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

Dededo Dededo ( ch, Dedidu; formerly in Spanish: , in Japanese: , ''Dededo'') 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 loca ...

, 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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

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 cent ...

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

Chamorro Chamorro may refer to: * Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific * Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas * Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mar ...

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 featu ...

. 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 U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which ...

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 (Agana), Guam, serving the U.S. territory as an affiliate of NBC and CBS. Owned by Pacific Telestations, LLC, it is sister to the local public access cable channel Local 2. KUAM-TV's stu ...

(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 Typhoon Pongsona was the last typhoon of the 2002 Pacific typhoon season, and was the second costliest United States disaster in 2002, only behind Hurricane Lili. The name "Pongsona" was contributed by North Korea for the Pacific tropical cyclo ...

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
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FCC History Cards for KICH
ICH 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