KICH (630
AM) is a radio station broadcasting from the village of
Dededo, in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
territory of
Guam
Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic ce ...
.
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. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...
. 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
Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to:
* Conglomerate (company)
* Conglomerate (geology)
* Conglomerate (mathematics)
In popular culture:
* The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes
** Co ...
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 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 (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 m ...
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 only Pacific Telestations radio outlet during that time. 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*
*
FCC History Cards for KICH
ICH
Ich may refer to:
* Ich, a German pronoun meaning ''I'', also a Middle English form of ''I''
* The ego, one of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche
* ''Ich'' (album), an album by German rapper Sido
* I ...
1954 establishments in Guam
Radio stations established in 1954
Internet radio in the United States
Internet radio stations in the United States
{{Guam-radio-station-stub