Stations are allowed to stay off the air for a year if they notify the F.C.C. Since KQV signed off on Dec. 31, 2017, it had to go back on the air this week to keep its license. It can go back off a while longer if it needs to.
I assume the transmitter has been relocated to the tower of a co-owned station, and it greatly reduces power at night since it no longer has a multi-tower directional array, when it could still go 5,000 watts at night.
Since the station dates back to 1919, you wonder why its owners never applied for a lower frequency and better signal in broadcasting's early days? I just realized it will turn 100 years old next year! It was still an experimental station, 8ZAE, in 1919, becoming KQV in 1922 when it got its commercial license.
Its owners said KQV should be recognized as going on the air a year before KDKA, which is true. But KDKA got its commercial license in 1921, a year before KQV. So KDKA claims to be the first "commercially licensed" radio station in America.