KDKA (AM)

KDKA
City Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area Western Pennsylvania
Branding Newsradio 1020 KDKA
Slogan Pittsburgh's News, Weather and Traffic
Frequency 1020 kHz (also on HD Radio via KDKA-FM-93.7 HD 2)
First air date November 2, 1920 (1920-11-02)
Format News/Talk
Language(s) English
Power 50,000 watts
Class A
Facility ID 25443
Transmitter coordinates 40°33′33″N 79°57′11″W / 40.55917°N 79.95306°W / 40.55917; -79.95306
(main antenna)
40°33′39″N 79°57′20″W / 40.56083°N 79.95556°W / 40.56083; -79.95556
(auxiliary antenna)
Callsign meaning None (assigned from a sequential roster)[1]
Affiliations CBS Radio News
Westwood One News
Owner CBS Radio
(CBS Radio East Inc.)
Sister stations KDKA-FM, KDKA-TV, WBZZ, WDSY-FM, WPCW
Webcast Listen Live
Website pittsburgh.cbslocal.com

KDKA (1020 kHz AM) is a Class A (clear channel) radio station, owned and operated by CBS Radio and licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its studios are located at the combined CBS Radio Pittsburgh facility in the Foster Plaza on Holiday Drive in Green Tree, and its transmitter site is at Allison Park. The station's programming is also carried over KDKA-FM's 93.7 HD2 digital subchannel.[2]

KDKA features a News/Talk format. Operating with a transmitter power output of 50,000 watts, the station can be heard during daylight hours throughout central and western Pennsylvania, along with portions of the adjacent states of Ohio, West Virginia and New York, plus the Canadian province of Ontario. Its nighttime signal covers much of eastern North America.

KDKA has described itself as the "Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World",[3] and traces its beginning — initially using the temporarily assigned "special amateur" call sign of 8ZZ — to its broadcast of the 1920 Harding-Cox presidential election results on the evening of November 2, 1920.

History

Although KDKA's history has been extensively reviewed, there are some inconsistencies between accounts, leading one researcher to note: "While the KDKA story is often recounted, the details tend to vary slightly both in the secondary source material and in the published recollections of the participants, including differences in the chronology of events and the relative importance of the parties involved."[4]

Initial point-to-point service license

KDKA's establishment was an outgrowth of the post-World War I efforts of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company of East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to expand its commercial operations in the radio industry. During the war Westinghouse received government contracts to develop radio transmitters and receivers for military use, using recently developed vacuum tube equipment that was capable of audio communication, in contrast to the earlier spark gap transmitters, which could only be used to transmit the dots-and-dashes of Morse code. At the time of the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917, the government ordered all civilian radio stations off the air. However, during the conflict Westinghouse received permission to operate research radio transmitters located at its East Pittsburgh plant and at the home of one of its lead engineers, Frank Conrad, in nearby Wilkinsburg.[5]

Harry P. Davis, Westinghouse vice president and founder of KDKA

With the end of the war, the government contracts were canceled. However, Westinghouse moved aggressively to establish itself as a national and international provider of radio communication. Its primary competitor in this effort was the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which had recently been formed as a subsidiary by Westinghouse's arch rival, the General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York, using the assets of the Marconi Company of America.

The effort to establish Westinghouse's radio industry presence was led by company vice president H. P. Davis.[6] In order to strengthen the company's patent position, especially related to receivers, he spearheaded the purchase of the International Radio Telegraph Company, primarily to gain control of a "heterodyne" patent originally issued to Reginald Fessenden, and also arranged for the purchase of the commercial rights to the regenerative and superheterodyne patents held by Edwin Howard Armstrong. However, because of the competitive advantage RCA had in international and marine communications, initially there appeared to be limited opportunities available to Westinghouse.[7]

Although it would gain its fame as a broadcasting station, KDKA actually originated as part of a project to establish private radiotelegraph links between Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh factory and its other facilities, to avoid the business expense of paying for telegraph and telephone lines. In September 1920, a newspaper report noted that "a new high-power station, to operate under a special or commercial license, is being installed at the Westinghouse plant in East Pittsburgh. It will be used to establish communication between the East Pittsburgh plant and the company branch factories at Cleveland, O., Newark, N. J., and Springfield, Mass., where similar outfits will be employed."[8]

An application, signed by H. P. Davis, was submitted to the Eighth District Radio Inspector, S. W. Edwards in Detroit, who forwarded it to Washington, and on October 27, 1920 Westinghouse was issued a Limited Commercial station license, serial #174, with the identifying call letters of KDKA.[9] This Limited Commercial grant was consistent with the standard practice being followed at this time, for licenses issued to companies engaging in private radio communication. Neither KDKA's original application, nor the resulting license, mentioned broadcasting, only that the station was to be used for radiotelegraphic communication with stations located at the Westinghouse facilities in Cleveland, Newark and Springfield, plus station WCG in Brooklyn, New York, which was operated by the recently acquired International Radio Telegraph.[10]

At this time, radio stations in the United States were regulated by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Navigation. Beginning with the introduction of licensing in late 1912, the standard practice had been to assign call letters starting with "W" to radio stations in the eastern United States. However, KDKA happened to receive its assignment during a short period during which land stations were being issued call letters from a sequential block of "K" call letters that had been previously been assigned only to ship stations. Although the original policy was restored a few months later, KDKA was permitted to keep its non-standard call sign.[11]

Addition of a broadcasting service

Circa 1921 photograph of the 9th floor KDKA transmission room.

Shortly after beginning the process of setting up KDKA to be used for point-to-point communication, a series of events occurred which resulted in it also becoming a broadcasting station, which would overshadow its original role.

Prior to World War I, Frank Conrad had operated an experimental radiotelegraph station, with the callsign 8XK.[12] Following the war, the U.S. government again allowed the operation of civilian radio stations, and Conrad revived 8XK, which was located in a detached two-story garage at his residence. He used the knowledge gained during the wartime period to upgrade his station to begin making audio transmissions, and became well known among radio amateurs for his experimental activities.[13] On October 17, 1919 Conrad made the first of what would become a semi-regular series of entertainment broadcasts.[14]

During this time the Joseph Horne department store ran daily full-page advertisements in the Pittsburgh papers, and, in its September 23, 1920 placement, stated that the store had started selling "Amateur Wireless Sets" for "$10 upwards".[15] Six days later, the store's September 29 installment included a small notice titled "Air Concert 'Picked Up' By Radio Here", which noted that its demonstration set had been used to receive one of the Conrad broadcasts.[16] H. P. Davis saw this advertisement and immediately recognized the "limitless opportunity" of adding radio receivers to the lines of appliances sold to the general public by Westinghouse,[17] and in order to create demand for the receivers, he decided that Westinghouse should provide regular programming as an incentive for persons considering a purchase. Davis held a staff meeting with his "radio cabinet" and asked them to have a station operational in time to broadcast the presidential and local election returns on November 2, 1920.

Election return broadcasts had been a tradition since shortly after the development of radio, although due to technical limitations initially they could only be done using Morse code, which greatly limited the potential audiences.[18] Following the development of vacuum-tube transmitters that made audio transmissions possible, the first spoken-word election night broadcast was made on November 7, 1916 by the DeForest Radio Telephone and Telegraph Company's station, 2XG, located in the Highbridge section of New York City, in conjunction with the New York American, announcing the results of the Wilson-Hughes presidential election.[19] On August 31, 1920, the Detroit News, whose "Detroit News Radiophone" began making daily broadcasts on August 20, had broadcast local primary election results.[20]

Westinghouse's preparations included the construction of a shack and antenna system on the roof of the nine story K Building at the East Pittsburgh Works in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.[21] Frank Conrad had originally planned to broadcast the election results over 8XK, in cooperation with the American Radio Relay League, but shifted his efforts to help with the Westinghouse broadcast. He and Donald G. Little had primary responsibility for constructing a 100 watt vacuum-tube transmitter. A telephoned temporary authorization was received to operate under the call sign of 8ZZ.[22] (The first "Z" in this call sign indicated it was a "Special Amateur" grant,[23] which was a classification that permitted the use of transmitting frequencies other than the congested 200 meter (1500 kHz) standard amateur wavelength.) Although the pre-broadcast publicity and contemporary accounts stated that 8ZZ was the call sign used for the election night broadcast — for example, in 1922 L. R. Krumm, Westinghouse's Superintendent of Radio Operations, referred to Westinghouse's "station at East Pittsburgh, now known as KDKA, the matured successor of 8ZZ"[24] — later reviews, including a 1930 re-creation of the original broadcast, often incorrectly state that the KDKA call sign was used during the debut broadcast.[25]

Extensive regional publicity by Westinghouse heralded the upcoming broadcast, both among technically knowledgeable amateur radio enthusiasts, plus, through the organization of public listening sites, toward a more general audience of potential future radio receiver purchasers. Promotional announcements described the offering as a joint effort between Westinghouse and its International Radio Telegraph subsidiary,[26] and A. E. Braun, an International Radio Telegraph officer who was also the president of the Pittsburgh Sun, made the arrangements for his newspaper to provide election results to the station.[27]

In the days before November 2nd a series of test transmissions were made to check the equipment. The announcer for the election night broadcast was a publicity department staff member, Leo Rosenberg. Frank Conrad stood by at his home station,[28] ready to take over using his 8XK transmitter if the East Pittsburgh transmitter failed, but the effort was successful, with one newspaper report noting that: "The returns by wireless telephone, which were transmitted from the Westinghouse international radio station at East Pittsburgh, were exceptionally clear and distinct. The service was utilized by many amateurs to entertain gatherings at their various stations. Between announcements of the returns radiophone music was transmitted, which added much to the entertainment."[29]

This Westinghouse broadcast was not unique — that evening at least two other stations made audio transmissions of election returns, one a temporary arrangement made by the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch in conjunction with W. E. Woods of the Benwoods Company, "manufacturers and distributors of wireless outfits",[30] and the other a broadcast by the Detroit News' "Detroit News Radiophone" station.[31] And although later station publicity proclaimed that Westinghouse's election night broadcast "was a national sensation, acclaimed by newspapers all over the country",[32] a comprehensive review of contemporary newspapers determined that reports, although positive, actually appeared only in a few local papers, thus it "was not an immediate 'sensation' and that the fame of this event developed over time with later celebratory accounts".[33] However, KDKA would eventually gain national prominence once it began to offer an extensive range of programming.

After initially operating under the call sign 8ZZ — apparently for just a few days, although the chronology is not completely clear — the station switched to identifying itself as KDKA. Through the next month semiweekly broadcasts were made,[34] until December 21, when the station embarked on an ambitious daily schedule,[35][36] initially for about an hour each evening. (Reflecting the December launch, the January 1, 1922 debut issue of Westinghouse's Radio Broadcasting News included the reference "Fifty-fourth week broadcasting".)[37] KDKA soon gained a reputation as one of the premier broadcasting stations in the nation. On August 1, 1921 the transmitter was upgraded from 100 to 500 watts, and two months later saw an additional doubling, to 1,000 watts.[34]

The election night broadcast was transmitted on a wavelength of 550 meters (545 kHz). Later publicity stated that KDKA was now broadcasting on 330 meters (909 kHz), and in the fall of 1921 all the Westinghouse broadcasting stations began using 360 meters (833 kHz). In the United States there were no formal standards defining a broadcasting station until December 1, 1921, when the Department of Commerce issued a regulation specifying that stations making broadcasts intended for the general public now had to hold a Limited Commercial license that authorized operation on 360 or 485 meters (833 or 619 kHz).[38] KDKA was one of a small number of stations that already met this standard at the time of its adoption, as its second year-long license, issued November 7, 1921, included the notation "360 meters for general broadcasting" in addition to continuing the point-to-point service authorization.[39]

Encouraged by the success of KDKA, by the end of 1921 Westinghouse established stations in three additional major population centers, including WJZ in Newark, New Jersey (now WABC in New York City), WBZ, originally in Springfield, Massachusetts (now Boston), and KYW, originally in Chicago, Illinois (now Philadelphia).

The 1920s

As part of ongoing facility upgrades, this well-appointed studio went into service in December 1922.

As a pioneer in radio broadcasting, KDKA struggled in particular with studio acoustics, especially for large groups of performers. An early attempt to broadcast a concert by Westinghouse employees from a local auditorium found that the sensitive microphones picked up echoes from the walls, causing severe distortion. Moving the performers outdoors eliminated the echoing, so a tent was erected on the building roof, and for a time concerts were performed from this location. Eventually the tent was blown down in a storm, so it was moved indoors, where it was found the tent material helped deaden the echoes. This led to modern studio design, including walls covered with noise-absorbing material, initially "monks cloth" (which turned out to be a fancy name for burlap).[40]

Early programming often featured live musical performances by a band composed of Westinghouse employees. The station provided its first remote broadcast on January 2, 1921, airing a religious service from Calvary Episcopal Church. The Calvary services soon became a regular Sunday evening offering, and were continued until 1962.[41] On January 15, 1921, at 8 p.m., KDKA broadcast a speech on European relief by Herbert Hoover from the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, that was carried ten miles (sixteen kilometers) by a telephone line connection to Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh Works.[42] On July 2, 1921, an announcer repeated the ringside commentary, sent by telegraph, from the Jack Dempsey - Georges Carpentier fight in New Jersey.[43] On August 21, 1921, KDKA became the first radio station to broadcast a major league professional baseball game, when announcer Harold W. Arlin called the Pittsburgh Pirates-Philadelphia Phillies game from Forbes Field.[44] In the fall of that year, the station became the first to broadcast a college football game. In 1922, KDKA hosted political humorist Will Rogers in his first radio appearance.

Initially KDKA had to share its 360 meter assignment with the other broadcasting stations that were established in the region, until May 15, 1923, when the Department of Commerce expanded the broadcasting frequency assignments into a band from 550 to 1350 kHz. Under this new plan 920 kHz was exclusively allocated to Pittsburgh, and KDKA was granted sole use of this frequency. In 1923, KDKA began simulcasting its broadcasts on shortwave, and for a while used this as a link for transmitting its programs for rebroadcast by station KFHX in Hastings, Nebraska, as part of an unsuccessful experiment to use shortwave signals instead of telephone lines to establish network connections.[45]

The original financing plan, of using the revenues from radio receiver sales to pay station costs, proved to be insufficient for a number of reasons. Additional expenses included the requirement to pay royalties to musical composers, plus the fact that, unlike the amateur Westinghouse Company staff performers, professional acts started to expect to be paid in something more tangible than publicity. On the revenue side, Westinghouse found that it didn't have the near-monopoly for selling vacuum-tube receivers that it expected it had gotten through the purchase of the commercial rights to the Armstrong regenerative patent. Armstrong had previously sold "amateur and experimental" rights to around 17 small firms, which also began selling receivers to the general public. Westinghouse sued on the grounds that this went beyond their rights, but lost, which resulted in the formation of a series of major competitors, including Crosley and Zenith.[46]

Running over-the-air commercials was an obvious financing alternative, but initially Westinghouse officials were soundly against the idea, contending that it would destroy the listening experience. In 1922 J. C. McQuiston, from the Westinghouse Department of Publicity, declared that "if advertising were permitted, it goes without saying that all the good work that has been done in giving valuable information and pleasant entertainment for the people would be destroyed".[47] In 1922, H. P. Davis suggested that the best solution was "five or six large, well-located and powerful stations" which "could be licensed, protected and organized... and that it would become a matter of such public value, that endowments or Federal subsidies would be possible which would assist those responsible for the service to carry it on and to continue the development and research required to get the most value out of it."[48] However, in 1928 he stated that he had realized "from the beginning" that advertising would be the ultimate financing solution.[49]

Westinghouse, along with RCA and General Electric, was a co-founder in 1926 of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which created two national radio networks: the NBC Red Network and the NBC Blue Network. KDKA became affiliated with the Blue network, and with this change began selling airtime: up until now, the station had been commercial-free. KDKA played popular music and advertisers began sponsoring special radio programs like The Philco Hour, The Maxwell House Hour and The Wrigley Party.

A general frequency reassignment under the provisions of newly formed Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40, effective November 11, 1928, led to KDKA being assigned to the "clear channel" frequency of 980 kHz. On January 1, 1929, the station inaugurated new studio facilities located in the William Penn Hotel,[50] and on June 26 relocated its Master Control facilities to the hotel.[51]

1930s and '40s

KDKA microphone

In 1932, as a result of antitrust proceedings, Westinghouse had to divest its 40% ownership stake of RCA and 20% ownership in NBC.[52] At 7 a.m on November 2, 1934, the station's 14th birthday, KDKA inaugurated new studios in the Grant Building.[53] The William Penn Hotel studios later became the home of WCAE.

In the 1930s, KDKA began the long-running (1932–1980) Uncle Ed Shaughency show. The station played popular big band and jazz music every morning as well as hosting the KDKA Farm Hour. From 1941 to 1959, the Farm Hour was built around farm reports along with music by Slim Bryant and his Wildcats, who eventually became the top local country music act in the Pittsburgh area. Special programming included ongoing coverage of the 1936 St. Patrick's Day flood that submerged downtown Pittsburgh as far as Wood Street. A final frequency change took place in March 1941, under the provisions of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, as KDKA's clear channel assignment was shifted from 980 to 1020 kHz.

In 1943 NBC was compelled by the U.S. government to divest itself of one of its two networks, which resulted in it selling the Blue network (which became the American Broadcasting Company). Prior to the sale KDKA swapped affiliations with KQV to become affiliated with the NBC-Red network.[54] Also during this period, in 1942 it gained a sister station, W75P, on the then-new FM band, which later became KDKA-FM, changing to WPNT in 1979. This station was sold by Westinghouse in 1984, and is now WLTJ.

In 1946, KDKA provided live coverage of the inauguration of David L. Lawrence as Pittsburgh Mayor, as well as the presidential and gubernatorial inaugurations. By the end of the decade, the musical and comedy team of Buzz Aston and Bill Hinds, billed as "Buzz & Bill", aired.

1950s

In the 1950s, Ed Shaughency was moved from mornings to the afternoon, losing his partner, Rainbow (Elmer Walters) in the process. Impressed with the success Rege Cordic was having at WWSW, KDKA hired him away, and Cordic started his KDKA run on Labor Day, 1954. The Cordic & Company morning show, featuring a team of bright and innovative personalities, was a pioneer of today's "morning team" radio format, but in an unconventional way. Cordic and his group played a small amount of music, but primarily provided entertainment through skits, including recurring characters such as "Louie The Garbageman" and space alien "Omicron". Cordic's crew included Karl Hardman and Bob Trow, later known for portraying "Bob Dog" on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

The 1950s saw a shift to more local programming, as the national radio shows were moving to television. Art Pallan, hired away from WWSW, and Bob Tracey became household names, playing the popular music of the day. For some years announcer Sterling Yates, also a musician, played hip, progressive jazz on a Sunday morning broadcast. On January 1, 1951, the married couple Ed and Wendy King launched Party Line, KDKA's first talk show, which ended its 20-year run on November 18, 1971 upon Ed King's death. Unlike most talk shows, callers were not heard, with the couple taking turns relaying the callers' information. In 1956 newsman Bill Steinbach began his 36-year career at the station — within 10 years he was the anchor of the award-winning 90-to-6 news program.

KDKA cautiously embraced rock and roll music, with artists such as Bill Haley, the Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, and Elvis Presley, in addition to popular vocalists including Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, and Canonsburg, Pennsylvania native Perry Como. However, the station's sound remained much more conservative than most Top 40 stations. In 1955, the station began regular broadcasts of Pirate baseball games, a partnership that ended in 2006, but was restarted in 2012 when KDKA-FM began carrying the games.

KDKA gained a television sister station in late 1954, when Westinghouse purchased WDTV (changing its call letters to KDKA-TV) from the DuMont Television Network for a then-record price of $9.75 million.[55] Before the purchase, Westinghouse had attempted to purchase the channel 13 license allocated for public broadcasting, but eventually donated the tower to public interest groups and gave financial backing for the eventual WQED.[56] In a somewhat surprising move, KDKA-TV affiliated with CBS, in contrast to KDKA's longtime NBC affiliation. KDKA radio remained affiliated with NBC radio until the network purchased WJAS in 1957 in order for WJAS's owners to gain a 50% ownership stake in WIIC-TV (now WPXI) with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.[57] KDKA then went independent, relying more on its Group W ties than on a national network.

By May 1956, KDKA's studios had relocated from the Grant Building to 1 Gateway Center, joining KDKA-TV.

1960s

By 1960, KDKA added more rock and roll music, as competitor KQV made ratings gains. "Your Pal" Pallan played hit songs and KDKA carried the sounds of screaming crowds as the Beatles arrived in Pittsburgh in 1964. The major exponent of rock on KDKA radio was disc jockey Clark Race, who also hosted "Dance Party" on KDKA-TV, a local version of Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Other artists featured on the station included The Four Seasons, The Vogues, Lou Christie (the latter two Pittsburgh-bred), The Beach Boys, The Hollies, The Supremes, Four Tops, and The Turtles.

After 11 years of providing early morning entertainment, Rege Cordic moved to KNX in Los Angeles. His replacements were Pallan and Bob Trow, whose "Pallan and Trow, Two For the Show" program retained some of the Cordic & Company flavor. Two and a half years later, in April 1968, Jack Bogut moved from Salt Lake City to become the KDKA morning host, a position he held for 15 years. One of Bogut's most memorable contributions to KDKA was his introduction to Western Pennsylvania of the word Farkleberry, which is now a staple of the annual Children's Hospital fund-raising campaign. Other notable personalities included Big Jack Armstrong, Bob Shannon and Terry McGovern; the latter two would go on to enjoy lucrative careers in the Film/TV industry as actors.

Also in the 1960s, KDKA reported numerous important events, including the Pirates' improbable 1960 World Series win. In local news reporting, the station pioneered with "on the scene" reports of Mike Levine, the peripatetic former newspaper man whose mobile-unit broadcasts from Tri-State-area covering fires, floods, bank robberies, and coal mine disasters won numerous journalism awards. His nightly "Contact" show (later "Open Mike") was KDKA's initial venture into the news-based talk radio format that would become the station's basic offering. In the summer of 1969, KDKA debuted overnight talk with Jack Wheeler, launching an anything-goes talk show that ran from midnight to 6 a.m. six nights a week.

1970s

By the early 1970s, KDKA adopted more of an adult contemporary format, consisting of rock and roll hits of the 1960s plus soft rock, with artists such as America, The Carpenters, Doobie Brothers, Paul Simon, Dawn, and Neil Diamond becoming core offerings. The morning show featured less music and an increased news and commercial content. In 1973, KDKA revamped its "Party Line" timeslot, with the bombastic John Cigna moving over from WJAS to anchor the nighttime talk program and urge listeners to "buy American!" In 1974 Perry Marshall replaced Wheeler in the overnight timeslot, which became known as the "Marshall's Office". In 1975, Roy Fox debuted as the 6 to 9 pm talk host. By now, KDKA had become a full service adult contemporary radio station.

In 1979, newsman Fred Honsberger began working at KDKA, and went on to host a successful evening talk show plus a top-rated afternoon drive program. Also in 1979, KDKA covered the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, first reported by Harrisburg newsman Mike Pintek. By 1982, Pintek joined the KDKA News staff and later became one of the station's most popular talk hosts, although he was let go at the end of 2005 as part of a programming overhaul. In 2007, he became the host of Night Talk on the Pittsburgh Cable News Channel. As of January 2009, Pintek was rehired at KDKA to host a talk show in the 6pm to 10 pm timeslot, and, following the death of Fred Honsberger, took over the 12 PM-3 PM timeslot as of January 2010.

1980s

On July 23, 1982, KDKA claims to have become the world's first radio station to broadcast in AM stereo although experimental AM stereo broadcasts were conducted as early as the 1960s on Mexico's XETRA 690.[58]

Throughout the 1980s, KDKA continued an information and news intensive adult contemporary music format, playing four to six songs per hour at drive times and 10 to 12 songs an hour during middays and weekends. At night, the station continued its talk format. The station won four Associated Press Joe Snyder awards for outstanding overall news service in Pennsylvania.

1990s

KDKA eventually made the decision to switch from a full-service format that included music to one that was an exclusively news/talk. The changeover occurred at noon on April 10, 1992, when Larry Richert played the last song aired as a regular part of KDKA programming: Don McLean's "American Pie", signifying that, for KDKA, this was "the day the music died".[59] Rush Limbaugh was added to the noon to 3:00 p.m. timeslot, and all-news blocks were added in the 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. and the 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. timeslots.

In 1997, Bob DeWitt was hired as news director, serving for two years. His award-winning team included Bob Kopler, Dave James, Bob Kmetz, Barbara Boylan, Mike Whitely and Beth Trapani.

Westinghouse merged with CBS at the start of 1996, so KDKA would soon become an Infinity Broadcasting station, after that chain (a previously separate entity from CBS and Westinghouse) was acquired by Westinghouse. Westinghouse would later turn itself into CBS Corporation in 1997. Viacom bought CBS Corporation in 1999, but five years later transformed itself into CBS Corporation, thus making KDKA now a part of CBS Radio.

2000 and beyond

On October 1, 2006, after 52 seasons, KDKA aired its final Pirates game, with the Pirates beating the Reds 1-0.

On April 26, 2007, the East Pittsburgh building that was the birthplace for KDKA was razed to make way for an industrial complex.

On Tuesday, November 2, 2010, KDKA celebrated its 90th anniversary with election coverage, as it had every first Tuesday in November since its debut in 1920. The 90th anniversary celebration was primarily sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Company, a nuclear power company with a history dating back to the original Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company.

Studios moved/sale speculation

KDKA Radio's former studios in Pittsburgh's Gateway Center

The radio station's studios were located at One Gateway Center in Pittsburgh from 1956[60] until 2010. That building still houses the studios of KDKA-TV. The radio station studios were moved to CBS's combined radio facility on Holiday Drive in Green Tree.

In July 2008, CBS Corporation announced some of its radio stations were available for sale and the company would concentrate on its operations in major markets.[61] With Pittsburgh ranked as the 24th largest market by Arbitron there was speculation KDKA and its three sister stations, KDKA-FM, WDSY-FM and WBZZ-FM would be sold. The speculation was incorrect and the stations were not on the auction block.[62]

Priority claims

Trying to achieve a consensus on KDKA's precise status as a broadcasting pioneer, especially in relation to other, earlier stations, has been a source of disagreement for nearly a century. This often includes semantic complexities involving carefully crafted definitions and qualifiers — including "first", "oldest", "scheduled", "commercial", and "real" — in an attempt to make sense of a fluid and not always well documented era.

Complicating the issue is the fact that the U.S. government did not have a formal definition of broadcasting, or any specific regulations, until December 1, 1921, when a broadcast service category was essentially grafted onto the existing Limited Commercial license category, as an authorization that was granted to a select group of designated stations. (A license class dating back to 1912, not all Limited Commercial stations were authorized to make broadcasts.) Before these new regulations were adopted, there were no prohibitions restricting broadcasting stations from operating under amateur or experimental licenses. A specific "broadcasting station" license did not exist until one was created by the Federal Radio Commission in 1927.

In 1923 the Department of Commerce stated that "The first broadcasting license was issued in September, 1921",[63] a reference to the September 15, 1921 Limited Commercial license issued to WBZ in Springfield, Massachusetts, which appears to be the first to state that the station would be used exclusively for broadcasting, transmitting on 360 meters, which would become the standard "entertainment" wavelength designated by the December 1, 1921 regulations. As noted earlier, it was only KDKA's second, November 7, 1921 license, that included a reference that it would be used for broadcasting in addition to company-wide point-to-point communication. This led to some early Commerce Department information listing WBZ as the first broadcasting station, and KDKA as the fourth.[64]

The best known priority dispute has been between KDKA and WWJ in Detroit, Michigan, a controversy in which some neutral observers have carefully tried to avoid being entangled. This was emphasized when the September 3, 1945 issue of Time magazine included a report that the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) had recently sided with WWJ's "claim to being the world's first commercial radio station", by concluding that KDKA "was ten and a half weeks younger".[65] This assertion brought a quick denial by NAB President J. Harold Ryan, who informed the magazine that it had misconstrued some informational material sent out by the association, and: "It was not the intention, nor is it the prerogative of the NAB to attempt to decide the relative claims of two pioneer broadcasting stations."[66]

It appears that Westinghouse officials were initially unaware that, in addition to Frank Conrad's 8XK, other stations had been making regular news and entertainment broadcasts. This was reflected in the slogan, repeated each week in Westinghouse's Radio Broadcasting News publication beginning with the January 1, 1922 debut issue, that "Westinghouse Station KDKA was first to give regular Broadcasting Programs".[67] However, research has uncovered several challenges to this broad declaration.

In the United States, Charles "Doc" Herrold, in San Jose, California, was found to have begun test transmissions in 1909, which were followed by weekly concerts beginning in 1912.[68] In addition, beginning in late 1916, Lee de Forest's "Highbridge station" (2XG) in New York City also began transmitting regularly scheduled programs,[69] including a comprehensive November 7, 1916 election night broadcast. These programs were suspended in April 1917 with the entry of the United States into World War I, but after the war the 2XG broadcasts resumed in late 1919. The broadcasts were again suspended in early 1920, the result of a run-in with the local Radio Inspector.[70] At this point the station's transmitter was transferred to San Francisco, and relicensed as 6XC, the "California Theater Station", which around April 1920 inaugurated a wide-ranging selection of daily broadcasts. The next year de Forest wrote that this was the "first radio-telephone station devoted solely" to broadcasting to the public.[71] The station was relicensed as KZY late in 1921, then deleted in early 1923.

In 1946, a KDKA promotional pamphlet, issued under the name of the station's general manager, Joseph E. Baudino, stated that Westinghouse's November 2, 1920 election day effort marked "the world's first regularly scheduled broadcast".[72] However, Baudino later modified this opinion, and as the lead author, along with John Kittross, of a 1977 review of "Broadcasting's Oldest Stations", now concluded that the "first U.S. radio broadcasting station" was in fact Charles Herrold's San Jose station, dating to 1912.[73] Still, while allowing for the possibility that "new data will be found",[74] the authors credited Baudino's former station, 8ZZ/KDKA, as being the "oldest [surviving] station in the nation".

Herrold's San Jose broadcasts had been suspended due to the World War I prohibition of civilian radio stations, and he did not return to the airwaves until May 1921.[75] His experimental station was relicensed in December 1921 as KQW, which later moved to San Francisco and changed its call letters to KCBS in 1949. Baudino and Kittross argued that this post-World War I gap disqualified KCBS from "oldest station" consideration, something neither KQW nor KCBS has agreed with, as program schedules for KQW appearing in 1925 included the slogan "Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World",[76] and in 2009 KCBS celebrated its 100th birthday with a yearlong series of events throughout the Bay Area, including the public dedication of a plaque commemorating the "Centennial Celebration of the World's First Broadcasting Station".[77] At the same time, KCBS adopted the slogan "The World's First Broadcasting Station".

Baudino and Kittross also concluded that there was no significant link between the daily broadcasts introduced on August 20, 1920 by the Detroit News' "Detroit News Radiophone", as amateur station 8MK, and its subsequent transformation into WBL and later WWJ, something with which the newspaper stoutly disagreed: for example, in a 1934 advertisement, WWJ, still owned by the Detroit News, declared itself "America's Pioneer Broadcasting Station".[78]

A case has also been made for the primacy of the University of Wisconsin's WHA in Madison, Wisconsin, which evolved from an earlier experimental authorization, 9XM. In 1958 a plaque was installed on the university campus crediting "9XM-WHA" as "The Oldest Station in the Nation", including the statement that the station began "broadcasting on a regular schedule in 1919".[79] However, Baudino and Kittross found no evidence of organized broadcasting prior to the inauguration of spoken-word weather forecasts on January 3, 1921, and in 2007 a comprehensive station history compiled by Randall Davidson came to the same conclusion.[80]

An additional qualifier sometimes proposed for KDKA is that it was the first "commercial" station, but there is no consensus here either, as a 1945 advertisement for WWJ claimed that station was the one where "commercial radio began".[81] (WWJ and KDKA were both initially commercial-free, and did not start to accept advertising until the mid-1920s, so in this case "commercial" appears to just mean under the control of a commercial enterprise.) Additionally, Westinghouse's operation of KDKA's broadcasting service under a "Limited Commercial" license appears to have been merely a side-effect of the fact that it had previously been determined that type of authorization was required for KDKA's original role, of providing private point-to-point communication between company installations.

References

  1. ↑ United States Callsign Policies, United States Early Radio History.
  2. ↑ HD Radio Guide (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
  3. ↑ "It Started Hear", KDKA promotional pamphlet, 1970, page 1. (americanradiohistory.com)
  4. ↑ Battle of the Brains: Election Night Forecasting at the Dawn of the Computer Age (dissertation) by Ira Chinoy, 2010, page 137.
  5. ↑ "The Early History of Broadcasting in the United States" by H. P. Davis, included in The Radio Industry: The Story of Its Development, 1928, pages 191-192.
  6. ↑ Finding Aid for the Harry Phillips Davis Collection, 1915-1944, AIS.1964.21, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
  7. ↑ History of Radio to 1926 by Gleason L. Archer, 1938, pages 193-197.
  8. ↑ The Radio Amateur by C. E. Urban, Pittsburgh Gazette Times, September 26, 1920, Fifth section, page 10.
  9. ↑ First KDKA license (issued October 27, 1920) Limited Commercial license, serial #174, issued to the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a one year period.
  10. ↑ The copy of the initial KDKA license on file at the National Archives has a handwritten notation "First broadcasting licensee" written across the front, but this appears to been added at some later date.
  11. ↑ The temporary switch to four-letter "K" call signs for new land station grants is documented by the monthly issues of the Commerce Department's Radio Service Bulletin. Through the June 1920 issue, non-government land station grants generally received three-letter K or W calls. But for the July 1920 through May 1921 issues, these stations now primarily received four-letter K calls, including KDKA, which appeared in the November 1920 issue. The June 1921 issue records a return to the original policy of primarily three-letter calls, with "K" in the west, and "W" in the east.
  12. ↑ The "8" in 8XK's call sign indicated that the station was in the 8th Radio Inspection district, while the "X" signified that it was operating under an experimental license.
  13. ↑ "Amateur Radio Stations: 8XK Pittsburgh", QST magazine, September 1920, page 32.
  14. ↑ "The Radio Amateur" by C. E. Urban, "Wireless Telephone Here", Pittsburgh Gazette Times, October 26, 1919, Sixth section, page 13.
  15. ↑ "The Horne Daily News" (advertisement), Pittsburgh Press, September 23, 1920, page 13.
  16. ↑ "The Horne Daily News" (advertisement), Pittsburgh Press, September 29, 1920, page 11.
  17. ↑ "Pittsburgh's Contributions to Radio" by S. M. Kintner, Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, December 1932, pages 1849-1862.
  18. ↑ Examples of election results sent in Morse code for the 1912 U.S. Presidential election include "Harvard Wireless Club Gets Returns" (Boston Post, November 6, 1912, page 3, broadcast by the Charleston, Massachusetts Navy Yard station) and "News Was Spread All Over Pacific" (Waterloo Times Tribune, November 7, 1912, page 2, broadcast by the Navy's Mare Island, California station).
  19. ↑ "Election Returns Flashed by Radio to 7,000 Amateurs", The Electrical Experimenter, January 1917, page 650.
  20. ↑ "Land and Water Hear Returns by Wireless", Detroit News, September 1, 1920, page 1. The station was operating under the amateur call of "8MK" at this time. It is currently WWJ.
  21. ↑ "Milestones: Westinghouse Radio Station KDKA, 1920". IEEE Global History Network. IEEE. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  22. ↑ A Tower in Babel by Erik Barnouw, 1966, page 69.
  23. ↑ Radio Stations of the United States (July 1, 1913 edition) "Amateur Radio Stations", pages 7-8: "The call letters for amateur stations in the United States... will consist of three items; number of the radio district; followed by two letters... The first letter will be:... Z [for] special amateur stations."
  24. ↑ "Development of Radiophone Broadcasting" by L. R. Krumm, Radio Age, July/August 1922, page 22. He additionally noted that "A special license was obtained from the government radio inspector in Detroit, Michigan, and the call letters 8ZZ were assigned to the station in the beginning." Other early sources documenting the use of the 8ZZ call sign for the election night broadcast include an article titled "KDKA" in the August, 1922 The Wireless Age, which recounts that "Those words brought the now famous KDKA station into being, but little was thought then that the transmission of presidential election returns from this station, which was then known as 8ZZ, would result in the widespread interest in radio that is now present throughout the country"; another article also titled "KDKA", by D. G. Little, in the June 1924 Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, which states that "The temporary calls first assigned were 8ZZ", and finally "Pittsburgh's Contributions to Radio" by S. M. Kintner (both Little and Kintner were engineers who helped set up the station for the election night broadcast), which appeared in the December 1932 issue of the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, which reports that: "Conrad stayed at his home, prepared to shift over to his station, in the event of the failure of the East Pittsburgh Station, then known as '8ZZ'."
  25. ↑ 9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea by Randall Davidson, 2007, page 321: "Audio clips from the 'first broadcast' using the KDKA call letters don't settle the question: they're all reenactments and have fooled many radio historians (some of these clips are also now on the Internet)."
  26. ↑ "To Give Election Results by Radio", Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 28, 1920, page 10.
  27. ↑ Chinoy, page 139.
  28. ↑ Contrary to some later accounts, Conrad's 8XK and Westinghouse's 8ZZ/KDKA were completely separate stations. Following KDKA's start Conrad made at least one more entertainment broadcast from his home over 8XK, on December 4, 1920 ("Wireless Concert", Monessen (Pennsylvania) Daily Independent, December 6, 1920, page 1), and continued to actively use the station for experimental work, until it was deleted on November 3, 1924.
  29. ↑ The Radio Amateur by C. E. Urban, Pittsburgh Gazette Times, November 7, 1920, Section six, page 3.
  30. ↑ "Wireless Phone Relays Returns of Post-Dispatch", Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, November 3, 1920, page 3.
  31. ↑ "Screen, Radio Give Returns", Detroit News, November 3, 1920, pages 1-2.
  32. ↑ "It Started Hear", KDKA promotional pamphlet, 1970, page 1. (americanradiohistory.com)
  33. ↑ Chinoy, page 141.
  34. 1 2 "KDKA" by D. G. Little, Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, June 1924, page 155.
  35. ↑ KDKA, The Wireless Age, August 1922, page 40.
  36. ↑ "The Spread of Radio Broadcastng", Radio Broadcasting News, April 16, 1922, page 2: "Radio Broadcasting of regular programs was instituted by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company December 21, 1920."
  37. ↑ Radio Broadcasting News, January 1, 1922, page 1.
  38. ↑ "Miscellaneous: Amendments to Regulations", Radio Service Bulletin, January 3, 1922, page 10.
  39. ↑ Second KDKA license (issued November 7, 1921) Limited Commercial license, serial #174, issued to the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a one year period.
  40. ↑ Davis, pages 199-201.
  41. ↑ "KDKA Made Religious Waves" by Dan Graves, MSL. (christianity.com)
  42. ↑ "Hoover Speech via Wireless", Indiana (Pennsylvania) Evening Gazette, January 14, 1921, page 1.
  43. ↑ Fisher, Marc. Something in the Air. Random House. xiv. ISBN 978-0-375-50907-0.
  44. ↑ Pittsburgh Press, April 7, 1986, pg. D10
  45. ↑ "Setting the Pace in Radio" by Jack Binns, Popular Science, July 1924, page 65.
  46. ↑ Radio Manufacturers of the 1920s: Vol. 1 by Alan Douglas, 1988, page vi.
  47. ↑ "Advertising by Radio: Can It and Should It Be Done?" by J. C. McQuiston, Radio News, August, 1922, pages 232, 332-334.
  48. ↑ Why Radiophone Broadcasting Should be Continued, Radio Service Supplement to the National Electragist, November 1922, pages 10-11.
  49. ↑ Davis, page 223.
  50. ↑ "KDKA Set to Sign Off and Move From Studios Atop William Penn" by S. H. Steinhauser, Pittsburgh Press, November 1, 1934, page 30.
  51. ↑ "Studio Control", Pittsburgh Press, June 25, 1929, page 44.
  52. ↑ "How GE Birthed NBC in 1926" by Bradley Johnson (December 7, 2009. adage.com)
  53. ↑ "Engineers Test New KDKA Plant with Station Founder Listening" by S. H. Steinhauser, Pittsburgh Press, October 29, 1934, page 24.
  54. ↑ "KQV, Pittsburgh, and WCBM, Baltimore, Will Transfer to Blue Network in Fall" (PDF). Broadcasting. March 17, 1941. p. 9. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
  55. ↑ "Westinghouse pays record to buy DuMont's WDTV (TV)." (2nd page) Broadcasting - Telecasting, December 6, 1954, pp. 27-28. (americanradiohistory.com)
  56. ↑ Togyer, Jason. "Pittsburgh Radio & TV Online - Creating 'QED ... at DuMont's expense?". Pbrtv.com. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
  57. ↑ "NBC buys WJAS Pittsburgh", Broadcasting - Telecasting, August 12, 1957, page 9. (americanradiohistory.com)
  58. ↑ "Dx listening digest 5-201". World of Radio.com. 2005-11-22. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  59. ↑ "The Day the Music Died", Radio and Records, April 17, 1992, page 34. (americanradiohistory.com)
  60. ↑ "NRC/DXAS Pittsburgh 2008 August 29-31". Retrieved 2011-07-21.
  61. ↑ "Speculation mounts on KDKA radio sale" by Adrian McCoy, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 1, 2008. (post-gazette.com)
  62. ↑ "First bids on CBS Radio selloffs due today". Radio-Info.com. September 22, 2008. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
  63. ↑ Report of the Secretary of Commerce, "Bureau of Navigation: Radio Communication", July 1, 1923, page 221.
  64. ↑ History of Radio to 1926 by Gleason L. Archer, 1938, page 216.
  65. ↑ "Pioneer" (in Radio section), Time magazine, September 3, 1945, pages 64, 66.
  66. ↑ "Ryan Writes Time Magazine", NAB Reports, 1945, Volume 13, page 401. The magazine does not appear to have either printed Ryan's letter or to have responded to it in its pages.
  67. ↑ Radio Broadcasting News, January 1, 1922, page 2. The publication also informed readers that "Westinghouse Radio Sets are best to receive Westinghouse Broadcasting".
  68. ↑ "Will Give Concert by Wireless Telephone", San Jose Mercury Herald, July 21, 1912, page 27.
  69. ↑ "Air Will Be Full of Music To-Night", New York Sun, November 6, 1916, page 7.
  70. ↑ Father of Radio: The Autobiography of Lee de Forest, 1950, pages 349-351.
  71. ↑ "'Broadcasting' News by Radiotelephone" (letter from Lee de Forest), Electrical World, April 23, 1921, page 936.
  72. ↑ "Going Forward with Radio" as presented by KDKA (promotional pamphlet), 1946, page 3. (americanradiohistory.com)
  73. ↑ "Broadcasting's Oldest Stations: An Examination of Four Claimants" by Joseph E. Baudino and John Kittross, Journal of Broadcasting, Winter, 1977, page 68.
  74. ↑ Additional WWJ reference sources not stated as being reviewed by this article include: Contemporary front page articles in the 1920 editions of the Detroit News, beginning with "The News Radiophone To Give Vote Results" (August 31, 1920); WWJ—The Detroit News, published by the newspaper in 1922; a detailed station history, "WWJ—Pioneer in Broadcasting" by Cynthia Boyes Young (Michigan History, December 1960); and the subsequently published Radio's First Broadcaster: An Autobiography of Elton M. Plant, 1989.
  75. ↑ "Radio School Sends Jazz Music via Air", San Jose Mercury Herald, May 3, 1921, page 4.
  76. ↑ KQW schedule San Jose Evening News, December 12, 1925, page 2.
  77. ↑ KCBS Centennial Celebration
  78. ↑ WWJ advertisement, Broadcasting Magazine, August 15, 1934, page 29. (americanradiohistory.com)
  79. ↑ Plaque, Vilas Hall, University of Wisconsin–Madison (http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM39R9)
  80. ↑ 9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea by Randall Davidson, 2007, pages 322-327.
  81. ↑ WWJ advertisement, Broadcasting Magazine, August 20, 1945, page 31. (americanradiohistory.com)
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