OUR OPINION
End of TV duopoly might help competition
THE ISSUE
The new owners of KHON-TV have announced they will lay off 35 of the station's 110 employees.
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MASSIVE layoffs at KHON-TV by the station's new owners threaten to lessen Hawaii's television news competition in the short term. That's a disturbing prospect, but on the plus side the sale of the company means the end of one company owning two of the four network-affiliated stations. Personnel moves among the stations in the weeks ahead should clarify the competition vital to robust local media.
The Federal Communications Commission allowed Alabama-based Raycom Media Inc. to own two TV stations in the same market when it acquired KHNL and KFVE. The FCC's 1998 waiver allowing the purchase of KHON and KGMB by Indiana-based Emmis Communications was more bothersome because they are affiliated with major networks, Fox and CBS respectively.
Emmis put the two stations up for sale last May and announced three months ago that KHON was being sold to a venture of California-based SJL Broadcast Group and Blackstone Group, a New York investment firm. A buyer has not been found for KGMB, but FCC rules require that it be sold to a separate company.
A waiver of those rules would be inappropriate. SJL has a history of operating two stations in the same market, according to J.R. Rothschild, assistant business manger of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1260, which represents KHON's technical employees. That should not be allowed in Honolulu.
Rich Blangiardi has resigned from his position as general manager of KHON and will resume the same position at KGMB. SJL has said it will lay off as many as 35 of KHON's 110 employees, and anchor Joe Moore said that could rise to as many as 50, as the new owners turn to increased automation.
Some of the employees laid off by SJL can be expected to follow Blangiardi to KGMB. If the highly popular Moore makes such a move, KHON's standing in the news market is sure to plummet.
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HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN
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