This page contains a brief history of KVIKS Media throughout the years. It also includes a Facebook of KVIKS TV Alumni and Former Members.
- Students listed as Founding Members means that they were present from the beginning of the new era of KVIKS TV.
- Students listed as Legacy Founding Members means that they were part of Hilo Intermediate School’s Spartan TV program and worked with Luke before he left for Hilo High.
- Students who have joined KVIKS TV in the past, but are no longer active members of the program will be listed with their graduating class, however, they will show the number of years they were active, and when they first joined.
SY 2017-2018
During the summer break before School Year 2017-2018, the Technology Department was informed that the current teacher handling the K-V-I-K-S Morning Bulletin would not be ready by the start of the school year. As a result, a man with only a lamp, a mic, and a single camera, the new era of KVIKS was born. KVIKS was not yet a chartered organization, rather, it was just a group of volunteers wanting to help out and continuously work to improve the quality of the morning bulletin. The morning bulletin used to be produced live, but due to the circumstances, that could no longer be the case. The Period 1 Directed Studies and Period 2 Broadcast Media class was commandeered to produce the morning bulletin the day before. Other students volunteered to be anchors and crew, and eventually, the need to re-brand and expand birthed the organization known as KVIKS TV.
Thanks to funding from the school and the Hilo High Foundation, KVIKS TV was able to acquire broadcasting equipment to broadcast the 2018 May Day Program. Despite careful planning throughout the year, the very first large broadcast for the new KVIKS TV organization was canceled due to a massive earthquake from the newly established lava flow coming out from Puna. Aside from the special events, KVIKS TV started to live stream spirit rallies and assemblies.
SY 2018-2019
KVIKS TV was officially chartered during the school year of 2018-2019. Now a fully recognized organization, KVIKS TV rapidly expanded in membership and split into several departments, Creative, Broadcasting, and Audio Video. KVIKS TV still produced the daily morning bulletin but also became in charge of the school’s Audio/Video Committee.
After being provided with equipment to broadcast May Day the previous year, the goal of broadcasting live sports became a reality. After testing out the equipment during the girls’ volleyball season, KVIKS TV committed to broadcasting Boys and Girls Basketball during the Winter Season. The Winter Season began with a special nationwide basketball exhibition. After seeing the success of the first two days of broadcasting, KVIKS TV was challenged to live stream from the Afook Chinen Auditorium off-campus. The biggest issue was the fact that all the equipment was still on campus, and there were no internet connections available. Determined to meet the challenge, KVIKS TV moved all the equipment to the Afook Chinen and used a cell phone’s mobile hotspot to broadcast the exhibition finals.
The 18-19 school year ended with a feat of glory when finally, KVIKS TV could fully produce a well-coordinated live stream of the May Day program. With all that it has accomplished during the 18-19 school year, KVIKS TV enjoyed its golden age.
SY 2019-2020
Momentum from the golden age of KVIKS TV during the 18-19 school year led straight into the new school year. KVIKS TV hit the ground full speed during the 19-20 school year. From the beginning of the school year, A/V and broadcasting took care of each spirit rally, LOT, and morning bulletin. Students started to branch out into online services such as the website, social media, and the closed-circuit broadcasting channel. There was even a task by the Department of Education to develop a mobile app.
KVIKS TV absorbed artists and started to shape the brand of Hilo High School. Broadcasting was stronger than ever. During the fall season, KVIKS TV was able to broadcast home games at the New Gym, as well as broadcasting Football off-campus at Wong Stadium. During the winter season, KVIKS TV once again broadcasted the nationwide basketball exhibition, but this time, all games were played on-campus. KVIKS TV got organized to provide necessary services to all crew members and geared up for the remainder of the school year.
Unfortunately, due to the global pandemic, during spring break, all sports were canceled, and in-person instruction ceased. The student organization of KVIKS TV was essentially inactive. Only the advisors were allowed to continue working on projects. Once it became known that commencement exercises would be virtual, the KVIKS TV Advisors worked long days, nights, and weeks to come up with a virtual May Day Program, and Commencement program. The 2020 Commencement program was broadcasted simultaneously on Facebook, YouTube, and Hawaii News Now’s K5 channel. The 2020 Commencement video was by far the greatest challenge KVIKS TV has ever faced, and it had to be done without the heart of soul of the program, the students. That loss was sown deep into the commencement video. Every effort was made to give the Class of 2020 the same experience of commencement but from a distance. After the 19-20 school year, KVIKS TV gained a lot of credibility and lost part of its soul. Gladly, it wasn’t lost for long.
SY 2020-2021
SY 20-21 was unlike any other year. Instead of in-person learning, students were learning from home. The morning bulletin was still being produced with at-home anchors, but there were no students around except for one. Through a workplace experience program, Jazz was able to come on campus and help out. In October, KVIKS TV was re-chartered and started to recruit new members and determine the interest of the previous year’s members. Aside from the morning bulletin, KVIKS TV worked on other projects including a virtual spirit week, homecoming, and wellbeing week.
Starting in February 2021, KVIKS TV students were organized to come back to campus for in-person work sessions. Now with a small sense of normalcy restored, KVIKS TV was on a path to re-train and prepare the students for larger projects. That year, KVIKS TV made a virtual May Day program with local artists and halaus, then focused on their largest project yet, the Virtual Commencement Program for the Class of 2021.
After learning a significant amount from the 2020 Commencement, KVIKS TV went all out on the Class of 2021 Commencement video. A long standing tradition by the Hilo High Ambassadors of singing, “Seasons of Love” was brought back with alumni ranging from 1993 to 2020. Local artist Henry Kapono made a cameo appearance in the class song of, “Good Times Together”.
Joining the KVIKS TV team as an advisor this year was Class of 2020 alumnus Jennifer Kamimura.
SY 2021-2022
SY 21-22 was the first school year back from online learning and brought fresh new faces and opportunities to KVIKS TV. On October 7th, 2021, KVIKS TV was officially renamed and rebranded to KVIKS Media to create a more unified sense of identity thanks to the vast variety of talent that KVIKS Has to offer. Throughout the year KVIKS Media was able to broadcast many live events and experience so much more.
Our first live stream that school year was an unexpected one. Na Leo TV was supposed to broadcast the first football game back after the COVID-19 shutdown, but they pulled out unexpectedly. KVIKS Media was asked to broadcast that game and within five hours, a team of students and equipment were on its way to Konawaena High School.
This year marks the start of the KVIKS Spotlight magazine, a publication dedicated to showing off the work being done by the program and to encourage others to support our program.
This is also the first year that we broadcasted a commencement program from Edith Kanakaole Stadium.
SY 2022-2023
The year started off with new broadcasting equipment at the Kings of Hawaii tournament. This was the first time we broadcasted this event since before the pandemic. In September, we were invited to the first annual Hawaii Swim Show at the Wainaku Executive Center. We were so excited to do our first fashion show and after the event finished, reposted videos gained MILLIONS of views on other channels, learning about that was absolutely MIND BLOWING!
At the end of the football season, we broadcasted the DI Football Championships of Hilo vs Konawaena both live and on Na Leo TVʻs Channel 53. During the state championships, the HHSAA started to allow high schools to live stream state athletic competitions as long as it is not being televised directly. As a result, KVIKS Media was invited to broadcast a DII Football game of Waimea High School vs Honokaʻa High School for the first time. That partnership grew as in February, the HHSAA DII Girls Basketball Tournament was held in Hilo at the Afook Chinin Civic Auditorium. That broadcast would put KVIKS Media on the map as a premier broadcasting organization on the Big Island, receiving countless accolades and words of appreciation. We were told that schools cancelled class just to watch their teams play on Oahu and Lanai. On Molokai, a whole community gathered to watch the KVIKS broadcast in someone’s home. hearing those kinds of stories were awe-inspiring and reminded us of the work that we were doing.
Nailed it! As a longtime basketball aficionado, I have to send major kudos to Hilo High’s KVIKS Media for their coverage of the DII girls state basketball championships. A special shoutout to student play-by-play announcers Kai Hayashida and Camrenn Cabalar, who did an outstanding job on the broadcast. I caught them during the championship game and was so impressed. Their commentary was sharp, showed great understanding of the game, and the collective teamwork of all the students involved with the production was exemplary. Congrats to Viking Nation!
Mufi Hannemann – Former Mayor of Honolulu, Posted on Hawaii Tribune Herald
In April, a large group of interns were sent to the 60th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival. We were honored to have been able to assist at the rehearsals, and also at the live event to serve as social media interns, audio operators and assistant video editors. The work the students did have been seen by millions of people, and their assistance proved to be invaluable to the production team.
Finally, in May, our first KVIKS Media Gala was organized where KVIKS Media members can gather for a formal social event and recount the experiences of the year.
