Inside the Akakū Maui Community Media studio in Kahului, the atmosphere is one of defiant survival. The once bustling hub, staffed by 23 employees, has been reduced to a skeleton crew of just 12. And these remaining staff are bracing for a fiscal cliff: a $400,000 budget cut set to take effect in January 2027.

That is about 35% of Akakū’s current operating budget of $1.1 million. This financial blow follows a decision made April 1 by the Hawaiʻi Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to grant a 15-year franchise renewal to the cable company Spectrum Oceanic LLC for Maui County, a move Akakū leadership says will siphon millions from public and community media over the life of the contract.

Jay April, Akakū’s President and CEO, said the contract also will stifle free speech and public discourse in an already shrinking civic space.

“The sad thing is that it is entirely possible that an unwitting and uninformed DCCA may be doing this because they are ignorant of the founding principles of what Public Access is all about,” April said in a recent newsletter to supporters. “They simply may not understand that this resource is akin to a library or a public school.”

Akaku is a nonprofit Public, Education and Government (PEG) Access television station governed by a local board of directors and designated by the State of Hawaiʻi to program three cable television access channels (53, 54 and 55) serving more than 53,000 Spectrum Cable homes on Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi. It provides locally produced news, children’s programming, as well as training for community members and others in media production. 

The battle for Akakū’s future has moved from the airwaves to the judiciary. Recently, a Maui Circuit Court judge dismissed Akakū’s claims against the DCCA decision, ruling that the nonprofit lacks “standing” to challenge the franchise renewal.

The state department characterized the nonprofit as a mere third-party contractor, rather than a party with a concrete legal interest in the contract between the state and the cable company.

April vehemently disagrees. He points out that the state began the process of formally recognizing Akakū as an “official service provider” more than a decade ago. While this process was never officially completed, Akakū and other community media were treated as official providers for more than a decade under a de facto designation, April said.

So, for the courts to rule that the 40-year-old community institution has no standing to challenge the franchise renewal is both a blow and a surprise, he added.

“(The state) called off the designation process, yet continued to treat us as if we had it, and now tells us in court we have no standing? We are challenging that,” April said.

On this basis, Akakū filed an appeal of the Circuit Court’s ruling last week with the Court of Appeals and will take the case all the way to the state Supreme Court if necessary, April said.

Additionally, April said the institution will challenge the ruling on two other grounds: the age of the information DCCA relied on — dating to 2013 — and the interpretation of the Federal Communications Commission order that allows the “take-back” provision, which permits Spectrum to deduct money from the franchise fee that traditionally funds community media.

INFRASTRUCTURE VS. INFORMATION

The technical root of the crisis is a 2019 FCC order, made during Donald Trump’s first term as president, that allows cable companies to take back the cost of maintaining the Institutional Network (INET) — a fiber-optic system used by schools and government agencies — against the up to 5% federal cap on franchise fees. 

The State of Hawaiʻi and several other governments across the United States sued to block the decision, but in 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of the FCC when it came to franchise fees.

Now, under the licensing agreement, Spectrum is permitted to deduct $400,000 or 1% of its gross revenues (whichever is greater) to cover these in-kind maintenance costs every year, directly reducing the funding for public, educational and governmental broadcasting across the state. 

This has already happened on Kauaʻi, where the recent renewal of Spectrum’s license led to a loss of $115,000 in the 2026 budget of Hōʻike Kauaʻi community media.

A spokesperson for DCCA declined to respond to questions posed by the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative last week, but instead provided paperwork explaining the first court ruling and the FCC 2019 order.

DCCA also sent the letter it wrote to Akakū in 2024 that said: “These developments were foreseen since the issuance of the 2019 FCC Order. The predominant trends relevant to Spectrum’s franchise renewal are continued “cord cutting” (people leaving cable services for streaming and internet-based services), with an increased reliance on interactive internet sites for community engagement and information. Each of these trends highlights the critical need to preserve a robust and extensive INET, at the expense, if necessary, of PEG services.”

For its part, Spectrum has called the licensing renewal an important continuation of its long-standing investment in Hawaiʻi.

“Charter has provided tremendous value to Maui, and all Hawaiʻi counties, and we look forward to a continued partnership,” said Dennis Johnson, Senior Director of Communications West and Northwest for Charter, the parent company for Spectrum.

The proposed cuts threaten to silence the most remote voices in Maui County, such as Molokaʻi.

“If we are being asked to operate on 35% of our current revenue, that’s going to be difficult,” April said. “I might have to shut down my office on Molokaʻi. I might have to cut off an entire island.”

Tiny, remote and steeped in Hawaiian culture, Molokaʻi carries a spirit all its own. For the past 22 years, Daniel Emhof, Akakū’s director of programming on the island, has provided local news, production and public information to the island’s roughly 7,000 residents. Closing the office would mean not only the loss of his job but also the loss of the connection between the island and the rest of Maui County.

Akakū is currently the only entity providing on-location broadcast coverage of government and community meetings and news on Molokaʻi. During the recent heavy flooding that hit the county, Emhof drove around the island, filming the damage and residents’ stories and getting them out on both Akakū’s regular broadcast and its social media channels. He also provides production training to anyone interested, helping them create their own stories for Akakū.

Beyond breaking news, Akakū helps preserve culture. Emhof recently worked with the Molokaʻi History Project to create video legacies of some of the island’s kūpuna. The 12-part series is currently part of a local exhibition and is held in the non-governmental organization’s archives.

“We serve the general public and help nonprofits reach their goals. We help the community share the richness of Molokaʻi and its people,” Emhof said.

Akakū’s value was proven beyond doubt during the 2023 Maui wildfires. While commercial content creators, social media algorithms and even the national media were criticized for spreading misinformation, Akakū provided clear, reliable communication during the emergency, April said. In the early days of the fire that devastated Lahaina, the station purchased and rented small satellite internet points, giving residents telecom access when towers and lines were down.

Beyond crises, the station serves as a training ground where volunteers learn to tell their own stories without the pressure of advertising or the surrender of personal data to commercial platforms. George Burnett, a former commercial airline pilot, came to Akakū via a video training course and stayed nearly a decade providing production support.

“It is a beautiful thing. Anyone can go down there, create content and put it on the air,” Burnett said.

Maui’s struggle is part of a national trend: traditional cable franchise fees are declining as audiences cut the cord in favor of streaming, leaving less money for community media. Mike Wassenaar, president and CEO of the Alliance for Community Media, says he has seen governments elsewhere step up to fill the gap — and believes Hawaiʻi should do the same.

“Should local government be supporting these institutional partners that have been providing communication services much like libraries? Frankly, yeah,” he said. “The state shouldn’t be forcing smaller nonprofit organizations to provide services to a community.”

Stella Rivers, one of the founders of the Maui Film Festival — which ran for more than 20 years before concluding its final season in 2024 — suggests Akakū look beyond public funding for answers.

“They should do more community outreach for sponsorships,” she said. “A lot of businesses and restaurants would likely sponsor Akakū. But you would need someone in the community to go after the local companies to raise the money.”

Across the country, community media centers are being forced to reimagine their roles — to move beyond “access TV” to vital centers for workforce development, media literacy and hyperlocal communication.

As the January 2027 deadline approaches, the mood at Akakū Maui Community Media is not one of resignation but of defiance and evolution. The looming $400,000 annual budget cut and the court battle over standing present real threats.

The station is positioning itself to survive by pivoting its model from traditional cable access to a modern community media hub — embracing social-media-native content to reach audiences who have never owned a cable box. 

While cable revenue represents 80% of the organization’s budget, it also makes money in other ways, including video production, some rental revenue from the shopping center that serves as its home, and a few grants for providing services like live video coverage of Maui County meetings.

April remains adamant that while the state may have dismantled their current funding structure, it cannot sever the connection between Akakū and the people of Maui Nui.

“We’re not going to tolerate being shut down by the state,” he said. “We have a lot of resources. We have a lot of support. People love us, and we love them. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to stick around, no matter what happens. You have to fight for electronic democracy. It ain’t gonna be handed to you.”