KWHE

KWHE-TV
Honolulu, Hawaii
United States
Branding TV-14
Slogan KWHE 14 is Life Affirming
Channels Digital: 31 (UHF)
Virtual: 14 (PSIP)
Subchannels 14.1 LeSEA
14.2 Light TV
Affiliations LeSEA (1998–present)
Owner LeSEA Broadcasting Corporation
(LeSEA Broadcasting of Hawaii, Inc.)
First air date August 23, 1986 (1986-08-23)
Call letters' meaning World
Harvest
Entertainment
Former channel number(s) Analog:
14 (UHF, 1986–2009)
Former affiliations Independent (1986–1995)
The WB (1995–1998)
Transmitter power 20.1 kW
Height 5 m
Facility ID 36846
Transmitter coordinates 21°18′38.3″N 157°51′32.5″W / 21.310639°N 157.859028°W / 21.310639; -157.859028
Website www.kwhe.com

KWHE, virtual channel 14 (UHF digital channel 31), is a LeSEA owned-and-operated television station located in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. KWHE's studios are located on Bishop Street in downtown Honolulu, and its transmitter is located near Hawaii Pacific University. KWHE's signal is relayed on satellite stations KWHD (channel 14) in Hilo and KWHM (channel 21) in Wailuku. The station is carried on Oceanic Cable channel 11 throughout the state, and on Hawaiian Telcom channel 14.

KWHE, whose call letters stand for "World Harvest Entertainment", is part of the World Harvest Television network and follows the same programming format as its sister stations in South Bend, Indianapolis, Denver, Colorado Springs, Tulsa and New Orleans.

KWHE, along with KKAI, is one of only two religious stations in the Honolulu market (out of the six licensed to the area, which include KAAH-TV, KALO, KWBN and KUPU) that broadcasts secular programming; KWHE and KKAI, as well as KAAH and KUPU are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission as commercial outlets.

History

KWHE first signed on the air on August 23, 1986. From its sign-on, the station has offered a mix of secular general entertainment programs (mostly sitcoms, classic westerns, dramas, first-run syndicated fare and local sports events), with religious programming filling most of its schedule. The station would later expand its reach across the state with the launch of two satellite stations: KWHD signed on the air on October 1, 1989 as KWHH, KWHM later signed on June 15, 1993.

On January 11, 1995, KWHE became the market's charter affiliate of The WB; as with other LeSEA-owned stations that affiliated with the network, KWHE only carried family-oriented programs from the network (such as Sister, Sister, The Parent 'Hood and 7th Heaven) as well as programming from Kids' WB (which was not added until the block launched in September 1995); WB programs that contained sexual or violent content were not carried by the station due to content restrictions outlined by LeSEA for its stations. KWHE lost its WB affiliation on December 28, 1998, when then-UPN affiliate KFVE (then on channel 5, now on channel 9) began carrying the network's entire programming schedule as a secondary affiliation.

KWHE, whose secular programming is usually family-friendly, was one of three stations in Honolulu that carried reruns of the crime drama Hawaii Five-O, which was filmed in Honolulu (the other two being KFVE and KGMB, originally on channel 9, now on channel 5, whose real-life news crew was often featured in many episodes). The show remains popular among viewers in the state and has continued to be syndicated since it ended its run on CBS in 1980. KWHE dropped the program in 2013, allowing KITV's digital sub channel MeTV Hawaii to clear the program (which was substituted with Mission: Impossible because of KWHE holding the rights) for Hawaii from the MeTV national schedule in 2014. Cozi TV, which airs mix of classic television series from the 1950s through the 1980s, movies, and first-run lifestyle programming was recently added to KWHE-TVs digital sub-channel (14.2).

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[1]
14.1 480i 4:3 LeSEA LeSEA
14.2 Light TV Light TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KWHE-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 14, on January 15, 2009, the date in which full-power television stations in Hawaii transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts (six months earlier than the June 12 transition date for stations on the U.S. mainland).[2] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 31,[3] using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 14.

After Hawaii's switch to DTV on January 15, 2009, KWHE and KWHD (at the time using the call sign "KWHH") remained at their current digital frequencies (31 and 23), using PSIP to display both stations' virtual channels as 14, while KWHM moved to channel 21.[4]

Satellite stations

These stations rebroadcast KWHE's signal throughout Hawaii:

Station City of license Channels First air date Fourth letter’s
meaning		 ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
KWHD1 Hilo 23 (UHF) October 1, 1989 Denver (callsign moved from former sister station KETD) 14.9 kW 33 m 37103 19°43′0″N 155°8′13″W / 19.71667°N 155.13694°W / 19.71667; -155.13694 (KWHD)
KWHM Wailuku 21 (UHF) June 15, 1993 Maui 23.5 kW 755 m 37105 20°39′37″N 156°21′46″W / 20.66028°N 156.36278°W / 20.66028; -156.36278 (KWHM)

1 KWHD used the call sign KWHH from 1989 to 2010; the second "H" stood for "Hilo".

References

  1. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KWHE
  2. ↑ http://www.hawaiigoesdigital.com
  3. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  4. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
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