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.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.