It may surprise K-drama fans to realize that KBFD-TV is celebrating its 22nd anniversary tomorrow.

The K-drama craze has been going on for almost a decade, but KBFD, locally owned and operated by founder Kea Sung Chung, struggled its first decade.

Kea started in broadcasting in 1974 when he leased 30 minutes a week from a local station every Saturday morning to show Korean news in black and white as a community service.

He increased the 30 minutes weekly to an hour, then several hours a week, and eventually started his own station in 1986, taking an ethnic station mainstream.

"KBFD is like the Spanish language stations in L.A.," said Mike Rosenberg, general manager of KITV.

Why is that remarkable? Spanish stations in Southern California have seen success, but there, the Hispanic population is a significant segment of the market. Hawai'i has only a 3 percent Korean population.

Kea Chung answered some questions:

Q. What made you gamble everything you had to start KBFD at age 52?

A. It was difficult to get prime time, as it was not available for rent or simply too expensive. More importantly, I wanted to be a local owner of a television station in Hawai'i, and the challenge motivated me despite the criticism from my own community. People tried to change my mind, saying how can a community of 35,000 support a television station? The business model simply did not make sense. I was tired of having the fear of time- lease fees increasing and not having that kind of control.

Q. What were the biggest challenges in the first 10 years?

A. Making sure KBFD was in full compliance with the FCC kept me busy. The cost of broadcast equipment was a big challenge, as we were always trying to acquire better production and broadcast equipment. The biggest challenge, bar none, is trying to get local advertisers to try KBFD as part of their media plan without any ratings.

Q. What was the reason to start subtitling the dramas despite the long hours and cost involved?

A. To produce one hour of translated and subtitled drama took about 10 hours. I felt the need to not only service the Korean community as a Hawai'i resident but to service the local community, and to do that, we had to translate and subtitle our programming to expand our audience. To introduce the Korean culture to the non-Koreans, we had to subtitle our programming. Also, the second generations were losing their language, and subtitling helped some retention of the language. That is the beauty of television, there is video and audio; a dual communication vehicle. You can't do that with Korean newspaper or Korean radio; you have to understand the Korean language.

Q. How has KBFD serviced the other communities?

A. Many local ethnic companies had approached me in the past to get their programming on the air. Other stations were either too costly, or time was simply not available. I know the difficulty, as I have lived through the same challenge to lease time making a viable business. So we offered heavily discounted rates to ethnic broadcasting companies who didn't have a station. We have had Japanese programming hours and Chinese programming hours that we leased at very affordable rates. We even provided free air time to the Philippine Consulate to air Filipino cultural programming. Most recently, we have had Vietnamese programming hours as well.

Q. What is your current challenge?

A. I often attend social functions, and non-Koreans will discuss with me specific Korean dramas and the day-to-day development. I have to make an effort to watch every drama so I can keep up with the local fans. Can you imagine the owner of the station not knowing what is going on in the series?

But seriously, our biggest challenge today is the pirating of Korean programming. ... Fortunately, the Korean networks have addressed this issue and have started to legally take measures. The difficulty for fans is that they do not know if the business is legitimate or not.

Q. What will happen once KBFD goes digital?

A. We have poured all of our resources to keep up with the digital transition, and once we are fully transitioned to digital next year, many opportunities will open for ethnic programmers once again.

THIS WEEK’S K-DRAMA SYNOPSES

'BRIDE FROM VIETNAM'

Episodes 61 and 62

Tonight at 7: Sung-il tries to leave when he sees Jin-ju's mother at Yewon, but gets stopped by Bok-ryu, who orchestrated the surprise meeting. Finally meeting Sung-il, Jin-ju's mother breaks down in tears after seeing that he's alive and well. Ok-kyong also visits Yewon on Ji-young's dare.

Tonight at 8: Sung-il confesses to Ok-kyong about Jin-ju and tells her that he lived with the guilt for the past 20 years. While screaming at Sung-il, in response to the confession, Ok-kyong collapses and ends up in the hospital.

'KING & I'

Episodes 45 and 46

Tomorrow at 7:45 p.m.: So-hwa pleads with the queen mother to spare Eol-Woo-Dong's life, and the king accuses her of being a hypocrite. Chi-gyeom tries to make a deal with Han Myong-hwe over the fate of Eol-Woo-Dong, but it puts him in an even bigger quandary.

Tuesday at 7:45 p.m.: So-hwa gives birth, but the prematurely born baby's life is in danger. Chuh-sun tells the king poison was found in So-hwa's room, but pleads her innocence.

'BAD GUY'

Episodes 13 and 14

Wednesday at 7:45 p.m.: Dal-lae is in shock over her and Oh-joon's sudden breakup. Dal-lae doubts the reasons Oh-joon gave her for the breakup, which was the money that he'd get from Jin-gu's father for breaking it off with Dal-lae.

Thursday at 7:45 p.m.: Dal-lae tries in vain to ask Oh-joon about the reason he left her. Just as she's longing for him, Jin-goo is similarly heartbroken over Dal-lae's continued refusal.

'SCARY GIRL'

Episodes 45, 46 and 47, 48

Friday at 7:45 p.m.: Jung-jin calls Young-rim from Kyung-pyo's hospital room and tells her Chairman Baek, Eun-hae and he know all about Kyung-pyo and Young-rim's relationship.

Saturday at 7:45 p.m.: Jung-jin is devastated when he finds out his father left him nothing, and that he's not entitled to any of the company shares. Chairman Baek pays a surprise visit.