KGW

The station was an extension of radio station KGW (620 AM, now KPOJ). The Oregonian newspaper created KGW by purchasing an existing transmitter from the Shipowners Radio Service. The U.S. Department of Commerce licensed the radio station, and it began broadcasting on March 25, 1922[3] (after a test transmission two days earlier).[4] Among the station's early personalities was "The Man of 1000 Voices," Mel Blanc, who debuted on the radio program The Hoot Owls. The station's studios and transmitter were located in The Oregonian Building[5][6] (of 1892) until 1943, when a fire destroyed them[7] and the station moved to other quarters.[6] The Oregonian applied for and received a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) construction permit for a television station in 1947, but later returned it in order to focus on its core newspaper business. It later bought KOIN (970 AM, now KUFO) and used it to start KOIN-TV (channel 6).

The Oregonian sold KGW-AM-FM to North Pacific Television, a consortium of Seattle businesswoman Dorothy Bullitt and five Portland businessmen, on November 1, 1953. Bullitt's King Broadcasting Company, who also owned KING-AM-FM-TV in Seattle, was the largest shareholder in the venture, with a 40 percent stake. Bullitt eventually bought out her partners (and in doing so, became the sole owner of the station), and KGW-TV signed on the air on December 15, 1956 on channel 8 as an ABC affiliate. On April 26, 1959, it swapped affiliations with KPTV (channel 12), becoming an NBC affiliate (KGW's sister station, KING-TV in Seattle, also switched from ABC to NBC with KOMO-TV at the same time).

The KGW-TV tower was a prominent victim of the Northwest's historic, and violent Columbus Day Storm on October 12, 1962. The station returned to the air on October 16 using a temporary tower, as well as an antenna on loan from KTNT-TV (now KSTW) of Tacoma, Washington. A new antenna and tower were placed into service on January 28, 1963.

KGW's main studios

In January 1964, KGW began building a new broadcast center at 1501 SW Jefferson Street,[8] which has served as its headquarters and main studios location ever since. The station moved into the new facility, from an old building located two blocks to the east, in 1965, the radio facilities in the spring[9] and the television facilities in July 1965.[10] Located at the west edge of downtown Portland, the two-story building had approximately 54,000 sq ft (5,000 m²) of space.[10]

In 1992, King Broadcasting (which also included KING-TV in Seattle, KREM-TV in Spokane, Washington, KTVB in Boise, Idaho and KHNL in Honolulu, Hawaii) merged with The Providence Journal Company. Only five years later, in 1997, KGW became part of the Belo Corporation when it bought The Providence Journal Company.

KGW's logo used from September 1999 to January 21, 2008.

KGW's logo used from January 22, 2008 to July 21, 2014.

KGW aired a Portland Trail Blazers game in high-definition on October 24, 2007. On October 12, 2011, KGW announced that unless a new contract agreement could be reached that it would drop the station from DirecTV's channel lineup.[11] This contract dispute that involved DirecTV and Belo would also remove sister station KING-TV from DirecTV in the Seattle market.[12] On November 1, 2011, DirecTV reached an agreement with Belo[11] to resume carrying KGW and KING on DirecTV.[12]

On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo. However, since Gannett owns the Statesman Journal newspaper in Salem—within KGW's viewing area—KGW was instead sold to Sander Media, LLC (owned by former Belo executive Jack Sander), with Gannett operating KGW through joint sales and shared services agreements in order to comply with the FCC's cross-ownership restrictions.[13][14] The sale was completed on December 23.[15]

On June 29, 2015, Gannett's publishing and digital media operations were spun off, with the latter renamed Tegna.[16] Shortly afterward, Sander Media filed with the FCC to transfer KGW's license to Tegna's King Broadcasting Company;[17] the acquisition was completed on December 3, 2015.[18]

Syndicated programming on this station includes The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Inside Edition. Along with NBC network programming, the station also airs some local programs such as a daily one-hour talk show called Portland Today and a daily local half-hour news magazine The Good Stuff (formerly Live at 7 and Tonight With Cassidy). The station preempts the Saturday edition of Today in favor of its extended weekend morning newscasts.

Exterior of KGW's 2009-opened studio at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

KGW presently broadcasts 40½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6½ hours each weekday and four hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).

KGW-TV's original evening news team remained intact for more than seven years—a rarity in the broadcast industry. Anchors Richard Ross and Ivan Smith, commentator Tom McCall, sportscaster Doug LaMear and meteorologist Jack Capell were the faces of KGW's News Beat from sign-on in December 1956 until early 1964, when McCall left the air to run for Oregon Secretary of State. McCall won election that fall, and was elected Governor of Oregon two years later. Ross anchored KGW's nightly newscast Northwest Tonight until 1975, and LaMear and Capell remained on Channel 8 for at least another two decades after Ross' departure for rival KATU (channel 2).

On January 21, 2008, KGW became the first television station in the Portland market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.[23] Along with a newly renovated studio, the station shortened its brand from "KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8" to "KGW NewsChannel 8", updated its logo/graphics, and debuted Version 3 of 615 Music's "The Tower" music package. In November 2008, KGW retrofitted its news helicopter with an HD camera.[24]

In 2008–2009, the station developed a high-definition news studio in downtown Portland at Pioneer Courthouse Square, in a space previously occupied by Powell's Books. Regular broadcasts from the location that KGW named the "Studio on the Square" began on March 17, 2009.[25] KGW's noon and 4 p.m. newscasts originate from the downtown location.[26]

KGW operates low-powered translator KGWZ-LD (channel 23), which allows homes with issues receiving KGW's VHF signal or only a UHF antenna to receive KGW in some form. Prior to 2020, it showed a loop of ODOT traffic cameras and KGW's skycam network.

In addition to KGWZ-LD, KGW's signal is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:

NOTE: All of KGW's translator services appear on virtual channel 8 (8.1, 8.2, etc.) through use of PSIP.

Specific references:

General references:

Wikimedia Commons has media related to KGW.

• Official website
• KGW in the FCC's TV station database
  • KGWZ in the FCC's TV station database
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KGW-TV