Honolulu OTA Viewers May Lose KGMB

Over the air viewers may lose their KGMB signal when the CBS affiliate swaps channels with KFVE, reports Honolulu’s Star-Bulletin.

Over the air viewing is about 2% in Hawaii, according to the article. The out-going KGMB chief engineer said the loss of KGMB for those viewers might be for “a couple weeks”; another source said it might be considerably longer

The channel swap is part of the big shared services agreement between Raycom’s KHNL and KFVE and MCG Capital Corp.’s KGMB. The deal has met resistance from local media watchdog groups, with dozens of employees said to be losing their jobs as part of the pooling. One group, called Media Council Hawaii, has asked the FCC to block the merger.

Star-Bulletin reporter Erika Engle says the merged news operation will air its first newscasts Oct. 26, and says the URL hawaiinewsnow.com appears to be part of the new branding.