KITV 4 Island News: How to Access Hawaii's Local News and Weather
Updated
KITV 4 Island News is the local news operation based at kitv.com, covering Honolulu and the islands of Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and the Big Island. If you want Hawaii breaking news, local weather, or live video, go directly to kitv.com rather than searching for "Island News" alone — that phrase is the site's brand name, not a separate outlet.
What KITV 4 Island News Is
KITV 4 is the station brand; "Island News" is how the site labels its coverage. The two names refer to the same newsroom, so a headline credited to "Island News" on kitv.com is KITV 4's own reporting.
The site describes its scope as:
- Breaking news for Honolulu and the surrounding islands
- Weather and live video
- Local politics, crime, health, education, and sports
- Coverage extending beyond Oahu to Kauai, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and the Big Island
That island-wide reach is the main reason to use it over a national outlet: a story about a Maui road closure or a Big Island weather system will appear here and often nowhere else.
How to Reach the Site
- Enter kitv.com in your browser's address bar. This is the official domain.
- Confirm you're on the right site by checking that the page identifies itself as KITV 4 Island News and lists Honolulu, HI in its title.
- If you arrive through a search engine, prefer the result whose URL is on kitv.com. Aggregators and social reposts may carry the same headlines but won't give you the full video or the live weather segments.
There is no login mentioned in the site's own description, so treat any page demanding credentials before showing news as suspect.
Finding Local News by Island
The homepage surfaces recent stories directly. A typical front page carries items like a Honolulu crash report alongside feature pieces — for example, a Nimitz Highway rollover crash that sent two people to the hospital, or a profile of the Royal Hawaiian Band. Headlines like these show the mix you should expect: hard local news plus island culture and community coverage.
To narrow by location or topic, use the site's section navigation rather than scrolling the homepage:
| What you want | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Honolulu / Oahu news | Main news section, default coverage area |
| Kauai, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Big Island | Island or regional sections in the navigation |
| Politics, crime, health, education, sports | Dedicated category sections |
| Weather | Weather section, plus live video |
If a specific island doesn't have its own top-level tab, its stories usually appear under the general news feed tagged by place name — search the site for the island name.
Checking Weather and Live Video
Weather is one of the site's stated core offerings, alongside live video. For Hawaii this matters more than in most markets because conditions differ sharply between islands and between windward and leeward coasts.
Practical approach:
- Open the weather section for the current forecast and radar.
- Use live video when a storm, flood advisory, or breaking event is active — text updates lag behind the stream.
- Cross-check the island you actually care about. An Oahu forecast won't tell you what's happening on the Big Island.
Avoiding Lookalike Sites
"Island News" is a generic-sounding phrase, and other outlets use similar wording. Two checks keep you on the official site:
- Domain: kitv.com is the source. Anything else is a different publisher.
- Brand pairing: the official site presents "KITV 4" and "Island News" together, with Honolulu, HI named in its title and description.
If a page shows Hawaii headlines but no KITV 4 branding and a different domain, it's a republisher — useful for a quick scan, unreliable for video, live coverage, or corrections.
What You Won't Find Here
The site's own description covers news, weather, and video. It does not present itself as a subscription service, and no pricing or payment details appear in its materials — so don't assume either a paywall or free unlimited access to every feature; judge that from what the page actually shows you when you visit.