Keeping Tuned to Island Sounds

On the surface, the setting is unremarkable--a Sunland strip mall where early-morning shoppers push wobbly carts across the parking lot. But tucked below Clothestime and House of 99 is a subterranean radio station alive with the music of Hawaii.

“You don’t have to know what the words mean to know this is great music,” Joe Seiter tells listeners above the fading strains of the band Kaipo.

Down here, he’s “Aloha” Joe, the buoyant host of “Hawaiian Adventure,” a showcase of island music broadcast live across the country every Saturday from 7-9 a.m. Pacific time.

The show is carried via the Cable Radio Network, a fusion of radio and television that beams music into listeners’ homes on cable TV channels. In the San Fernando Valley, the program can be heard on CVI’s Channel 29 and Century Cable’s Channel 68.

Launched at a small FM station in Los Angeles, the program is celebrating its second anniversary this month, a milestone that Seiter hopes is a minor one. “I’d love to get a real long run out of this show,” he says.

For Seiter, it’s a pleasant change from the hectic world of TV game shows, where he spent several years as an announcer, writer and creator. The show-business veteran found his most unusual career highlight, however, with a group of would-be rock stars--the Brady Bunch.

“I knew there were six kids but I had barely watched the program,” he says, recalling the origins of an improbable singing group that took its bubbly pop to the Hollywood Bowl and Atlantic City’s Steel Pier.

Seiter and partner Ray Reese developed an energetic act featuring funky costume changes and a 12-minute rock ‘n’ roll medley. They even choreographed the classic “Brady Bunch” episode where the kids perform to raise money for their parents’ anniversary gift.

These days, Seiter prefers live radio, where nothing ever goes according to the script.

“We never know what the hell’s going to happen,” he quipped.