| Honolulu, Hawaii | |
|---|---|
| Branding | NBC KHNL (general) Hawaii News Now (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Live, Local, Connected |
| Channels | Digital: 35 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 13.1 NBC 13.2 NBC Plus |
| Owner | Raycom Media (KHNL/KGMB License Subsidiary, LLC) |
| First air date | July 4, 1962 |
| Call letters' meaning | HNL is Honolulu International Airport's IATA code |
| Sister station(s) | KGMB KFVE |
| Former callsigns | KTRG (1962-1967) KIKU (1967-1984) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 13 (VHF, 1962-2008) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1962-1986) Fox (1986-1995) |
| Transmitter power | 25 kW |
| Height | 629 m |
| Facility ID | 34867 |
| Website | [1] |
KHNL is the NBC-affiliated television station for the state of Hawaii that is licensed to Honolulu. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 (or PSIP virtual channel 13) from a transmitter in Palehua. KHNL is owned and operated by Raycom Media, who also owns CBS affiliate KGMB and operates MyNetworkTV affiliate KFVE by virtue of a shared services agreement with KFVE's owner MCG Capital Corporation. All three stations share studios on Waiakamilo Road in Honolulu.
As of March 2nd, 2011, KHNL is available in HD on DIRECTV.
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KHNL clears all network programming. The station rarely pre-empts NBC for two reasons. First, NBC has historically been not as tolerant as the other networks although they have loosened up. Second, when KHNL picked up the network in 1995, NBC had less programming that local stations could pre-empt than they did in the past. Outside of network hours, KHNL airs various syndicated programming. Compared to the other major network affiliates in Hawaii, they air no sitcom or drama reruns. This can be attributed mainly to NBC's extensive overnight lineup which leaves very little room for affiliates to air syndicated programming during the late night hours.
Syndicated programming on KHNL includes Entertainment Tonight, The Rachael Ray Show, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? and Judge Joe Brown.
The station's signal is multiplexed. On DT2 is NBC Plus which is not seen on the digital tier of Oceanic Time Warner Cable. After Hawaii's analog television shutdown on January 15, 2009,[1] the three full-powered stations remained on their current digital channels using PSIP to display virtual channels for each station corresponding to their former analog channel numbers .[2]
As of Wednesday, March 2, 2011 KHNL is now available in HD on DirecTV. (local channel 13) Leaving KFVE as the only local channel remaining in Hawaii not offered in HD by DirecTV.
The station signed-on July 4, 1962 as KTRG airing an analog signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter on top of the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki. Owned by the Watumull Broadcasting Company and unaffiliated with a national network, they broadcasted English and Japanese language Independent programming. New ownership started on January 15, 1966. In 1967, KTRG switched call letters to KIKU and moved to Puuhale Road while offering English programming from 1 to 5 P.M. as well as 10 to 11 with Japanese programming from 5 to 10. The English shows included old movies, westerns, and cartoons.
Mid-Pacific Television Associates bought the station on April 9, 1979. By this time, it ran English programming (like "Hour Magazine" and "The John Davidson Show") from 7 A.M. until 7 P.M. with Japanese programming from 7 to 10 and back to English after 10 until their sign-off. In 1981, the station became a full-time English speaking general entertainment station running a blend of cartoons, sitcoms, westerns, movies, and for a brief time, a local newscast. Japanese programming moved to various UHF stations. In 1984, the call letters were changed again to the current KHNL and the station branded itself as the "News Alternative" and "Free Movie Channel" while also beginning to air University of Hawaii at Manoa athletics.
In 1986, the year the station was acquired by the King Broadcasting Company of Seattle, KHNL contracted programming from the new Fox network to begin airing in April 1987. This included The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, The Tracey Ullman Show, and Married with Children. Also in 1986, they added translator station K21AG from Scala Broadcasting to rebroadcast KHNL on Maui. This was eventually divested to LeSea Broadcasting in July 1990. In June 1987, the station added K65BV from the Channel 13 Club of Kauai. In May 1989, KHBC-TV in Hilo became a full-time satellite of KHNL. In August 1990, KOGG began broadcasting on Maui as a satellite.
It was not until September 1993, after King Broadcasting was sold to the Providence Journal Company, that KHNL adopted the brand name "FOX 13". On May 5 of that year, they entered into a local marketing agreement (a.k.a. LMA) with KFVE which merged its operations into KHNL's facility. In January 1994, all University of Hawaii sports moved to KFVE where it remains today. In August, KHON-TV announced it was dropping its affiliation with NBC to become the new Fox affiliate since its new owner, SF Broadcasting, was partly funded by the network. At first there was talk about NBC going with current ABC affiliate KITV. However, after Argyle purchased that station in 1995, they decided to keep KITV with ABC instead. On January 1, 1996, KHNL switched its affiliation to NBC while Fox moved to KHON.
With the new affiliation, KHNL began construction of the first fully digital newsroom in the world. It also became the first to utilize fiber optic technology to broadcast live feeds from the neighboring islands. Former KITV anchor Dan Cooke and sports anchor Robert Kekaula moved to KHNL during that time to start up the very first newscast on this station. On January 1, 1996, the station officially became Hawaii's new NBC affiliate dubbed "NBC Hawaii News 8" (for the station's dial position on most Hawaii cable systems). During that year, KHNL won the first Emmy Award for a local news broadcast. When the Providence Journal Company merged with Belo on February 28, 1997, the station struck a deal with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper to share polling services.
On October 29, 1999, Belo sold KHNL and its LMA with KFVE to current owner Raycom Media along with KASA-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico (which has since been sold to the LIN TV Corporation). Raycom acquired KFVE outright two months after the company completed its purchase of KHNL creating one of the very first official co-owned commercially-licensed duopolies in the country. On May 11, 2002, KHBC added a digital signal on UHF channel 22.[3] In 2003, KHNL got national exposure for having Conan O'Brien's Triumph the Insult Comic Dog do the report at the station. Triumph was actually invited to the station after chatting with people auditioning for American Idol in Hawaii.
On August 18, 2009, KHNL and MCG Capital Corporation (owner of CBS station KGMB) announced a planned shared services agreement (a.k.a. SSA) under which KGMB's operations including news coverage would be combined with KHNL and KFVE. The proposal would see KGMB moved from its studios on Kapiolani Boulevard in downtown Honolulu to the KHNL/KFVE facilities on Waiakamilo Road; it would also see KGMB fall under Raycom ownership, moving from channel 9 to channel 5, while KFVE would move from channels 5 to 9 and fall under MCG Capital's ownership.[4] Citing "the economic reality... that this market cannot support five traditionally separated television stations, all with duplicated costs," and facing the risk of "the loss of one, or possibly two stations in Hawaii," Raycom President Paul McTear said the SSA would "preserve three stations that provide important and valuable local, national and international programming to viewers in Hawaii."[5]
The plan, however, has met with criticism from organizations such as Media Council Hawaii which views the plan as a way to circumvent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules preventing one company owning two of the top four stations in any market[4] (The FCC only recognizes ownership of facility identifications and not a station's call sign or other properties, and as such Raycom's ownership of both KHNL and KGMB, once it moved to Channel 5, would be allowed). The SSA took effect on October 26, 2009, at which point KHNL dropped its "NBC 8" branding in favor of simply its call letters (KGMB and KFVE, who swapped dial positions on that date, adopted similar branding approaches as well). An estimated 68 positions from a total of 198 from the three stations would be eliminated as part of the agreement.[6]
These stations, in addition to translator K65BV in Lihue, rebroadcast KHNL's signal throughout Hawaii. K65BV has a transmitter northwest of Omao.
| Station | City of license | Channel | First air date | Call letters’ meaning |
ERP | HAAT | Facility ID | Transmitter location | Transmitter Coordinates |
| KHBC-TV | Hilo | 22 (UHF) | August 22, 1983 | Hilo's NBC | 8 kW | -170 m | 34846 | on top of Hilo Hawaiian Hotel | |
| KOGG | Wailuku | 16 (UHF) | August 22, 1989 | OGG is Kahului Airport's IATA code | 50 kW | 818 m | 34859 | summit of Haleakala |
As KTRG, the station had a start-up news program called Nightly News that aired from their original studios at Royal Block on Kalakaua Avenue. After joining NBC, it was the last of the major network television stations in Hawaii to debut a news telecast. In January 1995, they developed a new brand name and successfully mounted a challenge to top rated KHON. On April 17, 1995, the station launched a prime time newscast at 9 with a simulcast on KFVE. Further launches of broadcasts continued with the addition of 10 (on June 19), 5 (on July 24), and 6 o'clock (on November 30) shows. They added a two-hour long morning show on January 1, 1996. A audio simulcast of their 6 P.M. news was added to KUMU AM 1500 on January 6, 1997. August 3 saw the original KFVE broadcast being dropped.
On August 31, KHNL added a sports magazine and wrap-up show called Sports Sunday Hawaii. On June 1, 1999, the weeknight 6 o'clock show began began simulcasting on KCCN-AM 1420. They added "Chopper 8", the only television helicopter in the market, on April 5, 2000. On April 1, 2002, their weekday morning program was reduced to 90 minutes. A news share agreement was established with KKBG-FM 97.9, KLEO-FM 106.1, KHLO-AM, and KKOA-FM 107.7 on October 10. KIKU began a partnership with KHNL airing nightly news updates from this station on February 3, 2003. October 18, 2004 saw the relaunch of prime time news on KFVE. On January 7, 2007 that station debuted a weeknight 6:30 newscast also produced by KHNL. December 3, 2007 saw the launch of a midday newscast on the station, this has since been dropped. On December 22, 2008, KHNL and KFVE became the first local stations in Hawaii to broadcast local newscasts in high definition.[3]
The origins of the three stations sharing their resources was announced on August 18, 2009, when MCG Capital Corporation and Raycom Media (owner of KHNL and, at the time, KFVE) announced a shared services agreement which would see Raycom merge the three stations' operations into the KHNL/KFVE studios on Waiakamilo Road in Honolulu (KGMB would vacate its studios on Kapiolani Boulevard). Though non-news programming would remain in place, the 3 stations' news operations would be combined under one banner. The arrangement would also see a channel swap, with KGMB moving from PSIP channel 9 to channel 5 and KFVE move from 5 to 9. KFVE's newscasts would remain in place[4]
The shared services agreement resulted in the termination of all but four KHNL on-air staff and all of KHNL's morning show technicians when its newsroom merged with KGMB on October 26, 2009 when they began their simulcast.[7] The two stations began to jointly produce and simulcast a weeknight 5 and 10 o'clock newscasts while KHNL moved their 6 P.M. show to 5:30. KGMB continues to have its own weeknight 6 o'clock newscast. The only times when they don't simulcast is during the 7AM hour when KHNL starts airing NBC's Today Show, 5:30PM when KGMB airs The CBS Evening News, and at 6PM when KHNL airs The NBC Nightly News. Weekday morning and weekend shows are simulcasted on the two but can be preempted on one station due to network obligations. The local news schedule on KFVE-TV remains unchanged. There is no weekday midday news on either station.[8]
Hawaii News Now Anchors
Hawaii's Severe Weather Team (Hawaii Weather Now)
Hawaii Traffic Now
Hawaii Sports Now
Hawaii News Now Reporters
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