PBS Hawaii set to celebrate half-century of broadcasting

PBS Hawaii signed on the air 50 years ago this week. The station that has entertained multiple generations of island residents with programs from “Sesame Street” to “Downton Abbey” is the subject of this month’s “Looking Back.”

In the 1960s, headed by Hawaii Gov. John Burns, a citizens committee was established to help create an educational television station for the state. The state Legislature in 1965 established the Hawaii Educational Television network, also known as ETV.

Honolulu’s fifth local television station would air on Channel 11, an unused number on the dial for the past decade since KONA (now KHON) departed Channel 11 for Channel 2 in 1955.

The new call letters for the station became KHET, which stood for Hawaii Educational Television.

Test signals first aired during the last week of March 1966.

The premiere of KHET was broadcast from 7 to 10 p.m. April 15, 1966. The inaugural broadcast originated from the auditorium of the multipurpose building at the University Laboratory School.

The first images seen of the station were of University of Hawaii band conductor Richard S. Lum with his back to the camera as he led the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

When local dignitaries, including Burns, all pushed a single large illuminated button, KHET’s videotape machine was activated to begin transmitting a television program, “Turn of the Century.”

While the formation of educational television in Hawaii was expensive, “the worth of one man enriched by ETV cannot be measured by any material values,” said Burns in a televised speech that day.

The inaugural telecast closed with the UH band performing “Hawai‘i Pono‘i.”

Regular programming began April 18, 1966, with the station broadcasting from 3 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Fridays. There were no weekend broadcasts during the early years of the station.

Initially, many programs were presented by UH professors in music, science and math. Some of the early shows also produced at the station were “Faculty Profiles,” with Sandy Burgess; “Island Living,” with Fortunato Teho; “Hawaii Now,” with Roger Coryell; “Cooking the Chan-ese Way,” with Titus Chan; and “Pau Hana Years,” with Bob Barker.

In 1970 the station changed its name to Hawaii Public Television, becoming part of the new nationwide Public Broadcasting Service.

Programs were aired in black-and-white until 1971, and shortly thereafter the station would move into new headquarters on Dole Street.

Popular shows launched during this time — “Spectrum,” “Dialog,” “Sports Page 11” and “The International Kitchen,” with Nino Martin — helped establish a strong base with its audience. Martin would produce and direct the critically acclaimed Peabody Award winner “Damien,” which was broadcast nationwide. In 1977 a PBS Hawaii crew along with local residents were among the first Westerners in China, and filmed the “China Visit.”

As the 1970s closed, a satellite dish was installed at the Dole Street studios, enabling KHET to be the first local television station in the islands to receive same-day mainland broadcast programming instead of the week delay that was common on the other stations.

The station was funded by the state until 2000, when it became a private nonprofit organization called the Hawaii Public Television Foundation.

In 2003 Hawaii Public Television became known as PBS Hawaii.

After 50 years in Manoa, PBS Hawaii will soon move into a new home at Nimitz Highway and Sand Island Access Road. The station has a bright future, according to Leslie Wilcox, president and chief executive officer of PBS Hawaii. Wilcox came aboard in 2007 after a long local broadcast news career.

“You might think that with all of the new choices in the media universe, PBS Hawaii wouldn’t be needed as much,” Wilcox said in an email. “However, we see that we’re needed more than ever, for trusted information and stories that aren’t commercially or politically driven. Across the nation, locally owned media institutions have become very rare. There’s a lot of the same syndicated content out there. We remain on a mission to tell authentic, illuminating stories of our island home, as well as to bring home reliable information about national and world public affairs.”

The station hopes to work with more Hawaii/Pacific filmmakers and train more island students in fair and responsible video storytelling, she said.

“Together, we’ll create a more robust flow of local programming that touches, and even changes, lives,” Wilcox said. “Our methods and technology will continue to change, but we’re sticking to our mission and our values and our commitment to Hawaii.”

AJ 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.