Birth of a station... Although KQV could be heard on crystal sets as early as November 19, 1919 as one of 5 Ham Radio stations, this was the day in 1922 that the legendary radio station in the making was launched and licensed to broadcast. KQV joined KDKA as one of 2 in Pittsburgh to have call letters starting with "K", a designation assigned almost entirely to stations west of the Mississippi River... The Top 40 era, begun in January of 1958, was extremely successul in the 50s, 60s and 70s. "Colorful KQV", "Audio 14", "Groovy QV", "The Big 14" and "14K" were all used during those decades, some more successful than others but all highly identifiable with a great radio station. As all good things must end, the Top 40 era bowed out on the night of October 15, 1975 with the current all-news format replacing it. That format has now outlived the music area... More on KQV in my commentary including the name and website address of the "King of all KQV websites"... More January 9 Memories... 1894) William Kennedy Laurie Dickson copyrights the 1st motion picture. The movie filmed in February 1893 at the Edison studio in West Orange, NJ, features 47 images of a man sneezing (no oscar nominations were reported as being given out for this epic, go figure)... 1902) New York State introduces a bill to outlaw flirting in public (but not sneezing)... 1903) New York businessmen Frank Farrell and Bill Devery buy the Baltimore Orioles franchise of the American League for $18,000 and move it to upper Manhattan where the team finishes 4th as the Highlanders. In 1913 the team is renamed the Yankees... 1922) KQV-AM in Pittsburgh gets its license (feature story)... 1929) The Seeing Eye is incorporated in Nashville. The company's purpose was to train dogs to guide the blind... 1936) The U.S. Army adopts the semi-automatic rifle... 1937) The 1st issue of "Look" goes on sale. Within a month, Look becomes a biweekly magazine... 1951) The U.N. headquarters officially opens in Manhattan... 1956) Abigail Van Buren's "Dear Abby" column 1st appears in newspapers... 1958) "The Big O", Oscar Robertson puts on the greatest one-man show in Madison Square Garden College Basketball history by scoring 56 points as Cincinnati beats Seton Hall 118-54... 1959) "Rawhide" starring Clint Eastwood premieres as one of 30 westerns in the 1959-1960 TV season... 1963) Paul Brown, coach and GM of the Cleveland Browns and the man the team was named after, is fired by owner Art Modell. Fans are outraged (they're still outraged)... 1972) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar helps bring an end to the Los Angeles Laker's epic 33-game winning streak as the Bucks beat the Lakers 120-104... 1972) Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes says a purported biography of him by Clifford Irving is a fake... 1972) The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor... 1976) The filming of "Rocky" starring Sylvester Stallone begins... 1979) The benefit concert, "A Gift of Song" is held at the U.N. General Assembly, starring Olivia Newton-John, Rita Coolidge, the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer, John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Abba and Earth, Wind & Fire... 1981) After a tie game between the Rangers and Buffalo, Hockey Hall of Famer Phil Esposito announces his retirement... 1984) Clara Peller is 1st seen by TV viewers in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial for Wendy's... 1986) Kodak gets out of the instant camera business after 10 years, in a court battle with Polaroid over patents... 1987) The White House releases a memo showing a definite link between U.S. arms sales to Iran and the release of American hostages in Lebanon... 1989) Carl Yastrzemski and Johnny Bench are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame... 1990) The Celtics score an all-time low of 6 points in the 2nd period of a game with the New Jersey Nets, won by the Nets 87-78... 1990) Jim Palmer and Joe Morgan are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame... 2002) The U.S. Justice Department announces that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corporation regarding their bankruptcy... To ensure accuracy, multiple reference sources were used in the timeline... Happy Birthday To... 1934) Football Hall of Famer Bart Starr... 1935) Sports play-by-play announcer Dick Enberg... 1939) Jimmy ("I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus") Boyd... 1941) Joan Baez... 1944) Jimmy Page... 1948) Billy Cowsill... 1950) David Johansen... 1951) Crystal Gayle... Commentary... I was one of the fortunate program directors in the long and storied history of the legendary KQV although my stay was a brief 5 months in 1974. The guy who traces all the great history of KQV and who knows where all the bodies are buried is Jeff Roteman. If you have a desire to find out more about KQV, do yourself a favor and go to Jeff's website: http://user.pa.net/~ejjeff/jeffkqv2.html By the way, my night time jock was Jeff Christie. Ring a bell ? It should, his real name is Rush Limbaugh... The first day of Spring is 70 days away...