KHON-TV first signed on the air on November 16, 1952, as the first Hawaiian television station and a primary NBC affiliate, KONA, occupying the channel 11 position.

On October 16, 1955, KONA changed channels from 11 to 2 due to the lower VHF positions (2 to 6) having the most powerful ERPs at the time.

[5] On August 25, 1994, the company bought KHON, WVUE-TV in New Orleans and WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama for $229 million; fellow sister station WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin was sold to the company one month earlier in a separate $38 million deal, which for a time, was challenged by a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) petition filed by NBC alleging that the deal violated foreign investment limits for U.S. broadcasters (a fifth Burnham station, KBAK-TV in Bakersfield, California, was excluded from the SF deal and was instead spun off to Westwind Communications, a new company formed by several former Burnham executives).

[10] KHON currently has the distinction of having the highest-rated local news programming of any Fox affiliate nationwide, and also declares itself as "America's No.

On November 28, 1995, Silver King Communications (operated by former Fox executive Barry Diller) announced that it would acquire Savoy Pictures;[12] as a result, Savoy Pictures and Fox ended their partnership and sold the SF Broadcasting stations, including KHON-TV, to the USA Networks division Silver King Broadcasting.

The sale of KHON and the other SF stations was approved and finalized in March 1996, with its other assets being merged into the company that November.

Emmis received a cross-ownership waiver to acquire KGMB as FCC duopoly rules prohibit two of the four highest-rated stations in the same market from being owned by one company.

KIKU, an independent station specializing in Japanese programming, became a secondary UPN affiliate on November 1, 2004, and remained with the network until its closure on September 15, 2006.

[16] The acquisition resulted in one of the rare instances in which two stations operated in a duopoly were completely separated due to Emmis owning KHON and KGMB under a waiver.

KHON employees first learned of the plan on January 12, when general manager Rick Blangiardi notified the staff of his intent to resign once the sale was finalized.

At a station staff meeting that afternoon, SJL announced the layoffs, which would take place in two phases over the course of two months.

Anchor Joe Moore announced the plan at the end of that evening's 6 p.m. newscast, and stated his concern that the change would impact the station's ability to serve its viewers.

[17] Montecito responded on January 15, assuring the public that no reporters or anchors would be affected, and the 6 p.m. newscast would be largely unchanged from the viewer's perspective.

Among other charges, he claimed that the layoffs were tantamount to "the butchering of an already lean work force" and accused Montecito of being a "virtual company" with no physical offices.

[20] Since the purchase, KHON's new general manager, Joe MacNamara, changed the scope of the terminations: instead of a number of people to fire, a salary goal was given.

[21] Eight of KHON's nine managers resigned over three days, each stating that they could not support Montecito's decision to terminate employees (only the chief engineer remained).

[citation needed] Moore, who was rumored to be considering leaving KHON as a result of the sale, decided to remain as the station's chief anchor.

"[citation needed] On July 24, 2007, Montecito announced the sale of all of its stations (KHON, KOIN in Portland, KSNW in Wichita and its satellites, and KSNT in Topeka) to New Vision Television.

[24] The FCC approved the sale to LIN on October 2,[25] and the group deal was consummated ten days later on October 12, 2012, reuniting KHON-TV and its Oregon and Kansas sister stations with several former Emmis-owned stations which had been purchased by LIN seven years earlier, such as WALA-TV, WLUK-TV and Albuquerque, New Mexico's KRQE.

[30] KHON was the only LIN-owned Fox affiliate affected by the SF Broadcasting deal that was retained by Media General, as WALA and WLUK were respectively sold to the Meredith Corporation and Sinclair Broadcast Group to resolve ownership conflicts with existing Media General stations in the Mobile and Green Bay markets[31] (WVUE had previously been sold to the Louisiana Media Company in 2007, and has since transferred that station's operations to what is today Gray Television, which also owns KGMB/KHNL; WVUE reunited with WALA in 2021 following the latter's acquisition by Gray, along with the rest of the Meredith Local Media division, and, as a result, the two stations remain as the only Burnham/SF stations under common ownership).

[33] KHON-DT2, branded Hawaii's CW, is the CW-owned and operated second digital subchannel of KHON-TV, broadcasting in 720p high definition on channel 2.2.

The network premiered on KHON's main channel on October 24 and 25 with airings of the regular CW schedule before moving to digital channel 2.2 on October 30; this was possible due to Fox's World Series coverage airing live at 2 p.m. Honolulu time,[35] freeing up prime time.

On August 20, 2007, "Hawaii's CW" began airing the nationally syndicated morning news program The Daily Buzz.

Upon the sudden cancellation of The Daily Buzz in mid-April 2015 by its distributor, the channel switched to a simulcast of KHON's morning news in full.

KHON's CW subchannel aired weekly CFL broadcasts for the 2007 season after former University of Hawaii star quarterback Timmy Chang earned a backup spot with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the pre-season.

[39] The station airs preseason games and special programming of the Las Vegas Raiders via a deal signed between the team and KHON owner Nexstar Broadcasting.

was then moved to CBS affiliate KGMB in 2002 in order for KHON to begin a 5 p.m. newscast,[41] which makes Honolulu one of the few markets where Jeopardy!

On March 23, 2012, KHON president and general manager Joe McNamara stated in a New Vision Television press release that "in the coming months, additional changes will be taking place inside our (KHON) studios with state-of-the-art HD upgrades of cameras, lighting and newsroom systems that will enhance our on-air look tremendously.