KQV
Encyclopedia
KQV is a radio station
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
. The station, which is the only broadcast station owned by Calvary, Inc., broadcasts at 1410 kHz, with 5000 watts of power day and night. KQV's call letters reportedly stand for King of the Quaker Valley. The station is one of two in the market that use call letters starting with K, a type of callsign not normally found east of the Mississippi River
. KQV also carries Penn State University men's basketball.
which was granted the distinction of being the world's first commercially licensed station on November 2, 1920. KQV did not receive a commercial license until January 9, 1922, despite having started transmitting three years earlier.
Only four radio stations east of the Mississippi River have call letters which start with K: KQV and KDKA
in Pittsburgh, KYW
in Philadelphia (though the KYW callsign has in the past been used in Chicago
and Cleveland), and KFIZ
in Fond du Lac
, Wisconsin. KQV is the only such station that has never had an associated TV station.
for nearly all of that period. Known variously as "Colorful KQV," "Audio 14," "Groovy QV," and "The Big 14" over the years, KQV premiered its top 40 format on January 13, 1958, and is remembered for its high-profile, high-energy personalities, such as Chuck Brinkman, Hal Murray, Dave Scott, Steve Rizen, Dex Allen, Jim Quinn
, future game show announcer Rod Roddy
, and their large-scale promotion of a Beatles concert at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena (now the Mellon Arena
) in 1964, and its former showcase studios at the Chamber of Commerce Building ("on the corner of Walk and Don't Walk," as the DJs would say) in downtown Pittsburgh, where the disk jockeys could be watched through a large window.
Dominant with young listeners throughout the 1960s, the station was a major force in breaking new music and introducing Pittsburgh to new artists such as Sonny & Cher
, the Rolling Stones
, the Supremes
, the Beach Boys
, the Dave Clark Five
and others. KQV slowly began to decline after 1970 with the advent of new competition 13Q and the rise of FM
radio (including its then-sister station WDVE
, which began life as KQV-FM).
One of KQV's top-40 personalities in the 1970s, with the on-air name of "Jeff Christie," later became famous as a talk-show host under his real name, Rush Limbaugh
.
In 1974, another upstart competitor - this time AM station "13Q" WKPQ, the former (and current) WJAS
- also made serious inroads against KQV, which briefly turned to the "14K" brand. ABC Radio conceded the battle at the end of the year, selling both KQV and WDVE off to Cincinnati
-based Taft Broadcasting
(who later bought ABC's former television syndication arm, Worldvision Enterprises).
Taft made another attempt at Top 40 on KQV, this time with a far more radical presentation - with Joey Reynolds
as program director, before dropping the format altogether. Its final night as a top 40 station was October 14, 1975, with the last song being "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show" by Neil Diamond
.
In 1982, Taft executives told General Manager Robert W. Dickey that it intended to unload the station.http://user.pa.net/~ejjeff/kqv0808.html Dickey sought—and received—financial backing from newspaper publisher Richard Mellon Scaife
. Together, the two men formed Calvary, Inc. and purchased the station from Taft that same year. Calvary continues to own the station, and celebrated the all-news format's 35th anniversary in 2010.
KQV's primary weekday anchors are P.J. Maloney, Joe Fenn, Bruce Sakalik, and Dan Weinberg. Steve Lohle had also been a fixture as KQV's afternoon news anchor for 34 years until his death on Friday, June 20, 2008 of an apparent heart attack. Retired weekend anchor Bob Sprague also died of an apparent heart attack in July, 2010. He had anchored weekends for more than 25 years until his retirement
In addition to its news content and public affairs programs such as Pittsburgh Profiles and Pittsburgh Global Press Conference, the station is home to a number of live sporting events, including NFL football, Penn State football, and WPIAL football and basketball, as well as the Triple Crown
and Masters updates.
During evening hours, the station broadcasts The Laura Ingraham Show
(from Talk Radio Network
), When Radio Was
(a series featuring classic radio programs such as Suspense
and The Jack Benny Show, among others) and Red Eye Radio with Doug McIntyre
(from Citadel Media). Also on Sundays a weekly radio series, known as "Imagination Theater", is broadcast.
In 2011, the station re-affiliated with ABC News Radio
for the first time since its' days as an ABC Radio owned-and-operated station, carrying their top-of-the-hour newscasts live.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. The station, which is the only broadcast station owned by Calvary, Inc., broadcasts at 1410 kHz, with 5000 watts of power day and night. KQV's call letters reportedly stand for King of the Quaker Valley. The station is one of two in the market that use call letters starting with K, a type of callsign not normally found east of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. KQV also carries Penn State University men's basketball.
Origins
KQV was one of Pittsburgh's five original AM stations, signing on as amateur station "8ZAE" on November 19, 1919, predating KDKAKDKA (AM)
KDKA is a radio station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Created by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation on November 2, 1920, it is one of the world's first modern radio stations , a distinction that has also been challenged by other stations, although it has claimed to be the first in...
which was granted the distinction of being the world's first commercially licensed station on November 2, 1920. KQV did not receive a commercial license until January 9, 1922, despite having started transmitting three years earlier.
Only four radio stations east of the Mississippi River have call letters which start with K: KQV and KDKA
KDKA (AM)
KDKA is a radio station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Created by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation on November 2, 1920, it is one of the world's first modern radio stations , a distinction that has also been challenged by other stations, although it has claimed to be the first in...
in Pittsburgh, KYW
KYW (AM)
KYW is a class A AM radio station on 1060 kHz licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW is owned by the CBS Radio unit of CBS Corporation, and has broadcasted an all-news format since 1965. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia, and it transmitters...
in Philadelphia (though the KYW callsign has in the past been used in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and Cleveland), and KFIZ
KFIZ (AM)
KFIZ is a radio station licensed to serve Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, US. The station is owned by Randy Hopper's Mountain Dog Media and the license is held by RBH Enterprises, Inc. KFIZ features programming from Fox News Radio....
in Fond du Lac
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Fond du Lac is a city in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, United States. The name is French for bottom of the lake, for it is located at the bottom of Lake Winnebago. The population was 42,203 at the 2000 census...
, Wisconsin. KQV is the only such station that has never had an associated TV station.
"The Groovy QV"
KQV was extremely successful as a top 40 station during the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, owned by ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
for nearly all of that period. Known variously as "Colorful KQV," "Audio 14," "Groovy QV," and "The Big 14" over the years, KQV premiered its top 40 format on January 13, 1958, and is remembered for its high-profile, high-energy personalities, such as Chuck Brinkman, Hal Murray, Dave Scott, Steve Rizen, Dex Allen, Jim Quinn
Jim Quinn
Jim Quinn is an American radio talk show host based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His program, The War Room with Quinn and Rose, is aired on 12 stations across the U.S. and is also heard on XM Satellite Radio Channel 166 from 6–9 a.m...
, future game show announcer Rod Roddy
Rod Roddy
Robert Ray "Rod" Roddy was an American radio and television announcer. He is primarily known for his role as an offstage announcer on game shows. Among the shows that he announced are the CBS game shows Whew!, Press Your Luck and The Price Is Right. On the latter two, Roddy appeared on camera on...
, and their large-scale promotion of a Beatles concert at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena (now the Mellon Arena
Mellon Arena
Civic Arena is an indoor arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is currently undergoing demolition. It was the first retractable roof major sports venue in the world, covering 170,000 sq. feet and constructed with just shy of 3,000 tons of Pittsburgh steel...
) in 1964, and its former showcase studios at the Chamber of Commerce Building ("on the corner of Walk and Don't Walk," as the DJs would say) in downtown Pittsburgh, where the disk jockeys could be watched through a large window.
Dominant with young listeners throughout the 1960s, the station was a major force in breaking new music and introducing Pittsburgh to new artists such as Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher were an American pop music duo, actors, singers and entertainers made up of husband-and-wife team Sonny and Cher Bono in the 1960s and 1970s. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector....
, the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, the Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
, the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
, the Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five
The Dave Clark Five were an English pop rock group. Their single "Glad All Over" knocked The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" off the top of the UK singles charts in January 1964: it eventually peaked at No.6 in the United States in April 1964.They were the second group of the British Invasion,...
and others. KQV slowly began to decline after 1970 with the advent of new competition 13Q and the rise of FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
radio (including its then-sister station WDVE
WDVE
WDVE is a mainstream rock music formatted radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA at 102.5 MHz. It is often referred to by Pittsburghers as simply "DVE." WDVE's transmitter is located on Pittsburgh's North Side...
, which began life as KQV-FM).
One of KQV's top-40 personalities in the 1970s, with the on-air name of "Jeff Christie," later became famous as a talk-show host under his real name, Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
.
In 1974, another upstart competitor - this time AM station "13Q" WKPQ, the former (and current) WJAS
WJAS
WJAS is an adult standards radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Renda Broadcasting, and broadcasts at 1320 kHz with a power level of 5,000 watts.- The History of 1320 WJAS-AM :...
- also made serious inroads against KQV, which briefly turned to the "14K" brand. ABC Radio conceded the battle at the end of the year, selling both KQV and WDVE off to Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
-based Taft Broadcasting
Taft Broadcasting
The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio....
(who later bought ABC's former television syndication arm, Worldvision Enterprises).
Taft made another attempt at Top 40 on KQV, this time with a far more radical presentation - with Joey Reynolds
Joey Reynolds
Joey Reynolds is the pseudonym of Joey Pinto, host of the U.S. radio program The Joey Reynolds Show via the WOR Radio Network. Reynolds' broadcasting career started on TV- in Buffalo at WGR TV 2...
as program director, before dropping the format altogether. Its final night as a top 40 station was October 14, 1975, with the last song being "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show" by Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
.
All-News, All The Time
The next morning, October 15, 1975, the station switched to its present all-news format, carrying NBC Radio's 24-hour News and Information Service. Even though NBC cancelled the service two years later, KQV's all-news stint remained and has lasted even longer than its Top 40 era.In 1982, Taft executives told General Manager Robert W. Dickey that it intended to unload the station.http://user.pa.net/~ejjeff/kqv0808.html Dickey sought—and received—financial backing from newspaper publisher Richard Mellon Scaife
Richard Mellon Scaife
Richard Mellon Scaife is an American newspaper publisher and billionaire. Scaife owns and publishes the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. With $1.2 billion, Scaife, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, is No...
. Together, the two men formed Calvary, Inc. and purchased the station from Taft that same year. Calvary continues to own the station, and celebrated the all-news format's 35th anniversary in 2010.
Today
Now in its 36th year, KQV's all-news format provides listeners with non-stop news, sports, traffic, and weather from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. Its format is similar to that of other traditional all-news stations, featuring "Traffic & Weather on the 8's", sports at :15 and :45 past each hour, and business news at :20 and :50 past. KQV's 5,000-watt signal, emanating from five towers located in Pittsburgh's North Hills, providing a directional signal.KQV's primary weekday anchors are P.J. Maloney, Joe Fenn, Bruce Sakalik, and Dan Weinberg. Steve Lohle had also been a fixture as KQV's afternoon news anchor for 34 years until his death on Friday, June 20, 2008 of an apparent heart attack. Retired weekend anchor Bob Sprague also died of an apparent heart attack in July, 2010. He had anchored weekends for more than 25 years until his retirement
In addition to its news content and public affairs programs such as Pittsburgh Profiles and Pittsburgh Global Press Conference, the station is home to a number of live sporting events, including NFL football, Penn State football, and WPIAL football and basketball, as well as the Triple Crown
United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
In the United States, the "Triple Crown" is usually the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a series of three Thoroughbred horse races for three-year-old horses run in May and early June of each year consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.While Daily Racing Form...
and Masters updates.
During evening hours, the station broadcasts The Laura Ingraham Show
The Laura Ingraham Show
The Laura Ingraham Show is a three-hour American radio show hosted by conservative commentator Laura Ingraham on Talk Radio Network. , the show is broadcast live on Channel 2, from 9 a.m...
(from Talk Radio Network
Talk Radio Network
Talk Radio Network is an American radio network providing talk radio programming, with an emphasis on conservative talk on weekdays and variety/general interest talk radio on weekends. Some of the most recognizable personalities in American radio, such as Laura Ingraham and Michael Savage, are...
), When Radio Was
When Radio Was
-History:The series began as a local program in Chicago, hosted by Carl Amari, who was the founder of Radio Spirits, Inc., which sells tapes and CDs of old time radio programs. Former CBS Radio executive Dick Brescia heard an in-flight version of the program, and soon mounted a nationally...
(a series featuring classic radio programs such as Suspense
Suspense (radio program)
-Production background:One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era...
and The Jack Benny Show, among others) and Red Eye Radio with Doug McIntyre
Doug McIntyre
Doug McIntyre is the host of "Talking the News" on 77 WABC New York City , the lead-in morning drive show before "Imus in the Morning." He also hosts the four-hour radio talk show "Doug McIntyre's Red Eye Radio", syndicated across the United States on Cumulus Media Networks, and is the page one...
(from Citadel Media). Also on Sundays a weekly radio series, known as "Imagination Theater", is broadcast.
In 2011, the station re-affiliated with ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio is the radio service of ABC News, a division of the ABC Television Network. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Cumulus Media Networks, newscasts on the hour to its more than 2,000 affiliates...
for the first time since its' days as an ABC Radio owned-and-operated station, carrying their top-of-the-hour newscasts live.