Nā Leo TV launches islandwide listening tour to hear residents’ needs

Nā Leo TV is asking Hawaii Island residents what they want from Public 53, Educational 54 and Governmental 55, a rare reversal for a station that has carried county meetings, school commencements and local sports for decades. The islandwide listening tour puts the public, educational and governmental access station in the role of listener, not just broadcaster, and asks whether Hilo, Puna, West Hawaii and the rural districts feel equally served.

The effort lands on a county that is large and dispersed. Hawaii County counted 200,629 people in the 2020 Census, and the U.S. Census Bureau estimated 210,043 residents as of July 1, 2025. With nine council districts stretching from Hilo to Kona, Kohala and Kaū, the station faces different information needs depending on distance, transportation and community identity. For some neighborhoods, public media remains the most regular way to follow county government, school boards and local events.

Nā Leo TV says it has been Hawaii Island community media since 1993, and Nā Leo o Hawaii says it has managed the island’s sole Public, Educational and Governmental access television station since 1994. The station describes itself as a community access TV station and creative media hub, and its strategic plan says it is moving into a new era as a storytelling agency focused on community content creation, collaboration and innovation. That framing matters because feedback from the listening tour could influence what the station emphasizes on its cable channels, how it prioritizes live coverage and which community-produced programs get more attention.

The station’s existing footprint already reaches across several formats, including ongoing live coverage and community programming that features school commencements and local sports. It also has shown an interest in deeper youth engagement, hosting its inaugural Youth Media Challenge awards ceremony in May 2024. The listening tour extends that same idea to the broader public: that the people watching from across Hawaii Island should have a say in what local media covers, how it is presented and whether it reflects the concerns of communities that often feel underheard.