KGW

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 serves as the Portland bureau for co-owned regional news channel Northwest Cable News and produces news segments for the channel.

History

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).

KPOJ

KPOJ (620 AM) is a radio station serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon and neighboring Washington. It airs a sports talk format, and is affiliated with Fox Sports Radio. Prior to November 9, 2012, the station aired an influential progressive talk format. The transmitter is located in Sunnyside, Oregon; their studios are in Tigard, Oregon. The station is owned by iHeartMedia.

History

For more than 70 years, the station at AM 620 was KGW, founded in 1922 by The Oregonian newspaper and owned and operated by it until 1953, when it was sold to King Broadcasting. It began broadcasting on March 25, 1922 (after a test transmission two days earlier). KGW affiliated with the NBC network in 1927 and stayed for 29 years until joining ABC Radio in 1956. The station's studios and transmitter were located in the Oregonian Building from 1922 until 1943, when a fire destroyed them and the station moved to other quarters.

Among KGW's early personalities was Mel Blanc, a local musician and vocalist featured on the "Hoot Owls" variety program from 1927 to 1933. Here, Blanc discovered a talent for character voices that would win him stardom as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and many other Warner Brothers cartoon features.