KBFD-DT (channel 32) is an Asian

independent television station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast network. As such, it only broadcasts syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered programming, for which a third party pays t ...

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

, Hawaii, United States. The station is owned by Allen Broadcasting (not to be confused with

Allen Media Group Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved ...

, owner of

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

affiliate

KITV KITV (channel 4) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Allen Media Group alongside multicultural independent station KIKU (channel 20). The two stations ...

hannel 4and

multicultural Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''ethnic'' or cultural pluralism in which various e ...

independent

KIKU Kiku may refer to: People with the given name * Ju Jingyi (born 1994), Chinese singer, actress and member of SNH48, nicknamed "Kiku" * Kiku Amino (1912-1978), Japanese author and translator * Kiku Nishizaki (1900-1979), one of the two pioneer Ja ...

hannel 20. KBFD-DT's studios are located on Bishop Street in downtown Honolulu, and its transmitter is located near

Hawaii Pacific University Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) is a private university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. Oceanic Institute of HPU, an aquaculture research facility, is located at Makapuu Point. HPU is also present on military installations on the island of ...

. Unlike major network affiliates in the Hawaii market, KBFD-DT does not operate any satellite stations or

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

, nor is it available on

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

. It can only be received via

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

outside the Honolulu-area reach of its main signal.

Overview

The station first signed on the air on March 24, 1986. KBFD-DT is one of two television stations in Hawaii that specializes in Asian programming full-time (alongside KIKU). Although the station airs a variety programs from many Asian countries, most of the programs seen on KBFD are geared to a

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

audience as most of its lineup features programs acquired from the

Korean Broadcasting System The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS; ) is the public broadcasting, national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters under the government of South Korea. The KBS ope ...

, the

Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC; ) is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters. Its flagship terrestrial television station MBC TV broadcasts as channel 11. MBC News Now broadcasts as channel 12. Establish ...

, and SBS. Most of the programs on KBFD are also

subtitled Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, captions ...

in English, due to a growing audience of non-Asian viewers interested in its music shows and drama series. KBFD handles exclusive

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

distribution of Korean shows and specials under the KBFDVD brand banner, which the station advertises on air and on their website. KBFD also carries programming from

KBS World KBS World () is the international broadcasting division of the South Korean broadcast television network Korean Broadcasting System. The division operates KBS World TV, KBS World Radio, and . History The foreign-language radio broadcast from ...

, the international program service from KBS (broadcasting as KBFD2) on

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

32.2,

Arirang ''Arirang'' ( ) is a Korean folk song. There are about 3,600 variations of 60 different versions of the song, all of which include a refrain similar to "arirang, arirang, arariyo" (""). It is estimated that the song is more than 600 years old ...

programming on digital subchannel 32.3, and operates the cable channel KLife, a Korean lifestyle programming service. KBFD airs

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of di ...

s during the morning hours (from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. local time). KBFD is one of a few television stations in the Honolulu market (and the United States as a whole) that continue to

sign-off A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonwealth countries exce ...

each night from 12:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. local time. Its sign-on and sign-off features the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...

s of both the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

KBFD-TV ended regular programming on its analog signal over

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

channel 32 on January 15, 2009, the date on which full-power television stations in Hawaii transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 33, using

virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...

32.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kbfd-Dt Foreign-language television stations in the United States 1986 establishments in Hawaii Korean-language television stations Television channels and stations established in 1986 BFD-DT