Hawaii Calls was a radio program that ran from 1935 through 1975 that featured live Hawaiian music. It was broadcast each week, usually from the courtyard of the Moana Hotel on Waikiki Beach but occasionally from other locations, and hosted by Webley Edwards for almost the entire run. The first show reached the West Coast of the continental United States through shortwave radio. At its height, it was heard on over 750 stations around the world. However, when it went off the air in 1975, only 10 stations were airing the show. Because of its positive portrayal of Hawaii, the show received a subsidy for many years -- first from the government of the Territory of Hawaii, and then from the State of Hawaii. The termination of the subsidy was one of the reasons that the show went off the air.

Hawaii Calls is credited with making many Hawaiian performers household names across the US and around the world. Among the regulars of Hawaii Calls were Alfred Apaka, Haunani Kahalewai, Nina Keali'iwahamana, Boyce Rodrigues, Lani Custino, and Pua Almeida. Other well known Hawaiian performers such as Martin Denny, Hilo Hattie, Ed Kenny, hula dancer Beverly Noa and Arthur Lyman also made appearances. The show also occasionally featured performers from other parts of the world who sang or played Hawaiian music

Each show opened with the sounds of the pounding surf and the enthusiastic bounding voice of Webley Edwards proclaiming "The sound of the waves on the beach at Waikiki.."

During the height of the show's popularity (50's and into the late 60's/early 70's) Webley Edwards served the role of producer of numerous records, released on the Capitol Records label, under the title of "Webley Edwards present Hawaii Calls." The albums contained renditions of popular Hawaiian and hapa haole songs as arranged by the "Hawaii Calls" musicians. In addition to appearing on the many "Hawaii Calls" albums, many of the stars of "Hawaii Calls" also enjoyed successful careers as solo artists

Several of the "Hawaii Calls" CD releases listed below are still in print and available from Mele.com. There are also several compact disc compilations released by Hula Records, the company that owns the rights to the "Hawaii Calls" name and the show's surviving archives. They feature also songs from some of the classic radio shows and may include Edwards' colorful commentary. These are available at www.hularecords.com.

In 1992 "Hawaii Calls" was revived for a one year run at the Hilton Hawaiian Village but failed to attracted enough financial support to continue.

A one-night "Hawaii Calls" show that combined live performances and archival audio and video material was presented at the Hawaii Theater in Honolulu, Hawaii on Saturday, November 14, 2008. The show was co-produced by Burton White, Artistic Director of the Hawaii Theatre, and Don McDiarmid Jr., Chairman of Hawaii Calls Inc., and President Emeritus of Hula Records. The show included live performances by vocalists Nina Keali'iwahamana and Aaron Sala, hula dancer Kanoe Miller, and the Hawaii Calls Quintet, and also archival performances by Alfred Apaka, Lani Custino, Hilo Hattie, Haunani Kahalewai, Ed Kenny, Charles Kaipo Miller, Beverly Noa, Ponce Ponce and Boyce Rodrigues. Webley Edwards was shown introducing some of the archival performances and audio clips of his voice were used to introduce most of the live performances.

In 2007, an award winning feature screenplay entitled "Hawaii Calls" was created by California screenwriter Rick Helin. The story involves the U.S. Navy's ill-fated attempt at the first non-stop flight across the Pacific from San Francisco Bay to Hawaii in September 1925. The plane used for the flight was quite advanced for its day. The PN9-1 was essentially a biplane flying boat powered by twin Packard engines and constructed by the navy at their own planeworks located in Philadelphia. The crew consisted of Commander John Rodgers, second officer and pilot Lt. Byron J. Connell, third pilot enlistedman Kiles R. Pope, mechanic William H. Bowlin, and radioman Otis G. Stantz. Although the estimated flight time was 28 1/2 hours, the crew instead found themselves lost at sea for over ten days after their plane ran out of fuel approximately 250 miles short of their destination.

It should be noted that the movie about the attempt to fly non-stop to Hawaii has absolutely nothing to do with the "Hawaii Calls" radio program because Rodgers' flight took place almost 10 years before the first broadcast of the radio show on July 3, 1935.