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NEWS: Hawaii's KIKU TV to Stop Airing Japanese Content in June


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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 5:48 am Reply with quote
I ended up seeing an episode of Brave Raideen with English subtitles KIKU produced, part of a case of old VHS tapes someone was trying to get rid of. I don't know where or when that one in particular was recorded (since it was reaired in other places), but it was amazing to find out this was originally done all the way back in the 70's, close to when the show was actually made.
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@



Joined: 14 Feb 2006
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Location: IN your nightmares
PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 6:22 am Reply with quote
That decision totally comes off as, "No we're not trying to further whitewash Hawaii's cultural heritage, let's just replace this Japanese programming with 24-hour ads when we could just have easily added another channel."
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Ushio



Joined: 31 Jul 2005
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 7:31 am Reply with quote
Past wrote:
That decision totally comes off as, "No we're not trying to further whitewash Hawaii's cultural heritage, let's just replace this Japanese programming with 24-hour ads when we could just have easily added another channel."



Live TV viewership is down and airing scripted content costs money while shopping content costs nothing. It seems to me more about the owner saving money than choosing to lose money.

Advertisers only pay for live viewership you watch it from a DVR the advertisers pay reduced rates to nothing.
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southplumb



Joined: 20 Nov 2008
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Location: Durham, North Carolina
PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 7:45 am Reply with quote
I also saw a tape of a Japanese show subtitled by KIKU someone was getting rid of and I was amazed that Japanese programming was broadcast or otherwise available in this country and wish it were available here. I wondered if I could experience something of Japan without leaving the USA. In my area the variety has probably increased in recent years and there is now at least one TV channel in Spanish and PBS sometimes has foreign language programming; maybe they'll air Japanese shows in a few decades. Korean and South Asian language music has been on the radio and several years ago even mainstream basically English-only commercial stations played Gangnam Style.
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mewpudding101
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Joined: 07 Apr 2009
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 8:49 am Reply with quote
Really sad. I really enjoyed watching the programming on Kiku when I lived in Hawaii. Such a shame it’s going to be downgraded into a 24-hour shopping network.
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@



Joined: 14 Feb 2006
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 8:53 am Reply with quote
Ushio wrote:
Live TV viewership is down and airing scripted content costs money while shopping content costs nothing. It seems to me more about the owner saving money than choosing to lose money.

Advertisers only pay for live viewership you watch it from a DVR the advertisers pay reduced rates to nothing.
This is true if we're talking about most other U.S. states, but up until 2020 Hawaii has uniquely had a very high proportion of transients like tourists, military, patients and students where their only access to TV is shared living spaces (hotels, community centers, etc). I think a primary target audience and purpose of KIKU was unique programming catering to those individuals (it seems at least 3 people who have posted in this thread can attest to that). What I said about cultural heritage was a bit of a stretch (see note), but it means the relatively small proportion of locals who influence programming variety with their wallet has a huge impact compared to the large transient population who have little or no impact. I guess a part of moving beyond 2020 is assume an indefinite reduction in transients.

Note: Japan doesn't really have anything to do with Hawaiian cultural heritage.
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DerekL1963
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Joined: 14 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 10:18 am Reply with quote
Past wrote:
I think a primary target audience and purpose of KIKU was unique programming catering to those individuals (it seems at least 3 people who have posted in this thread can attest to that).


Precisely zero people have posted anything that can be construed as only having access via communal spaces.
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@



Joined: 14 Feb 2006
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 11:10 am Reply with quote
DerekL1963 wrote:
Precisely zero people have posted anything that can be construed as only having access via communal spaces.
Ok ok, I guess I'll clarify better. No need for the bit of passive aggression (so sorry, that's what it kind of comes off as, I'm probably wrong).

The 3 people I'm referring to in this thread (one of them being me) are likely not longtime, permanent residents of Hawaii so they've watched KIKU for being unique and culturally enlightening and miss it because they no longer live in Hawaii.

The communal spaces thing was just emphasizing my point about how such a large proportion of people who did catch KIKU were never specifically paid subscribers for that channel. And there are a variety of reasons for that, one being they're just visiting Hawaii on vacation or on temporary assignment due to work that requires lots of travel.
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luisedgarf



Joined: 02 Oct 2004
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Location: Guadalajara, Mexico
PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 11:58 am Reply with quote
A little related question: Which other non-English networks exist in the U.S., besides Univision or Telemundo?
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
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Joined: 06 Jul 2015
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 12:25 pm Reply with quote
luisedgarf wrote:
A little related question: Which other non-English networks exist in the U.S., besides Univision or Telemundo?


I’m pretty sure there’s quite a few, they’re just only available via special subscription. I’ve seen Filipino and Indian channels being played but have no idea how one would get them.
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Friki del Mal



Joined: 24 Jul 2015
Posts: 80
PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 1:23 pm Reply with quote
luisedgarf wrote:
A little related question: Which other non-English networks exist in the U.S., besides Univision or Telemundo?


In zones like California and New York, there're many multicultural networks catering to Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Armenian audiences. Ah, there's also NHK, but the networks will only show the NHK World feed.
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EugeneW



Joined: 09 Jun 2020
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 2:29 pm Reply with quote
Besides the aforementioned NHK World (available streaming and over-the-air in many markets), NHK Cosmomedia operates dLibrary Japan, an on-demand streaming service, and TV Japan, carried by DirecTV and most cable services. As far as that goes, there are dozens of international channels available via cable and satellite.
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Triltaison



Joined: 03 Jul 2011
Posts: 717
PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 3:30 pm Reply with quote
There were/are also channels that ended up being spinoffs of local programming blocks from UHF and other public access stations that catered to their unique viewer demographics. For instance, states close to the border with Canada had access to a bit more French programming when it was coming over rabbit ear antennae. Captain Harlock (AKA Albator) and other French-dubbed anime made a bit of an impact around the Minnesota and Michigan area and impacted tape trading when the show was wholly unavailable in the US for decades.

Florida had pockets of Spanish (playing Saint Seiya and Captain Tsubasa) and California had various Asian language broadcasts (often sourced from Hawaiian public access partners if subtitled). Unfortunately, a lot of those stations died when the digital conversion requiring set top boxes happened and it killed most of the local UHF-style stations. Some did make the conversion, but are still not widely available or are only part of certain packages. Now it's mostly dedicated channels by language that have to be selected as part of your cable or satellite package. Many satellite companies used to let you just watch the direct channels in whatever country of origin, but it might not be a thing anymore (haven't had satellite in many years personally). It mostly depends on what the cable/satellite people in your area offers you to access, rather than what actually exists for you to access.
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fulgum



Joined: 07 Dec 2007
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 4:50 pm Reply with quote
Well, this is not surprising. I saw this coming--eventually--years ago. Los Angeles had the same issue. When the country went digital, Los Angeles had 24/7 Japanese programming on Channel 18.2, UTB. They had many dramas, variety shows, other kinds of programming. They borrowed the news from NHK. It was wonderful. This wasn't subscription. You didn't need cable or dish. All you needed was a digital antenna. That was too hard for a majority of lovers of Japanese programming so this format died in 2018. Ultimately, the issue was money. You need money in order to air all these programs and in order to get money, you need advertisers. Because this station was not available on subscription networks advertising was becoming difficult.

The latest incarnation of UTB is now the Japan Hollywood Network on Channel 44.1. From 6:30 to 8:00PM on Sundays only. Funny, this is more or less the schedule of UTB when television was still analog! Again, you need a digital antenna but it's free!

KIKU TV is not 24/7 Japanese but it was the primary station for Japanese programming on the Hawaiian Islands, like UTB was for Los Angeles. What killed UTB is very similar to what is killing KIKU........paid programming. If you go to Channel 18.2 today, it is virtually all paid programming. Everybody is selling something. This is not white washing. You can call it GREEN washing! Everyone is out to make more money and these corporations that own the stations are doing just that. It's sad. When KIKU goes away, again another option for Japanese programming goes away. We're going to have to rely strictly on streaming for Japanese dramas and other programming soon.
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aoikumo



Joined: 06 Dec 2007
Posts: 6
PostPosted: Sun May 30, 2021 4:57 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, this sucks…I grew up with this channel and was still enjoying their programs to this day…A lot of other people, especially those of the elderly are quite saddened by this turn of events as well. However, we do still also have 3 NGN (Nippon Golden Network) channels full of Japanese programs, and NHK as well.
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