KITV

KITV is the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television station affiliate licensed to Honolulu, Hawaii. Based in Honolulu and broadcasting on digital channel 40, displayed as channel 4 the station is owned by Hearst Television and operates several satellites and translators on all the major Hawaiian Islands to rebroadcast programs outside of metropolitan Honolulu. Its main transmitter is located in Honolulu. It brands itself as KITV 4. The station is also seen on Oceanic Cable channel 6 throughout most of the state, with the exception of the eastern half of the Big Island, where it is instead seen on channel 12.

History
The station signed on the air in 1954 as KULA-TV, and changed its call to KHVH-TV by 1959.

One of KITV's previous owners was Kaiser Broadcasting, which owned the station from 1958 to 1964. Kaiser sold the station to Western Telestations in December 1964 to help fund its new chain of independent stations on the mainland. Western Telestations became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lexington, Kentucky-based Starr Broadcasting Company in 1973. Around that time the station adopted its present-day KITV call to reflect its service of broadcasting to the Hawaiian Islands.

Shamrock Broadcasting, a new company founded by Roy E. Disney, bought out Starr Broadcasting (including KITV) in 1979. Eight years later, Shamrock sold KITV to Tak Communications (Sharad Tak). Tak would declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991 and was later taken over by a group of creditors. During Tak's bankruptcy Freedom Communications made an offer to purchase KITV, but later withdrew its bid. In 1995 rumors circulated that it would join NBC when KHON-TV -- which had been Hawaii's NBC affiliate for 43 years (1953–1996) -- decided to join Fox during the "Big Network Switch" of 1994-96. However, later in 1995, Argyle Television Holdings II bought KITV and then-sister station WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York from Tak's creditors. In the end KITV stayed with ABC and NBC instead signed with KHNL as its new affiliate in 1996.

When Argyle Television Holdings II merged with the Hearst Corporation's broadcasting unit in 1997 KITV and its satellites became part of the newly-formed TV station group then known as Hearst-Argyle Television. Hearst bought out the remainder of the company in mid-2009, dropping the word "Argyle" from the company's name.

KITV also has an affiliation with CNN which used KITV's live broadband stream to report on a 6.6 earthquake that struck off the northwestern coast of Hawaii County on October 15, 2006. Since KITV was the only station in Hawaii to air live coverage of the earthquake after the event (most other stations in Honolulu continued on with their normal morning programming) they also attracted a flood of phone calls and e-mails from people around the world trying to find out if their loved ones were all right. The live stream also attracted the attention of The Daily Show the following day (October 16), thanks in part to a building manager mentioning via public address system that the building's bathrooms were still operational while the news anchors were still on the air. That clip can be seen on KITV's website TheHawaiiChannel.com.

The station has been an ABC affiliate since its sign-on, making KITV one of the two major television stations in Honolulu that has never changed its network affiliation; local CBS outlet KGMB is the other.

KITV 4.2
In addition to its main channel, KITV operates a DT-2 digital subchannel, KITV 4.2, which can be seen statewide on Oceanic Time Warner Cable, on digital channel 126.

During the day, KITV carries a weather information channel called Weather Now, which features programming from The AccuWeather Channel with local cut-ins by KITV weather anchors. The channel features local weather, a news ticker, and live traffic cameras in addition to national programming provided by AccuWeather.

On October 4, 2010, about two months after Hearst sister stations KCRA and KSBW started broadcasting an alternate set of programming over on their second digital subchannel, KITV replaced the evening hours of "Weather Now" with "More TV Hawaii." The channel is patterned after its sister station in Tampa, WMOR-TV and operates as a Independent station, airing from 6 to 11 PM daily. More TV Hawaii features first-run shows, reruns of sitcoms and dramas, and current KITV programs (Non-ABC). KITV 4.2 also joins KHON's DT2 as the only outlets in Hawaii to feature general programming on their digital subchannels.

In order to comply with FCC rules that all television stations (including digital subchannels) must broadcast three hours of E/I programming per week, KITV-DT2 airs a three hour block of Gina D's Kids Club every Saturday from noon-3 pm.

Programming
In its early days KITV and its predecessors aired most of the ABC offerings on weekly delays due to Hawaii's geographical location and at times would receive most of the network shows via air mail. Because of this specific reason, it had a weird scheduling pattern that resulted in the station programming ABC daytime programs from 8AM to 1PM in incorrect order (with movies rounding out most the schedule) and ABC primetime shows from 6:30PM to 10:30PM, all out of pattern (and at times, delayed to weekends) and mixed in with syndicated programs to fill in the slots. And like most of the Honolulu stations the network newscast would be delayed as far as 12 Midnight because they were flown in from the mainland after their airings in the East Coast. However that would change on November 19, 1966, as a pioneering piece of history would take place when channel 4 (when it was KHVH) began broadcasting the first live network satellite telecast from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii as ABC feeds the Notre Dame-Michigan State football game via the Lani Bird satellite to the station.[1] Today KITV receives ABC shows on the same day as the rest of the United States, including live news, sports coverage and special events.

KITV clears all ABC programming. The only exception was for Power Rangers, which was part of the ABC Kids block until August 28, 2010. Most (if not all) ABC affiliates owned by Hearst Television refused to clear the show due to its lack of educational and informational (E/I) content.

Early on, prior to being owned by Hearst, it did air the ABC Saturday morning cartoon lineup on Saturdays, usually starting at 5 or 6 am. But today, unlike most ABC affiliates, KITV does not air the ABC Kids block on Saturdays. The station airs live ESPN coverage or infomercials in its place, due to the five-hour time difference between Hawaii-Aleutian Time and Eastern. KITV did air three hours of the ABC Kids programming block over three weekdays (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). On each of the three days, one hour (two shows) of the block would air from 11 am-12 Noon local time, leading into ABC's daytime soap opera lineup. In September 2010, KITV placed "The Nate Berkus Show" in the 11 am-12 Noon time slot and The ABC Kids lineup was moved to Sunday afternoons, as KITV is still obligated to broadcast E/I programming in its schedule.

When compared to other major network affiliates in Honolulu (KHON, KFVE, KGMB and KHNL), KITV airs syndicated programming outside of network hours. The only first-run syndicated shows currently aired on KITV include The Dr. Oz Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Judge Judy. The station also airs syndicated reruns of How I Met Your Mother and The Closer. Various other syndicated shows are aired on weekends, usually during late nights.

On the weekends, KITV airs the locally-produced program "Ohana Road", which features info and reviews on the latest automobiles as well as coverage of local car enthusiast events.

KITV was also well known among Hawaii residents as the year-after-year presenter of the Merrie Monarch Festival, which was broadcast on the station live every April from Hilo until 2009. During this time, KITV usually pre-empted ABC primetime programs until the weekend. On October 1, 2009 it was announced that the Merrie Monarch Festival would be broadcast on Hawaii News Now channel KFVE beginning in 2010.[2]

News operation
KITV airs 26.5 hours of local news programming a week, with four hours on weekdays, 3.5 hours on Saturday, and three hours on Sunday, thus making it one of the station in Hawaii to have the most hours aired for local news coverage. (Hawaii News Now has the the most hours aired for local, national, and international news coverage.) KITV has also won a Emmy Award for its newscasts. On weekdays, a two-hour news block airs at 5am, followed by half-hour blocks at 5 and 6pm, and an hour-long 10pm newscast, which has aired since November 16, 2009, meaning that KITV becomes the first station in the state with an hour-long late night newscast.[3] The market's first and only two hour weekend morning newscast begins at 6am (since September 7, 2010), followed by half hour news blocks at 5 and 10pm, although the station airs its 6pm newscast on Saturday nights. KITV does not air local news at noon.

As of December 13, 2010, KITV is one of six remaining stations owned by Hearst that has yet to broadcast its local news in either widescreen or high definition, along with WMUR, WMTW, WPTZ, WAPT, and KHBS/KHOG. WISN, KOCO, and WGAL are currently in widescreen, while KSBW and WPBF have already started HD newscasts.

Newscast titles

 * 6 O'Clock Report/10 O'Clock Report (1960s)
 * KHVH-TV News (1960s-1970s)
 * Newscene (1970s–1975)
 * NewsCenter Four (1975–1983)
 * KITV 4 News (1983–1986, 1998–2005 & 2010–2015)
 * News 4 (1986–1998)
 * KITV 4 Island Television News (2005–2010)
 * KITV Island News (2015–2018)
 * KITV 4 Island News (2018–present)

Station slogans

 * Get a Clear Picture of What's Happening... Turn to Colorful Excitement on KHVH-4 (1965)
 * Hawaii's Channel 4, in Color (1966–1970)
 * NewsCenter Four, Hawaii's Most Respected Television News Organization (1975–1978)
 * We're Still the One, on Channel 4 (1977–1978 and 1979–1980; local version of ABC campaign)
 * Turn to NewsCenter Four (1978–1983)
 * We're The One You Can Turn To Channel 4 (1978–1979; local version of ABC campaign)
 * You and Me and Channel 4 (1980–1981; local version of ABC campaign)
 * Now is the Time, Channel 4 is the Place (1981–1982; local version of ABC campaign)
 * Come on Along with Hawaii's 4 (1982–1983; local version of ABC campaign)
 * That Special Feeling on Channel 4 (1983–1984; local version of ABC campaign)
 * We're With You on Channel 4 (1984–1985; local version of ABC campaign)
 * You'll Love It on KITV-4 (1985–1986; local version of ABC campaign)
 * KITV 4 News: Hawaii's First News (1983–1986)
 * News 4: We're the Team (1986–1987)
 * We Belong Together and Together on Channel 4 (1986–1987; local version of ABC campaign)
 * Something's Happening on Channel 4 (1987–1990; local version of ABC campaign)
 * We're 4 Hawaii (1988–1990)
 * Hawaii's Watching Channel 4 (1990-1992; local version of "America's Watching ABC" campaign)
 * KITV-4, Your Island Television Station (1991–1995)
 * If It`s Hawaii, It Must Be Channel 4 (1992–1993; local version of "It Must Be ABC" campaign)
 * KITV 4, Your 24-Hour News Source (1995–2001)
 * Get the Whole Story (2002–2005)
 * The Team You Know. The Team You Trust. (2005–2009)
 * Always Local, Always KITV (2009–2014)
 * More Local, Most Complete (2014–present)

Current Anchors

 * Mahealani Richardson - weekday mornings "KITV4 News This Morning" (5-7 a.m.); also reporter
 * Jill Kuramoto- weekday mornings "KITV4 News This Morning" (5-7 a.m.); also reporter
 * Paula Akana - weeknights at 5 and 6pm
 * Lara Yamada - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Kenny Choi- weeknights at 6 and 10pm
 * Jodi Leong - weekend mornings "KITV4 News This Morning" (6-8 a.m.); also weeknight reporter
 * Paul Drewes (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekend mornings "KITV4 News This Morning" (6-8 a.m.); also weekend morning meteorologist and weeknight reporter
 * Pamela Young - Saturdays at 6 and weekends at 5 and 10 p.m.; also "Mixed Plate" feature reporter

Weather team

 * Justin Fujioka (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * 'Moanike'ala Nabarro'- weather anchor; weekday mornings "KITV4 News This Morning" (5-7 a.m.)
 * Paul Drewes- weather anchor; weekend mornings

Sports team

 * Robert Kekaula - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Jahmai Webster - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6 and weekends at 5 and 10 p.m., also sports reporter

Reporters

 * Dick Allgire - general assignment and health reporter
 * Catherine Cruz - general assignment reporter
 * Yasmin Dar - morning traffic reporter
 * Shayne Enright - general assignment reporter
 * Daryl Huff - general assignment reporter
 * Keoki Kerr - general assignment reporter
 * Jill Kuramoto - general assignment & morning reporter

Hearst Television Washington Bureau

 * Kate Amara - Washington D.C. bureau correspondent
 * Sally Kidd - Washington D.C. bureau correspondent
 * Nikole Killion - Washington D.C. bureau morning correspondent

Former anchors and reporters

 * Shawn Ching (Weeknight Anchor; Weekend Anchor; Sports Anchor/Reporter) - Currently with Hawaii News Now
 * Dan Cooke (Weeknight Anchor; Weather Anchor; Reporter) - Currently with Hawaii News Now
 * Howard Dashefsky (Weeknight Anchor)
 * Tina Shelton (Anchor; Reporter)
 * Gary Sprinkle (Weeknight 5PM Anchor; Reporter; "Pacific Adventures" segments)
 * Tim Tindall (Anchor; Reporter)
 * Paul Udell (Anchor; Reporter; News Director)
 * Sharie Shima (Weather Anchor)
 * Dan Meisenzahl (Morning Anchor/Reporter/Executive Producer / Sports Anchor/Reporter)
 * Kathy Muneno (Morning Anchor; Reporter; Weather Anchor) - Currently with KHON-TV
 * Ben Gutierrez (Morning Weather Anchor; Weekend Weather Anchor; Reporter) - Currently with Hawaii News Now
 * Ann Botticelli (Weekend Anchor; General Assignment Reporter; Business/Financial Reporter)
 * Tasha Kobashigawa (Weekend Anchor; Reporter)
 * Rob DeMello (Weekend Sports Anchor; Sports Reporter) - Currently with KHON-TV
 * Neil Everett (Weekend Sports Anchor; Sports Reporter) - Currently with ESPN's Sportscenter
 * Rob Fukuzaki (Weekend Sports Anchor; Sports Reporter) - Currently with KABC-TV, Los Angeles, CA
 * Kanoa Leahey (Weekend Sports Anchor; Sports Reporter) - Currently with KHON-TV
 * Tiny Tadani (Weekend Sports Anchor; Morning Weather Anchor)
 * Chuck Henry (Reporter) - Now with KNBC in Los Angeles
 * Louise Kim McCoy (Morning Cut-Ins; Reporter)
 * Denby Fawcett (Reporter)
 * Russell Shimooka (Sports Anchor)
 * Caroline Sluyter (Reporter)
 * Scott Swan (Sports Anchor) - Currently with WTHR-TV, Indianapolis, IN
 * Marisa Takahashi (Reporter)
 * Dalton Tanonaka (Weekend Anchor; Reporter)
 * Emme Tomingbang (Anchor; Reporter)
 * Cedric Yamanaka (Reporter)
 * Cynthia Yip (Morning Anchor; Fill-in Anchor; Reporter)
 * Mary Zanakis (Reporter)

Satellite stations
These stations, and translator K51BB in Lihue, rebroadcast KITV's signal throughout Hawaii: Notes:
 * 1. KMAU used the callsign KMVI-TV from its 1955 sign-on to 1978.

Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Digital channels In January 2009, KITV left channel 4 and moved to channel 40, while KHVO and KMAU remained on channel 13 and 12 when the analog to digital conversion has completed.[5] [6] It is also one of the first Hearst-Argyle stations to terminate analog over-the-air programming.