Choi leaving KITV anchor desk for San Francisco
COURTESY FRANK WANG
Kenny Choi
Kenny Choi, evening news anchor at local ABC-TV affiliate KITV, will be leaving for a job in San Francisco at KPIX-TV, owned and operated by CBS.
Getting hired by a so-called network O &O (owned-and-operated station) has for generations been the holy grail of broadcast journalism, just shy of being hired to work at the network itself.
Additionally, San Francisco is the sixth-largest television market in the U.S. while Honolulu is ranked 66th.
Choi will anchor KPIX weekday morning and noon newscasts beginning April 11, succeeding Frank Millicoat, who had served the station for some five years, according to KPIX News Director Dan Rosenheim.
Choi’s last day at KITV is March 31.
“My colleagues at KITV and the many viewers I have come to know in our community have truly made my time here in Hawaii special,” he said. Choi, his wife and their 2-year-old daughter will be making the move to the City by the Bay, but he added, “I’ll always cherish this place and the people who make these islands second to none.”
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Choi joined KITV in September 2010 to work on “KITV4 News This Morning” with then co-anchor Mahealani Richardson.
The following year he was promoted to 10 p.m. weekday anchor, and added 6 p.m. anchoring duties last year, co-anchoring the evening newscasts with Yunji de Nies.
KITV and its neighbor island satellite stations were sold for $21 million by Hearst Television to SJL Broadcast Management in May.
Since the sale closed, a handful of on-air personalities have left the station.
Emmy-winning broadcast journalist and weekend anchor Pamela Young left KITV in December.
Weekend morning anchor and reporter Ashley Moser now works at KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, the 34th-ranked U.S. market.
Reporter Andrew Pereira left the station to become the information officer in the Honolulu managing director’s office.
Off-camera, some technical employees were cut at the station following upgrades in technology, but those part-time employees took jobs with the Hawaii Pacific Television Council established by IBEW Local 1260.
Positions now being advertised on the TV station’s website include one for an anchor and reporter, a news producer and an account executive.
51 responses to “Choi leaving KITV anchor desk for San Francisco”
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Another greedy private “entrepreneur” Squeezing a good news team. Wonder when and where Yunji will go. Sorry to see Kenny go. Good luck Kenny finding affordable housing in SF bay area.
Anchoring, even if it’s the morning and mid-day, at a network owned station? He’ll find housing just fine.
Take junji with you, she is terrible! Always stumbling over her lines and can’t chit chat speak with out laughing (nervous laughter).
Grace Lee is worst.Can’t stand her giggling.
Her giggling….can’t stand it either
I like Nancy Grace on HLN.
her dog makes me cry………..
I love Grace Lee. She hot hot hot boys. Not even sure who Kenny Choi is. Who even watches KITV anymore? They the suckiest of them all.
More Grace!
Yunji should know what a period at the end of a sentence is for….it’s for a Pause….and not run on to the next sentence. Her pacing is horrible. All these “newscasters” read the news, and not report it.
Congratulations to Kenny Choi for the move to KPIX-TV, San Francisco. It was a pleasure to watch your newscasts.
Who are you kidding…
This guy is going somewhere. Choi is one of the few Asian male news anchors in the nation who is polished, capable and presentable enough to make it big time. The fact that a network affiliated station in San Francisco, with the sixth largest market in the US, also sees his potential as well. Choi could be one of the few MALE Asian American anchors to broadcast to a national audience, either as a reporter or as a news anchor.
You’re kidding…
agree…competent man and the right ethnicity to move up
Can’t compare with Ken Kashiwahara, who anchored with Bob Sevey while Joe Moore was still a sports announcer at KGMB. Ken was serious,intelligent and enunciated better than his peers. The parent mainland big boys quickly scooped Kashiwahara up, NBC I think. Since then, there has been a vacuum of Asian announcers. Why? Maybe because English always seems like a second language here. Hope Kenny Choi will make it big on the mainland but he has to be more forceful to compete with the big boys. San Francisco might be a good fit for him.
butinski: Had to look up Kashiwahara online but you are correct this guy was a ground breaker as reporter in South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon and was in the middle of all of that danger and chaos. He also was on the tarmac in the Phillipines close by where Benigno Aquino was assassinated by Marcos henchmen in 1983. Choi could probably follow the footsteps of Kashiwahara and make it to the national level, however it would probably require him to put himself in harms way and report in pretty dangerous place like Afghanistan to up his creds and give him more “force”. Might not be worth it though given he is married and now has a family.
Agree, he was in a market that goes for “personality” or “professionalism”. Have to look no further than the lineups full of cute women acting more like cheerleaders and guys acting like comedians to see that’s what sells here (except Joe Moore who gets the old f…ts just like Perry and Price). The worst example is smack lips Guy Hagi who could only be successful in this plantation town.
Yep he gets picked up by a station in the larger market, that’s all you need to know. The management at his new gig obviously feel he is the right talent for the market. Good luck to the dude, hope this leads to bigger things in the future, who knows.
are you kidding me??? He’s not from here…he’s from New Jersey. let’s not confuse the people who were born and raised here and not spent four years working like someone in the military.
agree..he is an intellect and unlike many out here, he speaks standard English. Believe me, the pidgin in this remote spot does not cut it in the real world.
Alice, as usual your comments speaks volumes about your lack of factual knowledge. Standard English is not spoken in the US. There are many dialects of the English language spoken on the continent. Pigeon is a Creole dialect taught to the Japanese and Chinese plantation workers that has become a cultural part of these islands. Ever been to Boston? How about Texas, Missouri, Louisiana and Virginia? Stop being a racist and an ignorant one at that. Wow, five tears as a freshmen at UH and still uneducated.
Respectfully offered: The answer to “Pigeon” is a five-pound bag of wild bird seed. “Pidgin” is the common term for Hawaiian Creole.
They just need to be educated. We don’t have a foreign accent. We speak the local dialect.
no loss….
yep
Lets hope the station management will hire local kids for these vacant positions. Too many of these jobs are going to mainland folks who need a crash course on pronouncing Hawaiian and local names. Some of the KHNL/KGMB folks still are wearing their mainland clothes on air after three years on the job.
I remember one newscast with Jennifer Robins on Hawaii News Now. She mentioned an event with live music and said on air “The music was so ONO!”.
That haunts me to this day……………..
KITV should outsource their news broadcast to the mainland, perhaps outside of an urban area, where cost of living is cheaper. Find Hawaii transplants for talent, and have them read local folks’ facebook posts and post local folks’ photo submissions.
Since I cut my TV cable, the only way that I will know what is going on with TV is from the SA.
Then stop posting constantly.
I think most readers will agree with you about ole “dribble”.
Oh, I just figured “mike” was “Allie”‘s alter ego.
Hock a lugy(spit) in North Dakota lingo.
huh? Mike does not have the first clue about North Dakota and, it is clear, would never be accepted there.
Allie, been to North Dakota and driven through Glacier National Park in July and at the 9 K level had some ice/snow. Started at St Catherine and ended up at Flathead Lake, named for the local tribe. Have no idea if the Indians had flatheads or not, at least didn’t see any. Visited Porthill, Idaho, Customs Port of Entry, as well as, the clearance station at Kalispel. This trip took place in the late 60’s.
hahaha arguing with himself…dude no mo cable…that is why he is always posting…direct tv bro HNN online free live streaming brah
Wish they would get rid of that weather guy Drews, his choppy sing song delivery drives me nuts. PS Grace Lee is hot.
Heard from some weather people that Drews is an A Hole. And yes, Grace, baby, call me. Don’t bring the dog.
Asians in America just want to be treated like any other race.
Except the African-Americans. Asians don’t want to be tased and shot
No way, they just want to be recognized as the superior race, which they are.
Bye, he never connected with people in Hawaii. One of them better-than-you ko tonks better off on the mainland
Just proved my “plantation mentality” post is dead on!
To Kenny, looking at http://www.sfgate.com there is plenty to report about SF’s homeless, ours is small kine compared to theirs……..good luck, its been.
Oh by the way, Kenny……put a red ball on SF Mayor Lee’s nose and poke your finger in SF Chief of Police’s eye to get their attention quick!
As expected, the new station owners are cleaning house. Expect more to leave shortly for the mainland or to the local competition.
Good lord, who watches KITV news or anything else?
Isn’t KITV still in low definition? The picture quality looks 1970ish.
They have to leave Hawaii because they’ve signed mon-compete contracts with KTV.
Good luck to you. I hope you getting paid plenty money, San Francisco is even more expensive than Hawaii to live!