Operator Reported Fired Over Calls to Morgue for Tom Selleck

The Hawaiian Telephone Co. has fired the directory assistance operator who last week gave two persistent Boston disc jockeys the Honolulu city morgue’s telephone number as that of television star Tom Selleck.

The company would only say that “appropriate action” had been taken. But the Honolulu Advertiser reported that the unidentified operator was sacked after four months on the job.

The operator said he was wrong to do what he did and regrets it, the newspaper said. He said he felt harassed when radio station WROR disc jockeys persisted in trying to obtain a number for Selleck.

“It was 2:30 a.m., and I took a long distance inquiry from three or four guys who were on the phone together and wanted the number of ‘Magnum P.I.’ They didn’t tell me they were disc jockeys or were on the air,” the operator said.

“When I told them there is no listing for ‘Magnum P.I.,’ which is true, they asked me to check a whole bunch of variations on Magnum and Tom Selleck.

“These guys were behaving like (the comedy team) Cheech and Chong. All they wanted to do was drag things on. I guess I kind of lost my cool, called up--on my computer--the number for the city morgue, and gave them that.”

Hawaiian Telephone called WROR in Boston, listened to an on-air tape of the incident, identified the operator, suspended him last weekend and fired him Monday.

The city morgue received hundreds of calls Jan. 29 after WROR disc jockeys Andy Moes and Joe Martel suggested listeners call and wish Selleck happy birthday. Some callers were alarmed when the morgue answered. Others were angry and refused to hang up, thinking the attendant was a jealous girlfriend trying to keep them from talking with Selleck.

WROR program director Lorna Ozmon apologized to listeners and offered to reimburse them for the calls to Honolulu. She said the two disc jockeys’ failure to check the number first was “an error in judgment,” unintentional, and the cost of the calls would be taken out of their paychecks.