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33 Years Ago - October 14, 1975 - The End of KQV

;D Thanks for the 'golden' link, ejjeff. I glanced at the 1st pg, will ck it out later. Memories...
 
The day KQV brought really professional Top 40 radio to Pittsburgh created the same euphoria I felt seeing JFK beat the old folks and the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.
 
ejjeff said:
Time to remember back 33 years ago to the end of KQV as a music station.
http://14kqv.andmuchmore.com
Click to expand...

I remember reading in the PG after George Hart died, Joe Fenn was giving them an interview. Joe's last memories of the station were him looking at George staring at a silent speaker monitor that day with a look on his face that Joe would never forget.

Oh to be a fly on the wall that day...
 
Ken, thanks for the quote from Joe Fenn. I never saw the obit, I was out of town at the time. I found it tonight doing a google search and have added it to george's page on the KQV site.
 
Why did KQV switch to all-news in 1975? Did Dick Scaife own the station then? If not, when did he buy it?

Had KQV NOT switched to all-news, how long do you think it honestly could have stayed on as a music station?

Was the signal any better than it is now?

At the risk of sounding stupid, what was/is the difference between WDVE and KQV? In other words, did WDVE just adopt the old KQV format and it evolved into what it is now?

And when did Bob Prince get fired by the Pirates? Was it immediately after the season? If so, in terms of losing Pittsburgh icons, I think October 1975 would take the cake (or bitter pill, as the case may be).
 
I believe Taft owned the station then.

Prince was fired in the last week of October, '75.

KQV really sputtered in its last few years with music formats. Their last great year was probably '72, before 13Q went on the air in the spring of '73 and really shook up the market.

DVE started with what was known as "album rock" around '69 or '70. It was an alternative to KQV, never a clone. ABC was ahead of the curve in putting that format on its FM stations.
 
I'm not sure if it was KQV-FM or DVE when I started listening to it, but it originally featured taped shows with jocks like Dave Herman from NY and JJ Jackson (the original MTV VJ in later years) from LA.

As I recall the early live jock lineup included a spacey guy named Don Davis, Jessie Scott (who went on to be the overnight jock at WNBC in the Imus- Stern days), Bill Brewin and Ted Ferguson. Jimmy Roach, Steve Hansen, Marcie, Maxwell and Terry Caywood came later on.

I also believe that Jessie eventually moved over to WYDD (104.7), which was upstairs from a furniture store in New Kensington, co-located with WKPA, both owned by Nelson Goldberg. YDD was the starting point for Sean McDowell, Herschel, Steve Downes and Ron Chavis. Jack Robertson also did mornings there for a long time, he later ended up on WPCV in Lakeland, FL and WLVU in Tampa Bay.

The funny thing is that DVE is MUCH more successful today than it ever was when today's 40-50 somethings were actually in the target 18-34 demo. I guess it's like a college football team that has to keep expanding the stadium as more and more alumni are graduated.
 
I remember Denise Oliver, Ken Spector (Karpinski), Dwight Douglas, Kevin Maguire and Harold Russell from the earlier days of DVE.
 
Parttimer said:
I also believe that Jessie eventually moved over to WYDD (104.7), which was upstairs from a furniture store in New Kensington, co-located with WKPA, both owned by Nelson Goldberg. YDD was the starting point for Sean McDowell, Herschel, Steve Downes and Ron Chavis. Jack Robertson also did mornings there for a long time, he later ended up on WPCV in Lakeland, FL and WLVU in Tampa Bay.
Click to expand...

YDD was above Cooper Brothers Music store in New Kensington, at 810 Fifth Avenue. Cooper Brothers actually put WKPA on the air. Nelson managed it for a few years before he bought it in 1961. WYDD came on several years later. Though the studio was there, YDD also had a suite from which they conducted sales business at Gateway Towers for many years. It was finally moved to Pittsburgh in April of 1991 while they were WEZE-FM. The transmitter was moved to WPGH's tower a few months later.
 
I forgot about Denise Oliver and Dwight Douglas. Dwight also went to YDD, and eventually became part of Burkart-Abrams-Douglas, the consultants who brought the AOR format to its peak.

Bob Stevens, owner of 620 and 770 in Westmoreland County, also worked briefly at YDD.
 
I was at 13-Q back in 75 doing AM news and being music director. It was tough, AM was in the process of becoming a non-music kinda place. While at the studios it was very hard to pick up the station in the early morning hours due to pre-sunrise low-power requirements. PEZ was taking off. DVE was playing an ELO song at almost all times! We hung out with Lee Abrams when he was in town for DVE. Jimmy Roach was on DVE. Dwight Douglas and Jessie were at 13-Q for part of that year. Our mission was to prop-up 13-Q so owner Heftel could sell it, which he soon did, to Nationwide Insurance.

I remember KQV going thru all kinds of changes that year. Will never forget KQV playing "Shame, Shame, Shame" over and over one afternoon.

It was fun workin' that year in the burg!

Mark Shands
 
Mark Shands in the house! Dude, I was in high school when 13Q came on. Talk about getting an education.

I remember KQV going thru all kinds of changes that year. Will never forget KQV playing "Shame, Shame, Shame" over and over one afternoon.

KQV was pretty much dead in 1975 after getting its butt kicked by 13Q in 1973, becoming "14K" in 1974, and then adopting the innovative (but WAY over the heads of the audience) Joey Reynolds format. By the time KQV switched to all-news in the fall of 1975, it was in the 1-share range and out of contention.

Rumor has it Joey took the airstaff to lunch and let "Shame, Shame, Shame" run for a few hours on a loop cart. :)

C.
 
Did WPEZ do in 13Q? Who were their stars? Did B94 do PEZ in ?
 
Boss Radio said:
MsMusicRadio said:
Did WPEZ do in 13Q? Who were their stars? Did B94 do PEZ in ?
Click to expand...
96KX did 'PEZ in. Then B94 quickly put a big dent in 96, which I think was WHTX by then.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much right. 96KX signed on (full-time) on 1/31/77, simulcasting O'Brien & Garry from WTAE (later to be replaced on KX by its own morning personality). WPEZ took a tumble and made changes, but it was too late. They changed to 3WS (with an AC format) on Labor Day '80. 96KX had the Top 40 field to itself (and terrific ratings) until B-94 arrived on 4/2/81 and started cutting into the numbers. The arrival of Steve Kingston as PD about a year later put the station over the top. By late 1982 96KX was chasing after WDVE and hired Terry Caywood for afternoons, but the strategy didn't work and KX changed to "HitRadio 96" WHTX on 1/17/83.

C.
 
Since this board (all of them) are dominated by nostalgia geeks according to a Tampa poster , let's go way back. Who played Top 40 in Pittsburgh before KQV? I have vestigial memories of Barry Kaye, WCAE, and WEEP. Am I right ?
 
When I was a 13-Q thru 1975, the big star on WPEZ was Spikie The Pikie, cool Charley Lake was the PD. Or at least that is the memory that comes back to me!!!
 
Bob Pittman, who was about to become very wealthy, was one of the early WPEZ jocks. Striker McGuire was probably the one best remembered from their early days.
 
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