5 Late And Great Pittsburgh Radio Stations

PITTSBURGH, PA - Broadcast radio was born in Pittsburgh nearly a century ago, so it’s no surprise that the city has a particularly rich radio history.

There have been many memorable stations over the years, some of which are still around and some of which long ago faded into memory. Today, Patch takes a look back at five great radio stations of Pittsburgh’s past.

• 13Q: 1973-1977

If you grew up in Pittsburgh during the early 1970s, you probably still are familiar with the phrase “I listen to the new sound of 13Q.” People all over southwestern Pennsylvania answered their phones like that in hopes a 13Q DJ would be on the other end of the line and award them a minimum cash prize of $13,000 for doing so.
The Top 40 station debuted in 1973, succeeding easy listening station WJAS 1320 AM. The call letters eventually were changed to WKTQ, which became known for its popular promotions and weekly Top 40 flyers distributed throughout the city.
13Q initially was so successful that it prompted competing station KQV to drop its Top 40 format and go all-news in 1975. But as more listeners shifted to FM stations, ratings declined and by 1979, the station switched to an adult contemporary format. The call letters returned to WJAS in 1981 and have remained the same since.

• B94: 1980-2004

In April, 1981, easy listening station 93.7 WJOI-FM flipped formats and became Top 40 radio station WBZZ-FM, announcing the move with the Billy Joel song “You May Be Right.” The station was a immediate hit, drawing better ratings than the city’s other Top 40 stations, WPEZ and WXKX.
The Quinn and Banana morning show featured “Banana” Don Jefferson, and Quinn, formerly of 13Q. The show was known for its raunchy bits, including one that implied that station news director Liz Randolph was promiscuous. Randolph sued the station for defamation and sexual harassment and a jury awarded her $694,000.
B-94’s Top 40 dominance lasted until the early 2000s, when sister station WZPT-FM and competitor WKST-FM adopted similar formats and began siphoning away its audience.
In 2004, B-94 changed formats and became known as K-Rock, competing with the likes of local rock stations WDVE-FM and WXDX-FM. Today, the station is KDKA-AM, better known as sports talk station 93.7 The Fan. WZPT adopted B-94’s old call letters, WBZZ-FM, and former B-94 morning show host Bubba is the station’s morning host.

• WTAE-AM: 1966-1998

The station formerly known as WRYT-AM changed its call letters in 1966 to match its sister TV station, WTAE. The station had a hybrid music-sports format, led by the 1970s morning team of Larry O’Brien and John Garry, a wildly popular duo who specialized in comedic bits.
For many years, WTAE was the flagship station of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pitt Panthers and legendary Steelers color analyst Myron Cope hosted a nightly talk show on the station. The hybrid format worked for many years, as WTAE trailed only KDKA in ratings among AM stations.
In 1987, WTAE went all-talk with on-air talent such as Jack Bogut, Lynn Cullen, Doug Hoerth and Phil Musick, but that format was short-lived. The station was acquired first by Jacor Communications, which changed the call letters to WEAE. The station went to an all-sports format under new owners ABC in 1999 and today is WPGP, a conservative talk show station.

• KQV: 1919-2017

First famous as a Top 40 radio station, its key DJs included Bob DeCarlo, the late George Hart, the aforementioned Jim Quinn and Jeff Christie, who later went on to fame under a different name: Rush Limbaugh.
KQV made national headlines in 1964, when the Beatles came to town and insisted that no radio station could broadcast its Civic Arena concert live. KQV rival KDKA was taping the concert and planned to broadcast it an hour later. But KQV used remote microphones to send the concert audio back to the station and aired it on a 30-second delay, crushing the competition.
Hart played the last music on the station before it switched to an all-news format in 1975. In 1982, Robert W. Dickey Sr. and the Tribune-Review publisher Dick Scaife purchased the station from Taft Broadcasting; Scaife sold his interest in 2011 to the Dickey family, which shuttered the station last December owing to declining ratings and revenue.
KQV’s’s license was sold in January to Greensburg-based Broadcast Communications, Inc., which has stated it intends to revive the station and its news format. KQV currently has a placeholder website in anticipation of that eventually occurring.

WXXP: 1986-88

Although it was only on the air for little more than two years, the alternative rock station’s impact lingers today. An online version of the station exists and what has turned into annual reunion shows bring together former staffers and the local bands whose music they played.
Located in Millvale above the Lincoln Pharmacy, the station provided many local radio listeners weary of perpetually hearing the likes of Bob Seger and Aerosmith on the airwaves with their first taste of alternative music. Double-X, as it was reverently known, played the likes of the Smiths, the Cure and REM.
Although most of the station staff long ago moved on to other cities and/or careers, WXXP alum Cris Winter hosts the morning show on WISH-FM and Bob Studebaker is production director for WESA-FM and a host and the operations manager for JazzWorks.

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