Webley Edwards thought up his Hawaii Calls series while listening to a "terrible" Hawaiian broadcast at KFRC, San Francisco, in 1934. He decided he could do better, and did. Each week his program of islander music was beamed from the shores of Waikiki Beach to the United States. Hawaii's best singers and musicians were featured, backed by the swish of wahine skirts and the roar of the Pacific (a soundman was stationed at the oceanfront with a microphone). The musicians used only drums, ukeleles, and steel guitars. They performed ten songs per week: three were pure Hawaiian, the rest in English.

The shows were performed live before an audience that eventually grew to more than 2,000 people. Edwards made great use of the campfire atmosphere, emphasizing that his show was produced "right under the banyan trees," with the famous Diamond Head in the background. The shortwave transmission had a pulsing quality, which added to the waves and enhanced the exotic flavor. Edwards died in 1972.