KQV

For the station that was once KQV-FM, please see WDVE

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[1] (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	Calvary, Inc. (Calvary, Inc.)
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	kqv.com

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.

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 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.

"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. 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.

• 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. 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 the late General Manager Robert W. Dickey [12/29/26 - 12/24/2011] that it intended to unload the station.[2] 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.

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 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.

References

• 1998 Tribune-Review profile
• [3]

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 Arbitron's AM station database for KQV