TheBuzz Erika Engle

Legal settlement changes Hawaii station ownership

Some of the station's programming will also change around mid-October, if the ownership transfer is approved by the Federal Communications Commission.

Years' worth of state and federal lawsuits and cross-complaints between nonprofit entities related to Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, in California, and Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, in Idaho, have been settled through a 41-page document filed with the FCC.

CCTF will pay CSN International $200,000 as part of the transaction, which will also have California-based CSN International transfer 18 of its 45 full-power radio stations, including KHJC, to the Twin Falls group, headed by President Mike Kestler.

CCTF will also receive three FM translator facilities and seven radio station construction permits, though none of those are in Hawaii, where it already has translators carrying both of its Idaho-originated program streams.

FCC approval is expected around Oct. 15, according to Mike Stocklin, general manager of the CCTF's radio operations, which will be incorporated separately in Idaho as the Christian Satellite Network. The Calif.-based CSN International is the Calvary Satellite Network.

Pastor Steve Furneaux and his family will continue to operate KHJC, Stocklin said, but when the ownership transfer is pau, the Christian programming from Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, including teaching shows hosted by its Pastor, Chuck Smith, will be replaced.

Smith's "The Word for Today" is archived on the show's Web site and is carried in Honolulu by KLHT-AM 1040, a station licensed to Calvary Chapel of Honolulu, which has no connection to the legal settlement.

KHJC also carries sermons and teaching programs from Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls and other Calvary Chapel churches, as well as independent churches and organizations.

As for replacement content, "there's an abundance of ministerial programming," Stocklin said.

Its ministerial shows are beamed to Hawaii translators in Hilo at 88.1 FM; Kalaoa and Kailua-Kona at 91.9 FM; Kihei at 91.9 FM and Lanai at 88.9 FM.

CCTF also broadcasts a Christian rock format called, "The Effect" from its Idaho home base, to translators in Honolulu at 91.1; Kalaoa and Kailua-Kona at 90.1 FM, in Lihue at 90.1 FM and in Kihei at 89.9 FM.