KIKU
Encyclopedia
KIKU-TV is an independent television station
based in Honolulu, Hawaii
. Currently, KIKU broadcasts on DTV
channel 19, Time-Warner Cable 9/Digital 89 (O‘ahu), Time-Warner Cable 10/Digital 89 (Maui), Time-Warner Cable Digital 89 (Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i), Hawaiian Cable 12, and Hawaiian Telcom Cable 20. Most of the televised content is multicultural programming catering to the large Asian community
in the Hawaiian Islands
. From 2004 to 2006, KIKU was also a secondary affiliate of the now-defunct UPN
television network, airing most network programming during the late afternoon hours. With the cable broadcast in place, KIKU can be seen on all the major islands.
, Tagalog
, and English
. Japanese programming is its most popular genre, licensing the content from some of Japan's
major TV networks, including TV Asahi
, Tokyo Broadcasting System
, NHK
and NTV
. In 2011, KIKU expanded its Asian focus to include Chinese
programming on Saturdays, as it began tapping into Honolulu's growing Chinese population.
For the Japanese content to reach the majority demographic of Hawaii, KIKU partners with various companies to provide English subtitles.
KIKU also presented a selection of anime
series in English from the FUNimation Channel
from September 2006 to September 2007.
that broadcasted on channel 13. The first KIKU started out as KTRG-TV in 1962 (then owned by the Watumull Broadcasting Company). Its first broadcast aired on July 4, 1962. The TV station was sold in 1966, changing its call letters to KIKU.
The original KIKU was quite popular with Hawaii's children throughout the 1970s, televising several Japanese tokusatsu
shows, including Kamen Rider V3
, Kikaida, Rainbowman
, Ganbare!! Robocon, and Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.
The Cushmans of San Diego, in partnership with TV Asahi
and ten local investors, formed Mid-Pacific Television Associates and bought KIKU on April 9, 1979. Japanese programming was pared-down and moved to late evening; KIKU switched to a "kid vid" format, scoring success with The Children's Hour and Professor Fun. (The Japanese programs would be gone completely by 1981.)
In 1984, KIKU was renamed KHNL-TV. In 1986, KHNL-TV was sold to KING
Broadcasting Company of Seattle, Washington, a large privately-owned television company. Along with the purchase, KHNL-TV became the local affiliate for Fox
. However, KHNL-TV still retained its Asian roots, and continued to broadcast content—mostly sumo matches—from those countries.
In 1992, King Broadcasting was sold to Providence Journal Broadcasting Corporation and its financial partner, Kelso & Company
. Some major changes occurred at KHNL-TV as a result of the purchase - later, KHNL would go from Fox to NBC as a result of KHON doing the reverse.
Separately, on February 12, 1980, KHAI-TV was officially registered with the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) on channel 20. KHAI-TV would take on the KIKU call sign on September 4, 1993.
In October 2003, General Manager Gregg Mueller left KIKU after a three-year tenure.
After many years together, KIKU and acting president Joanne Ninomiya of JN Productions ended their partnership in early 2004. Today, KIKU produces their own English subtitled programs in-house.
On November 1, 2004, KIKU became a secondary affiliate of the UPN
television network. UPN was previously seen in the Honolulu market on KFVE
from 1995 to 2002, and then on KHON
and KGMB
from 2002 to 2004 (also as secondary affiliations).
The station returned to having no national network affiliation in September 2006, when UPN merged with The WB to form The CW Television Network
. Although UPN fans anticipated KIKU becoming an affiliate of The CW so they can continue to watch their favorite shows, KIKU announced they would not be doing so.
On September 18, 2006, KIKU became one of the few terrestrial affiliates of the FUNimation Channel
. From September 2006 to September 2007, KIKU ran 2 hours of anime programs every Monday through Friday from 6-7 pm and 10-11 pm local time; the anime lineup changed every so often. In September 2007, due to low viewership, KIKU decided to discontinue the anime lineup.
and the Nippon Golden Network, while others have resorted to fansub
s.
In the April 2006 hardcopy publication Kokiku Magazine, fans have expressed their displeasure of KIKU continuing to air old travel TV shows such as Soko ga Shiritai. In the following May issue, Phyllis Kihara, General Manager of KIKU, defended the station's position, saying that in the 7:00pm Monday through Friday time-slot, Soko has higher ratings in the local Nielsen ratings
than some of the major network shows.
as 20.
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
based in Honolulu, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. Currently, KIKU broadcasts on DTV
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
channel 19, Time-Warner Cable 9/Digital 89 (O‘ahu), Time-Warner Cable 10/Digital 89 (Maui), Time-Warner Cable Digital 89 (Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i), Hawaiian Cable 12, and Hawaiian Telcom Cable 20. Most of the televised content is multicultural programming catering to the large Asian community
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
in the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
. From 2004 to 2006, KIKU was also a secondary affiliate of the now-defunct UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
television network, airing most network programming during the late afternoon hours. With the cable broadcast in place, KIKU can be seen on all the major islands.
Asian programming
Programs currently come in JapaneseJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Tagalog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
, and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. Japanese programming is its most popular genre, licensing the content from some of Japan's
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
major TV networks, including TV Asahi
TV Asahi
, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....
, Tokyo Broadcasting System
Tokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
, NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
and NTV
Nippon Television
is a television network based in the Shiodome area of Minato, Tokyo, Japan and is controlled by the Yomiuri Shimbun publishing company. Broadcasting terrestrially across Japan, the network is commonly known as , contracted to , and abbreviated as "NTV" or "AX".-Offices:*The Headquarters : 6-1,...
. In 2011, KIKU expanded its Asian focus to include Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
programming on Saturdays, as it began tapping into Honolulu's growing Chinese population.
For the Japanese content to reach the majority demographic of Hawaii, KIKU partners with various companies to provide English subtitles.
KIKU also presented a selection of anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series in English from the FUNimation Channel
FUNimation Channel
The FUNimation Channel is a 24-hour cable network which broadcasts anime series in the United States. OlympuSAT was chosen as the exclusive distributor of the network....
from September 2006 to September 2007.
Station history
Although they boast on air that they have been on the air for "Over 40 years," the "current KIKU" is not to be confused with the market's original KIKUKHNL
KHNL is the NBC-affiliated television station for the state of Hawaii that is licensed to Honolulu. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter in Palehua...
that broadcasted on channel 13. The first KIKU started out as KTRG-TV in 1962 (then owned by the Watumull Broadcasting Company). Its first broadcast aired on July 4, 1962. The TV station was sold in 1966, changing its call letters to KIKU.
The original KIKU was quite popular with Hawaii's children throughout the 1970s, televising several Japanese tokusatsu
Tokusatsu
is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....
shows, including Kamen Rider V3
Kamen Rider V3
is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. It is the second installment in the popular Kamen Rider Series, and the direct sequel to the original Kamen Rider...
, Kikaida, Rainbowman
Rainbowman
is the name and titular superhero of the tokusatsu TV series sometimes known as . Created by Kōhan Kawauchi, this was the first superhero TV series produced by Toho Company Ltd., and was broadcast on NET from October 6, 1972 to September 18, 1973, with a total of 52 episodes...
, Ganbare!! Robocon, and Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.
The Cushmans of San Diego, in partnership with TV Asahi
TV Asahi
, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....
and ten local investors, formed Mid-Pacific Television Associates and bought KIKU on April 9, 1979. Japanese programming was pared-down and moved to late evening; KIKU switched to a "kid vid" format, scoring success with The Children's Hour and Professor Fun. (The Japanese programs would be gone completely by 1981.)
In 1984, KIKU was renamed KHNL-TV. In 1986, KHNL-TV was sold to KING
KING-TV
KING-TV, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Seattle, Washington, affiliated with the NBC network. Owned by Belo Corporation, it broadcasts on UHF digital channel 48. Its offices and broadcasting center are located just east of Seattle Center...
Broadcasting Company of Seattle, Washington, a large privately-owned television company. Along with the purchase, KHNL-TV became the local affiliate for Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
. However, KHNL-TV still retained its Asian roots, and continued to broadcast content—mostly sumo matches—from those countries.
In 1992, King Broadcasting was sold to Providence Journal Broadcasting Corporation and its financial partner, Kelso & Company
Kelso & Company
Kelso & Company is a private equity investment firm focusing on leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital transactions. Kelso invests in a variety of sectors, including communication, manufacturing and restaurants....
. Some major changes occurred at KHNL-TV as a result of the purchase - later, KHNL would go from Fox to NBC as a result of KHON doing the reverse.
Separately, on February 12, 1980, KHAI-TV was officially registered with the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) on channel 20. KHAI-TV would take on the KIKU call sign on September 4, 1993.
In October 2003, General Manager Gregg Mueller left KIKU after a three-year tenure.
After many years together, KIKU and acting president Joanne Ninomiya of JN Productions ended their partnership in early 2004. Today, KIKU produces their own English subtitled programs in-house.
On November 1, 2004, KIKU became a secondary affiliate of the UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
television network. UPN was previously seen in the Honolulu market on KFVE
KFVE
KFVE is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the state of Hawaii that is licensed to Honolulu. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter in Palehua...
from 1995 to 2002, and then on KHON
KHON-TV
KHON-TV is a Fox-affiliated television station in Honolulu, Hawaii. The station broadcasts on virtual channel 2.In addition to its Honolulu broadcast facilities, KHON has relays on all the major Hawaiian Islands to rebroadcast programs outside of metropolitan Honolulu: KHAW-TV in Hilo; KAII-TV in...
and KGMB
KGMB
KGMB is the CBS-affiliated television station for the state of Hawaii that is licensed to Honolulu. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 23 from a transmitter in Palehua....
from 2002 to 2004 (also as secondary affiliations).
The station returned to having no national network affiliation in September 2006, when UPN merged with The WB to form The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
. Although UPN fans anticipated KIKU becoming an affiliate of The CW so they can continue to watch their favorite shows, KIKU announced they would not be doing so.
On September 18, 2006, KIKU became one of the few terrestrial affiliates of the FUNimation Channel
FUNimation Channel
The FUNimation Channel is a 24-hour cable network which broadcasts anime series in the United States. OlympuSAT was chosen as the exclusive distributor of the network....
. From September 2006 to September 2007, KIKU ran 2 hours of anime programs every Monday through Friday from 6-7 pm and 10-11 pm local time; the anime lineup changed every so often. In September 2007, due to low viewership, KIKU decided to discontinue the anime lineup.
Criticisms
As demonstrated on the official message board, fans are displeased with KIKU's overall performance, specifically their prime-time programming. In the last few years, KIKU has displayed less of an interest in keeping its faithful fans, as traditional shows such as 3 Nen B Gumi Kinpachi Sensei and Onsen e Ikō have been given the axe. To fill the prime-time slots, KIKU is bringing in mystery/suspense drama series, rather than the trendy drama genres that once made KIKU an envy of the continental U.S. Vocal fans have even expressed their displeasure by moving their viewing time to its competitors, KBFDKBFD
KBFD-DT is an independent station that airs Asian programming. The Allen Broadcasting outlet operates on ATSC channel 33 and is licensed to Honolulu, Hawaii. Since they do not have any satellite stations in Hawaii, KBFD can be also seen on Oceanic Cable basic channel 4 in Oahu, while digital cable...
and the Nippon Golden Network, while others have resorted to fansub
Fansub
A fansub is a version of a foreign film or foreign television program which has been translated by fans and subtitled into a language other than that of the original.-History:...
s.
In the April 2006 hardcopy publication Kokiku Magazine, fans have expressed their displeasure of KIKU continuing to air old travel TV shows such as Soko ga Shiritai. In the following May issue, Phyllis Kihara, General Manager of KIKU, defended the station's position, saying that in the 7:00pm Monday through Friday time-slot, Soko has higher ratings in the local Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
than some of the major network shows.
Digital television
On January 15, 2009 KIKU left channel 20 and moved to channel 19 when the analog to digital transition was completed. However, KIKU uses PSIP to display its virtual channelVirtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 20.