KFVE (channel 6) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ear ...

licensed to

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Kailua-Kona is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It is also known as Kailua (a name it shares with a community located on the windward side of Oahu), as Kona (a name it shares ...

, United States, serving the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost ...

as an affiliate of the Spanish-language

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with prog ...

network. It is owned by

Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...

alongside CBS affiliate

KGMB KGMB (channel 5) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside NBC affiliate KHNL (channel 13) and Kailua-Kona–licensed Telemundo ...

(channel 5) and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

affiliate KHNL (channel 13). The stations share studios on Waiakamilo Road in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the islan ...

's Kapālama neighborhood, while KFVE's transmitter is located near Kalaoa, Hawaii. KFVE serves a area, and covers an estimated population of 71,400. The station's signal is relayed on satellite station KLEI, channel 21 in Wailuku (owned by Mango Broadcasting and operated by Gray under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

(LMA)), on KHNL's sixth

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 compressi ...

, and on KKAI's second digital subchannel.

History

The station went on the air in 1988 as KVHF, a satellite of Mauna Kea Broadcasting's KMGT channel 26, and changed its call letters to KLEI on March 9, 1992. The station was affiliated with Pax TV/i/Ion (as a

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

of KPXO-TV), and later with The Family Channel in 2011. On October 19, 2012, KLEI was granted statewide

must-carry In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system. North America Canada Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on ...

status on the Oceanic

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...

(now Spectrum) and

Hawaiian Telcom Hawaiian Telcom, Inc., is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) or dominant local telephone company, serving the state of Hawaii. In 2005, Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc., was formed by The Carlyle Group, following its purchase of the Hawaiian ...

cable services, provided it delivers a good quality signal to the

cable television headend A cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. A headend facility may be staffed or unstaffed and is typically surrounded by some type of security ...

s. In late 2017, KLEI dropped its Family Channel affiliation and became Hawaii's first over-the-air affiliate of

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Am ...

network

, filling a void in the market for a Spanish language station that opened up when

KHLU-CD KHLU-CD, virtual and UHF digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera ...

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and inclu ...

affiliate) ceased operations in 2016. Shortly after assuming the Telemundo affiliation, KLEI became available on all cable systems in Hawaii for the first time. On December 3, 2018, the station's call sign changed to KSIX-TV. On July 8, 2020,

, owner of

-based stations

and KHNL and their satellites, agreed to purchase KSIX-TV for $1 million, pending approval of the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

(FCC). Maui-based satellite KLEI was not included in the sale. The transaction was finalized on September 9."Consummation Notice"
''CDBS Public Access'',

, September 11, 2020, Retrieved September 11, 2020. The call letters of KSIX-TV and Hilo's KFVE were switched on November 13.

Subchannel

References

Television channels and stations established in 1988 FVE 1988 establishments in Hawaii Telemundo network affiliates Gray Television {{Hawaii-tv-station-stub