139-494: WABC may refer to: WABC (AM) , New York City radio station (770 AM) WABC-TV , New York City TV station (channel 7) WPLJ , New York City radio station (95.5 FM), which held the call sign WABC-FM from 1953 until 1971 WHSQ , New York City radio station (880 AM), which held the WABC call sign from 1926 until 1946 WWNC , Asheville, North Carolina radio station (570 AM), which held
278-555: A Top 40 station were humble ones. WINS was the No. 1 hit music station and WMCA , which did a similar rock leaning top 40 format, was also a formidable competitor, while WABC barely ranked in the Top Ten. Fortunately for WABC, the other Top 40 outlets could not be heard as well in more distant New York and New Jersey suburbs, since WINS, WMGM , and WMCA were all directional stations. WABC, with its 50,000-watt non-directional signal, had
417-635: A disco -based top 40 format known as "Disco 92". By December of that year, WABC was unseated, as WKTU became the No. 1 station in New York City. The first "disco" ratings saw WKTU with 11 percent of the listening audience—a huge number anywhere, let alone in a market the size of New York City—and WABC dropping from 4.1 million listeners to 3 million, losing 25 percent of its audience practically overnight. After this initial ratings tumble, WABC panicked and began mixing in several extended disco mixes per hour and sometimes played two back-to-back. Some of
556-674: A 100-foot (30 m) pipe mast atop the K ;Building. 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, scaling up Conrad's previous 50 watt radiotelephone transmitter design. A telephoned temporary authorization
695-584: A Bus", as well as bringing opera lovers the Saturday matinée Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts . Cross would continue to host the Met on NBC, ABC, CBS and NPR until his passing at the beginning of 1975. Occasionally, a show would premiere on NBC Blue, which had a weaker lineup of stations nationwide, and be shifted to the Red Network if it grew in popularity. Fibber McGee and Molly is one example. When
834-457: A KDKA announcer repeated the ringside commentary, after it had been relayed by telegraph by Westinghouse engineers who were listening to the WJY broadcast. KDKA's participation included six theaters where attendees were charged admission to hear the reports. On August 5, 1921, KDKA became the first radio station to broadcast a major league professional baseball game, when announcer Harold Arlin called
973-630: A Rhythmic Top 40 format in 1980. Other FM competitors like oldies station WCBS-FM , soul station WBLS , and album-oriented rock stations like WPLJ and WNEW-FM all did well in the ratings, but none rivalled WABC's success. AM competitor WNBC also never came close to WABC's audience during this period. WNBC then had a format similar to 99X playing Adult Top 40. In 1977, WNBC tried sounding younger and moved its format musically closer to WABC. Then by 1979 they tried sounding older and somewhere in-between. Until 1978, WABC remained dominant. WABC's ratings strength came from its cumulative audience, what
1112-538: 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. 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
1251-553: A directional antenna at night to protect WABC's coverage. KOB unsuccessful appealed this on the grounds that it should have been assigned the frequency's Class I-A assignment, and the case was finally settled in 1980, with the courts siding with the FCC decision. However, that same year as part of a general review of clear channel operations, the FCC also reduced nighttime protected coverage for clear channel stations from unlimited to 750 miles (1,207 km) from their transmitters, opening up
1390-618: A general station reassignment produced by the Federal Radio Commission 's General Order 40 , WJZ moved to 760 kHz. On March 24, 1932, WJZ claimed to be the first radio station to broadcast a program from aboard a moving train; the station aired a variety show produced aboard a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passenger train travelling through Maryland. In November 1933, WJZ, WEAF plus the NBC and RCA corporate headquarters moved to 30 Rockefeller Plaza . In March 1941, under
1529-539: A huge amount of music and went as far back as 1964. He added The Beatles , Motown 1960s hits, 1970s rock hits, a few album rock cuts, and basically deepened WABC's music. The same amount of current hits still got played but less often and about 40%. That November, he let Harry Harrison , George Michael, and Chuck Leonard go. He made a couple shifts longer, moved Dan Ingram to mornings, moved Bob Cruz from overnights to afternoons, and hired Howard Hoffman for evenings. For overnights he hired Sturgis Griffin and eliminated
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#17327796982701668-678: A long–form news block in the afternoon–drive period. While this was not an issue prior to 1960, such commitments created a programming clash with the Top 40 format up until the network was dissected into four sub–networks in 1968.) In 1958–1959, legendary rock'n'roll disk jockey Alan Freed hosted a daily evening show on WABC, which was similar in format and musical policy to the early rock shows he had gained fame with on WJW in Cleveland, and later WINS in New York. Freed's time at WABC ended when he
1807-627: A member of the National Radio Hall of Fame and be credited as one of the pioneering architects of the Top 40 format. Under Sklar, the station went to the shortest playlist of any contemporary music station in history. The number one song was heard about every hour during the day and every 75 minutes or so at night. The other top 5 songs were heard nearly as often. Other current songs averaged once to twice per airshift. The station played about 9 current hits per hour and several non-current songs. The non-currents were no more than 5 years old and
1946-536: A much older audience. Chief competitor WMCA began running evening talk by 1968 and stopped playing top 40 music altogether in the fall of 1970. Then in 1971, Country Music station WJRZ abruptly flipped to a Top 40 format and became known as WWDJ . That lasted until April 1974. WOR-FM evolved from progressive rock to Adult Top 40 playing the hits of 1955 to current product by 1968. They dropped most pre-1964 oldies in 1972 and became known as WXLO 99X. That station evolved into more on an Adult Contemporary format in 1979 and
2085-666: 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. To strengthen
2224-486: 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." An application, signed by H. P. Davis,
2363-421: 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
2502-484: 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
2641-533: A row, still mixed with talk and personality, but done in a tighter manner. Fed up with the short playlist, Cousin Brucie left in August 1974 to defect to rival WNBC. Rick Sklar was promoted in 1976 to vice president of programming for ABC Radio , and his assistant program director Glenn Morgan became WABC's program director. The station's influence could be found in odd places: Philip Glass ' 1976 opera, Einstein on
2780-632: A row. Often the air personalities delivered live commercials in their own humorous style, so that listeners would consider the spot part of the entertainment. In addition, between songs, disc jockeys were required to provide so-called program matter. Program matter could include a time check, a weather report or simply some disc jockey banter, which enabled the disc jockeys to inject their personalities and humor into their shows. Early 1960s disc jockeys included Dan Ingram , Herb Oscar Anderson, Charlie Greer, Scott Muni , Chuck Dunaway, Jack Carney, Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow and Bob "Bobaloo" Lewis. But some of
2919-531: 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 ran until Ed King's death on November 18, 1971. Unlike most talk shows, callers were not heard, with
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#17327796982703058-464: A similar format to its sister station WNBC, as well as WABC. That fall, Jay Clark took over as program director at WABC, and Jeff Mazzei arrived as assistant program director from WNEW (which was moving from adult contemporary to big bands and standards). Under Clark, the station played current music leaning toward a more Adult Contemporary sound, trying to appeal to a slightly older audience, as most younger listeners were listening to FM stations. Part of
3197-472: 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. Following the development of vacuum-tube transmitters that made audio transmissions via Amplitude Modulation (AM) possible,
3336-576: A station with the randomly assigned call letters WJZ, located at the company's meter factory at Orange and Plane streets in Newark, New Jersey , and transmitting on a wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz). WJZ's studio and transmitter were initially housed in a shack located on a factory roof that was only accessible by ladder. The station later expanded to a larger studio on the factory's ground floor. The station began test transmissions around October 1, 1921, followed, beginning October 5, by broadcasts of
3475-538: A studio performance of Mozart's Impresario , probably the first full-length opera broadcast in the New York City area. In October 1922, the station aired its second World Series , this time also feeding it to WGY in Schenectady, New York . Shortly after midnight on December 9, 1922, WJZ became the first broadcasting station confirmed to have been heard in Europe, consisting of a short program featuring greetings from
3614-543: 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
3753-473: A then-record price of $ 9.75 million. 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 . The television station was renamed KDKA-TV on January 31, 1955. KDKA-TV affiliated with CBS , in contrast to KDKA's longtime NBC affiliation. KDKA radio remained affiliated with NBC radio until
3892-413: 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). Early programming often featured live musical performances by
4031-510: A weeknight sports-talk show with Art Rust, Jr. from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. WABC's ratings by this point were mediocre and they were still going down. Also, that March, WABC became the full-time flagship radio outlet for Yankees baseball games, a distinction the station carried through the end of the 2001 season. This would be the longest continuous relationship the team would have with any flagship station (to date). Clark reasoned that Yankee baseball would bring back some listeners to
4170-575: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages WABC (AM) WABC (770 AM ) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York , carrying a conservative talk radio format known as "Talkradio 77". Owned by John Catsimatidis ' Red Apple Media, the station's studios are located in Red Apple Media headquarters on Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan and its transmitter
4309-854: Is in Lodi, New Jersey . Its 50,000-watt non-directional clear channel signal can be heard at night throughout much of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada. It is the primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System in the New York metropolitan area and New Jersey . WABC simulcasts on WLIR-FM in Hampton Bays, New York , on eastern Long Island . Owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company for much of its history, it
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4448-507: Is one of the country's oldest radio stations. WABC began broadcasting in early October 1921, originally as WJZ in Newark, New Jersey . From 1943 through 2007, the station served as the flagship for the original ABC Radio Network (and its direct predecessor, the Blue Network ) and ABC's radio news service . While WABC has been a talk radio station since 1982, the station broadcast a Top 40 music format from 1960 to 1982. Starting in
4587-513: The Buffalo Evening News , over an amateur station operated by Charles C. Klinck, Jr. Later station publicity proclaimed that Westinghouse's election night broadcast "was a national sensation, acclaimed by newspapers all over the country", however 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
4726-596: The 1921 World Series baseball games. Announcer Thomas H. Cowan in Newark simply relayed the description phoned in from the Polo Grounds baseball field by Newark Sunday Call sportswriter Sandy Hunt . (At first station announcers were identified only by initials; in Cowan's case as "ACN", for "Announcer-Cowan-Newark".) The station soon expanded to feature a wide variety of live programming. A popular early feature
4865-533: The Aeolian Hall was located, and station publicity heralded the upgrade: "Located in the heart of the city's musical and theatrical district, where entertainment of the highest order is ever available, this station will offer to the American public the most elaborate radio programs yet attempted and with a degree of faithfulness in reproduction that marks the beginning of a new era in radio broadcasting." This
5004-484: The Department of Commerce —which regulated radio at this time—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. WJZ was one of a small number of stations that already met this standard at the time of its adoption. It was also the second-oldest of the two licenses previously issued for
5143-699: The Donna Summer disco hit " MacArthur Park " was playing during Dan Ingram 's afternoon drive program. During the song, DJ George Michael (who also was a sports reporter) interrupted to break the news that New York Yankees catcher and team captain Thurman Munson had died in a plane crash. In late summer, WABC moved, temporarily, back to its tight playlists. That fall, Al Brady took over as programming director of WABC. He had come from WHDH Boston , where he evolved that station from MOR to more of an adult contemporary music format. At WABC, he added
5282-604: The New York metropolitan area . Due to its strong signal, the station could be heard easily over 100 miles away, including the Catskill and Pocono Mountains , and through much of Connecticut and Rhode Island . After sunset, when AM radio waves travel farther, WABC's signal could be picked up around much of the Eastern U.S. and Canada. Bruce Morrow often spoke about how he felt an almost psychic bond to his young listeners. An aircheck of WABC from August 1964, features some of
5421-542: The Pittsburgh Cable News Channel . As of January 2009, Pintek was rehired at KDKA to host a 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. talk show, and, following the death of Fred Honsberger, took over the 12 noon-3 p.m. timeslot in January 2010. In July 2017, Pintek took a leave of absence to receive treatment for pancreatic cancer. He died on September 12, 2018. On July 23, 1982, KDKA claims to have become
5560-479: The Pittsburgh Pirates - Philadelphia Phillies game from Forbes Field . 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
5699-476: The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) from Roselle Park , New Jersey, began sharing the wavelength, with WJZ now broadcasting on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and WDY operating on the other three nights. This soon ended when WDY ceased operations in mid-February 1922 and was merged with WJZ, with RCA now assuming half of WJZ's expenses. However, within a few months a large number of additional broadcasting stations began operating on 360 meters, and WJZ
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5838-600: The "Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World". It is considered by many historians as the first commercially licensed radio station. Initially using the temporarily assigned "special amateur" call sign of 8ZZ, it traces its beginning to its broadcast of the Harding-Cox presidential election results on the evening of November 2, 1920. Although KDKA's history has been extensively reviewed, there are some inconsistencies between accounts, leading one researcher to note: "While
5977-454: The 1941 reassignment had also been a clear channel station, from 1030 kHz to 770 kHz, after it was found that there was too much nighttime interference between it and WBZ in Boston on their shared frequency. WJZ soon complained about the interference KOB was causing to its distant nighttime coverage, starting a dispute that would last for 38 years. In 1958 the FCC attempted to rectify
6116-574: The 1960s to 1978, WABC was not only the dominant contemporary music station in New York City, but was also among the most listened-to radio stations in North America, serving as a template for many other Top 40 stations around the country. In November 1920 the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company had established its first broadcasting station, KDKA , located in its plant at East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , to promote
6255-485: 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")
6394-433: 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 in late 1995; KDKA would soon become an Infinity Broadcasting station, after that chain (a previously separate entity from CBS and Westinghouse)
6533-550: 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 . Running over-the-air commercials was an obvious financing alternative, but initially Westinghouse officials were soundly against
6672-596: The Beach , has as part of the background a recitation of WABC's DJ schedule in the 1960s. The end of the 1970s found FM radio beginning to overtake AM music stations in most markets. In June 1975, an FM station on 92.3, owned by the San Juan (Puerto Rico) Racing Association flipped to Soft Rock and became known as Mellow 92 WKTU. That station had very low ratings and had no effect on WABC. But on July 24, 1978, at 6 pm, WKTU abruptly dropped its Soft Rock format in favor of
6811-719: The Blue Network, was divested under government order. The WABC call letters were previously used on CBS Radio 's New York City AM and FM outlets, reflecting an earlier owner, the Atlantic Broadcasting Company. On November 1, 1946, WABC (AM) changed its call sign to WCBS , and the FM station became WCBS-FM . In 1957, several years after WJZ's callsign change to WABC, Westinghouse Broadcasting acquired WAAM-TV in Baltimore , Maryland, and applied to change
6950-455: The British consul in New York to British listeners and Vaughn De Leath singing her "Oliver Twist" song . May 15, 1923, saw a number of simultaneous major changes. Most notably, on this day the station moved from Newark to New York City, and the ownership was changed from joint Westinghouse-RCA responsibility to full control by RCA. WJZ moved to studios on the sixth floor of the building where
7089-495: The Conrad broadcasts. 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, and 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
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#17327796982707228-523: The DJs speaking from a window of The Beatles ' hotel room at the Hotel Delmonico during their second visit to New York City, while Dan Ingram, back in the studio, played WABC jingles to thousands of teenagers in the streets below, who enthusiastically sang along with them. Ingram later noted that this was actually illegal under FCC rules, but said that they did not know it at the time. In the wake of
7367-477: 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. 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
7506-424: 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
7645-566: The FCC approved the transfer of WJZ's operating license from Radio Corporation of America to the Blue Network, Inc. A year later, on October 12, 1943, WJZ and the NBC Blue Network were sold to Edward J. Noble , then the owner of WMCA . This spun off network was simply called "The Blue Network" for little over a year. On June 15, 1945, "The Blue Network" was officially rechristened the American Broadcasting Company , when negotiations were completed with George B. Storer , who had owned
7784-431: The FCC limited broadcast stations to 50 kW, a 500 kW transmitter built by RCA for WJZ was no longer allowed. The transmitter was sold by RCA to Britain and used for wartime Black Propaganda ; broadcasting as Soldatensender Calais a purported German military station. In 1942, the FCC ruled that no broadcaster could own more than one AM, one FM and one television station in a single market. On January 23, 1942,
7923-611: 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 93.7 KDKA-FM 's HD2 digital subchannel , and is simulcast on FM translator W261AX at 100.1 MHz . KDKA features a news/talk radio format . Operating with a transmitter power of 50,000 watts non-directional , the station can be heard during daylight hours throughout central and western Pennsylvania, along with portions of
8062-524: 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." 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
8201-733: 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,
8340-487: 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 meters or 485 meters (619 kHz). KDKA was one of a small number of stations that already met this standard at
8479-592: The WABC call sign from 1925 until 1926 Classic Gold WABC , defunct British radio station [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about radio and/or television stations with the same/similar call signs or branding. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WABC&oldid=1242310790 " Category : Broadcast call sign disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
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#17327796982708618-476: The adjacent states of Ohio , West Virginia , Maryland and New York State , plus the southernmost part of the Canadian province of Ontario . With a good radio, KDKA can be heard throughout the state of Pennsylvania and much of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada at night. The station serves as western Pennsylvania's Primary Entry Point for the Emergency Alert System . KDKA has described itself as
8757-502: The advantage of being heard in places west, south, and northwest of New York City, a huge chunk of the growing suburban population and this is where the station began to draw ratings. Early in 1962, WMGM, owned by Loew's, which then owned MGM , was sold to Storer Broadcasting . Upon its sale, WMGM reverted to its original WHN call letters and switched to a middle of the road music format playing mostly non-rock artists such as Frank Sinatra , Nat King Cole and Andy Williams . Sam Holman
8896-527: The air as the outage settled in for real. Ingram later drove out to the transmitter site in Lodi, New Jersey, with a box of records, and continued his show from the backup studio housed there. In the 1970s, WABC was either No. 1 or No. 2 consistently, often trading places with WOR . Once in a while, a station attracting an older audience (like WOR or WPAT ) would move into the top spot. These stations were not truly WABC's direct competitors because they targeted
9035-549: The amateur call sign of "8MK" and is now AM 950 WWJ . 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 . The antenna consisted of six 90-foot-long (27 m) wires spread 20 feet (6 m) apart, strung 210 feet (64 m) above the ground between a brick smokestack and
9174-420: The apparent implication being that the station was more than just music. By early 1981, WABC's cumulative audience was down to 2.5 million—rival WNBC, a perennial also-ran, was by this time beating them with 3 million. Fewer people were tuning into WABC, listeners who had switched to FM were not coming back, and, while still moderately successful, the ship was sinking. Like Brady, Clark tried to improve
9313-573: The band to nighttime operation by additional distant stations. WJZ and the Blue Network presented many of America's most popular programs, such as Lowell Thomas and the News , Amos 'n' Andy , Little Orphan Annie , America's Town Meeting of the Air , and Death Valley Days . Each midday, The National Farm and Home Hour brought news and entertainment to rural listeners. Ted Malone read poetry and Milton Cross conveyed children "Coast To Coast on
9452-900: The beginning" that advertising would be the ultimate financing solution. 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
9591-467: The best known WABC DJs are the ones that followed them in the mid-1960s and 1970s: Harry Harrison , Ron Lundy , Chuck Leonard (one of the earliest African-American DJs to be on the staff of a major mainstream radio station), Johnny Donovan , Bob Cruz (a Dan Ingram sound alike), Frank Kingston Smith , Roby Yonge , George Michael , Jim Nettleton, Jim Perry and Steve O'Brien. Meanwhile, "Radio Hall of Fame" member Dan Ingram, perhaps WABC's best known DJ,
9730-452: 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
9869-574: The broadcasts were musical and ranged from Carnegie Hall and Aeolian Hall recitals to harmonica and banjo solos. As part of the move to Aeolian Hall, WJZ's transmitting antenna was constructed atop the building, but the location in the middle of New York City proved to be a poor choice. At the end of 1925, the station began operations from a new transmitter site located at Bound Brook, New Jersey . WJZ did not operate regularly at 50,000 watts until 1935. Westinghouse and RCA's original financing plan envisioned that profits from receiver sales would provide
10008-501: The call letters to this day. Although WABC continued to air ABC programming during this time, ABC Radio – like the other major radio networks of that era – began to drop significant amounts of long-form comedy and dramatic programming, many of which migrated over to television. In response, WABC began using deejays playing recorded music in greater frequency. Some programs featured middle of the road music , including Broadway and Hollywood showtunes and popular music, while other portions of
10147-505: The calls to WJZ-TV , in honor of its former pioneer radio station. The FCC waived existing rules and granted this request to restore a three-letter callsign years after being retired on an unrelated station in a different market, albeit with a "-TV" suffix (perhaps because Westinghouse was highly regarded as a licensee by both the industry and the FCC at that time), and the Baltimore TV station, now owned and operated by CBS , retains
10286-431: The callsign 8XK. 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. On October 17, 1919, Conrad made
10425-562: 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
10564-474: The competitive advantage RCA had in international and marine communications, initially there appeared to be limited opportunities available to Westinghouse. 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,
10703-551: 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,
10842-441: 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". Rush Limbaugh was added to the noon to 3:00 p.m. timeslot, and all-news blocks were added in
10981-455: The defunct American Broadcasting System and still owned the name. In November 1948, WJZ and the ABC network finally got a home of their own when studios were moved to a renovated building at 7 West 66th Street. On March 1, 1953, WJZ changed its call letters to WABC, after the FCC approved ABC's merger with United Paramount Theatres , the movie theater chain owned by Paramount Pictures which, like
11120-549: The disco songs ran in excess of eight minutes. What regular listeners heard was a major change in sound. While the station continued playing non-disco and rock songs about a third of the time, the station's familiar format had seemed to disappear and as a result, WABC began to lose its identity. In late spring 1979, Billboard magazine reported that Rick Sklar had demoted program director Glenn Morgan to "moving carts" instead of making programming decisions. WABC's numbers dropped for four consecutive ratings periods. On August 2, 1979,
11259-436: 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" — 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. Extensive regional publicity by Westinghouse heralded
11398-455: The fame of this event developed over time with later celebratory accounts". Although the election night broadcast was only heard by about 1,000 people, 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
11537-583: The first of what would become a semi-regular series of entertainment broadcasts. 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". 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
11676-837: 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 . On August 31, 1920, the Detroit News , whose "Detroit News Radiophone" began making daily broadcasts on August 20, had broadcast local primary election results. That station operated under
11815-458: The flagship AT&T station (later WNBC ), located in New York City. RCA, along with its "radio group" allies of Westinghouse and General Electric, responded by creating a small network of its own, centered on WJZ. Due to AT&T's interpretation of a patent-rights cross-licensing agreement, the telephone company claimed the sole right to sell airtime, so WJZ was not able to charge for advertising, and again there were technical limitations, since
11954-416: The funds for broadcast station operations, but this revenue soon became insufficient. In 1922, AT&T adopted a more practical approach, of selling airtime, which it called "toll broadcasting", in addition to connecting stations together using telephone lines to form a radio network that could broadcast programs simultaneously to multiple sites. This first radio network was called the "WEAF chain", named after
12093-420: 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 . With the end of the war, the government contracts were canceled. However, Westinghouse moved aggressively to establish itself as
12232-476: 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". In 1922, H. P. Davis suggested that the best solution
12371-473: The introduction of licensing in late 1912, the standard practice had been to assign call letters starting with "W" to radio stations east of the Mississippi River. 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 previously been assigned only to ship stations. Although
12510-563: The late night shift merging that with evenings and overnights. In the first six months of 1980, ratings were slightly up and stable. Also, Brady made a deal for WABC to air New York Yankees baseball beginning the next year in 1981, though the station carried a few Yankee games from 1010 WINS during Republican Convention week in 1980. It was the first sign of the beginning of the end for the music format of WABC. Brady left WABC in July 1980 and soon became general manager of WYNY , which by then had
12649-414: The matter by designating the now-WABC and KOB as co-equal occupants of 770 kHz, with both stations required to protect each other's coverage as "Class I-B" stations. WABC appealed this decision, and through a series of legal battles was ultimately successful in maintaining its status as an unrestricted Class I-A station. In 1976 the FCC designated KOB as a Class II-A, station, requiring it to operate with
12788-434: 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. 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
12927-439: The network had to use inferior telegraph lines to interconnect its stations. In the summer of 1926, AT&T decided to withdraw from the broadcasting field, and sold its stations and network operations to RCA. Included with this sale was the right to sell advertising time, and access to telephone lines for radio network connections. The earlier network operations were reorganized as the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), with
13066-852: The network purchased WJAS in 1957 for WJAS's owners to gain a 50% ownership stake in WIIC-TV (now WPXI ) with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . KDKA then went independent, relying more on its Group W ties than on a national network. On April 30, 1956, KDKA relocated its studios from the Grant Building to Gateway Center , joining KDKA-TV. Broadcasting-Telecasting described the new arrangement as "combined facilities" similar to what Westinghouse had established at its Boston stations, WBZ and WBZ-TV . By 1960, KDKA added more rock and roll music, as competitor KQV made ratings gains. "Your Pal" Pallan played hit songs and KDKA carried
13205-471: The next month semiweekly broadcasts were made, until December 21, when the station embarked on an ambitious daily schedule, 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".) KDKA soon gained a reputation as one of the premier broadcasting stations in
13344-434: The original policy was restored a few months later, KDKA was permitted to keep its non-standard call sign. 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
13483-453: The primary network, now known as the NBC Red Network , originating from WEAF. A second network, known as the NBC Blue Network , with WJZ as the originating station, debuted on January 1, 1927. (The WJY sister station was quietly discontinued at this time.) In October 1927, WJZ moved into NBC studios still under construction at 711 Fifth Avenue. A month later, WEAF joined WJZ, and both were together under one roof. On November 11, 1928, as part of
13622-684: 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" and "Robert Troll" on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood . The 1950s saw
13761-603: 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 , and on June 26 relocated its Master Control facilities to the hotel. In 1932, as a result of antitrust proceedings, Westinghouse had to divest its 40% ownership stake of RCA and 20% ownership in NBC. At 7 a.m. on November 2, 1934,
13900-655: The provisions of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement , stations assigned to 760 kHz were shifted to 770 kHz, with WJZ designated as a Class I-A clear-channel station , thus the only station allowed to operate at night on this frequency. However, the following November the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved KOB in Albuquerque, New Mexico , which prior to
14039-681: The radio industry calls "cume". Most listeners did not stay with WABC for long periods of time, as the station had some of the shortest "time spent listening" (or TSL) spans in the history of music radio—an average listener spent about 10 minutes listening to WABC. It was the price paid for a short playlist, and numerous commercials between songs (the large number of ads being due to WABC's large audience), but what WABC lacked in TSL it more than made up for with its sheer number of listeners. By 1975, WABC tried becoming more music-intensive, reducing commercial breaks to three per hour. It began playing 3 to 5 songs in
14178-414: The radio industry. During the war, Westinghouse received government contracts to develop radio transmitters and receivers for military use. They used recently developed vacuum tube equipment that was capable of audio communication. Previous spark gap transmitters 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,
14317-406: The reason was the top 40 chart was leaning that way at that point as well. WABC still played rock and soul crossovers in moderation, but began to move away from album cuts and more toward 1960s and 1970s oldies. In September 1980, they also dropped the "Musicradio WABC" slogan and became "77 WABC, New York's Radio Station" (though they called themselves New York's radio station at times as Musicradio),
14456-414: 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
14595-517: 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. At this time, radio stations in the United States were regulated by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Navigation. Beginning with
14734-516: The sale of radio receivers . This initial station proved successful, so the next year the company developed plans to set up additional stations in major population centers, including, in addition to the New York City area, WBZ , originally in Springfield, Massachusetts , and KYW , originally in Chicago, Illinois. On September 30, 1921, Westinghouse was issued a broadcasting authorization for
14873-474: The schedule included ABC Radio's remaining long–form newscasts and dramatic program lineup, in tandem with CBS Radio's WCBS and NBC Radio's WNBC . (This would continue until 1960, as the Musicradio 77 era formally began, but WABC was still required to carry several of ABC Radio's non–music and entertainment shows, including the long–running Don McNeill's Breakfast Club during the 10:00 am hour, and
15012-691: 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 ,
15151-552: The state of New Jersey, preceded by RCA 's WDY grant. However, WJZ was the first to go on the air, as WDY did not begin operations until 2 1 ⁄ 2 months after WJZ's debut. WJZ had difficulty convincing New York City performers – who were not paid – to make the trek to Newark, so on February 5, 1922, a more convenient remote studio was opened at the Waldorf-Astoria , located on Fifth Avenue and 34th Street . The American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T)
15290-466: The station and that they would recycle back into the music format, but not even the "Bronx Bombers" could save music on WABC. In the fall of 1981, WABC dropped the remaining heavy-rock cuts and non-crossover urban hits, and began playing more oldies, as well as songs from the adult contemporary chart, and added an "advice" talk show with Dr. Judy Kuriansky from 9:00 p.m. to midnight on weeknights. Hoffman and Griffin exited at this point. By then, WABC
15429-497: The station played about 70 of them in total. In his book Rockin' America , Sklar said he was sensitive to payola concerns and advanced airplay. Through the years, WABC was known by various slogans, "Channel 77 WABC" and later "Musicradio 77 WABC". Due to the high number of commercials each hour, WABC played no more than two songs in a row and there was frequent DJ talk and personality between every song. The station averaged 6 commercial breaks per hour but they were no more than 3 ads in
15568-657: The station's 14th birthday, KDKA inaugurated new studios in the Grant Building . 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
15707-483: The station's sound remained much more conservative than most Top 40 stations. In 1955, the station began regular broadcasts of Pittsburgh Pirates 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 (channel 2) from the DuMont Television Network for
15846-487: The station. When Harold L. Neal, Jr. was named general manager of WABC, he was charged with making WABC successful in terms of both audience and profits. Neal had been at WXYZ in Detroit. By 1960, WABC was committed to a nearly full-time schedule of top-40 songs played by upbeat personalities. Still, WABC played popular non-rock and roll songs as well, provided they scored well on the Top 40 charts. WABC's early days as
15985-418: The success of "W-A-Beatle-C" (as it was briefly called around the time of the Beatles' U.S. visit), competitor WINS finally dropped out of the Top 40 battle in 1965, adopting an all-news format. The ABC television network also called itself "A-Beatles-C" whenever it promoted airings of Beatles-related films. Just before the famous Northeast blackout of 1965 , Dan Ingram noted that the studio's electric power
16124-668: 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. 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). As
16263-413: The time-spent-listening. In March 1981, Cruz departed, Ingram went back to afternoon drive time , and the team of Ross Brittain and Brian Wilson from Atlanta moved into morning drive. Ross and Wilson , as the show was known, was very information-oriented, playing exactly four songs in an hour except on Saturdays when they played the usual 12 or so songs an hour. A week later, the station also began airing
16402-469: 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
16541-424: 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, and A. E. Braun, an International Radio Telegraph officer who
16680-671: 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 . 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. KDKA eventually made
16819-434: 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". However, in 1928 he stated that he had realized "from
16958-683: 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. 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 , The Doobie Brothers , Paul Simon 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
17097-507: Was almost unrecognizable as a Top 40 station, the ratings were languishing, and rumors, which began as far back as 1979 were rampant that the station would be changing its format to talk and news sooner or later. By early 1982 it looked sooner than later. The management at ABC denied the rumors but did state that plans were to modify WABC into a full service AC format with music by day and talk evenings and overnights like KDKA in Pittsburgh
17236-627: Was also the day that the Department of Commerce implemented an expansion of the broadcast band, which now consisted of a range of transmitting frequencies from 550 to 1350, with WJZ assigned the sole use of 660. Finally, a sister station with the call letters of WJY operating on 740, was established, which shared the "Broadcast Central" Aeolian Hall studios, with WJZ providing more serious programming, and WJY's offerings considered more informal. Program logs from May 15 to December 31, 1923, show WJZ aired 3,426 programs, including 723 talks, 67 church services, 205 bedtime stories and 21 sports events. Many of
17375-515: Was also the president of the Pittsburgh Post and Pittsburgh Sun , made the arrangements for his newspapers to provide election results to the station. In the days before November 2, 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, ready to take over using his 8XK transmitter if
17514-566: Was carried ten miles (sixteen kilometers) by a telephone line connection to Westinghouse's East Pittsburgh Works. On July 2, 1921, RCA arranged to broadcast live, over temporary station WJY , the Jack Dempsey – Georges Carpentier heavyweight boxing match in New Jersey, with the company claiming that 300,000 persons listened to the WJY transmission. KDKA participated in the event by providing supplemental coverage west of WJY's range, as
17653-508: Was caught up in the investigation of the " payola " scandals of the era; he was terminated in November 1959. Although payola was not illegal at the time, the termination occurred because Freed had refused to sign a statement admitting that he had accepted bribes. At different times in the pre-top-40 era, famed comedian Ernie Kovacs and dean of early disc jockeys Martin Block were heard on
17792-578: 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. 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
17931-520: Was doing. Once a week beginning in February, WABC was auditioning prospective talk shows for the Midnight to 2:00 a.m. time slot. KDKA (AM) KDKA ( 1020 kHz ) is a Class A , clear channel , AM radio station, owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. and licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , United States. Its radio studios are located at the combined Audacy Pittsburgh facility in
18070-474: Was fluctuating and he began having fun with the slowed-down music. After playing " Everyone's Gone to the Moon " by Jonathan King , he quipped it was played "in the key of R". Ingram then proceeded to run some recorded commercials and a portion of Si Zentner 's "Up a Lazy River", backtimed to the news, while commenting on how everything seemed to be running slower than normal. During the 6 pm newscast, WABC left
18209-413: Was held over from the early staff, being heard in the afternoon for much of WABC's Top 40 history. Noted sportscaster Howard Cosell did a brief weekday evening sportscast on WABC, as well as hosting a late Sunday night interview show called "Speaking of Everything". Especially in the afternoons and evenings, WABC was the station that teenagers could be heard listening to on transistor radios all over
18348-400: Was received to operate under the call sign of 8ZZ. (The first "Z" in this call sign indicated it was a "Special Amateur" grant, 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
18487-455: 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. In the 1950s, Ed Shaughency was moved from mornings to the afternoon, losing his partner, Rainbow (Elmer Walters) in
18626-552: Was stubborn about having to share "its" wavelength. In May 1922 a proposed time-sharing agreement among 15 local stations assigned more than half of the available airtime to WJZ, but the station did not feel this was sufficient, which in turn led the Radio Broadcasting Society of America to petition that WJZ's license be canceled for being uncooperative. There were no formal standards in the United States defining broadcasting stations until December 1, 1921, when
18765-561: 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 No. 174, with the identifying call letters of KDKA. 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
18904-554: Was the "Man in the Moon" bedtime stories, written by Josephine Lawrence and read over the air by Bill McNeary (both were Newark Sunday Call employees). Beginning on November 27, 1921, a weekly 90-minute show presented by the Vincent Lopez band was aired. When it began its broadcast service, WJZ was the only station in the New York City area transmitting on 360 meters. In mid-December 1921 station WDY , operated by
19043-529: Was the first WABC program director of this era. Under Holman, WABC achieved No. 1 ratings during much of 1962, after WMGM reverted to WHN. By the summer of 1963, WMCA led the pack among contemporary stations, with WABC at No. 2 and WINS slipping to third place. It has been said, but is difficult to verify, that WMCA dominated in the city proper, while WABC owned the suburbs. This would be consistent with WMCA's 5,000-watt directional signal. Hal Neal hired Rick Sklar as WABC's program director. He would go on to become
19182-656: Was transmitted, which added much to the entertainment." This Westinghouse broadcast was not unique – that evening at least three other stations made audio transmissions of election returns, including the Detroit News ' "Detroit News Radiophone" service, a temporary arrangement made by the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch in conjunction with William E. Woods of the Benwoods Company, "manufacturers and distributors of wireless outfits", and
19321-515: Was unwilling to provide a telephone line to connect the Waldorf-Astoria studio to the Newark transmitter, so the link was instead made using specially prepared telegraph wires provided by Western Union . However, this expedient only provided marginal audio quality, and "the line was so noisy that when Newcomb Carleton, the president of Western Union, broadcast over it, his voice was completely drowned out". On March 15, 1922, WJZ broadcast
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