KGW
U.S. center
Background
KGW traces its roots to a radio station started by The Oregonian newspaper in 1922. In 1953, the paper sold the radio properties to North Pacific Television, a partnership that included Seattle businesswoman Dorothy Bullitt and her King Broadcasting Company. KGW-TV launched on December 15, 1956, on channel 8 as an ABC affiliate and switched to NBC in 1959; it became Portland's first station to broadcast in color in 1964. Bullitt eventually bought out her partners, and in 1992 the Bullitt family sold King Broadcasting to the Providence Journal Corporation. Providence Journal sold its TV stations to Belo Corporation in 1997, and Gannett Company acquired Belo in 2013. When Gannett spun off its broadcasting assets in 2015, those stations — including KGW — became part of the newly formed TEGNA Inc. In 2026, Nexstar Media Group closed a $6.2 billion acquisition of TEGNA, making it the nation's largest local broadcast company; Oregon and seven other states filed suit to block further integration, and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order pausing that process. KGW has no history of strong editorial partisanship; media-bias trackers consistently place it in the center range with high factual credibility.
Sources
- KGW – Wikipedia
- About KGW in Portland, Oregon | kgw.com
- KGW – Portland News – Bias and Credibility | Media Bias/Fact Check
- KGW 8 Media Bias | AllSides
- Nexstar closes $6.2 billion acquisition of TEGNA, including KGW | kgw.com
- Nexstar, owner of KOIN, to acquire TEGNA, owner of KGW, in $6.2 billion deal | kgw.com
- Oregon joins lawsuit to block Tegna, Nexstar merger | OPB
- KGW 8 – Bias and Reliability | Biasly
Profile compiled 2026-08-27; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.