KUAM was 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, KUAM was hindered by the fact that Guam was a day ahead of the U.S. mainland and that most 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 it was not showing any network fare it featured local in-house programming, syndicated shows and films to make up the difference. KUAM-TV, together with KUAM radio, were originally owned by Harry S. Engel, a former owner-manager of radio stationKVEN in Ventura, California, with Adam Young International as the stations' representative. Two enterprising mainlanders, H. Scott Kilgore and Sam Rubin, formed the Pacific Broadcasting Corporation and bought the KUAM stations in 1964; the company changed its name to Pacific Telestations, Inc. in the 1970s. At one point, the station also served the Northern Mariana Islands, via satellite stationWSZE on VHF channel 10 in Saipan. However, by the 2000s, the station had gone dark and its license deleted by the FCC. KUAM would lose 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. 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 and Monday. In 2006 KUAM's website, kuam.com, received honors at that year's RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award for having the best small marketweb site. On February 18, 2009, KUAM signed off its analog signal on channel 8 and switched on its digital signal also on channel 8.
Alumni
Madeleine Bordallo — Former TV host; served as the territory's Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives
