Winter in Kaaawa? It’s 64 degrees this morning. That’s cold, at least for us. With no heat, and with the wind coming through the open windows, it really is chilly.

When Hawaiian Telcom filed for bankruptcy, Hawaii investors who invested in the Carlyle Group’s takeover of the company lost an awful lot of money.

An SEC document cited here earlier reported that a partnership of Hawaii investors took a 7 percent stake in the $1.65 billion deal, putting their investment as just over $115 million.

Following the bankruptcy filing, Walter Dods described the investment as “a total loss.”

The identity of the group of local investors has not been reported.

But tucked away as an attachment to a motion filed in the Hawaiian Telcom bankruptcy case on Christmas Eve is what appears to be a full listing of equity investors in the company, including the local investors. Previously published accounts have only named Dods and a handful of others, and this latest filing is, to my knowledge, the first full list of those who put money into the buyout of Hawaiian Telephone and now have lost all of it.

The list reads like a Who’s Who of Hawaii business. The amounts invested are not disclosed.

A longer list or “creditor matrix“, including creditors of all types, has also been filed.

More may be learned as the bankruptcy proceedings advance, or when Daysog goes to work following up on this list.

The surprising bottom line of a legislative briefing on Hawaii’s rapidly approaching shift to all digital television broadcasting is that an unknown but possibly significant number of Hawaii residents could find themselves without any television reception, and many others may have no alternative to subscribing to cable or satellite services.

Lyle Ishida, part of an FCC team in Hawaii during the digital transition, explained to the joint House/Senate briefing that because of the different characteristics of digital signals, and the location of broadcast antennas, there will be areas where “off the air” digital reception will not be available, even after the purchase of a converter box.

Some areas of Oahu are likely to experience problems, including parts of central Oahu and valleys in East Honolulu. Residents of Molokai, parts of Maui, and along the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island may also find they have issues, Ishida said.

In response to questions from Rep. Angus McKelvey and Sen. Roz Baker, Ishida acknowledged that because of limited availability of cable service in some areas, there may be consumers who are left without television service, at least in the short term.

Ishida said both the FCC, the Hawaii Broadcasters Association, and individal broadcast stations are preparing for a surge in consumer complaints as older analog television sets “go dark”.

But despite the problems on the fringes, Ishida said the transition process has been going well.

Ishida’s basic testimony is available at the capitol web site, and further information can be found at www.hawaiigoesdigital.com.

I took a few minutes yesterday to run over to the State Library, and found an August 1968 Honolulu Advertiser story about the boat now owned by my dad. It describes the sale of the Nadu K II at auction following the death of its original owner, Duke Kahanamoku.

The winning bid was $13,500.

Kahanamoku spent a great deal of time with his boat and had been working on her on the day of his death, Jan. 22, when he collapsed from heart failure at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor.