KGMB (channel 5) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside dual NBC/Telemundo affiliate KHNL (channel 13) and Kailua-Kona–licensed KFVE (channel 6), which relays KHNL's second and sixth digital subchannels. The stations share studios on Waiakamilo Road in Honolulu's Kapālama neighborhood; KGMB's transmitter is located in Akupu, Hawaii.
History The station first signed on the air on December 1, 1952, as the first television station in Hawaii. KGMB-TV was originally owned by J. Howard Worrall along with KGMB radio (AM 590, now KSSK) and operated from studios on Kapiolani Boulevard in Honolulu. The station carried programming from three of the four major networks at the time (excluding DuMont), but was a primary CBS affiliate owing to KGMB-AM's long affiliation with CBS Radio. The station lost NBC programming when KONA-TV (channel 2, now KHON-TV) signed on two weeks later, and lost ABC when KULA-TV (channel 4, now KITV) launched in April 1954. In 1973, a partnership led by future Hawaii congressman Cecil Heftel bought KGMB-AM-TV, then turned around and sold the KGMB stations to Lee Enterprises in 1977. Lee sold off the radio station in 1980. In 1982, the station dropped the "-TV" suffix from its call sign.
The real-life KGMB news crew was often featured in one of the longest-running police dramas on CBS in the 1970s, Hawaii Five-O. The station also had ties to the iconic series' reboot, as CBS allowed KGMB to let its viewers preview the season premiere episode early at the Waikiki Shell each September during the rebooted series' run.
In 2000, Lee exited from television broadcasting and sold most of its television holdings (including KGMB) to Emmis Communications. Emmis already owned KHON-TV, so it had to obtain a cross-ownership waiver for the purchase of KGMB from the Federal Communications Commission, to bypass the recently passed duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. This waiver was renewed several times while Emmis owned both stations. At that time, KHON moved its operations into KGMB's facility, though the two stations maintained separate news departments.
From September 2, 2002, to October 31, 2004, KGMB carried select UPN programming via a secondary affiliation shared with KHON; each station aired programs from that network that the other station did not air. The two stations began carrying UPN programming in September 2002 after KFVE (which had been with UPN since its January 1995 launch) disaffiliated from the network to become a full-time affiliate of The WB (whose programming aired on KFVE in a secondary capacity since December 1998). KIKU, an independent station specializing in Japanese programming, became a secondary UPN affiliate on November 1, 2004, and remained with the network until its closure on September 15, 2006.
Emmis itself prepared to exit the television industry and sold KHON to the Montecito Broadcast Group in 2006. Emmis then announced on February 20, 2007, that KGMB and its satellites had been sold to MCG Capital Corporation for $40 million, resulting in one of the rare instances involving a complete separation of a television station duopoly. The FCC approved the sale in late May and was completed on June 4, 2007. Shortly after MCG Capital Corporation took over, KGMB adopted a logo similar to the one it used in the early 1980s and also rolled out a new graphics package for its newscast and a new website.
For many years, KGMB billed itself as "One of the Good Things About Hawaii" with its rich history of local television programming exclusively in Hawaii, especially in such shows as Skipper Al and Checkers & Pogo (both children's programs; the latter being the most remembered, airing from 1967 to 1982 and featured Morgan White), The Hawaii Moving Company (originally a disco/dance program that transitioned into a general interest show), and the 1982 television special Rap's Hawaii starring Rap Reiplinger. This slogan was made famous by an a cappella jingle which is still heard on KGMB today. At the end of KGMB's morning newscast, Sunrise, it can now be heard leading into CBS Mornings. Later, with an emphasis on weather, the station branded itself "Hawaii's Severe Weather Station".
Channel swap On August 18, 2009, MCG Capital and Raycom Media (owner of KHNL and, at the time, KFVE) announced a shared services agreement with Raycom as senior partner. As part of the deal, KGMB vacated its longtime studios on Kapiolani Boulevard; the combined operation would be based at KHNL/KFVE's studios on Waiakamilo Road. Though non-news programming would remain in place, news operations of the three stations would be combined into a single entity. The arrangement would also see a channel swap, with KGMB moving from virtual channel 9 (UHF digital channel 23) to channel 5 (UHF digital channel 22) and KFVE move from 5 to 9."Execs explain TV swap, but some see it as blurry", from Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 20, 2009
The resulting ownership arrangement of the stations generated some controversy, as it had the effect of Raycom trading KFVE to MCG Capital in return for KGMB. Organizations such as media watchdog group Media Council Hawaii viewed the plan as a way to circumvent FCC rules preventing one company owning two of the four highest-rated stations in the same market—in this case, KGMB and KHNL. However, the FCC only recognizes ownership of facility identifications, which remain attached to their channel numbers, and not ownership of a station's intellectual unit (call letters, programming, network affiliation, etc.). In this case, Raycom kept ownership of Facility ID 34445, now belonging to KGMB, while MCG Capital still owns Facility ID 36917, which now belonged to KFVE; the overall viewership of channel 5, as KFVE, fell outside the criteria that would have otherwise barred a duopoly between KHNL and KGMB if facility IDs were traded as well.
Raycom Media president Paul McTear staunchly defended the SSA, stating it would "preserve three stations that provide important and valuable local, national and international programming to viewers in Hawaii.""Raycom to Manage Honolulu CBS", from broadcastingcable.com, August 18, 2009 Further controversy over the SSA grew after a November 7, 2009, report in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin revealed that Raycom would pay MCG Capital Corporation $22 million (according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission) – which, in effect, would constitute a sale of KGMB from MCG Capital to Raycom. Both companies did not mention any monetary exchanges during its August SSA announcement, only "assets"."TV deal includes payment of $22M", from Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 7, 2009 The FCC, in response to Media Council Hawaii's filing of an objection over the SSA, asked Raycom for detailed, unredacted agreements in relation to the SSA."FCC Wants More Info From Raycom On Honolulu Shared Service Agreement", from broadcastingcable.com, November 10, 2009
The SSA and channel swap took effect on October 26, 2009, with KGMB moving from virtual channel 9 to channel 5 and changing its branding from "KGMB 9" to just "KGMB.""Joint newscasts launch with technical glitches" , from Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 27, 2009 An estimated 68 positions from a total of 198 between the three stations would be eliminated as part of the agreement."68 to lose jobs in local TV agreement, sources say" , from Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 18, 2009 On May 8, 2010, the remaining items and memorabilia that were left at KGMB's former studios were auctioned off, with proceeds going to charity."Hawaii television history on the auction block Saturday" from Hawaii News Now (May 7, 2010)
Removal from Nielsen ratings Beginning in 2016, the Hawaii News Now (HNN) group of KGMB, KHNL, and KFVE severed ties to the Nielsen ratings. After the November 25 sweeps, Raycom opted to use other research to track KHNL and KGMB audiences. KFVE, owned by HITV, is affected also. In Hawaii, Nielsen does not use electronic means to track audiences. Recently, only 914 of the printed Nielsen booklets, known as monthly diaries, were completed out of 11,400 diaries. KITV and KHON will continue to use Nielsen ratings.
Sale to Gray Television On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, including KGMB and KHNL), and Gray's 93 television stations) under the former's corporate umbrella. In the cash-and-stock merger transaction, valued at $3.6 billion, Gray shareholders would acquire preferred stock currently held by Raycom. Because Raycom operates three stations in the Honolulu market, the companies were required to sell either KHNL, KGMB or KFVE to another station owner in order to comply with FCC ownership rules.
On November 1, 2018, Nexstar Media Group – which has owned Fox affiliate KHON-TV since January 2017 – announced that it would acquire KFVE and the licenses of satellites KGMD-TV and KGMV from American Spirit Media for $6.5 million. Nexstar concurrently assumed the station's operations through a time brokerage agreement that took effect the day the transaction paperwork was filed with the FCC, under which Raycom forwarded the rights to certain managerial services involving KFVE – not counting certain other services to which Raycom would retain stewardship under the TBA – on a transitional basis. Under the deal, which is expected to receive regulatory approval in the first quarter of 2019, Nexstar also intends to integrate KFVE's operations into KHON's studio facilities at the Hawaiki Tower on Piikoi and Waimanu Streets. However, Raycom will retain rights to the KFVE intellectual unit (call letters, syndicated and local programming), which will be shifted to a digital subchannel of either KHNL or KGMB as will KFVE-DT2's Bounce TV affiliation (which will be moved to KGMB-DT4); the KFVE calls will also be retained by Raycom for branding continuity. As such, Nexstar will likely assign new call letters to the channel 9 license as well as acquire programming to replace that being maintained by Raycom post-acquisition (which may include shifting the programming on KHON's CW-affiliated DT2 feed to the KFVE license, and/or the retention of the MyNetworkTV affiliation, which Raycom did not include in the KFVE intellectual property transaction.)
The sale of KFVE to Nexstar was approved by the FCC on December 17; the Gray-Raycom merger was approved three days later. The sale was completed on January 2, 2019."Gray Completes Acquisition of Raycom Media and Related Transactions", Gray Television, January 2, 2019, Retrieved January 2, 2019.
In 2026, KGMB and sister station KHNL would acquire rights to Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wahine athletics contests.
Programming KGMB clears all CBS programming, although it will occasionally preempt prime time shows until the overnight hours in order to broadcast locally produced specials. In its early days, the only major CBS programs KGMB regularly preempted were Captain Kangaroo and the CBS Morning News, due to its morning broadcast of the popular in-house children's program Checkers & Pogo, which also aired in the afternoon. Like most of the other network-affiliated stations in Hawaii, KGMB had to shuffle CBS programs because the shows were flown in via air mail or shipped a week (or several weeks) after the programs aired in the U.S. mainland; the CBS Evening News in particular would often air at 12 midnight or later depending on how late the tape was in arriving from the East Coast.