KICH (630 AM) is a radio station broadcasting from the village of

Dededo Dededo (; Spanish: ) is the most populated village in the United States territory of Guam. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Dededo's population was just under 45,000 in 2020. The village is located on the coral plateau of Northern Guam. The gr ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

territory of

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

. As KUAM, it was Guam's first commercial radio station, broadcasting from 1954 to 2020. It aired Chamorro music and

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

. Isla63 became an online radio station when Pacific Telestations discontinued operation in 2020 for economic reasons and sold the license.

History

The station was owned by Pacific Telestations, LLC (a company of the local conglomerate Calvo Enterprises, Inc.) and was Guam's first commercial radio station, having signed on the air on March 14, 1954. When it started up, the

Armed Forces Radio Service The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the United States Armed Forces provides to soldiers stationed or assigned overseas, and is headquartered at Fort Meade in Maryland. AFN comprises two sub ...

station that had operated at 1380 kHz since September 1949 ceased operations. It was originally owned by Harry Engel and his Radio Guam; Engel started

KUAM-TV KUAM-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña (Agana), Guam, serving the territories of the United States#Permanently inhabited territories, U.S. territory as an affiliate of NBC and CBS. Owned by Pacific Telestations ...

(channel 8) three years later. The station was sold in 1964 to Pacific Broadcasting Corporation and to Pacific Telestations in 1977. Long known as "Isla61", KUAM changed its broadcast frequency from 612 kHz to 630 kHz in July 2007. This move enables most radios with digital tuners found locally (built for the Americas'

ITU Region The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in its International Radio Regulations, divides the world into three ITU regions for the purposes of managing the global radio spectrum. Each region has its own set of frequency allocations, the ma ...

2 interval of 10 kHz) to tune precisely to the station's frequency instead of being 2 kHz off (when tuned to 610 kHz). After Typhoon Pongsona hit Guam on December 8, 2002, Isla61 was off the air for more than one year. Programs such as the morning talk "Positively Local" and the TV news simulcast were instead carried by sister station KUAM-FM. The KUAM-TV nightly newscast at 6 p.m. was simulcast on Isla63. On April 20, 2020, it was confirmed that KUAM Communications would conclude broadcasting after 66 years on the radio on May 1. In filing to take the station temporarily silent, Pacific noted that it had discontinued operation of KUAM for economic reasons. The license was then donated to Good News Broadcasting Corporation effective May 10, 2021. New KICH call letters were applied on May 18, 2021.

References

External links

KUAM official website
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FCC History Cards for KICH (as KUAM)
ICH 1954 establishments in Guam Radio stations established in 1954 Internet radio stations in the United States Dededo, Guam Chamorro {{Guam-radio-station-stub

History

See also

References

External links