KIEM-TV signed on the air as Eureka's first television station on October 25, 1953. The station was started by William B. Smullin and his company, California Oregon Broadcasting, Inc., who also started KOBI-TV in Medford, Oregon. The station call sign KIEM-TV was a counterpart to the company's AM radio station, KIEM—which stood for "Keep Informed Every Minute". The FM part of a broadcast trio was KRED. KIEM-TV was initially affiliated with CBS; however, as the only station in the market in its early years, it also provided programs from NBC, ABC, and DuMont. After KVIQ signed on in 1958 and became the ABC affiliate, both KIEM and KVIQ offered some NBC programming on a part-time basis. Full-time NBC coverage was provided by San Francisco NBC affiliate KRON on area cable systems. As NBC became the number 1 rated network in the mid-1980s, both KVIQ and KIEM increased the amount of programming aired from the work. At the same time, there were proposals for KREQ-TV to launch as a new station in the Eureka market. In 1985, KIEM signed an exclusive affiliation contract with NBC, and KVIQ affiliated with CBS, while both carried ABC programming on a secondary basis until KREQ signed on. KIEM's NBC affiliation commenced on December 30, 1985. Another commercial station, KREQ-TV signed on the air in 1987 offering ABC to the North Coast. When the new station signed on, both KVIQ and KIEM ceased offering ABC programs on a part-time basis. Pollack/Belz Broadcasting, who purchased the station in 1996, agreed to sell KIEM-TV to Lost Coast Broadcasting on March 13, 2017. Lost Coast, in turn, assigned its right to acquire the station to Redwood Television Partners, a subsidiary of Northwest Broadcasting, on August 15. Northwest would at that time sell its existing Eureka station, KVIQ. The sale was completed on December 1. In February 2019, Reuters reported that Apollo Global Management had agreed to acquire the entirety of Brian Brady's television portfolio, which it intends to merge with Cox Media Group and stations spun off from Nexstar Media Group's purchase of Tribune Broadcasting, once the purchases are approved by the FCC. In March 2019 filings with the FCC, Apollo confirmed that its newly-formed broadcasting group, Terrier Media, would acquire Northwest Broadcasting, with Brian Brady holding an unspecified minority interest in Terrier. In June 2019, it was announced that Terrier Media would instead operate as Cox Media Group, as Apollo had reached a deal to also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses. The transaction was completed on December 17.
Digital television
Digital channel
Analog-to-digital conversion
KIEM-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 3, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 16 to VHF channel 3 for post-transition operations.
Satellite availability
The Eureka television market, one of the smallest in the country, was the only TV market in California not available on Dish Network until June 3, 2010, at which time it became available. Since November 2, 2011, KIEM has also been available on DirecTV.
Sign-off
As of November 2013, KIEM signed off every Sunday morning at 1:00 a.m., and Monday morning at 12:35 a.m., and resumes broadcast at 5:00 a.m. During sign-off and sign-on, KIEM broadcast a classic sequence, which includes the old blue "3" logo with the NBC peacock logo and the station ID, which is licensed to the city. These were shown before and after the test pattern with SMPTE color bars and the News Channel 3 logo with the current gold "3" and NBC peacock logo with the station ID. This was its current digital ID as KIEM-DT, with the call letters used until the US Digital Transition in 2009 and its slogan as "The Spirit of the North Coast" on the bottom of the pattern. KIEM did not play the national anthem at sign-off or sign-on. As of April 2020, they are now 24/7, running infomercials and similar programming during late night hours on weekends.
News operation
KIEM produces a total of 8½ hours of local news each week, with 1½ hours each weekday and one hour on Saturdays and Sundays. The station provides brief news updates during the Today Show. KIEM is currently the only station within the Eureka market to provide newscasts on weekend evenings, as competitors KAEF and KBVU only broadcast weekday newscasts. KIEM may also provide breaking news coverage for floods or other emergency coverage when warranted. In 2017, KIEM introduced a major update to their graphics with HD capabilities.
