'Hawaii Now' Debuts in Honolulu
The merged KHNL-KFVN-KGMB news operation in Honolulu made its debut yesterday.
Reports the Honolulu Advertiser:
The new format will be branded as “Hawaii Now,” replacing the “Severe Weather Station” moniker at KGMB and KHNL’s “live, local, late-breaking news” slogan. It also promises to field the largest television news operation in the state.
Besides the morning show, the stations’ 10 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts will be simulcast and KHNL will move its 6 p.m. show to 5:30 p.m.
In August, the three stations–two owned by Raycom, one by MCG Capital–announced they’d all be under the same roof as part of a shared services agreement. The process is still going on, says reporter Rick Daysog.
Construction crews began changing the sets for the new newscast last week and workers are still transferring fixtures, files and equipment from KGMB’s Kapiolani Boulevard offices to KHNL’s Kalihi station.
Principals at the new operation are calling it the largest local news outfit in Hawaii. “History was made Monday morning when television stations KHNL and KGMB launched their first newscasts under a new shared services agreement,” reads the new HawaiiNewsNow.com site. “Hawaii News Now has the largest local news team in the state and beginning Monday will deliver news across multiple platforms on KFVE, KGMB and KHNL.”
Local watchdog groups are protesting what they’re calling fewer voices in the market.
sksmich commented:
Anyone know the reason why the
KHNL live stream does not show
the commercials as the former
KGMB stream used to?
Mahalo.
Butch commented:
we just came back from Phoenix, and when the back up system failed when we reach the west coast, the pilot said we were going back to Phoenix. People were all upset, missing a day of vacation. We live on Maui, but shoots, safety is paramount. Could have been in a raft.
Media subscriber commented:
There certainly can be disadvantages to decreasing the number of free press outlets in an area, but given the size of this news environment and the frequent repetition of reporting without variation between the stations, it makes sense to trim some of the overlap and share facilities. It may even allow their news crews to diversify and cover more events and activities from around the islands.
B commented:
Where's the live stream video in the morning???