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Prior to the construction of KGW’s radio transmitter facility in 1931, the broadcasting site and surrounding area were part of a large, natural wetlands. Most of the lakebed surrounding the transmission facilities was drained and turned into to farmland beginning in the late 1920s. It remained in that use until approximately 1965.
 Through the years, the dynamic nature of radio broadcasting brought numerous changes to the towers site, as well as KGW’s on-air format and station ownership.
Approximately 50,000 people gathered around their receiving sets in Oregon, Washington and Idaho when the radio station went live on March 25, 1922. This initial transmission was broadcast from KGW’s studio on the 11th floor of The Oregonian building on Southeast Sixth Ave. and Alder Street, in downtown Portland.
In 1927, KGW became affiliated with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), a newly created national network. Network sponsorship effectively increased the number and variety of radio programs that KGW was able to broadcast. For example, following its production in 1928, the highly popular "Amos and Andy" vaudeville-style radio show was heard over KGW’s airwaves.
In 1931, KGW contracted Clausen and Clausen, a renowned Portland architectural firm, to design a state-of-the-art transmitter building for their North Portland site. At a price of $50,000, the facility, along with two 300-foot transmission towers, became operational on August 3, 1931.
 In meeting the demands of a growing audience, KGW removed one 300-foot tower in 1937 and replaced it with a Truscon 625-foot vertical radiator tower. In 1941, the second original tower was replaced with a 635-foot tower and antenna for radiating directional broadcasts. Its service was cut short, however, after a floating apartment building crashed into it during the 1948 Columbia River flood (commonly referred to as the Vanport flood). The same flood also destroyed a nearby 300-foot wooden mast tower erected by KEX-AM in 1934.
During the 1930s, KGW brought direct worldwide news coverage to listeners with the installation of a teletype machine in its downtown studio in 1935. Soon after, new technologically-advanced portable shortwave transmitters were used to broadcast on-the-spot news coverage. For example, in 1945 KGW was the first station in the country to broadcast news reports from Richland, Washington, concerning the development of the atomic bomb.
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