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.
KHON-TV
For most of its first 30 years on the air, KHON aired the NBC schedule on one-week tape delay, with some shows airing out of pattern. For instance, it aired "NBC Nightly News" after 12 midnight or 6 a.m. the following morning via air mail. The Saturday morning schedule aired on Sunday morning, and "Meet the Press" aired on Saturday morning on a one-week delay. It would not be until 1985 when KHON would start airing NBC programming the same day as the U.S. mainland thanks to advances in satellite technology.
Since its switch from NBC in 1996, KHON clears the entire Fox network schedule (nightly primetime, Saturday late night, and Fox Sports programming, along with the network's Saturday morning infomercial block, "Weekend Marketplace" and the political talk show "Fox News Sunday"). However, the station presently airs Fox's Sunday night programming one hour later than other affiliates, from 7 to 10 p.m. Hawaii Time (instead of the 6–9 p.m. slot common with other network affiliates in Hawaii), and the network's "Animation Domination HD" late night lineup on Saturdays airs a half-hour later airing at 10:30 p.m., due to its nightly 10 p.m. newscast. In 2014, KHON launched a half-hour primetime newscast at 9 p.m. on weekdays, followed by a second-run syndicated program, while network programs air in that hour on Sundays (syndicated programs may air in place of network shows if Fox airs a sporting event that is scheduled for primetime on the U.S. mainland, but due to the time differences between Hawaii and the continental United States, airs on KHON earlier that day).