WDVE Turns 50: A Pittsburgh Institution Celebrates

PITTSBURGH, PA - In 1969, Richard Nixon was president, man landed on the moon for the first time and the Pittsburgh radio station that would become WDVE-FM switched to a rock format.

The last lunar landing occurred in 1972. Nixon died in 1994. But a half-century after KQV-FM began its evolution into WDVE, the city’s top-rated radio station continues to thrive.

“The format obviously could work anywhere, but what made DVE work is that it developed street credibility at some point,” former WDVE morning show host and one-time station program director Jimmy Roach said in an interview with Patch. “There’s a tremendous commitment from the listening audience. DVE isn’t just background noise to them. There’s their family, their friends, their co-workers, their neighborhood – and then there’s DVE.”

“What DVE has accomplished is incredible,” Scott Paulsen, another former morning drive show co-host, told Patch. “There are probably only a handful of stations across the country where you just name the call letters and people know exactly what the station does, exactly what it stands for and exactly who the audience is. (WDVE) is one of them.”

iHeart Media has a half-dozen radio stations that operate out of a Green Tree office building visible from the Parkway West. DVE - as the station commonly is referred to around town - is the only one to have a large logo on the building visible to passing motorists.

Some of the biggest names in Pittsburgh broadcasting history have worked at the station: Roach, Paulsen, Steve Hansen, Jim Krenn, Randy Baumann, Sean McDowell and Chris DeCarlo.

They have played the familiar songs that to a large Pittsburgh audience is as comfortable as an old slipper. Most of WDVE’s playlist dates back to the 1970s and ‘80s, and listeners seldom have to wait long to hear hits from Tom Petty, AC/DC, The Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and ZZ Top.

The station had its origins in the late 1960s when Allen Shaw, director of special projects for ABC Radio, conceived a free-form rock format for the company’s stations - including KQV-FM, which until then was simulcasting KQV-AM broadcasts.

That automated format that debuted in 1969 was tweaked a year later. Disc jockeys were added and began playing album tracks that weren’t just hit singles. In 1971, KQV-FM’s call letters were changed to WDVE - for “dove,” the bird of peace.

No one back then envisioned the station would still be going strong 50 years later - not even Shaw.

"I thought, in another 5 or 10 years this will all be forgotten,” he told the DVE website recently. “We just didn't see that it was going to go on for this long."

(A reunion of veteran DVE on-air personalities in 2011. Back row from left: Mal Redding, Terry Caywood, Trevor Ley, P.J. Maloney, Steve Hansen, Jimmy Roach, Dan Fermento. Front row: Chris DeCarlo, Linda Carducci, Marsy and Sean McDowell. Photo via Chris DeCarlo.)

A strong argument can be made that DVE’s ascension to the pinnacle of Pittsburgh radio began in 1973, when the station hired a little-known DJ from Columbus named Jimmy Roach for the afternoon drive shift.

Within two years, Roach was the station’s program director making hiring and firing decisions. One of the DJs he brought on board was Steve Hansen, who left the evening shift after about a year for a job in San Francisco.

Hansen’s second stint at DVE lasted longer. He returned in 1980 to team with Roach on the morning shift and begin a run now approaching 40 years of highly-rated morning shows at the station.

Their comedy show featured the pair’s many alter alter egos - DJ Biff Bob, showbiz agent Murray "Crash" Brokewizt and wine aficionado O.T. Ripple. But Jimmy and Steve also were strong proponents of local music acts and helped boost the careers of artists such as Donnie Iris, B.E. Taylor, Norm Nardini and the Iron City Houserockers.

Roach credits DVE’s rise to the top in part to its willingness to support local artists.

“Playing those guys on the radio, emphasizing that we were a part of the community, it helped establish that street credibility and made the station more than just a jukebox,” he said.

When Roach and Hansen departed in 1986 for Florida (and later for DVE rival WMYG-FM), the station hired Paulsen. He became friends with local comedian Jim Krenn, who began guesting on the show and became an official co-host in 1988.

“Jimmy is the funniest person I’ve ever met,” Paulsen said. “For a good five to 10 years, we were joined at the hip mentally. We were like a good double-play combo or a quarterback-wide receiver pair who just sort of innately click.”

Listeners agreed. The show vaulted to the top of the morning ratings as Paulsen and Krenn kept people entertained for the next 11 years with characters such as Stanley P. Kachowski, Bobby Subgum, Ralph the Cat and Buddy (down at Buddy's).

When Paulsen decided to leave DVE in 2000, Randy Baumann was hired to succeed him. He and Krenn worked together until 2011, when Krenn departed as well. The program since has been known as Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show.

Although morning teams get the bulk of the attention at any radio station, DVE always has been more than its morning team. It’s made few on-air changes over the years, enabling strong bonds to be forged between the announcers and the listening audience.

Midday host Michele Michaels, the host of the popular “Electric Lunch,” has been with DVE for more than 30 years. Sean McDowell was hired as a part-time DJ in 1993; a few months later he replaced Herschel (no on-air last name) as the station’s afternoon personality and has been there ever since.

When he recently announced his impending retirement at the end of July, McDowell noted that few stations in the country have been able to accomplish what DVE has.

“DVE is revered nationally, industry-wide, because there aren’t many stations like DVE left in the entire industry,” he said. “DVE is an anomaly for broadcasting in the year 2019.”

Chris DeCarlo believes she knows the reason why. DeCarlo has worked at radio stations since the 1970s at stations such as WYDD-FM, 3WS and WDSY-FM. She was at DVE from 1982 until 1986.

“DVE is part of Pittsburgh history at this point. It’s as Pittsburgh as Myron Cope and Primanti Brothers and saying ‘yinz,’” she said.

“DVE helps define what this city is.”