KHII-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands and also having a secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside dual Fox/CW affiliate KHON-TV (channel 2). The two stations share studios at the Hawaiki Tower on Piikoi Street in downtown Honolulu; KHII's main transmitter is located in Akupu, Hawaii.
History
Early history KHII signed on the air on February 7, 1988, as KFVE, broadcasting on channel 5, as the final VHF station in the market. Originally, KFVE focused on low-budget programming such as Hawaii Five-O repeats. Later under the moniker "Hawaii is Watching us Grow", it focused on movies and syndicated fare, and by 1990 acquired programs from KMGT (channel 26, now KAAH) before its format switch to religious programming. As a small-time independent station, it had to rely on low-budget programming and Japanese television dramas (most of which were later carried on independent station KIKU, channel 20) through much of its early existence. That all changed in 1993 when another local station, KHNL (then a Fox affiliate owned by the Providence Journal Company), took over management of KFVE through a local marketing agreement (LMA). KFVE then merged its operations into KHNL's facility. It was the first such local market sharing organization in the country. After KHNL took over oversight of the station in the mid-1990s, coverage of University of Hawaiʻi athletics moved over to KFVE, which rebranded as "The Home Team".
UPN and WB affiliations On January 16, 1995, KFVE became a charter affiliate of UPN under the brand name "K-5 UPN Hawaii". On December 28, 1998, the station began carrying programming from The WB as a secondary affiliation. Previously, The WB was carried throughout Hawaii on KWHE (channel 14). KFVE was acquired outright by Raycom Media on December 31, 1999. Raycom had purchased KHNL and the LMA with KFVE from Belo Corporation two months earlier, but acquired KFVE's license as well after the FCC began permitting duopolies between television stations. On September 2, 2002, KFVE dropped its affiliation with UPN and became a primary WB affiliate. The station rebranded itself as "K-5, The Home Team: Hawaii's WB", with the "Hawaii's WB" branding being used primarily during promotional advertisements for WB programming. In the Honolulu market, UPN programming moved to KHON-TV (channel 2) and KGMB (then on channel 9), which both carried secondary affiliations with the network from September 2002 to October 2004.
MyNetworkTV affiliation On March 7, 2006, Raycom Media announced that KFVE would affiliate with MyNetworkTV as part of a group deal involving many of Raycom-owned affiliates of The WB and UPN (whose consolidation and shutdowns the following September resulted in the creation of The CW Television Network, which would affiliate in Hawaii with a digital subchannel of KHON-TV). KFVE officially joined MyNetworkTV on September 5, 2006, and did not air The WB's final two weeks of prime time programming (though it continued to air WB daytime and Saturday morning programming until the end of the network's existence). On January 15, 2009, DirecTV transferred KFVE from analog to its digital and high definition signals due to the analog shutdown. The HD feed of KFVE was pulled off DirecTV on January 16 for unknown reasons. A standard definition digital feed of the station was restored on the satellite provider on January 17. On February 29, 2012, KFVE's HD feed was restored on DirecTV. On August 18, 2009, Raycom Media announced that it would enter into a shared services agreement with MCG Capital Corporation (owner of CBS affiliate KGMB), in which the operations of that station, KFVE and KHNL would be combined. The SSA also moved KFVE and its programming from virtual channel 5 to channel 9 under MCG ownership, while KGMB moved from 9 to 5 and fell under Raycom's ownership. The FCC only recognizes ownership of facility IDs and not station call signs or intellectual property, allowing MCG Capital to gain ownership of KFVE and Raycom ownership of KGMB during the swap. The overall viewership of KFVE, while on channel 5, fell outside the criteria (which restricts ownership of two stations in the same market to one of the four highest-rated stations and one not among the top four) that would have otherwise barred a duopoly between KHNL and KGMB if facility IDs were traded as well. The channel swap took effect with the SSA on October 26, 2009, as KFVE moved from 5 to 9 and changed its on-air branding from "K-5" to simply "KFVE". As a result, KFVE now operates under KGMB's license. The two stations also swapped outer-island satellites. On November 20, 2013, MCG Capital filed to sell KFVE and its satellites to American Spirit Media, a company owned by Thomas B. Henson and a shared services duopoly partner with Raycom in several other markets, for $22 million.
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