Dalton Ichiro Tanonaka (born June 13, 1954) is an American television executive. He has spent most of his career in Asia, receiving several international and US. awards for his journalism work. Tanonaka is also known for his community service, providing scholarships to deserving students and speaking at schools and universities.[1]
After TV and newspaper jobs at the ABC and NBC affiliates in Honolulu and the Honolulu Advertiser, Tanonaka was recruited by Japan's public broadcaster NHK in 1990. He helped launch and was the anchor of "Japan Business Today", an internationally distributed daily program from Tokyo.[2]
After the NHK project ended in 1994, Tanonaka joined the launch team of the U.S. business channel CNBC in Asia. From regional headquarters in Chai Wan, Hong Kong, Tanonaka anchored daily news and feature programs including "The NBC Asia Evening News" and "Money, Money, Money".
When the operations of CNBC Asia was moved to Singapore in 1998, Tanonaka returned to Hawaii for a brief period. He was appointed Honolulu's director of economic development, where he served until resuming his journalism career in 1999. CNN International recruited him to its Asia headquarters in Hong Kong, where he anchored programs including "BizAsia", "Asia Tonight", and "TalkAsia".
In 2006, Tanonaka joined Indonesia's first 24-hour news channel MetroTV in Jakarta.[5] He was tasked with creating a new international-standard English program for global distribution. "Indonesia Now" debuted in September 2006, and is seen on international networks such as Japan's NHK as well as live-streamed on the Internet at www.metrotvnews.com.[6]
In 2010, Tanonaka teamed up with actress Rahayu "Sara" Saraswati for the weekly dialogue program "TalkIndonesia". In 2011, he created "ASEAN Today", a monthly program done in partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat.[7] Tanonaka was a regular columnist in the Jakarta Post "Weekender" magazine from its debut in 2007, moving to the Jakarta Globe in 2010.[8] In January 2014, Tanonaka became CEO of "The Indonesia Channel," the country's first 24-hour all-English channel for global distribution.[9]
Humanitarian work and activism
Training professional journalists has been a regular part of Tanonaka's career. Under a program coordinated by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD), he has travelled to Iran, Pakistan and Mauritius to hold workshops in broadcasting standards and skills. The Tanonaka International Journalism Scholarship was named for Tanonaka's father Thomas, and given to deserving university students in Indonesia. Winners were handed cash grants and received living stipends in cities such as Yogyakarta, Lampung, and Jakarta, the most recent in June 2013.[10] As a member of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA),[citation needed] Tanonaka created and initially endowed the AAJA Minoru Yasui Memorial Scholarship in memory of the late civil rights advocate. It was first awarded in 1993 to promising male broadcast students to support and motivate interest in the field.
Tanonaka has also been involved in a variety of other charitable activities in Indonesia. In December 2006, he was the co-creator of the "Beat The Bird Flu Concert" in Jakarta, Indonesia, to spotlight prevention measures of the deadly virus. He secured MetroTV's commitment in airing public service announcements and a concert special. An ongoing environmental disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java prompted Tanonaka and friend Ron Mullers to hold a fund-raising event in 2007 for victims of an unstoppable mudflow that wiped out homes and businesses. After raising nearly $10,000 with the participation of Tanonaka's rock'n'roll band, the men went personally to the mudflow site to personally hand out packets of money directly to affected residents. Finally, to develop and promote Indonesian artists, Tanonaka created "The Mister Moonlight Show" in 2009, a live music event with Indonesian musicians and singers for five-star hotel venues. It is now in its fourth year.[11]
Tanonaka and Mullers led a community drive to erect a statue of a young Barack Obama in a park near the U.S. president's childhood home in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was unveiled in December 2009, and moved to its permanent location at Obama's elementary school in February 2010.[12]
Books
Tanonaka is the author of four books, compilations of his newspaper columns chronicling his time in various parts of the world:
Tanonaka in Tokyo: a whimsical look at life and love in Japan. Honolulu Dolphin Works. 1993. OCLC29413282.
Tanonaka in Tokyo II: contemporary slices of Japanese life and love. Honolulu Dolphin Works. 1994. OCLC40178468.
Dateline Tanonaka : from island life to the new Suzie Wong. Honolulu Dolphin Works. 1996. OCLC38502066.
Dalton's Sambal Adventures. Jakarta Post Publishing. 2009.
Awards and honors
Winner, Bhakti Karya Nusantara Award 2010 (for contributions to Indonesia), Bali, Indonesia, December 2010
Winner, PuriAgungSingaraja Award 2009 (for contributions to art and culture), Bali, Indonesia, November 2009
Winner, Raja Ida Tjokorda Denpasar IX Award (for service to Indonesia), Bali, Indonesia, December 2007
Best Newspaper Columnist, Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Awards, Hawaii, United States, June 2000
Best News Anchor, Asian Television Awards, Singapore, January 1998
Member of the Year, Asian American Journalists Association, Boston, United States, August 1997