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KGW
KGW (channel 8) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Jefferson Street in southwestern Portland, and its transmitter is located in the city's Sylvan-Highlands section.
KGW-TV began broadcasting on December 15, 1956. It was built by a consortium of the Seattle-based King Broadcasting Company and Portland investors, owners of Portland radio station KGW (620 AM). It was the fourth television station on the air in Portland and took the ABC affiliation before switching to NBC in 1959. The present studios were completed in 1965 after the station's original facilities were placed in the path of Interstate 405. From the start, KGW-TV had a strong news team, with multiple on-air personnel who remained at the station for decades as well as commentator Tom McCall, who left the station in 1964 to run for public office and served two terms as Governor of Oregon. KGW's Evening show, introduced in 1975, was one of several weeknight feature magazines to predate the syndicated PM Magazine and aired in one form or another for 21 years. In news, KGW contended for number-one ratings through the 1970s but had inconsistent performances in the 1980s.
In 1990, the Providence Journal Company acquired King Broadcasting; the Belo Corporation in turn acquired Providence Journal in 1997. After several years of a slump in news ratings and a period of four news directors in the span of two years, the station found stability and ratings success in the mid- to late 1990s and reached number one in the 2000s and early 2010s, but news viewership began to decline as the station slipped to second place in the 2010s. For 25 years from 1992 to 2017, KGW was the broadcast television home of the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team. KGW produces local newscasts and non-news programming covering Oregon and southwest Washington.
Portland, Oregon, was one of the largest cities in the United States without a television station prior to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) freezing new station assignments in 1948. The freeze ended in 1952, and Portland was assigned three VHF channels for commercial use: 6, 8, and 12. Prior to the freeze, five groups had applied with the FCC for what were then four available commercial channels. Among the pre-freeze applicants were radio stations KGW (620 AM), which had sought channel 6, and KOIN, which was the only applicant for channel 8. Two groups had applied for channel 10, which became reserved non-commercial educational after the freeze lifted. KEX, owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting, shifted its application from channel 10 to channel 8. Three other groups sought channel 8. Portland Television, Inc., was formed by a group of local businessmen. John R. Latourette Sr. and his son John R. Latourette Jr., partners in a Portland law firm, formed Cascade Television Company. The fourth applicant to file for channel 8 was North Pacific Television, in which Seattle-based King Broadcasting was the majority stockholder. Portland interests also participated in North Pacific Television, including president Gordon Orput, an insurance executive, and men active in the real estate and oil industries. The applications were designated for comparative hearing in September 1952 as the commission prepared to hear applications for all of Portland's contested channels. With twelve applicants seeking the four channels, months of testimony were required.
Hearings on channel 8 began on January 26, 1953, as the third group of applicants to be analyzed. First to present its case was Portland Television, which had to explain similarities between program proposals in its bid and those of a sister company, Denver Television, for a station in Denver. Next was KEX, followed by North Pacific Television. North Pacific relied heavily on its experience as the only pre-freeze television broadcaster in the Pacific Northwest, operating Seattle's KING-TV. The last firm to present was Cascade Television; it refused to present new testimony, and FCC hearing examiner Elizabeth C. Smith held the firm in default.
Meanwhile, KGW and KOIN both sought channel 6. Their bids and one from KXL were in the last group to be heard, which was already delayed by the slow pace of the channel 8 hearings. KXL dropped its application, and on May 17, 1953, KGW and KOIN announced they would merge their television applications. Under the agreement, which averted a lengthy contest for channel 6 and promised to put the station on the air sooner, KOIN would win the permit, but the Newhouse family, publishers of The Oregonian and owners of KGW, would be allowed to buy half of KOIN's radio and television operation. That, in turn, required the divestiture of KGW to meet FCC radio ownership limits. On August 30, KGW radio found its buyer: the same investors involved in North Pacific Television.
Hearing examiner Smith issued an initial decision favoring North Pacific Television on June 22, 1954. The losing applicants appealed her decision to the FCC, which held a final round of arguments on the matter that December; by that time, Cascade was out of the running. Portland Television's lawyer alleged that Smith's decision was actively hostile to his firm, while Westinghouse decried the regional concentration of broadcast station ownership by King Broadcasting and its affiliates. The commission voted in June 1955 to uphold Smith's decision and award channel 8 to North Pacific Television.
With the channel awarded, planning and construction began. In March 1956, North Pacific Television purchased a plot of land in the Sylvan area to house the station's transmitter facility, after having originally sought to build at Mt. Scott. At the time, the station was designated as KTLV. The site was near where KOIN-TV (channel 6) had already located. North Pacific Television merged with Pioneer Broadcasters that March, and the station was given the call sign KGW-TV in May. Construction began in May; the station began broadcasting color test patterns in early November, even though its studios on 13th Avenue between SW Main and Jefferson streets were not yet ready.
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KGW
KGW (channel 8) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Jefferson Street in southwestern Portland, and its transmitter is located in the city's Sylvan-Highlands section.
KGW-TV began broadcasting on December 15, 1956. It was built by a consortium of the Seattle-based King Broadcasting Company and Portland investors, owners of Portland radio station KGW (620 AM). It was the fourth television station on the air in Portland and took the ABC affiliation before switching to NBC in 1959. The present studios were completed in 1965 after the station's original facilities were placed in the path of Interstate 405. From the start, KGW-TV had a strong news team, with multiple on-air personnel who remained at the station for decades as well as commentator Tom McCall, who left the station in 1964 to run for public office and served two terms as Governor of Oregon. KGW's Evening show, introduced in 1975, was one of several weeknight feature magazines to predate the syndicated PM Magazine and aired in one form or another for 21 years. In news, KGW contended for number-one ratings through the 1970s but had inconsistent performances in the 1980s.
In 1990, the Providence Journal Company acquired King Broadcasting; the Belo Corporation in turn acquired Providence Journal in 1997. After several years of a slump in news ratings and a period of four news directors in the span of two years, the station found stability and ratings success in the mid- to late 1990s and reached number one in the 2000s and early 2010s, but news viewership began to decline as the station slipped to second place in the 2010s. For 25 years from 1992 to 2017, KGW was the broadcast television home of the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team. KGW produces local newscasts and non-news programming covering Oregon and southwest Washington.
Portland, Oregon, was one of the largest cities in the United States without a television station prior to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) freezing new station assignments in 1948. The freeze ended in 1952, and Portland was assigned three VHF channels for commercial use: 6, 8, and 12. Prior to the freeze, five groups had applied with the FCC for what were then four available commercial channels. Among the pre-freeze applicants were radio stations KGW (620 AM), which had sought channel 6, and KOIN, which was the only applicant for channel 8. Two groups had applied for channel 10, which became reserved non-commercial educational after the freeze lifted. KEX, owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting, shifted its application from channel 10 to channel 8. Three other groups sought channel 8. Portland Television, Inc., was formed by a group of local businessmen. John R. Latourette Sr. and his son John R. Latourette Jr., partners in a Portland law firm, formed Cascade Television Company. The fourth applicant to file for channel 8 was North Pacific Television, in which Seattle-based King Broadcasting was the majority stockholder. Portland interests also participated in North Pacific Television, including president Gordon Orput, an insurance executive, and men active in the real estate and oil industries. The applications were designated for comparative hearing in September 1952 as the commission prepared to hear applications for all of Portland's contested channels. With twelve applicants seeking the four channels, months of testimony were required.
Hearings on channel 8 began on January 26, 1953, as the third group of applicants to be analyzed. First to present its case was Portland Television, which had to explain similarities between program proposals in its bid and those of a sister company, Denver Television, for a station in Denver. Next was KEX, followed by North Pacific Television. North Pacific relied heavily on its experience as the only pre-freeze television broadcaster in the Pacific Northwest, operating Seattle's KING-TV. The last firm to present was Cascade Television; it refused to present new testimony, and FCC hearing examiner Elizabeth C. Smith held the firm in default.
Meanwhile, KGW and KOIN both sought channel 6. Their bids and one from KXL were in the last group to be heard, which was already delayed by the slow pace of the channel 8 hearings. KXL dropped its application, and on May 17, 1953, KGW and KOIN announced they would merge their television applications. Under the agreement, which averted a lengthy contest for channel 6 and promised to put the station on the air sooner, KOIN would win the permit, but the Newhouse family, publishers of The Oregonian and owners of KGW, would be allowed to buy half of KOIN's radio and television operation. That, in turn, required the divestiture of KGW to meet FCC radio ownership limits. On August 30, KGW radio found its buyer: the same investors involved in North Pacific Television.
Hearing examiner Smith issued an initial decision favoring North Pacific Television on June 22, 1954. The losing applicants appealed her decision to the FCC, which held a final round of arguments on the matter that December; by that time, Cascade was out of the running. Portland Television's lawyer alleged that Smith's decision was actively hostile to his firm, while Westinghouse decried the regional concentration of broadcast station ownership by King Broadcasting and its affiliates. The commission voted in June 1955 to uphold Smith's decision and award channel 8 to North Pacific Television.
With the channel awarded, planning and construction began. In March 1956, North Pacific Television purchased a plot of land in the Sylvan area to house the station's transmitter facility, after having originally sought to build at Mt. Scott. At the time, the station was designated as KTLV. The site was near where KOIN-TV (channel 6) had already located. North Pacific Television merged with Pioneer Broadcasters that March, and the station was given the call sign KGW-TV in May. Construction began in May; the station began broadcasting color test patterns in early November, even though its studios on 13th Avenue between SW Main and Jefferson streets were not yet ready.