KQV schedule to return to the air...
As was reported widely six weeks back, the
historic medium wave station in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, KQV with 5 kW on 1410
kHz, ended its illustrious 97 years of radio broadcasting service, abruptly and
without fanfare, during the last few hours of the year 2017. At the time, the then owners stated that the
station would remain silent forever unless a buyer came forth, and they cited
rising financial costs as the reason for the
closure of their significant and interesting slice of radio history, news
station KQV Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
However,
in an interesting turn of events, the 97 year old KQV is to be reborn. The station was bought recently, and it is to
be reopened later this year with a news format, rather similar to what was on
the air under its previous ownership.
Let’s go back to the beginning with this
summary of the long and interesting story behind radio station KQV.
During
the month of October 1919, Francis Potts
and Richard Johnstone in Pittsburgh
assembled a spark transmitter with the
use of a Model T Ford ignition coil.
Their 20 watt transmitter, under the officially allocated land station
callsign 8ZAE, was assembled on the ninth floor of the Doubleday-Hill Electric Building at 719-721 Liberty Avenue, at the intersection with Wood Street in Pittsburgh. The single wire aerial was strung to another building across the street.
During
the following month in November 1919, this new Pittsburgh radio broadcasting
station, now with an improved Lee de Forest transmitter, was taken into
occasional operation for casual broadcasting as a demonstration radio station
for the sale of radio receivers. Two
months later on January 27 (1920), an evening music concert was broadcast with
the use of 15 phonograph records, and thus began a somewhat regular schedule
with recorded concerts for three hours on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
By
the time of the famous inaugural transmission from 8ZZ-KDKA on November 2
(1920), the fledgling 8ZAE-KQV in this same Pittsburgh city had already been on
the air with (sometimes
spasmodic) music broadcasts for only a
few days less than a whole year.
The
official license for 8ZAE as a program broadcasting station was granted by FRC
the
Federal Radio Commission in October of
the following year 1921, and the station was granted aconsecutively issued callsign which happened to be KQV. On January 9, 1922, an amended license (No 452) was issued for KQV as a commercial broadcasting station with approval to broadcast on 360 m (833 kHz). They began to sell advertising over their station three years later in 1925.
After
several changes of ownership and several changes in location over the years,
together with changes in equipment and operating frequencies, the former KQV
was thus on the air with 5 kW on 1410 kHz, from studios in the Center City Tower at 650 Smithfield
Street. Their transmitters together with
five towers were astraddle a hill in Ross township, some 8 miles to the north
north west of
Pittsburgh. Ownership came into the hands of the Dickey
family with Calvary Broadcasting in 1982.
At
the time of the closure of KQV on the last day of last year 2017, it seemed
evident that the station was doomed, gone for ever. However, in a subsequent turn of events; no,
KQV is not gone forever, but instead it will be reborn at a new location in the coming months of this year 2018.
News
reports out of Pittsburgh tell us that a husband and wife team, Robert and
Ashley Stevens of Broadcast
Communications, have procured the station and they will incorporate it into
their current network of a dozen AM and FM stations in the tristate area;
Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland.
The sale price for the former KQV with all of its assets was reported as
$55,000.
The
target date for the reopening of the new KQV is set for September or October
later this year. It is planned that a
new suite of studios for the new KQV will be installed in an already existing
building at their local headquarters in North Versailles and they will utilize
a tower that is also currently in use at the same location. Broadcast Communications is awaiting FCC
approval for all of these amendments and modifications, including the planned
move to North Versailles which is located a dozen miles South East of
Pittsburgh itself.
We welcome the modern
rebirth of one of the world’s most historic medium wave stations, and we see in
this venture another illustration of the fact that medium wave (as well as
shortwave) still possess a real value in the
international radio world.
9AWR Wavescan/NWS 469)