KMGE

**KMGE** (channel 16) is a television station in Eugene, Oregon, United States, associated with NBC and the Spanish-language Telemundo network. It is owned by Central Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) to provide certain services with Dorado Media Group, owner of Fox affiliate KEUG (channel 3). The studios of both stations are located on Blanton Road in Eugene, while KMGE's transmitter is atop Coburg Ridge.

## History

The station first aired on October 4, 1982, shortly after the previous NBC affiliate, KBMC-TV, began replacing specific NBC prime-time broadcasts in its evening lineup with alternative programming from the competing CBS network. This decision led to the station's departure from the NBC network. The subsequent disagreement around this programming decision occurred before the launch of KMGE into the media market and the transition of KBMC's affiliation from NBC to CBS. In 1984, the station got purchased by the Columbia Empire Broadcasting Corporation, based in Yakima, Washington.

The New York City-based Wicks Broadcast Group completed the station's purchase in the latter half of 1995. In March of 1996, Wicks Broadcast Group appointed Brian Benschoter as the station's new general manager. Benschoter quickly began making changes at the Eugene-based station, which was then in the third position. On May 21, 1996, he fired longtime sports anchors Brian Lamb and Steve Freedman in a rash and unexpected move without warning them. Lamb, who had been with the station for twelve years at the time, and Freedman, who had worked there for eight years, were the ones who came up with the idea for the "Prep Athlete of the Week" feature, which went on to become an incredibly well-known weekly accolade. The community still recognizes the award as the most prestigious accolade that the local media can bestow upon a high school athlete in the Eugene/Springfield area. Joe Giansante, a broadcaster specializing in sports talk radio, took over for Lamb and Freedman.

In September 1998, an agreement between KMGE, The WB 100+ Station Group, and the area's cable provider allowed the station to launch cable-only WB affiliate "KEWB." Since it was a cable-exclusive outlet, the call sign was not officially recognized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). KMGE provided sales and promotional opportunities to the cable channel.

Wicks sold KMGE to the Ackerley Group in March 1999, and in 2001, the Ackerley Group partnered with Clear Channel Communications, now known as iHeartMedia. The Oregon Association of Broadcasters honored KMGE as "Station of the Year" in 2005 for its outstanding broadcasting (OAB).

In May 2006, KMGE originally entered into a multi-year affiliation agreement with The CW, which succeeded the WB as the dominant television network. KEWB, formerly available solely through cable, was followed by The CW on KZWB (channel 30) in September 2006.

On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into a deal with Newport Television, a division of Providence Equity Partners, to sell its entire portfolio of television stations. On March 14, 2008, the transaction was finalized.

On February 17, 2009, KMGE turned off its analog signal broadcast over UHF channel 16. This was the initially planned date on which full-power television stations in the United States were supposed to transition from analog to digital broadcasts following a federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on the UHF channel 17 it had been using before the switch. Receivers of digital television show the station's virtual channel, which was once its UHF analog channel 16 when using the protocol known as PSIP.

Before making the change to 16:9 on October 22, 2016, KMGE was the only station in Western Oregon that was connected with one of the "Big Four" television networks that continued to produce its local newscasts in the pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition format.

The 2022 World Athletics Championships were held at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon, and KMGE was the station that served as the host for the event. It was the only station on the West Coast that broadcast live coverage of the event throughout the weekend prime time; all of the other markets on the West Coast aired programming that was tape-delayed.

## Technical information

### Subchannels

The digital signals of the stations are multiplexed as follows:

 **16.2** | TLMD
 **16.3** | 480i