KDKA At 70: A Look Back At Pittsburgh's Oldest TV Station

PITTSBURGH, PA - Pittsburgh’s first TV station is marking a momentous birthday this year and there might not be room on the cake for all the candles. KDKA turns 70 in 2019.

Actually, it already has. The station went on the air in January 1949 as WDTV, with the D standing for the DuMont Television Network that owned and operated it during its early days of existence.

When DuMont ran into serious financial difficulties several years later, it sold the station in 1954 to Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse, which promptly rechristened it after the pioneering local radio station it owned here: KDKA. Two years later, the station moved into its new headquarters in One Gateway Center, Downtown, where it remains located today.

Westinghouse acquired CBS in 1995, making the station a CBS-owned entity after being a network affiliate for four decades. CBS remains the owner of the TV station today, although KDKA-AM is now owned by Entercom.

KDKA-TV long has been a source of fascination, both to the general public and academicians. The late Lynn Hinds, a former WTAE-TV broadcaster who became an instructor at West Virginia, wrote a book about the station: “Broadcasting the Local News: The Early Years of Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV.”

Some of the most famous names in Pittsburgh broadcasting history have appeared on KDKA newscasts and programs over the years. They include:

• Bill and Patti Burns

Bill Burns joined WDTV as a reporter in 1953 and is best known for anchoring KDKA’s noon and 11 pm. newcasts, signing off on the latter with the familiar refrain “Good night, good luck, and good news tomorrow.” His daughter, Patty jointed the station in 1974 as a reporter and the pair made history two years later by becoming the first father-daughter team to anchor a newscast.
Burns retired in 1989 and died in 1997 at 84. Patti Burns left KDKA in 1997 and died just four years later from lung cancer at 49.

• Paul Long and Joe DeNardo

Though this pair are best known for their long tenures at WTAE as an anchor and meteorologist, respectively, both worked at KDKA in the 1960s before becoming local legends across town. Long retired in 1994 and died in 2002; DeNardo retired in 2005 and passed away last year.

• Marie Torre

The station’s first female anchor and one of the first female anchors in the country, Torre worked at KDKA from 1962 to 1977 and her notable interviews included President Lyndon Johnson and Coretta Scott King. She also hosted a daily talk show, “Contact” that later was named “The Marie Torre Show.” She died in 1997.

• Adam Lynch

He worked at KDKA in the late 1950s before moving on to WIIC (now WPXI) and WTAE.

• Eleanor Schano

One of the legendary Pittsburgh broadcaster’s first jobs was as a WDTV weather forecaster. She since has had a generations-spanning career at WTAE, WIIC (now WPXI), KDKA-AM, KQV-AM, WQED-TV and WQEX-TV.

• Ron Klink

Klink was a weather forecaster and reporter at KDKA from 1978 to 1991 before being elected to the U.S. House in 1992. He spent four terms as a congressman before giving up his seat for an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate.

• Dennis Miller

The talk show host, commentator and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member was a former KDKA “Evening Magazine” contributor in the 1970s.

• Dick Stockton

The Fox football play-by-play announcer was a KDKA sports announcer from 1967 to 1971.

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