KHNL
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KHNL is the licensed broadcast affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company in Hawaii. Based in Honolulu, KHNL first broadcast from Channel 13 on July 4, 1962 under the call letters KTRG from a transmitter atop the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki. The station is currently owned by Raycom Media and has satellite feeds on all the major Hawaiian Islands to rebroadcast programs outside of metropolitan Honolulu. Its main transmitter is located in Honolulu. KHNL is also seen on cable channel 8 on Oceanic Cable, which is why they refer to themselves on-air as "NBC Hawaii News8" or "NBC8" instead of their regular over-the-air channel position.
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History
Early years
Unaffiliated with a national network, KTRG broadcast English language and Japanese language programming. It had a local start-up news program called Nightly News. Under new ownership in 1967, KTRG became KIKU and offered Japanese language programming from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. followed by English language programming from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. In 1984, the call letters were changed again from KIKU to KHNL and branded itself as the "News Alternative" and "Free Movie Channel." The station also began airing University of Hawaii at Manoa athletics.
FOX Network
In 1986, KHNL contracted programming from the new FOX Network to begin airing in 1987: Joan Rivers Show, Tracey Ullman Show, Married with Children. It wasn't until 1993 that KHNL adopted the brand name FOX13. The following year however, KHON announced it was dropping it affiliation with the National Broadcasting Company (its new owner was partly funded by Fox, forcing the change). Since it was losing its Fox affiliation to KHON, KHNL decided to switch its affiliation from FOX to NBC.
NBC Network
With the new affiliation, KHNL began construction of the first fully digital newsroom in the world in 1995. It also became the first news station to utilize fiber optic technology to broadcast live feeds from neighbor islands. That same year, KHNL developed a new brand name, NBC Hawaii News8 (the "8" refers to the station's cable channel position). With all the changes, KHNL successfully mounted a challenge to the top ratings that rival KHON had held for decades. In 1996, KHNL won the first Emmy Award for a local news broadcast. The following year, the station struck a deal with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper to share polling services. In 1999, KHNL once again changed its brand name to News8. In September of 2004, the station became known as KHNL NBC8 with its Live, Local, Late-Breaking news.
Relay Stations
- KHBC Channel 2 (Digital Channel 22) Hilo
- KOGG Channel 15 (Digital Channel 16) Wailuku
- K65BV Channel 65 Lihue