There's more changes at Hawaii News Now.

Liz Chun, the station's sport anchor, has told the station she is leaving, according to people familiar with the situation.

Chun's decision was prompted by the recent passing of her father, whom she was very close to, sources said.

Chun blazed new trails as the first female sports director in Hawaii's broadcast industry.

During her 15 years at KGMB and now Hawaii News Now, she's worn many hats. She worked there as producer, a news photographer and sports anchor.

Chun's departure comes as is losing two of its top managers. Marketing Director Candace Hirleman is leaving Hawaii News Now to become promotions manager for an ABC affiliate in Los Angeles.

Her husband Chris Archer, Hawaii News Now's  news director, will join her later this summer.

The moves come less than three months after the launch of Hawaii News Now, which is the merger of newsroom operations of KGMB, KHNL and K5 television stations.

About 68 staffers at KHNL and KGMB were terminated when the merger went into effect in October.

The full page ad in last Saturday's Honolulu Advertiser had the compelling headline:

"We've got a hard choice: Roll over/Get Tough."

The ad, which was placed by Oceanic Cable's parent company Time Warner Cable, bemoaned the soaring costs of television programming,  which have been as high as 300 percent. (See:)

"Sometimes a network will threaten to take your shows away if we don't roll over," the ad said. "The networks shouldn't be in the driver's seat on what you watch and how much you pay."

The ad asks consumers to choose between rolling over or getting tough with the networks.

The Time Warner ad campaign is part of a nationwide battle between large cable operators and the networks.

Under the Federal Communications Commission's so-called "must carry" rule, cable companies are required to carry local channels. The rates to run the programming, also known as retransmission fees, are not set by the FCC but are negotiated by the cable operators and the networks and broadcasters.

Those rates have soared in recent years due to consolidation in the broadcast industry and as costs for broadcasters have risen.

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, consumers face the prospect of losing access to their local CBS and Fox affiliates due to a dispute over retransmission fees.

Cable operator Mediacom has asked the Federal Communications Commission to bar Sinclair Broadcast Group of Baltimore from blocking its CBS and Fox channels while they continue talks over  the fees.

Several years ago, Mediacom lost the feed for the CBS station in Iowa for four weeks due to a similar dispute over retransmission fees.

In Hawaii, the recent shared services agreement between KHNL, K5 and KGMB9 raises some concern about increased transmission fees.

While we're not likely to see replay of the Iowa situation, local consumers could see higher rates as a result of the recent shared services agreement between KHNL, K5 and KGMB9.

Gerald Kato, board member of Media Council Hawaii which is opposing the KHNL-KGMB pact, said controlling three stations gives Alabama-based Raycom considerable  leverage on Oceanic when it comes to setting its retransmission fees.

Raycom and Time Warner officials had no immediate comment when asked about retransmission fees.

"This is one of the concerns of consolidation," said Kato, a University of Hawaii-Manoa journalism professor.

It's been a brutal year for local television news anchors.

Yesterday's news that KITV anchor and reporter Gary Sprinkle was leaving at the end of the year comes on the heels of the KHNL-KGMB9 newsroom merger in which several high profile anchors and on-air talent were let go. (See:)

In what some news executives have described as the worst-ever television ad slump in the local market, a collective 115 years of experience is walking out the door with the loss of these journalists.

But not all of the personnel changes are due to the weak economy. KGMB's Stacy Loe, whose last day is today, is leaving the station to spend more time as a mother.

I've come to respect many of these anchors as competitors and colleagues and I know their presence will be missed not only by their stations but also by their viewers.

When a Los Angeles group acquired KHON three years ago and announced that it was firing about a third of its staff, Rick Blangiardi said he walked away from the buyers and his management team later followed him.

Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America today, Blangiardi contrasted the circumstances surrounding Montecito Broadcast Group's much-criticized 2006 purchase of KHON with the soon-to-be completed newsroom merger between KGMB9, KHNL and K5 television stations.

Blangiardi will head KGMB's and KHNL's operations.

KHON, led by popular anchor Joe Moore, dominated Hawaii television news ratings for years but the station's lead eroded under Montecito's ownership. Morale plummeted and Moore was critical of the cuts on air.

The California company sold KHON in 2007.

"That (the KHON deal) was all predicated by greed," said Blangiardi.

"This is not about greed. This is about moving forward in an unprecedented economic downturn."

KGMB, KHNL and K5 announced in August that they plan to merge newsrooms, simulcast some news programs and cut about a third of their staff.

The shared services agreement between the three stations will result in the terminations of all but four of KHNL's on-air staff.

KGMB and KHNL will launch their new newsroom on Monday.

Blangiardi declined to provide specifics on how the newscast will look like due to pending challenges before the Federal Communications Commission and other regulatory agencies.

But he said the agreement will result a top-notched news team and a quality "multimedia company for the 21st century" at a time when the local television advertising market has gone "through an incredible reversal of fortune."

Promotional material issued by the stations earlier this week indicated that KGMB and KHNL will simulcast their 5 o'clock and 10 o'clock weekday shows and that KHNL will move its 6 p.m. local newscast to 5:30 p.m. (See:)

"We're all trying to adjust, survive and thrive," he said.

Hawaii's slumping economy is leading to an upturn in one area: M&A activity.

Last week's merger between struggling interisland carriers go! and Mokulule Airlines was just the latest in a string of high-profile consolidations brought on by the bleak economy

On Monday, television stations KGMB9, KHNL and K5 will kick off the merger of its newsroom and business operations.

Owners of the the stations, Raycom Media of Alabama and MCG Capital Corp. of Virginia, said the so-called shared services agreement was brought on by a $20 million, or 30 percent, decline in the local television advertising market.

Ownership of  bankruptcy local clothing retailer Hilo Hattie also changed hands earlier this summer while Times Super Markets recently acquired Star Market, in a deal that allows the Times chain to better compete with market leaders Safeway Stores and Foodland.

With Hawaii's economy continuing to struggle, expect to see more mergers and acquisitions. That may mean further consolidation and downsizing.