KQV is a peculiar station. It is in Pittsburgh, where I grew up. The Call Sign starting with a “K” in the Eastern US and only being three letters tells you that the station was a very very early pioneer station (the license was issued in 1920).
Pittsburgh was and still is largely dominated by “old money” – the folks who led the industrial revolution in America, and their bankers – the names Andrew Carnegie (US Steel), Henry Frick (US Steel), Andrew Mellon (Mellon Bank, Gulf Oil), George Westinghouse (electronics, radio), John Pitcairn(PPG), Alfred Hunt (Alcoa) all became important Pittsburgh industrialists that built the America that was able to win two World Wars with our manufacturing capacity.
KQV is currently an “All News” radio station. It’s peculiar because 1) It’s not run by CBS 2) It’s in a relatively small market with a shrinking population and economy and 3) it operates on 1410 KHz, an AM frequency without clear channel AM protection – a frequency used in most of the country for low power AM stations that only reach a few miles. KQV is 5 kw day/night, which gives it good coverage during the day of the entire city, and most of the city at night. The “Cume” of the station (the number of people who listened to it for at least 5 minutes once during the month) is only around 60,000 people – according to the Arbitron numbers at radio-info.com, the station is the #27th station in the #25 market. It is not a viable radio station without a sugar daddy funding it.
KQV was an ABC radio station during the 1960s (ABC bought the station in 1957), following the same Rock format as WLS in Chicago and WABC in New York as the Beatles invaded and transformed America. Near the end of its life as an ABC station, both Rush Limbaugh and Jim Quinn worked there playing music.
In 1974, ABC sold the station in part because of the national ownership caps to Taft Broadcasting of Cincinnati. Within a year, Taft gave up on AM music and switched the station to All News.
By 1982, Taft wanted to unload the station and sold it to the station manager Robert W. Dickey who got the money from Richard Mellon Scaif. Mr Scaif oversees several endowments holding Mellon family money and has access to the money to keep the station going without regard to whether it makes money or not.
Mr Scaif is very active in Republican politics behind the scenes. He owns the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper, which you most likely heard about because of Teresa Heinz Kerry’s outburst during the Presidential campaign, telling the reporter to “Shove it”. Scaif is also the primary investor behind NewsMax.
Robert W. Dickey died over the Christmas holidays – he had run the station for Mr Scaif since 1982 and died at the age of 85.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11360/1199357-122.stm?cmpid=news.xml
(I can’t find any family connection between Robert Dickey and Lew Dickey who runs Cumulus)
The Mellon family and their kindness / philanthropy benefit many of us here in Western PA. I am a KQV listener and would have never guessed how old Mr. Dickey was; you are correct in noting his passing leaves a real void at the station. They suddenly lost a young program director a few years back – like Bob Dickey a guy who simply loved radio.
Pittsburgh is fortunate. Many people may disagree with Mr. Scaife’s politics, but, it is short sighted to write him off as merely a political animal. Without him, Pittsburgh would only have one newspaper…no all news radio…and many charities would not quietly be helped every day.
I just hope there are still some guys who love radio to take over the helm at KQV.
“They” say that you know you’re old when the highlight of your day is when you start reading the obituaries to make sure you aren’t listed. I know the day is likely coming when I’m going to read one for Barry Farber and Bob Grant and Les Kinsolving. Hopefully not for a very long time, but time marches on.
Do you miss WAMO?
A re-vamped WAMO is just about to hit the airwaves…or already has…I caught a fleeting glimpse of a story in the paper a week or two ago. I’m not sure if they are using the call letters or if they are just going for the same demo.
On the FM side, I miss, for some reason, WYDD. And Magic 97 – now Bob FM.
The company that ran WAMO died about two years ago – the AM and FM just went dark overnight with no warning. The original WAMO stations are now owned and run by the Catholic church.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/05/23/new-wamo-returns-to-pittsburgh-airwaves/
That article has a serious factual error, due either to the ignorance of the speaker or his racial hatred. (Tim Martz, the new station owner). KQV clearly has a “Heritage” call sign – it predates KDKA. WJAS-AM is another station in Pittsburgh from the 1920s era which still carries its heritage call sign. If you include “Heritage Radio Stations” that no longer carry the original call sign but have been in continuous operations since the 1920s, you need to also mention WDOZ-AM (Formerly WTAE-AM) and WBGG-AM (formerly WWSW-AM)
In the normal sense of the term, WAMO-AM is nowhere near a “heritage station”. Its history only goes back to about 1960, which was the end of the “Heritage AM Radio” era, not the beginning.
The only reason KDKA is the station people know is the owner of KQV refused to become a commercial radio station. KDKA was the first *commercial* AM radio station.
Martz acquired WPYJ-AM, a dead in the water AM daytime only AM station in Wilkinsburg and changed its call sign to WAMO.
There was no WPYJ-FM – it was only an FM translator, another serious mistatement by Mr Martz. WPYJ-AM shares the same tower with WLFP-AM (See: Diplexing) in Braddock (“Wilkinsburg is the new Braddock”). For those who don’t understand the reference
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=1784272884
“WAMO-FM” is really W261AX, a 99 watt FM translator of WAMO-AM. Because of the new FCC rules, the FM station can stay on the air after the daytime-only station goes off at sunset. The “WAMO-FM” transmitter is located on the tower for KDKA-TV which is located on a hill overlooking the East Street Valley expressway.
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I had the displeasure of being the hospital for 10 days in 1971 having eye surgery in Oakland. I was put in a four bed ward, and one of the 4 people had a radio blaring WAMO 24 hours a day. My eyes were covered for the surgery, so hearing became very important for communication. 1971 was after the beginning of the era of the shield of racial immunity, so the staff were intimidated into not telling him he had to turn down the radio and turn it off at night. It kind of made the “Quiet, Hospital Zone” signs out on the street a joke.
Martz was the guy who was syndicating Bev Smith. He is also now apparently out of money.