KIKU
KIKU (channel 20) is a multicultural independent television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands. It is owned by Allen Media Group alongside ABC affiliate KITV (channel 4). The two stations share studios on South King Street in downtown Honolulu; KIKU's transmitter is located in Nānākuli. KIKU's programming consists primarily of programs in Japanese and Filipino, some syndicated programming, and local news from KITV.

Channel 20 in Honolulu went on air in December 1983 as KHAI-TV. Though built and originally owned by Tennessee-based Media Central, it has specialized in Asian programming for nearly its entire history. International Channel Network acquired KHAI-TV in 1989 as part of Media Central's bankruptcy. The station changed its call sign to KIKU in 1993 after JN Productions took over operations; its owner, Joanne Ninomiya, had been the general manager of channel 13 when that station was Japanese-language KIKU-TV. JN continued to supply Japanese-language programming for KIKU until 2004. UPN programming aired on channel 20 from 2004 to the network's closure in 2006.

After passing through a number of owners including AsianMedia Group and NRJ TV, WRNN-TV Associates acquired the station in 2019. As part of a group affiliation agreement, KIKU converted to the home shopping network ShopHQ in June 2021, a switch met with dismay by Hawaii viewers. Allen Media Group acquired KIKU in 2022 and immediately restored its prior program format, augmented by syndicated programs and newscasts from KITV.

KIKU on channel 13

The call sign KIKU first was associated with Japanese-language television in Honolulu in 1967, when Richard Eaton bought KTRG-TV (channel 13) from David Watumull and renamed it KIKU-TV (kiku being the Japanese word for the chrysanthemum flower). His announced plans to make channel 13 a primarily Japanese-language station had led to scrutiny of the transaction by the Federal Communications Commission; during this time, the station's intended general manager programmed two hours a week of Japanese-language shows on the then-KTRG-TV.

In 1968, it began nightly telecasts of sumo wrestling. The station introduced subtitles on its Japanese-language programs in 1970, which proved popular and expanded to having half of all programs subtitled by 1975. Another channel 13 specialty was children's programming; it aired such tokusatsu programs as Kamen Rider, Rainbowman, and Android Kikaider (known in Hawaii as Kikaida). The success of the latter was particularly noteworthy; the show beat Sesame Street in the ratings, and it was noted in an article in Time magazine.

In 1979, KIKU-TV was sold by Eaton to Mid-Pacific Television Associates. Beginning in June 1981, this group reduced the amount of Japanese-language programming. Joanne Ninomiya, who had been KIKU's general manager since 1969, left in January 1981 due to the proposed changes and then began a venture, JN Productions, broadcasting Japanese-language shows on cable.

Under new general manager Rick Blangiardi, in 1984, KIKU-TV changed its call sign to KHNL. Ninomiya renewed her association with KHNL beginning in 1986, providing six hours of Japanese programs on Sundays as well as a daily newscast from Japan and subtitled sumo broadcasts.

History

Construction
In late 1978, a group of investors known as Sunset Communications Corporation was formed to file for channel 20. Sunset shared investors with Delta Television, a subsidiary of advertising firm Petry Television that had put WPTY-TV in Memphis, Tennessee, on air earlier that year. For one of the principals, John A. Serrao, it was a return to Hawaii, as he had been general manager of KHVH-TV (channel 4) in the early 1960s when it was owned by Kaiser Broadcasting. The channel 20 construction permit was granted on August 12, 1980.

The group sold the permit to Media Central of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1982; under Media Central, the station began broadcasting as KHAI-TV on December 30, 1983, with Japanese-language programming from the Tokyo Broadcasting System. It was the fifth and last station Media Central built during 1983. In addition to Japanese-language programming, the station added Filipino programming in 1986 and Korean in March 1989. However, its broadcast day was limited. In 1986, the station switched from signing on at noon to beginning at 4 p.m. because Oceanic Cable, the dominant cable provider on Oahu, placed it on the same channel as The Discovery Channel.

ICN/AsianMedia ownership
In 1987, Media Central filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. KHAI was sold for $1.75 million to International Channel Network (ICN), which owned Los Angeles multicultural station KSCI, in 1989. ICN moved the station to new studios on Sand Island Access Road in 1991, built a new transmitter, and expanded its weekly broadcasting by 28 hours; more than half of the new airtime featured programming in Chinese.

ICN brokered the station's airtime to JN Productions, the programming and subtitling company owned by Joanne Ninomiya, in 1993; JN began handling sales and programming duties. The first move made with the change in management was the consolidation of the cable programming from JN Productions as well as KHNL's Japanese-language shows onto channel 20's schedule. Ninomiya also changed the station's call sign to KIKU.

KSCI and KIKU were sold in 2000 to a consortium of The Korea Times and private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, known as AsianMedia Group. In 2004, JN Productions ceased providing programming functions for the station, though it continued to supply KIKU with subtitles for its Japanese-language programming; the station brought programming operations in-house. In 2007, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs honored Ninomiya with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays for contributing to "introducing Japanese culture and promoting friendship between Japan and the United States". 

KIKU was the last of four stations to air UPN programming in Hawaii when it began airing the network's programs on November 1, 2004. UPN programs were usually broadcast in the late afternoon, leaving Japanese-language shows in prime time. The original UPN affiliate had been KFVE; when it dropped UPN to emphasize The WB, KHON-TV and KGMB then split UPN programming. KIKU was the only Honolulu station that could provide a two-hour block to air UPN prime time programming. When The WB and UPN merged to form The CW in 2006, KIKU passed on the offering because The CW wanted prime time clearance for its programming. In addition to shows it purchased, KIKU produced a local show in Vietnamese and another in English aimed at the Filipino community. For a time, it aired anime syndicated by the Funimation Channel, making it the service's first non-cable affiliate; KIKU broadcast dubbed versions of select shows every weekday from 6:00 to 7:00 and 10:00 to 11:00 p.m.

KIKU discontinued analog broadcasting on January 15, 2009, the date on which full-power television stations in Hawaii transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts. The transition in Hawaii had been brought forward from the original February 17 national switch date—itself later delayed to June—because of concern that the dismantling of existing transmitter towers atop Haleakalā on Maui would affect the mating season of the endangered Hawaiian petrel, which begins in February. KIKU continued to broadcast on its pre-transition channel 19, using virtual channel 20. 

In January 2012, AsianMedia Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; the station, along with KSCI in Los Angeles and its San Diego repeater KUAN-LP, was sold to NRJ TV (a company unrelated to European broadcaster NRJ Radio) for $45 million in March 2012, in a transaction that included the assumption of AsianMedia Group's debt.

Sale to WRNN-TV Associates; home shopping programming
On December 9, 2019, it was announced that WRNN-TV Associates, owner of New York City–based WRNN-TV, secured a deal to purchase seven full-power TV stations (including KIKU and KSCI) and one Class A station from NRJ. The sale was approved by the FCC on January 23, 2020, and was completed on February 4.

In May 2021, the station announced that it would cease its current programming and begin airing ShopHQ on June 28, 2021. This change was part of a larger deal that RNN made for main-channel affiliations for ShopHQ. The change led to considerable outcry. Kihara told Pacific Business News, "We've been getting calls and emails and texts all day. When you look at Facebook, the messages people are leaving, we're really sorry we're going to lose this and I think that's what the people of Hawaii feel like, too." The move meant the closure of the KIKU studio in the Pacific Guardian Center, as ShopHQ programming did not include local advertising.

Sale to Allen Media Group
Only three months after the change to ShopHQ, on September 27, 2021, it was announced that KIKU would be sold to Allen Media Broadcasting, owner of KITV, for $4,000,000. The sale was completed on January 31, 2022.

Allen immediately moved to restore much of the prior programming and format to KIKU. On January 31, KIKU returned to airing Japanese and Filipino programming, as well as local news from KITV. It also added Entertainment Studios and other syndicated content to fill the schedule out further.

Technical information

Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

See also
Nippon Golden Network
TV Japan

References

External links

Independent television stations in the United States
Laff (TV network) affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1983
IKU
Japanese-language television stations
1983 establishments in Hawaii
Entertainment Studios