KQV, Pittsburgh's oldest all-news station, to go off air Jan. 1
This is sad news for the news business. Our own Richard Gideon is an alumnus of the station - part of the original 1975 NBC News and Information Service crew.
Before their all-news format, we would all listen to Jim Quinn, Chuck Brinkman, and others for their top 40 list that would be available at National Record Mart weekly. I just came across an old one that I had. August 10, 1971 - August 17, 1971 Hit Parade I was a rising senior at Mt. Lebanon and back in the day when we used baby oil to get darker tans.
Sorry to hear that a Pittsburgh reliable news source is going off the air.
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For years KQV was an ABC O&O (owned and operated). In the 1960's it was a Top40 powerhouse. But like many AM radio stations, by the early '70's it met a formidable challenger in the form of FM radio; with FM's better fidelity and local signal coverage. (At night KQV's signal coverage was terrible!) In 1974 Taft Broadcasting bought the station and tried to revive its Top40 heritage, to no avail. Then Taft made the switch to all news, and signed on with the new NBC News and Information Service. They brought in Bill Hartnett from Buffalo's WGR to run the news department. Bill, in turn, brought some "out-of-town'ers" with him to add to the Pittsburgh crew. I was one of those imports. Bill Hartnett was one of the finest broadcasters I ever had the privilege to work under, and his resume was impressive. Along with this radio background, he was one of the first TV newscasters in the USA.
Before the music stopped we practiced for weeks, as the NIS format required absolute timing. It was nerve-racking, I can tell you, but we all nailed it.
As one might imagine, the jocks at KQV were not happy about their lot. I think some of them got satisfaction out of the news, a few years later, that NBC pulled the plug on NIS. Taft also decided to bail out, and sold the station to Bob Dickey Sr. and Dick Scaife. But AM's future was rapidly declining, along with the population of Allegheny County. There wasn't the ad dollars to support a small all-news station, especially one that had to compete with news/talk KDKA's 50,000 watts, larger staff, and bigger budget. Frankly, I'm amazed that KQV lasted for as long as it did, although Scaife's "deep pockets" helped.
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