When anchors Lisa Kubota, Steve Uyehara and Grace Lee sign on the morning show today on KGMB9 and KHNL, it will mark a new era in Hawaii broadcasting.

The newsroom merger between the local CBS and NBC affiliates and K5 kicks off today with pledges of providing "more news," "more options" and "more voices," according to advertisements planned for Honolulu's daily newspapers.

"For us, this is about building a multimedia company for the 21st century," Rick Blangiardi, general manager of KGMB and KHNL, said during a luncheon last week sponsored by the local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

The new format will be branded as "Hawaii Now," replacing the "Severe Weather Station" moniker at KGMB and KHNL's "live, local, late-breaking news" slogan. It also promises to field the largest television news operation in the state.

Besides the morning show, the stations' 10 p.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts will be simulcast and KHNL will move its 6 p.m. show to 5:30 p.m.

Anchors Keahi Tucker, Stacy Loe and Stephanie Lum will headline the 10 p.m news while Lum and Tannya Joaquin will anchor the 5 p.m. show.

The switch has been in the works for several months but much of the heavy lifting has occurred during the past two weeks.

Construction crews began changing the sets for the new newscast last week and workers are still transferring fixtures, files and equipment from KGMB's Kapiolani Boulevard offices to KHNL's Kalihi station.

Local branding expert Brook Gramann said there's likely to be some initial confusion among viewers who may not have been aware that the switch begins today.

In August, KHNL, K5 and and KGMB9 announced that they would merge their newsrooms, simulcast news programs and cut about one-third of their staffs.

The shared services agreement means that all but four of KHNL's on-air people are being laid off, including anchors Howard Dashefsky and Diane Ako.

For most of KHNL's outgoing staff, Friday was their last work day.

Raycom Media of Alabama, which owns KHNL and K5, said the deal is necessary to prevent one or two of the three stations from going under during a severe downturn in the local television advertising market.

According to Raycom, the combined annual television advertising revenues has plummeted by 30 percent, or $20 million, during the past three years.

But community groups such as Media Council Hawaii, say the deal hurts consumers and violates federal laws barring the multiple ownership of television stations in a single market.

They are asking the Federal Communications Commission and other regulatory agencies to put a halt to the deal.