspondent for Good Morning America, and lucky for her, former President Barrack Obama is also a Hawai‘i native, so she was able to come home for an extended period of time whenever he did.
He left the station to help run Gov. David Ige’s campaign in 2014 (he interned for Ige in college when he was a senator) and worked in his administration for the following two years.
“If you ever need anything, work or not work, you will call Ryan and he will figure out how to get it for you. He’s just ‘that guy’ — the guy you can always call in a crisis and someone you can always have on your team.”
On one of those trips, de Nies made a connection with KITV, and when an anchoring position opened up, there was no question whether or not she would take it. It was time to come home. She worked at the station for a few years until she decided to move
With his mind constantly swirl- ing about his next move (it falls in line with him being “wired differ- ently,” he says), Tsuji noticed there was a gap in the industry for dig- ital platform creation and market- ing, so, in 2016, he departed from the political sphere and founded RKT Media, which won an Emmy
While Hawai‘i’s state of affairs is ever-changing, one thing is for certain: de Nies and Tsuji’s commit- ment to providing reliable and rele- vant information, from
their homes to yours.
And for Tsuji, the feeling is mu- tual.
“Yunji has so much experience and is so incredible at what she
JUNE 29, 2022 MIDWEEK 15