KQV

Not to be confused with WKQV in West Virginia

KQV

City of license	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area	Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Branding	KQV AM1410
Slogan	"You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world."
Frequency	1410 kHz
First air date	1919 (as 8ZAE) January 9, 1922 (as KQV)
Format	News radio
Power	5,000 watts
Class	B
Facility ID	8445
Callsign meaning	"King of the Quaker Valley"
Affiliations	ABC News Radio
Owner	Richard Mellon Scaife and the estate of Robert Dickey (Calvary, Inc.)
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	kqv.com

KQV is a radio station located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The only broadcast station owned by Calvary, Inc., it broadcasts at 1410 kHz, with 5,000 watts of power day and night. 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 broadcasts an all-news format and also carries Penn State University men's basketball.

History

Origins

KQV was one of Pittsburgh's five original AM stations, signing on as amateur station "8ZAE" on November 19, 1919, predating KDKA which was granted the distinction of being, as KDKA claimed, 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. KQV's call letters reportedly stand for "King of the Quaker Valley".

Only four radio stations east of the Mississippi River have call letters which start with K: along with KQV and KDKA, the others are 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 one of these such stations 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 ABC for nearly all of that period with Count John K. Chapel as the radio personality. 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 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 from WJAS 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.^[1]

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.

• Jeff Roteman's KQV Time Line Page

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.^[2] Even though NBC cancelled the service two years later, KQV continued as an all-news station with local elements.

In 1982 Taft executives told the station's general manager, Robert W. Dickey, that it intended to unload the station. Hoping to avoid a potential change in format that often comes with an ownership shift, Dickey decided to make a bid to buy the station. He sought—and received—financial backing from newspaper publisher Richard Mellon Scaife and together, the two men formed Calvary, Inc. and purchased the station from Taft that same year.^[3] Dickey died on December 24, 2011; his estate remained a partner in the station's ownership, with Robert W. Dickey Jr. succeeding his father as general manager.

On May 14, 2013, it was announced that Richard Mellon Sciafe was selling his shares in KQV to the Dickey family, giving the Dickeys full ownership of the station. The present programming format is expected to continue.^[4]

Today

Now in its 38th 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 and Weather on the Eights", 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 Ross Township, 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 and Masters updates.

During evening hours, the station broadcasts When Radio Was (a series featuring classic radio programs such as Suspense and The Jack Benny Show, among others) and Red Eye Radio from Cumulus Media Networks.^[5] Also on Sundays a weekly radio series, known as "Imagination Theater", is broadcast.

In 2011, the station re-affiliated with ABC News Radio (also distributed by Cumulus) for the first time since its days as an ABC Radio owned-and-operated station, carrying their top-of-the-hour newscasts live.

References

• 1998 Tribune-Review profile

External links

• KQV Official Website
• Listen Live
• Jeff Roteman's KQV website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KQV
• Radio-Locator Information on KQV
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for KQV

Coordinates: 40°31′24″N 80°00′40″W / 40.52333°N 80.01111°W / 40.52333; -80.01111