KGW

KGW
KGW's studio building, designed by Fred Bassetti
CityPortland, Oregon
Channels
BrandingKGW 8; KGW News
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
December 15, 1956 (1956-12-15)
Former call signs
KGW-TV (1956–1994)
Former channel numbers
  • Analog: 8 (VHF, 1956–2009)
  • Digital: 46 (UHF, 2000–2009), 8 (VHF, 2009–2021)
  • ABC (1956–1959)
Call sign meaning
Derived from KGW radio, randomly assigned
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID34874
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT539 m (1,768 ft)
Transmitter coordinates45°31′20.5″N 122°44′49.5″W / 45.522361°N 122.747083°W / 45.522361; -122.747083
Translator(s)see § Translators
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.kgw.com

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.