KGW

KGW is an NBC affiliate television station serving the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. The station broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 8, from its transmitter in Portland. It also produces segments and serves as the Portland bureau for Northwest Cable News (NWCN), which is also owned by KGW's corporate parent, Belo Corp. Along with NBC's lineup, the station also airs some local programming, including telecasts of a select amount of Portland Trail Blazers games.

History
The station was an extension of radio station KGW (620 AM). 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 21, 1922.[citation needed]

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.

North Pacific Television, Inc. acquired KGW and KGW-FM on November 1, 1953.[citation needed] The group was owned by a group of five Portland businessmen and Seattle businesswoman Dorothy Bullitt. Bullit's King Broadcasting Company owned a 40 percent stake in the venture. Bullitt eventually gained full control of the stations, and KGW-TV signed on the air on December 15, 1956 on channel 8 as an ABCaffiliate. On April 26, 1959, it swapped affiliations with KPTV, becoming an NBC affiliate (KGW's sister station, KING-TV in Seattle, also switched from ABC to NBC at the same time[citation needed] ).

 KGW-TV's original evening news team remained intact for more than seven years - a rarity in the broadcast industry.[citation needed] 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 news "Northwest Tonight" until 1975, and LaMear and Capell remained on Channel 8 for at least another two decades after Ross' departure for rival KATU.The KGW-TV tower was a prominent victim of the Northwest's historic, violent Columbus Day Stormon Friday, October 12, 1962.[citation needed] KGW was back on the air Tuesday night, October 16, using a temporary tower, plus 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. In 1964 KGW became the first station in Portland to broadcast in color.[citation needed]

In 1992, the Bullitt family sold KING Broadcasting (which also included KING-TV in Seattle, KREM-TV in Spokane, Washington, KTVB-TV in Boise, Idaho and KHNL-TV in Honolulu, Hawaii) to the Providence Journal Corporation.[citation needed] Belo Corp purchased "ProJo" in 1997, gaining control of all the former KING Broadcasting stations.

KGW aired a Portland Trail Blazers game in high-definition on October 24, 2007. On January 21, 2008 the station became the first in the Portland metropolitan market to broadcast newscasts in HD.[citation needed] Along with a newly-renovated studio, the station was rebranded from "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 a HD camera.[2]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">The station developed a high-definition news studio in Downtown Portland at historic Pioneer Courthouse Square in a space previously occupied by Powell's Books. On March 17, 2009 starting with the 4:30 a.m. Sunrise broadcast, anchors Brenda Braxton, Russ Lewis and Drew Carney officially welcomed in the debut of KGW's "Studio on the Square."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[3] KGW's morning, noon and 7 p.m. newscasts originate from the new location.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[4]

Newscast titles

 * News Beat (1956–1965)
 * KGW-TV News (1965–1973)
 * Channel 8 News (general)/Northwest at Noon (noon newscast)/Northwest Tonight (11 p.m. newscast; 1973–1979)
 * NewsCenter 8 (1979-1986?)
 * News 8 (1986?-1994)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[5]
 * KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8 (1994-January 21, 2008)
 * KGW NewsChannel 8 (January 21, 2008–present)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[6]

Station slogans

 * Channel 8, Take A Look (1979)
 * Channel 8, Proud as a Peacock! (1979–1980; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Channel 8, Our Pride is Showing (1981–1982; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Channel 8, Just Watch Us Now! (1982–1983; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Channel 8 There, Be There (1983–1984; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Channel 8, Let's All Be There! (1984–1986; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Come Home to Channel 8 (1986–1987; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Come on Home to Channel 8 (1987–1988; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Come Home to the Best, Only on Channel 8 (1988–1990; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Channel 8, The Place to Be!
 * Draw On Us, News 8 (early 1990s)
 * It`s A Whole New Channel 8 (1992–1993; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * The Stars are Back on Channel 8 (1993–1994; localized version of NBC slogan)
 * Coverage You Can Count On: News 8 (c. 1993-1994)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[7]
 * Where the News Comes First (1994–present)

Current on-air staff
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Anchors


 * Tracy Barry - weeknights at 5, 6 and 6:30 p.m.
 * Brenda Braxton - weekday mornings "NewsChannel 8 at Sunrise" (5-7 a.m.) and noon
 * Joe Donlon - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
 * Wayne Havrelly - weekend mornings; also consumer reporter
 * Russ Lewis - weekday mornings "NewsChannel 8 at Sunrise" (5-7 a.m.) and noon
 * Laural Porter - weeknights at 6:30 and 11 p.m.; also host of "Straight Talk"
 * Stephanie Stricklen - weeknights at 7 p.m. (from Studio on the Square in Downtown Portland)
 * Amy Troy - weekends at 5 and 11 p.m.; also reporter

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">First Alert Storm Team


 * Matt Zaffino (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6, 6:30, 7 and 11 p.m.
 * Nick Allard (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings "News Channel 8 at Sunrise" and noon
 * Jim Donovan - meteorologist; weekend mornings "News Channel 8 at Sunrise"
 * Rod Hill (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 5 and 11 p.m.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Sports team


 * Michael Berk - sports anchor; weeknights at 6, 6:30 and 11 p.m.
 * Joe Becker - sports anchor; weekends at 5 and 11 p.m.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Reporters


 * Mike Benner - general assignment reporter
 * Scott Burton - general assignment reporter
 * Drew Carney - morning feature reporter
 * Keely Chalmers - general assignment reporter; also fill-in meteorologist
 * Katherine Cook - general assignment reporter
 * Pat Doris - general assignment and political reporter
 * Abbey Gibb - general assignment reporter
 * Erica Heartquist - morning reporter
 * Kyle Iboshi - general assignment reporter
 * Randy Neves - general assignment and political reporter
 * Joe Smith - consumer, business and 7 p.m. general assignment reporter
 * Collette Wieland - morning general assignment reporter
 * Anne Yeager - investigative reporter

Notable former staff

 * Colin Cowherd (now host of ESPN Radio's The Herd with Colin Cowherd and ESPN2's SportsNation)
 * Ann Curry (now anchor and newsreader on NBC's Today)
 * Tom McCall (Governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975; deceased)
 * John Stossel (later anchor of ABC's 20/20, now at Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel)

Digital television
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">KGW broadcasts on digital channel 8.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Digital channels

Analog-to-digital conversion
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">On July 18, 2008 at 6:14 PM, KGW turned off its' analog signal for 10 seconds to test if viewers' TV sets were ready for DTV.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; " title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from August 2010">[citation needed]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">After the analog television shutdown scheduled for June 12, 2009,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[8] KGW returned to channel 8.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-FCCForm387_8-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[9] As scheduled, KGW shut down its analog transmitter at 3:04 a.m. (PDT). At 3:43 a.m., KGW completed its digital conversion when it shut down its temporary DTV transmitter (on channel 46) and switched digital operations to channel 8.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">KGW provided 24-hour weather on DTV subcarrier channel 8-2 through the DTV transition, until the September 14, 2009 launch of Estrella TV, a Spanish-language network from Liberman Broadcasting. In August 2010, KGW restored the 24-hour news/weather channel on 8-2 and moved Estrella TV to digital subchannel 8-3.

Translators
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">KGW is rebroadcast on the following translator stations. <p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Low power translators in La Pine, Sunriver and Terrebonne have been discontinued.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; " title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from August 2010">[citation needed]