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KHON-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, affiliated with Fox and owned by Nexstar Media Group. Its second subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of The CW as Nexstar owns a majority stake in the network. KHON-TV is sister station to MyNetworkTV affiliate KHII-TV (channel 9) and the two stations share studios at the Hawaiki Tower in downtown Honolulu. KHON-TV's main transmitter is also located downtown at the Century Center condominium/business complex.
On October 16, 1955, KONA changed channels from 11 to 2 due to the lower VHF positions (2 to 6) having the most powerful ERPs at the time. The channel 11 frequency now belongs to PBS member station KHET. In 1956, KONA was sold to Pacific and Southern Broadcasting, the forerunner of Combined Communications. KALU signed on in 1958, with KALA following in 1961.
In 1965, all three stations' call letters were changed: KONA became KHON-TV, with KALA becoming KHAW-TV and KALU changing to KAII-TV.
In 1973, Pacific and Southern Broadcasting decided to spin off KHON to company president Arthur H. McCoy. The move was made so Pacific and Southern could merge into Combined Communications (which would itself merge with the Gannett Company six years later). Between them, the two companies were one station over the ownership limit of the time.
In 1979, KHON and Maui's KAII were sold to Western-Sun Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Cowles Communications; the Hilo satellite KHAW-TV was sold to Simpson Communications, but leased back to Cowles/Western-Sun. In 1985, KHON and KAII were sold to Burnham Broadcasting as part of the Cowles family's liquidation of most of its media assets; Burnham would acquire KHAW outright the next year, reuniting the stations.
On January 1, 1996, KHON-TV switched its affiliation to Fox (and changed its on-air branding to " Fox 2"); the NBC affiliation moved to former Fox affiliate KHNL (channel 13). Unlike the New World Communications-owned Fox affiliates that joined the network during the previous 18-month span, KHON ran Fox Kids programming on weekdays (until Fox discontinued the weekday block in December 2001, airing weekdays from 1 to 4 p.m. and then from 2 to 4 p.m. until the fall of 2001 when it was moved to 10 a.m. to noon) and Saturday mornings (until November 2008, when 4Kids Entertainment ceased programming Fox's children's block, with the network discontinuing its children's programming altogether). KHON also expanded its local news programming on weekdays, seeing an increase in newscast ratings with the affiliation switch."Herwitz jumps on as New World spins to Fox" – Electronic Media August 19, 1996 KHON currently has the distinction of having the highest-rated local news programming of any Fox affiliate nationwide, and also declares itself as "America's No. 1 Fox affiliate", though the network's Miami affiliate WSVN makes this claim as well. Neither station mentions Fox in its logo or branding; when KHON was rebranded to KHON 2 in 2004, it became the first Fox station to ditch the network's brand standardization for its stations while it was still an affiliate. KHON is one of a handful of Fox affiliates that omit network references in their branding.
On November 28, 1995, Silver King Communications (operated by former Fox executive Barry Diller) announced that it would acquire Savoy Pictures; as a result, Savoy Pictures and Fox ended their partnership and sold the SF Broadcasting stations, including KHON-TV, to the USA Networks division Silver King Broadcasting. Silver King, which later became known as USA Broadcasting, owned several stations on the United States mainland that were affiliated with the Home Shopping Network, which was also owned by USA Networks. The sale of KHON and the other SF stations was approved and finalized in March 1996, with its other assets being merged into the company that November.
In 1999, KHON relocated from its longtime studios on Auahi Street and moved to their current studios on Piikoi Street. Also on April 1 of that year, USA sold all four of its Fox stations to Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications for $307 million in cash and stock, as part of a sale of its major network affiliates in order to concentrate on its formerly HSN-affiliated independent stations.
A year later in 2000, Emmis purchased CBS affiliate KGMB, effectively bringing Hawaii's two oldest television stations under common ownership, though both stations retained separate operations—unlike what would become the common operational structure of most duopolies. Emmis received a cross-ownership waiver to acquire KGMB as FCC duopoly rules prohibit two of the four highest-rated stations in the same market from being owned by one company.
From September 2, 2002, to October 31, 2004, KHON carried select UPN programming via a secondary affiliation shared with KGMB; each station aired programs from that network that the other station did not air. The two stations began carrying UPN programming in September 2002 after KHII-TV (which had been with UPN since its January 1995 launch) disaffiliated from the network to become a full-time affiliate of The WB (whose programming aired on KFVE in a secondary capacity since December 1998). KIKU, an independent station specializing in Japanese programming, became a secondary UPN affiliate on November 1, 2004, and remained with the network until its closure on September 15, 2006.
Montecito planned to replace 35 of KHON's 111 employees with automation. KHON employees first learned of the plan on January 12, when general manager Rick Blangiardi notified the staff of his intent to resign once the sale was finalized. At a station staff meeting that afternoon, SJL announced the layoffs, which would take place in two phases over the course of two months. Anchor Joe Moore announced the plan at the end of that evening's 6 p.m. newscast, and stated his concern that the change would impact the station's ability to serve its viewers. KHON to slash work force, The Star-Bulletin, Retrieved May 14, 2013. Montecito responded on January 15, assuring the public that no reporters or anchors would be affected, and the 6 p.m. newscast would be largely unchanged from the viewer's perspective. KHON-TV reporters, anchors will not be among the cuts , KPUA, January 15, 2006. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
The purchase of KHON was scheduled to close on January 26; however, Montecito was unable to complete the purchase of KHON that day, due to a mix-up in paperwork. As a result, Emmis announced that no employees would be fired as a result of the sale until at least March 31, and that Emmis would pay additional benefits to the affected employees. Sale of KHON complicated by neglected paperwork , The Star-Bulletin, Retrieved May 14, 2013. Moore used the last minutes of the 6 p.m. newscast, the final newscast under Emmis' ownership, to bid farewell to Blangiardi (who continued to manage KHON's former sister station, KGMB) and to criticize Montecito. Among other charges, he claimed that the layoffs were tantamount to "the butchering of an already lean work force" and accused Montecito of being a "virtual company" with no physical offices. Montecito's chief operating officer, Sandy Benton, disputed the charges, saying that "what was said last night was not the truth".
Since the purchase, KHON's new general manager, Joe MacNamara, changed the scope of the terminations: instead of a number of people to fire, a salary goal was given. Exodus takes shape at KHON, The Star-Bulletin, Retrieved May 14, 2013. Eight of KHON's nine managers resigned over three days, each stating that they could not support Montecito's decision to terminate employees (only the chief engineer remained). The managers involved, including Blangiardi, denied that the mass exodus was planned. 8 of 9 KHON managers resigning amid cuts, The Star-Bulletin, Retrieved May 14, 2013. Montecito continued to stand by the automation plan, pointing out that most of the markets it had entered have seen Nielsen ratings increases as a result of Montecito management.
On June 28, 2006, Moore appeared to take another on-air dig at Montecito's automation plan. For two weeks, a noticeable echo could be heard during the newscast. At the start of that night's 10 p.m. newscast, it prompted Moore to stop and ask the technical crew if the problem could be fixed. A visibly disgusted Moore, who then blamed the new automated system, said "We're going to go to commercial. We're going to get this straightened out because I'm fed up with this crap." When the newscast returned, the problem was fixed, and Moore resumed as normal. Moore, who was rumored to be considering leaving KHON as a result of the sale, decided to remain as the station's chief anchor. In a February 6 email sent to staff members, Moore wrote, "How could I possibly work for owners I do not respect? After much deliberation, I reached this conclusion ... the owners are not KHON-2. We, the people who work here are KHON-2. I would not be working 'for the owners'. I would be working 'for our viewers', and 'with' fellow employees I deeply respect. I have decided not to let our owners drive me out of KHON-2."
On May 7, 2012, LIN Media announced its acquisition of the New Vision stations for $330.4 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt. The FCC approved the sale to LIN on October 2,
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> licensing.fcc.gov and the group deal was consummated ten days later on October 12, 2012, reuniting KHON-TV and its Oregon and Kansas sister stations with several former Emmis-owned stations which had been purchased by LIN seven years earlier, such as WALA-TV, WLUK-TV and Albuquerque, New Mexico's KRQE. LIN Completes New Vision Stations, TVNewsCheck, October 12, 2012. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
On January 27, 2016, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General and its stations, including KHON-TV, with the sale being completed on January 17, 2017, marking Nexstar's first entry into Hawaii." Nexstar Broadcasting Group Completes Acquisition of Media General Creating Nexstar Media Group, The Nation's Second Largest Television Broadcaster", Nexstar Media Group, January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
The network premiered on KHON's main channel on October 24 and 25 with airings of the regular CW schedule before moving to digital channel 2.2 on October 30; this was possible due to Fox's World Series coverage airing live at 2 p.m. Honolulu time, freeing up prime time. On December 11, 2006, Oceanic Time Warner Cable began offering KHON-TV's CW subchannel on digital cable channel 93; until the fall of 2011, the subchannel used its cable channel position within its branding.
KHON-DT2 presently clears The CW's entire schedule, including its Saturday morning block. However, the subchannel had aired The CW's Sunday night lineup an hour off-schedule, from 5 to 10 p.m. until the Sunday lineup was dropped and the hours given to its affiliates in September 2009. The subchannel is also available locally on DirecTV and Dish Network; the '93' in the subchannel's branding was removed for this reason, as its channel numbers are different on those providers, and was later dropped by KHON across the board on both Oceanic Time Warner and Hawaiian Telcom (on cable channel 3), going with only "Hawaii's CW" for that same reason. On August 20, 2007, "Hawaii's CW" began airing the nationally syndicated morning news program The Daily Buzz. The show's former home in the Honolulu market, KGMB, dropped the show three days earlier on August 17 in favor of a local morning newscast titled Sunrise on KGMB9, which launched on September 17. Unlike KGMB, which only aired the first two hours of The Daily Buzz, "Hawaii's CW" aired the entire three-hour broadcast each weekday from 5 to 8 a.m. Upon the sudden cancellation of The Daily Buzz in mid-April 2015 by its distributor, the channel switched to a simulcast of KHON's morning news in full.
Incidentally, KHON was a secondary affiliate of one of The CW's predecessor networks, UPN, from 2002 to 2004—at a time when secondary affiliations were more common and the advent of digital subchannels was not as widespread as it is today. "Hawaii's CW" does not have its own website; the only mentions of the subchannel on KHON's website are in the station's programming schedule and a link to The CW's website.
For most of its first 30 years on the air, KHON aired the NBC schedule on one-week broadcast delay, with some shows airing out of pattern. For instance, it aired the NBC Nightly News after 12 midnight or 6 a.m. the following morning via air mail. The Saturday morning schedule aired on Sunday morning, and Meet the Press aired on Saturday morning on a one-week delay. It would not be until 1985 when KHON would start airing NBC programming on the same day in the same timeslots as the U.S. mainland thanks to advances in satellite technology.
Since its switch from NBC in 1996, KHON clears the entire Fox network schedule (nightly prime time, Saturday late night, and Fox Sports programming, along with the network's Saturday morning E/I programming block Xploration Station, and the political talk show Fox News Sunday). As of 2020, KHON also airs the syndicated infomercial block Weekend Marketplace on Sundays, making the station one of the few Fox affiliates that airs both Xploration Station and Weekend Marketplace. Most other Fox stations carrying Xploration Station air the block instead of Weekend Marketplace. The station presently airs Fox's Sunday night programming one hour later than other affiliates, from 7 to 10 p.m. Hawaii Time (all other stations start Sunday prime time at 6 p.m.), and the network's Animation Domination HD late night lineup on Saturdays aired a half-hour later airing at 10:30 p.m., due to its nightly 10 p.m. newscast. In 2014, KHON launched a half-hour prime time newscast at 9 p.m. on weekdays, followed by a second-run syndicated program, while network programs air in that hour on Sundays (syndicated programs may air in place of network shows if Fox airs a sporting event that is scheduled for prime time on the U.S. mainland, but due to the time differences between Hawaii and the continental United States, airs on KHON earlier that day).
KHON's CW subchannel aired weekly CFL broadcasts for the 2007 season after former University of Hawaii star quarterback Timmy Chang earned a backup spot with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the pre-season. The station airs preseason games and special programming of the Las Vegas Raiders via a deal signed between the team and KHON owner Nexstar Broadcasting. The Raiders feature Hawaii native (and 2014 Heisman Trophy winner) Marcus Mariota. The station aired Tennessee Titans preseason games supplied via the team's primary affiliate (and sister station through Media General) WKRN-TV when Mariota played in Tennessee.
For over a decade, both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune aired on KHON. Jeopardy! was then moved to CBS affiliate KGMB in 2002 in order for KHON to begin a 5 p.m. newscast, which makes Honolulu one of the few markets where Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune air on separate stations.
KHON's newscasts have been the highest-rated in Hawaii for almost 40 years. The station's news operation is so well respected that even when it branded itself as "Fox 2" from 1996 to 2004, it still titled its newscasts Channel 2 News (the name it had used since the early 1980s) rather than Fox 2 News. Also for this reason, its late newscast is not titled The Ten O'Clock News like with other Fox stations.
The station's dominance has been especially pronounced since it lured KGMB sports anchor Joe Moore to become its lead anchor in 1979. Moore, billed as "Hawaii's most watched television newscaster," remains the station's lead anchor. In addition to his duties on the 6 and 10 p.m. flagship newscasts, he also anchors Hawaii's World Report at 5:30, a round-up of world and national news reports from CNN and Fox News. Moore is frequently the subject of controversy, but his popularity in the state usually prevents any attempts to rein him in.
As of 2012, KHON was the only major U.S. network-affiliated television station in Hawaii that had yet to make the upgrade to high definition or enhanced definition widescreen local newscasts (KITV (channel 4) upgraded its newscasts to widescreen that year), as well as one of two LIN Media television properties that has yet to broadcast its local programming in high definition or widescreen (the other being WLFI-TV). On March 23, 2012, KHON president and general manager Joe McNamara stated in a New Vision Television press release that "in the coming months, additional changes will be taking place inside our (KHON) studios with state-of-the-art HD upgrades of cameras, lighting and newsroom systems that will enhance our on-air look tremendously." Joe Moore is Clearly Hawaii's Anchorman in the February 2012 Nielsen Ratings , New Vision Television, March 23, 2012. Retrieved May 14, 2013. On October 11, 2013, KHON became the last LIN-owned station to broadcast its newscasts in high definition with a new set and new logo. The debut was made during their 5 p.m. newscast. Included in the upgrade was a new logo and updated news music. The station uses the "Inergy" news music package by Stephen Arnold Music that was originally intended for stations owned by the E. W. Scripps Company; however, KHON uses a custom version with traditional Hawaiian instrumentation.
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On that same date, KHAW-TV relocated its digital signal from UHF channel 21 to its former analog-era VHF channel 11; while KAII-TV relocated its digital signal from UHF channel 36 to its former analog-era VHF channel 7. K55DZ formerly broadcast in analog only, though it had applied with the FCC to operate a digital signal on channel 28. FCC database record for K55DZ
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