KQV NewsRadio Pittsburgh going out of business December 31, 2017

[giantsfan2016]

I could of put this in the Pittsburgh Radio News thread, but this is so unprecedented I created a separate thread for it.

The legendary KQV NewsRadio (1410 AM in Pittsburgh) is going out of business completely on December 31, 2017. The station which has been on the air for almost 100 years is completely shutting down.

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/12/15/KQV-radio-going-off-the-air-Dec-31-all-news-format-Robert-W-Dickey-Jr/stories/201712150145

[TheFugitive]

Yes, an historic and sad day.  It is one of only a handful of stations east of the Mississippi with call letters beginning with K (KQV and KDKA predated the rule, KYW also predated the rule but moved to Philadelphia from Chicago, and KTGG in Michigan was the result of an FCC clerical error).

I am old enough (barely) to remember when KQV was THE Top 40 station in Pittsburgh.  It was the way most Pittsburghers consumed their music.  They have been all news for the past 42 years.  They used to have a street level studio in the Chamber of Commerce Building downtown that had a big window facing the street.  Gangs of kids would gather around to watch the DJ's work back in the Top 40 days.

Rush Limbaugh had worked at this station after starting his career across town at WIXZ.  My sister's late father-in-law had been a jock there in the early 60's.

It appears as if selling the land under the towers for housing development is a better business deal than selling the station outright.

[TheFugitive]

KQV radio has been officially listed for sale.

The sale will NOT include the site of the towers, so whomever buys it would quickly
have to come up with a new transmitter location. 

Here is a picture of the old street level studio in the Chamber of Commerce Building.
Christened by DJ's as "The corner of Walk and Don't Walk!"

[TheFugitive]

Word on the street here is that KQV has a new owner.
No idea who it might be at this point.

Whoever they are they'll have to find a new transmitter site as
the old one was not included in the sale.

[retailisking]

Sad to say, a lot of these heritage AM stations are worth more as real estate than as a functioning station. The tower arrays take up a lot of developable land.

[TheFugitive]

KQV has been sold and will be returning to the air at some future date.

The buyer is Broadcast Communications, Inc., which owns an operates several stations in the Pittsburgh region including WKHB, WKFB, WEDO and WKVE.  The reported sales price is a paltry $55,000, and includes the license and some equipment, but not the transmitter site in Ross Township.  Supposedly the five Blaw-Knox towers will be torn down and the site will become a new housing development.

BCI has filed an FCC petition to broadcast the KQV signal from the WEDO site near McKeesport.
A lot of technical changes will be necessary as there are not five towers at that site, and I highly
doubt BCI is going to build them.

On most of their stations BCI runs brokered programming during the day (mainly medical infomercials) and automated music from the 50's through the '80's at night.  Would be cool if they could come up with some "Groovy Qvie" themed music format in the evening hours that captured some of the station's history as a Top 40 powerhouse.

[TheFugitive]

KQV's new owner says he expects the station to return to the airwaves
"sometime in the fall" as there is much work to be done relocating the transmitter
to its new location.

[TheFugitive]

KQV has been back on the air for the past 2 days, broadcasting Old-Time Radio
programming like The Great Gildersleeve and Fibber McGee & Molly.

Nobody is quite sure why they have sprung back to life again.  The sale to BCI is not
yet complete.  Hence they are still transmitting from the old site in Ross Township.
The whole reason the station left the air was that the land under those towers was more
valuable as a site for housing development than the value of the station itself.

[giantsfan2016]

The radio site PBRTV.com reports the resumption of operations of KQV is just temporary.

[TheFugitive]

That same website is reporting that the license has officially been transferred to the new owner, BCI.  And that the broadcasts of old-time radio shows are being made to push back the effective date of the FCC stay silent authority from December 31 to whatever date these broadcasts stop.  BCI is apparently buying more time to make a pretty significant move of the transmitter from it's current site to one down near McKeesport.  The license would be canceled after one year of silence and these broadcasts buy them a bit more time.

[TheFugitive]

KQV returned to the air this weekend, playing (believe it or not)…..easy listening!
(instrumental elevator music a la MUZAK).

The station's new owner took the license noncommercial.  He already has a small
noncommercial FM station in Murrysville, PA playing this music, so they are simulcasting.
This again appears to be a stopgap, like the old time radio broadcasts they did earlier this year.

[deerwrecker2017]

KQV returned to the air this weekend, playing (believe it or not)…..easy listening!
(instrumental elevator music a la MUZAK).

The station's new owner took the license noncommercial.  He already has a small
noncommercial FM station in Murrysville, PA playing this music, so they are simulcasting.
This again appears to be a stopgap, like the old time radio broadcasts they did earlier this year.

You're right about it being stopgap as it is just to "Reset the clock" on the Remain Silent period. The laws stipulate that any resumption of broadcasting resets the 1 year deadline to return to the air or the License will be subject to automatic cancellation (Unless the license is surrendered to the F.C.C. for cancellation sooner).

[TheFugitive]

annnnnddd……….it's back to static again.


Obviously kicking the can down the road so that construction work on the
new transmitter site can be done after the Spring thaw.

[TheFugitive]

KQV has returned to the airwaves from it's new transmitter location near McKeesport, PA.

Now a Class "D" station broadcasting at 5000 watts daytime and 75 watts at night.
Noncommercial playing Beautiful Music (i.e. the old elevator music format from the
70's and early 80's).