The landscape of television news in Hawai'i will undergo its biggest change in nearly 15 years as on-air talent disappears over the next few months and a new, single broadcast emerges for three separate stations.

Television news departments from Washington, D.C., to Cleveland to Los Angeles recently have agreed to share news videos. And in Hawai'i, KHNL and K5 already use the same news team for separate news broadcasts that air at different times.

But the owners of KGMB9, KHNL and K5 now plan to create a single, joint news department, with some of the news programming simulcast on KHNL and KGMB.

It will be the biggest shake-up in Island broadcast news since 1995, when dominant KHON lost its NBC affiliation to KHNL, and KHON became a Fox station.

KHNL, which had been the Fox affiliate at the time, then jumped in with its own news show giving Island audiences four distinct news stations — in addition to two daily newspapers.

"Hawai'i's been fortunate to have a market that competitive," said Bob Calo, co-director of the television program at the University of California-Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. "But this is a sea change. Every local news show has loyal viewers who will be dislocated."

Yesterday's announcement represents the flip side of the heady days of 1995, when star anchors and reporters found themselves in bidding wars between Honolulu's four television news stations. With the merger announced yesterday, laid-off workers now will be trying to find jobs amid a dwindling number of TV newsrooms.

"Now it's the evil twin," said Mike Rosenberg, KITV's president and general manager.

KHON might hire a few of the 68 laid-off news employees from KGMB and KHNL — or at least those "with a different skill set," said KHON president Joe McNamara. "There will be more talent for people to access, no doubt about it."

The changes at KGMB and KHNL could also end up backfiring and costing them viewers, McNamara said.

The crews at competitors KITV and KHON will have particular interest in how the combined KGMB/KHNL/K5 news show looks, and they won't be surprised to see technical glitches and other early mistakes.

"We'll be sitting back, watching the fireworks," McNamara said. "It should be very interesting."

The changes at KGMB and KHNL also could lead to more cost-cutting or "efficiencies" at KHON, McNamara said.

"Where they can send one crew for three stations, it may become too competitive and might force us to do other things," he said. "I'd be blind if I didn't think they would get an advantage we might not have when it comes to operational costs."

McNamara said he has no plans for layoffs and is looking to hire someone for the station's Web site.

"But we'll be looking to see if there are any other efficiencies," he said.

KITV's corporate parent, Hearst Television Inc., has resisted the idea of video-sharing agreements in Honolulu or in any of its other markets, Rosenberg said, and has no plans to merge broadcasts with KHON.

"Despite the call to share videos and all of these other things, we have decided we want to remain an independent voice," Rosenberg said.

But, in perhaps a sign of the economic times for television news, Rosenberg took an unusually aggressive tone toward his competitors at KGMB, KHNL and K5:

"We want to dominate news and information in Hawai'i," Rosenberg said, "and if this gives us an opportunity, you can be sure we'll be mobile, agile and hostile."