Portland, Oregon United States |
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Branding | KGW (general; visually displayed as "KGW 8") KGW News (newscasts) |
Slogan | We're on it |
Channels |
Digital: 8 (VHF) Virtual: 8 () |
Subchannels | 8.1 NBC 8.2 Justice Network 8.3 Estrella TV |
Translators | see list below |
Affiliations | NBC (1959–present) |
Owner |
Tegna, Inc. (Sander Operating Co. III LLC D/B/A KGW Television) |
First air date | December 15, 1956 |
Call letters' meaning |
Keep Growing Wiser |
Sister station(s) |
KGWZ-LD KING KONG KREM KSKN KTVB KTFT |
Former callsigns | KGW-TV (1956–1994) |
Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 8 (VHF, 1956–2009) Digital: 46 (UHF, 2000–2009) |
Former affiliations |
DT1: ABC (1956–1959) DT2: NBC Weather Plus (2004–2008) KGW Weather Channel (2008–2009) Local news and weather (2010–2012) Live Well Network (2012–2015) |
Transmitter power | 45 kW |
Height | 524 metres (1,719 feet) |
Facility ID | 34874 |
Transmitter coordinates | 45°31′20.5″N 122°44′50.1″W / 45.522361°N 122.747250°W |
Licensing authority | Federal Communications Commission |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www.kgw.com |
KGW, VHF digital channel 8, is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Portland, Oregon, United States. The station is owned by Tegna, Inc. KGW maintains studios on Jefferson Street in southwestern Portland, and its transmitter is located in the city's Sylvan-Highlands section. KGW also served as the Portland bureau for co-owned regional news channel Northwest Cable News before it shut down on January 6, 2017.
The station was an extension of radio station KGW (620 AM, now KPOJ). The Oregonian newspaper created KGW-AM by purchasing an existing transmitter from the Shipowners Radio Service. The U.S. Department of Commerce licensed the station, and it began broadcasting on March 25, 1922 (after a test transmission two days earlier). 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 (of 1892) until 1943, when a fire destroyed them and the station moved to other quarters.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-AM 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 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).