The new owner of KHON 2, the local Fox network affiliate that has dominated Hawai'i's television news ratings for years, said yesterday it will fire up to 35 of its 112 employees.

Blackstone Group of New York and SJL Broadcast Group of California are buying KHON from Emmis Communications Corp. SJL comptroller Wade O'Hagan met yesterday with KHON employees to inform them that half of the 35 employees will be terminated at the end of the month. The remainder will be laid off in about 90 days.

The station has 101 full-time employees and 11 part-timers.

Reached at his room in the Halekulani Hotel last night, O'Hagan said he had no comment.

"I'd love to talk to you right now," O'Hagan said. "We'll be ready to comment a few weeks from now, but not today."

KHON general manager Rick Blangiardi said the buyers did not identify which workers will be laid off. But he did say the cuts will be across the board and will affect employees in the station's news, sales, engineering and technical operations.

Blangiardi said he has decided to leave KHON at the end of the month to assume similar duties at sister station KGMB TV. KGMB, the local CBS affiliate, also is being sold by Emmis.

SJL and the Blackstone Group, an investment banking firm headed by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Peter Peterson, will complete its $259 million purchase of KHON and three Mainland stations — in Portland, Ore, Wichita, Kan., and Topeka, Kan. — from Emmis by Jan. 30.

UNREST IN THE RANKS

In a memo to officials at Indianapolis-based Emmis, Blangiardi said he could not remain because "I do not share the same vision, and approach, to the television business as SJL. These differences make it impossible for me to serve you and SJL effectively."

The Wichita Business Journal reported this week that Shawn Oswald, general manager of KHON's soon-to-be sister station, KSNW, also will leave his job in Wichita once the sale is complete.

O'Hagan told KHON newsroom staffers yesterday in two separate meetings that the layoffs aren't expected to affect the quality of the news broadcast, Blangiardi said.

Although KITV 4 tied KHON in the 5 p.m. news slot during the November Nielsen sweeps, and KGMB and KHON are tied at 10 p.m., KHON and its popular anchor Joe Moore continue to dominate Hawai'i's four-station market in the premier 6 p.m. broadcast.

IS JOE MOORE ENOUGH?

But the upcoming layoffs carry the potential to shake the station's No. 1 role, said Chris Conybeare, a media specialist at the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu, who is a member of the Honolulu Community Media Council, the Hawai'i Media Action Group and the Society of Professional Journalists' Hawai'i chapter.

"It's really bad news for us," Conybeare said. "When they reduce their staff by a third, I don't see how they can serve us better. Certainly part of their ability to dominate the ratings is due to the popularity of Joe Moore. Obviously if he's there he'll continue to be popular. But if they continue to degrade the news product, it may be that his popularity isn't enough."

Moore did not return telephone calls at the station or at his home last night.

At the end of his report on the layoffs last night during the 6 p.m. broadcast, Moore said, "Some broadcast executives on the Mainland familiar with SJL say they expect the number of firings at KHON to be closer to 50 than 35. Currently the staff here is at 110 employees."

Moore then looked down at his desk as if he were doing arithmetic and said, "110 minus 50" then shook his head, tapped his desk and let loose with a heavy sigh.

At the end of the broadcast, during his signature "Did you know?" feature, Moore said, "Finally tonight, did you know when the German writer (Johann Wolfgang von) Goethe wasn't busy explaining to folks how to pronounce his name, he found time to be a journalist, a critic, lawyer, painter, theater manager, statesman, educator, alchemist, soldier, astrologer, novelist, songwriter, philosopher, botanist, biologist, color theorist, mine inspector and issuer of military uniforms? Boy, too bad old Goethe's not around today. He sounds like the SJL Broadcast Company's ideal for a multitask employee, don't you think?"

Conybeare said yesterday's layoff announcements could inspire people in the community to argue against SJL's Federal Communications Commission license when it comes up for renewal in October.

"We already have a situation where Channel 2 has suffered fairly drastic reductions in the people actually covering the news," Conybeare said. "The community may need to intervene in the process where this company is making lots and lots of money but giving us little in return. Community organizations are going to have to take a look at this new situation with this new owner and see if they should get their license renewed."

Blangiardi has served as KHON's top manager for the past three years and said his departure "is an extremely difficult decision for me. I never intended to leave this station but they have a different approach to the television business than I do and in this case it was a big difference."

Both KHON and KGMB are owned and operated by Emmis in a duopoly arrangement under a waiver from the FCC, since regulations forbid one owner to run two of the four top-ranked stations in a single marketplace.

SJL is one of many Mainland broadcasters that have turned to new technologies as a way of reducing overhead, especially on the engineering and technical side.

O'Hagan told staffers that the buyers have implemented similar changes at 16 stations on the Mainland, resulting in higher ratings and increased revenues, Blangiardi said.

Emmis, which has owned KHON since 1998, announced last May that it was leaving the television business to concentrate on its core radio business.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com and Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.