The buyer of KHON-TV said yesterday no on-air talent, including popular anchor Joe Moore, will be affected by job cuts.

Sandy Benton, chief operating officer of SJL Broadcast Co., said the company has no plans to cut back on its news programs and that most of the cuts announced on Thursday will be in KHON's production and technical operations.

"I know you can take strong stations and keep them strong and still be more efficient," Benton said.

On Thursday, SJL told KHON's staffers that it will lay off as many as 35 of the station's 112 employees.

Benton said it is too early to discuss specific changes at KHON since the company has yet to hire a general manager to replace Rick Blangiardi, who announced Thursday that he is leaving KHON.

Typically SJL, which has bought and sold 18 television stations since 1983, will reduce production costs by automating the station's television studios, the company said.

"It's not going to be easy to take this station (KHON) to a better level but we will do our darn best," said George Lilly, SJL's chief executive officer, in a telephone interview yesterday.

"We see a great station and our challenge is to make it a better station."

Moore said yesterday that he will remain at KHON under his current contract, which expires in 2009. Moore said his contract will be assumed by SJL.

Moore also expressed concerns about the job cuts.

"I'm concerned about my colleagues but I'm also concerned about our ability to continue to provide the quality that we provide to this state," Moore said.

Moore, who has gone through about half a dozen ownership changes since joining KHON, said SJL is the first buyer "to walk in the door and announce mass, across-the-board firings."

Workers at the station were "shocked, disappointed and angry" about the cuts, Moore said.

SJL, which owns television stations in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Erie, Pa., and Binghamton, N.Y., typically looks for ways to cut costs in production through automation and by reducing staff. The company typically sells stations it owns within six to 11 years, Lilly said.

In some markets, SJL has implemented technology, for example, that allows a single worker in a studio to use a computer joystick to control several cameras, instead of having an operator on each camera, Benton said.

"When you buy a company you look if there's overstaffing and what you do is look at automation," Benton said. "This is something we've done over and over again."

Spencer Adkins, chief meteorologist at television station WOWK in West Virginia, recalled similar moves by SJL more than five years ago when it bought his company.

Adkins said that SJL, which sold WOWK in 2002, laid off a handful of the station's employees.

KHON, the local Fox affiliate that has dominated Hawai'i's television news ratings for years, employs 101 full-time and 11 part-time workers.

The layoffs will be conducted in phases with half being announced at the end of the month and the remaining half in the next 90 days. Benton said the laid-off workers will receive severance.

SJL said it plans to complete its purchase of KHON at the end of the month. SJL is purchasing KHON and three Mainland stations from Emmis Communications Corp. in a deal valued at $259 million.

Lilly stressed that SJL remains committed to KHON's Hawai'i consumers and said that changes implemented at Mainland stations bought by SJL have resulted in higher ratings and increased revenues.

Founded in 1983, SJL is a Montecito, Calif.-based privately held media company with annual revenues of about $85 million.

Lilly said SJL, which is in the process of changing its corporate name to Montecito Broadcast Group, gets its name from Lilly's son Steven James Lilly, who died years ago at the age of 4.

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.