In 1973 KPOI radio presented their last Top 300 Marathon of Hits. I don't remember listening to much of this due to the poor reception that KPOI offered to listeners like me "stuck" on a neighbor island.. the Big Island to be specific.

Now this is not the KPOI radio we have today, but the old one at 1380 on the AM dial... home of the original and now seemingly legendary "Poi Boys". A couple of them were Tom Moffatt, now a successful concert promoter and DJ here in Hawaii, and Ron Jacobs, who recently became active on radio again.

What follows in this section is a complete list of KPOI's 14th Edition of the Top 300 presented in 1973. You will notice that this chart is heavy on early 70s pop and rock hits as well as a scattering of some local titles by the likes of Don Ho, the Society of Seven, Liz Damon and John Rowles. Pop radio was so much fun back then when music was freely mixed up, even on Top 40 KPOI. They even had Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" listed on this thing, a relatively new and certainly not a top 40 type of song at the time.

Shortly after this presentation of the Top 300, KPOI 1380 AM changed formats and left the air in 1974 to be revived later as a disco, and then album rock station in the 1980s.

The following exerpt is from the back inside cover of the 14th Annual Top 300 booklet (cover shown above). The Top 300 is available here.

The Rock of Honolulu

Four years ago, in 1969, K-poi presented still another first in Hawaii: "The History of Rock and Roll." It had been ten years since that day in May, 1959, when an excited group of "Poi-Boys" set THE ROCK OF HONOLULU in motion. And, so began the history of rock and roll -- in Hawaii. A history presented and created by K-poi. Not just on the air waves, but "live" as well.

The first concert at the H.I.C. Arena was presented by K-poi. The Elvis Presley Benefit for the Arizona Memorial was a smash, and K-poi helped make it so. K-poi was there to interview Elvis as well as John Lennon and George Harrison when the two Beatles passed through Honolulu.

K-poi has continuously made it possible for thousands of people to see and hear the big names of the rock era... The Who, The Rascals, Santana, Chicago, Elton John, America, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Three Dog Night and the worlds greatest rock n roll group -- The Rolling Stones in their first Hawaii appearance. Entertainment, on the air and live. That's what K-poi is all about. It's always been that way, and the future looks just as active.

As 1969 marked a milestone in the history of "The Rock of Honolulu", it also marked a new beginning... a new birth. K-poi FM became on the first "progressive" stations in the entire country. Ever since then, the partnership of K-poi AM and FM has shown the way.

And so, with the cooperation and continuing participation of Hawaii's people, and especially its youth, K-poi AM and FM looks forward to many more years of the history of rock and roll.

Top 300 of 1973 | The Poi-Boys of 1973 | Elton John | Print