KQV

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KQV
Broadcast area	Pittsburgh, PA
Branding	"KQV AM1410"
Slogan	"You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world."
First air date	1919 (as 8ZAE) 1922 (as KQV)
Frequency	1410 (kHz)
Format	News radio
ERP	5,000 watts
Callsign meaning	"King of the Quaker Valley"
Owner	Calvary, Inc.
Website	www.kqv.com

KQV is an all-news radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station, which is owned by Calvary, Inc., broadcasts at 1410 kHz, with 5,000 watts of power day and night. KQV's call letters reportedly stand for "King of the Quaker Valley", although the authenticity of this meaning has been disputed. 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 is also the flagship station for Duquesne University Men's Basketball.

[edit] History

KQV was one of Pittsburgh's five original AM stations, signing on as amateur station "8ZAE" on November 19, 1919. Unfortunately for KQV, it was KDKA that would be granted the distinction of being the nation's first commercially licensed station, in 1920. KQV was not licensed until January 9, 1922, despite having started transmitting three years earlier.

The only other two radio stations east of the Mississippi that have a callsign starting with K are also in Pennsylvania. Besides KDKA, there's also KYW in Philadelphia (though the KYW callsign has in the past been used in Chicago and Cleveland). KQV is the only one of the three that does not have an associated TV station.

KQV was extremely successful as a top 40 station during the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, owned by ABC 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, Chuck Brinkman, Hal Murray, Dave Scott, Steve Rizen, Dex Allen, Jim Quinn 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 and the rise of FM radio (including its then-sister station WDVE, which began life as KQV-FM).

KQV was sold by ABC Radio to Taft Broadcasting in 1974, made another attempt at Top 40 (this time far more radical than before, with Joey Reynolds as program director) before dropping the format altogether. Its final night as a top 40 station was October 14, 1975.

The next morning, 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 has lasted even longer than its Top 40 era. Taft sold the station to Calvary, Inc. in 1982, and has remained in that company's hands ever since.

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.

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Jeff Roteman's KQV website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KQV