KHON-TV
KHON-TV first signed on the air on December 15, 1952 as a primary NBC affiliate, KONA-TV, occupying the channel 11 position. It also had a secondary affiliation with DuMont (which it later shared with KULA-TV, now KITV, after it signed on in 1954) until its demise in 1955. The station, which is Hawaii's second-oldest television station (behind KGMB, originally on channel 9, now on channel 5), was originally owned by Herbert Richards. Two years later in 1954, the "Honolulu Advertiser" purchased the station. On October 16, 1955, KONA changed channels from 11 to 2 due to the lower VHF positions (2 to 6) having the most powerful ERPs at the time. The channel 11 frequency now belongs to PBS member station KHET. In 1956, KONA was sold to Pacific and Southern Broadcasting, the forerunner of Combined Communications. KAII signed on in 1958, with KHAW following in 1961. In 1965, the station's call letters were changed to the current KHON-TV.
KGWN-TV
KSTF signed-on August 7, 1955 as a semi-satellite of what was then KFBC-TV. In 1958, KOTA-TV in Rapid City, South Dakota put its own satellite station on-the-air in Scottsbluff, KDUH-TV (now KNEP). During the next twelve years, there was a great amount of confusion among Scottsbluff viewers especially when the two stations aired the same program simultaneously. Both had unusual "joint primary" affiliations with ABC and CBS from 1965 onwards. Although KFBC/KSTF slightly favored ABC and KOTA/KDUH slightly favored CBS, it did not help the duplication problem. However, in 1970, KDUH, along with KOTA, dropped CBS for NBC.