| Hagåtña, Guam | |
|---|---|
| Branding | KUAM-TV 8 (general) KUAM News (newscasts) CBS TV 11 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | First On Guam (general) Guam's News Network (newscasts) |
| Channels | Digital: 8 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 8.1 NBC 8.2 CBS (KUAM-LP) |
| Translators | WSZE 10, Saipan, MP |
| Owner | Pacific Telestations, Inc. |
| First air date | August 5, 1956 |
| Call letters' meaning | Guam |
| Sister station(s) | KUAM, KUAM-FM, KUAM-LP |
| Former affiliations | ABC (secondary, 1956-1987) CBS (secondary, 1956-1995) Fox (secondary, 1986-1990) |
| Transmitter power | 3.5 kW |
| Height | 304 m |
| Facility ID | 51233 |
| Website | www.kuam.com |
KUAM-TV is the NBC affiliate serving Guam. The station is currently owned by Pacific Telestations, Inc., and is a sister station to CBS affiliate KUAM-LP and the local Public-access television cable channel Local 2. The station also serves the Northern Mariana Islands via translator WSZE on channel 10.
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KUAM is Guam's first television station, signing on August 5, 1956 on analog channel 8. It carried programming from all three networks, but has always been a primary NBC affiliate. KUAM began its first broadcast in color in 1970. When Fox debuted in 1986, they carried its lineup as well. For a time, this made KUAM one of the few stations to be affiliated with all four major networks.
Despite being affiliated with all four networks at the time, KUAM was hindered by the fact that Guam was a day ahead of the United States and that most of the shows, especially those from the network, were sent via air and/or mail, which meant that viewers would have to wait from a period of two weeks to a month to see any of the offerings. When they were not showing any network fare they featured local in-house programming, syndicated shows and films (mostly travel or cultural) to make up the difference.
The station lost ABC to KTGM when it began operations in 1987, and lost Fox to the same station in 1990. CBS programming was dropped in 1995 with the launch of KUAM-LP; that station, in turn, would be added as KUAM's digital subchannel, broadcasting on channel 8.2, in 2009.
As technology and satellite started to take off and expand, KUAM began to gradually catch up with the rest of the continental United States. Today the station now follows the complete NBC schedule, but on a Tuesday through Monday pattern rather than the traditional Monday-Sunday pattern, with the exception of NBC's sports lineup, which is live in the early morning hours of Sunday (for all Saturday games and events) and Monday (for all Sunday games and events).
In 2006 KUAM's website, kuam.com, received honors at that year's RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for having the best small market web site, unprecedented honors for a Guam broadcaster.
On February 18, 2009, KUAM signed off their analog signal on channel 8 and switched on its digital signal also on channel 8.[1]
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