In 2004, Leonard Green & Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, hired veteran broadcaster Peter Mathes to lead its effort to become a big player in Asian media in the U.S. as CEO of the AsianMedia Group.

For the most part, that has meant running AsianMedia's Asian language TV stations — KSCI Los Angeles, whose reach is extended to San Diego with the help of a low-power station, and KIKU Honolulu.

Mathes is best known in broadcasting circles for heading the Chris-Craft/United Television Group from 1998 to 2001. While there, he produced big increases in revenue and cash flow, which paid off for shareholders when the group was sold to News Corp./Fox for $5.4 billion.

In this interview with TVNewsday Editor Harry A. Jessell, Mathes points out that the Asian media market doesn't really exist. It is, in fact, a mosaic of several distinct markets, each comprising a different culture and language — Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Japanese and others, he says.

For years, KSCI has attempted to serve them by addressing each at different times of the broadcast days, Mathes says. It is now going one step further, he says, creating a "suite" of targeted digital subchannels by leasing spectrum to third-party programmers — a move that should benefit viewers and the bottom line.

An edited transcript:

Where are the Asian populations in the U.S.?

Southern California between Los Angeles and northern San Diego, where we are, represents about 18 percent of the Asian American marketplace. New York is next with 13, San Francisco is third with 12 and Honolulu, where we have another station, is 7.

After those cities, there are places like Washington, Chicago, Seattle and Houston, but they're not as big, obviously, as the other markets.

And I assume the population is growing.

It outpaces all markets, including the Hispanic population, making it the fastest growing group. It's fueled by immigration as opposed to the Hispanic population which is driven by birth rate. Within the Asian population, Chinese is the fastest growing.

These audiences are also served by non-broadcast channels, aren't they?

Right. There are some satellite channels that come in from those other countries. But our focus is on local news and information just like KNBC. We're doing the same thing. That's what makes us distinctive here. The [satellite] channels that come in from China or Taiwan or Korea are all programming from those countries. They don't have any local programming.

The Asian market is not monolithic. We are really talking about several different ethnic groups, right?

Right. Each one is distinct. I don't believe that anybody calls themselves an Asian American. If you're Chinese, you're either Chinese or you're a Chinese American. If you're Korean, you're a Korean American. Asian American is something that that the press has created to talk about this group.

It's different with Hispanic media. There are obviously different cultures — whether you're from Cuba or you're from Puerto Rico or you're from Mexico — but the language is the same. In ours, the languages are different. So we program specifically to each language.

And you serve these various ethnic groups by dividing up your broadcast day.

Yes. And we're also looking at creating a suite of digital channels. I can't be too specific, but I can tell you we're in the middle of signing some deals now and we will have six digital channels up by the middle of August. We already have a Vietnamese and an Armenian channel up and we will be adding Chinese, Korean and Japanese channels.

We're repurposing some of our programming on one of the digital channels, 18.2. As an example, we run Chinese programming that airs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the main channel and run it from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the secondary channel. We do the same thing with our Filipino programming. The repurposing gives our viewers an opportunity to watch the programs if they weren't home to see them during their first run on the main channel.

That sounds like a lot of channels. How many digital channels can you squeeze in there?

We think we can put up six. We're not doing any HDTV.

We use statistical multiplexing, which is the technology that allows one channel to use slightly more than another at various times. A news program with talking heads doesn't demand a lot of bandwidth. Sports programming takes a little bit more. With statistical multiplexing, it evens everything out as each channel grabs what it needs. The quality of the picture is great.

Now what's the nature of these deals that you are signing?

Right now, we're doing lease deals. We have programmers coming in leasing the spectrum from us. Basically, it's the equivalent of an LMA.

How much are these programmers paying to lease the channels from you?

In a couple of weeks, I may be able to give you some more information. But we are creating a revenue stream. We're a pretty good example of how to make good use of these channels. We're using our main channel to reach these various audiences and then creating a suite of channels with these subchannels that targets each one.

Are you aware of any other broadcasters who are leasing their digital channels?

Not as aggressively. I think that we have a perfect opportunity here because we're in Los Angeles and because our primary channel is focused on these different cultures. It's unique. If you're in Salt Lake City, I don't think that there's cause to have a 24/7 Chinese channel or Korean channel. So I don't see it as a viable business for people in those markets.

Are these Asian audiences hip to the need for digital receivers and the digital transition?

We have been running a lot of promos and PSAs since last October talking about this. In the same way that a lot of people are concerned about the Hispanic audiences becoming disenfranchised, we're concerned about our audience. We've been working hard to make sure our audience knows what's going on.

If we can get our digital channels up and running now, we hope people will adopt digital faster because there's a compelling reason. If you're Vietnamese and you want your Vietnamese news and you want free over-the-air programming, you'll now be able to get a 24/7 Vietnamese channel — if you have a digital TV or converter.

In LA, 15 percent of the overall market is over the air. In the Asian community, it's about 25 percent. So free, over-the-air is more important for our audiences than it is for the general market.

I know you get must carry on your main channel, but the digital channels do not. Are your digital lessees trying to get carriage?

We're working on that. The other thing that we have in L.A. is a free video on demand channel with Time Warner and we've been putting our locally produced programming on there each day. So I think there may be some interest on the part of Time Warner about carrying some of these other channels because we are offering something that they don't have.

What's you play on the Internet?

We have a video portal, which, I think, is the No. 1 Asian video portal in America. We're doing about a million video streams a month. We put up about 40 to 50 clips a day. So if you're Vietnamese and you live in New Orleans, you can come to our site at LA18.tv and you can find programming in different buckets.

When you actually go into our site, there's a gateway page and it asks you what language you want. We have an English language page, just so that people can see what it's all about from the general market. But we also have Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Vietnamese.

Do you have any competition in LA?

There's one other station, Walter Ulloa, who owns Entravision, has channel 44, KXLA. He leases some time out to a Korean broadcaster in primetime, but his model is just a lease model. They're not doing any local programming as we are.

Earlier, you mentioned that there are significant Asian populations in New York, San Francisco and some other markets. Are you looking to crack those markets?

Yes. Our plan is to get into those other markets and do the same kind of programming that we're doing here on our main channel.

So you're a buyer of stations.

We are. We've been looking at stations.

Where?

I would say New York and San Francisco. If we had New York, that would give us another 13 percent and San Francisco, another 12. If we had just those two additional markets, we would reach 50 percent of the Asian American marketplace.

There must be an Asian station up in San Francisco already.

There is. It's a station like ours, KTSF. There's a woman, Lillian Howell, who owns that. We've talked to her and we'd love to have that station as part of our group, but they've remained independent. They do a very good job.

Now what about your Honolulu station, KIKU? Is it the same kind of station as KSCI?

Honolulu is primarily focused on Japanese and it's a little bit of a hybrid because we run Japanese programming in primetime there. It's all subtitled in English. The Japanese population is about 42 percent of the population of Hawaii and Honolulu. We also run some other programming there that you might find on independents. It's been a tough market for some of the syndicators to find clearances on.

Much of the Japanese population may be third or fourth generation, but they still enjoy connecting with their home country. So they still like watching the dramas, they like watching the travel shows, they like watching the movies. We don't do any local programming on the station.