An entire generation of island viewers has grown up seeing television like everyone on the mainland. But, it was just 30 years ago that Honolulu television finally caught up to the mainland. Starting in 1952, network programming from the mainland was delayed for a variety of economic and logistical reasons. This month we look back on how over the years local television kept advancing along.

During the early to mid-1950s, there were three television stations in Honolulu: KGMB (Channel 9), KONA (Channel 11) and KULA (Channel 4).

Test patterns were up on local stations for hours, and programming at times didn’t begin until about noon. The stations signed off at about 11 p.m. or even earlier.

In 1957 the first independent station in the islands was launched, KHVH (Channel 13). The following year the station merged with KULA and moved KHVH to Channel 4 on the dial.

In 1959 Hawaii joined the United States.

On July 4, 1962, the second independent station in the islands, KTRG began. The station was based in Waikiki and would resurrect Channel 13. KTRG aired a mix of movies and TV shows, and also aired newscasts. Wayne Collins was an anchorman for the station. The late Harry Kalas, longtime Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster, handled sports at times for the station.

KHET (PBS Hawaii) first aired on April 15, 1966. The station would air on Channel 11, as that number on the dial was vacated when KONA moved to Channel 2 a decade earlier.

PBS Hawaii was originally known as Hawaii Educational Television as part of National Educational Television.

NET became the Public Broadcasting System in 1970. At the time KHET programming aired in black and white with a limited schedule.

On Nov. 19, 1966, major strides were made when the first live satellite broadcast from the mainland to Hawaii aired as Notre Dame battled Michigan State in college football.

The following day the NFL’s first live satellite broadcast aired on KGMB.

In October 1967 KTRG changed its call letters to KIKU; it changed again to KHNL in 1984.

In the ’60s, network television shows were delayed up to one week, but national and local elections aired the same day.

The network news was flown in via jet on a daily basis and was usually shown at about midnight or in the very early morning hours the following day.

During the 1970s satellite costs began to go down, but programming was still delayed a week.

By the mid-1970s network news began airing the same day via satellite. On KGMB the combination of Bob Sevey anchoring the news and Walter Cronkite on the “CBS Evening News” was a strong ratings hour for the station.

During this time PBS Hawaii was the only local station that broadcast almost all of its daily programming from the mainland via satellite delay.

In 1984 KGMB began to air network programs in prime time the same day they aired on the mainland. They could do this by picking up the mainland satellite signal and rebroadcasting it. By the time the 1985-86 TV season began, both KHON and KITV came onto the same satellite grids as the mainland and aired network programs the same day as their mainland counterparts.

Due to high satellite costs, local viewers had to see more commercials padded within each show they watched. Because of these extra commercials, the 10 p.m. newscasts often didn’t air on time and could run anywhere from one to 10 minutes late. This practice would continue until Jan. 4, 1999, when both KITV and KHON began airing their newscasts on time at 10 p.m. KGMB would follow in March 2001 and KHNL a few years later.

The late Mike Rosenberg, then the KITV general manager, said to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1999, “We live in a universe far greater than just the four network television stations in Hawaii. All the cable channels start on time. What we did in Hawaii just couldn’t go on forever.”

A.J. McWhorter, a collector of film and videotape cataloging Hawaii’s TV history, has worked as a producer, writer and researcher for both local and national media. Email him at flashback@hawaii.rr.com.