The careers of reporters, videographers and producers at the KGMB9, KHNL and K5 television stations were cast into doubt yesterday when it was announced that the two newsrooms would merge in the coming months.

"It's really sad, I mean people are just sort of in shock," said veteran KGMB reporter/videographer Terry Hunter. "It's hard to get your mind around the fact that so many people will be gone and that the ones that are left are going to be moving to a whole new different place."

Under the agreement between KGMB owner MCG Capital Corp. and KHNL and K5 owner Raycom Media, the merged staffs will operate out of the new Wai- akamilo Road headquarters of the NBC affiliate KHNL and K5.

About 68 people may be cut, or more than a third of the combined staff.

There are about 55 people in the KGMB newsroom and 45 KHNL and K5 news staff.

"The big concern right now is which people are going to lose their jobs, who's going to be retained, that's the huge question," Hunter said.

"And we're not quite sure how those decisions are going to be made. Hopefully, they're going to keep the best people, but with the economy being the main reason this is happening in the first place, who knows?"

A 27-year KGMB veteran, Hunter said he has been working four days a week recently and has been "thinking of cutting back" further. He turns 63 next month and doubts he'll be around to join colleagues in their move to Kalihi.

Members of the KGMB staff were each issued 60-day "warning" letters informing them they would be terminated on Oct. 18. Employees at both stations were told interviews will be conducted in the next few weeks to determine who will be kept.

KGMB staffers may have a slight advantage. Chris Archer, the station's general manager of about three years, will retain that title under the new jointly operated news staff.

KGMB business reporter Howard Dicus said "it's a fair assumption that everybody will find somebody leaving that they're sorry to see go — and in some cases themselves."

Dicus, a former United Press International reporter who has seen his share of downsizing news staffs, said "some kind of consolidation was inevitable."

Hawai'i, he said, has the market size of Dayton, Ohio. "It's not big enough to support the number of TV stations it has, or for that matter, the number of radio stations and newspapers."

Executives from the two stations said in a news release that they expected the joint operations will result in a larger news staff with greater resources to cover the news.

Several KHNL news employees contacted declined to comment, stating they don't want to hurt their chances of being retained.

Hawai'i Pacific University communication professor John Hart said he's not surprised by the merger.

"Hawai'i, for its size, is an extremely saturated media market," Hart said. "There simply isn't enough money to go around. If you look at it that way, it's surprising we've had so many independent media outlets for so long."

University of Hawai'i media professor Tom Brislin said he has mixed feelings about the merger. The merger allows all three stations to remain viable, allowing viewers a greater variety of choices.

"But they're going to lose a news choice," said Brislin, a former Honolulu Advertiser city editor.

The merger of KGMB, KHNL and K5 brings together a mixture of the old and the new.

KGMB was the station of the late iconic news anchor Bob Sevey, often called the Walter Cronkite of the Pacific. Its venerable headquarters in a cramped lot on Kapi'olani Boulevard is the former home of live audience broadcasts of the Checkers & Pogo children's show, 50th State Wrestling and the "Island Music, Island Hearts" Hawaiian music series.

KHNL is the upstart "fourth" news station which didn't even come into existence until 1995, promising a new approach to TV news delivery that featured snazzy graphics and herky-jerky camera movements.

KHNL and K5 earlier this year moved from their original location at the corner of Sand Island Road and Nimitz Highway into a new, larger facility on Waiakamilo Road.