Maybe it's much too early in the game...
Monday Morning Nostalgia Fix: The big move to FM was still a decade away on New Year's Eve 1967 in Pittsburgh.
That's why Mount Washington-based beautiful music station WKJF-FM (93.7) was practically begging Pittsburghers to try the other band on their radios.
Frankly, any Pittsburghers who did scan the FM band tonight were asleep before 1968 arrived. Besides 'KJF's somnolent blend of elevator music, its competition on FM this evening included a "report on the importance to society of recent chemical research" at 10:30 p.m. on Braddock's WLOA-FM (96.9), "Music of Rodrigo's Fantasia" on WTAE-FM (96.1), and a concert by the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra on WJAS-FM (99.7) at 11:15 p.m.
I'm getting drowsy just writing about it!
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Chances are, most Pittsburghers listening to radio were locked to the AM (or "standard broadcast") band, where Chuck Brinkman and Johnny Mitchell were counting down the "Happening Hit Parade" of 1967 on the city's main pop music station, KQV (1410).
KQV's top song of 1967 was "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees, who also were named "Best Group" of the year by Groovy 'QV's "fun-lovin' five."
This also was the last night that KQV listeners heard ABC News over the ABC owned-and-operated station. No, ABC wasn't selling KQV, but beginning on Jan. 1, 1968, ABC Radio would split into four different services --- Contemporary, Entertainment, Information and FM.
On 'QV, ABC's old "live news at :55" gave way to reports from the American Contemporary Network.
NBC owned-and-operated WJAS (1320) featured an "All Star Parade" of big band music, with live reports from Ben Grauer in New York City's Times Square, beginning at 11 p.m.
WWSW (970) was spinning records by "the top vocalists and bands of yesterday," starting right after the 8 p.m. news. "Double-Double" billed the music program as its "New Year's Eve Dancing Party." (more)
Happy Hanna-Barbera Day (observed)
Monday Morning Nostalgia Fix: Rarely does "MMNF" get a ready-made feature, but we've got one this week, thanks to Los Angeles-based comedy writer and comics-animation historian Mark Evanier.
On Saturday, over at his daily journal News From Me, Evanier noted the 50th anniversary of the debut of "Ruff and Reddy," the first cartoon produced for television by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
Of course, it wasn't Hanna and Barbera's first cartoon --- not by a long shot. The pair had worked together since 1938.
It also wasn't the first cartoon produced exclusively for television --- that honor goes to Jay Ward's TV series "Crusader Rabbit," which debuted in 1948. (Ward is better remembered for his later creation of "Rocky & Bullwinkle" and spin-offs like "Dudley Do-Right.")
But "Ruff and Reddy" was the series that proved that TV cartoons could be profitable, and it opened the door for dozens of popular Hanna-Barbera shows (some good, some pretty bad), including "Top Cat," "Quick Draw McGraw," "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons" and "The Smurfs," right through to "Dexter's Laboratory" and "The Powerpuff Girls" in the 1990s. (more)
Are you ready for some football?
Pittsburgh: Finally, someone found a use for Alex Langer's WPYT (660), the former AM daytimer that moved from Portage to Pittsburgh in 2004 and which has been "forgotten but not gone" ever since.
WPYT (suggested motto: "Testing, testing, 1-2-3, is anyone out there?") will carry MSA Sports Network's coverage of today's Class A state football championship between McKeesport's Serra Catholic High School and Steelton-Highspire High School from the Harrisburg area.
Kickoff is at 1 p.m. with a pre-game show at 12:45 p.m. If you're not within range of WPYT's 1,400-watt blowtorch, which shares a tower along Ardmore Boulevard with another suburban AM also-ran (Braddock-licensed WLFP), you can listen online.
MSA Sports Network gets its name from its owner and principal sponsor, the Pittsburgh-based information technology company Management Science Associates.
MSA's coverage of the Class AAA championship between Thomas Jefferson High School in Jefferson Hills Borough and Garnet Valley High School, west of Philadelphia (both teams are called the Jaguars!), will be carried by a station with a decidedly higher profile than WPYT, Washington's WJPA-FM (95.3). 'JPA should be easily heard throughout the West Jefferson Hills School District in Pittsburgh's South Hills.
On Saturday, the hotly awaited Class AA contest between Jeannette High and Dunmore High (near Scranton) will be carried at 12 p.m. over Greensburg's "Sam FM" WGSM-FM (107.1).
The Quad-A game between Pittsburgh Central Catholic and Parkland High (near Allentown) will be heard on "Fox Sports" WBGG (970). Kickoff is 5 p.m., and the pre-game starts at 4:50 p.m.
All of those games are being carried live from Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pa., and can be heard online at MSA Sports Network's website. The fast-growing network now links broadcasts of high school and small college athletics from more than two dozen Western Pennsylvania radio stations.
Many of those stations even have actual listeners, unlike WPYT.
I'm sorry to be so sarcastic about WPYT, but if anyone can explain to me how the FCC served the "public interest, convenience, and necessity" by allowing a Cambria County radio station to move to "Wilkinsburg" and run 24 hours daily of paid programming, I'm open to listen.
Trivia Note: Dunmore High (Jeannette's challenger) was mentioned earlier this year on an episode of NBC-TV's Scranton-based sitcom "The Office."
In the episode, Dunmore High's prom invitations had been printed on paper supplied by the show's fictional Dunder-Mifflin Paper Co. The paper had to be recalled because of an obscene watermark, necessitating a visit to the school, where one of the characters (played by Ed Helms) learned he was inadvertently dating a girl who was a student there.
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Correction: This item originally stated that WPYT had 88 watts' nighttime power. That was based on an incorrect entry at Radio-Locator.com. Several readers have pointed out that WPYT had nighttime authorization when it was operating on 1470 as WCIX and WFJY, but not any longer.
FCC license data shows that WPYT is currently licensed only for daytime operation on its present frequency, which it shares with WFAN, New York.
Take 'TAE and see
Monday Morning Nostalgia Fix: When PBRTV Editor-in-Chief Eric O'Brien noted two weeks ago that 10 years had passed since the demise of WTAE (1250), I began searching my musty archives for a suitable aircheck.Little did I know that one of the voices on that aircheck would himself be in the news last week.
Before we hear the clip, let's look back at the history of the 1250 spot on your dial.
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As the 75th anniversary of WTAE's founding, 1997 should have been a year of celebration. It turned out to be an Annus horribilis as WTAE became one of the city's first, and most prominent, victims of deregulation and consolidation in the radio business.
When the year began, WTAE was a stable part of the Hearst Newspapers empire, which had owned the station since 1931; it was solidly lodged among the market's top 10 stations and home to some of Pittsburgh broadcasting's best-known personalities, including Larry O'Brien, John Garry, Myron Cope, Lynn Cullen, Doug Hoerth and Phil Musick, along with an award-winning news team that included Dennis Atkinson and Alan Boal.
By the end of the year, almost everyone except Cope and Hoerth were gone and even the call-letters had changed, to WEAE, as the station adopted an all-sports talk format on its way to becoming a full ESPN affiliate.
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First, some background. Founded by Pittsburgh's Kaufmann & Baer Department Store (which was purchased by Gimbels in 1925), WCAE was one of the city's first five radio stations (along with KDKA, KQV, WJAS and WWSW). (more)
WDUQ's Doherty passes
Pittsburgh: Family, friends and colleagues of Sean Doherty are mourning the loss of the longtime WDUQ-FM (90.5) sports director. Doherty died yesterday at 47. His death was announced on the station's website.
Doherty was the main sports reporter for the station based at Duquesne University and broadcast high school football and basketball games. He had also served as an announcer on Duquesne's basketball games. Viewers in the South Hills could also watch his talk show, "In The Bleachers," on the former Adelphia Cable system.
Doherty continued his career despite being a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair. He had sustained a spinal cord injury playing football in high school.
PBRTV expresses its deepest sympathies to the Doherty family and WDUQ personnel.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete Sunday.
Oleen Eagle 1930-2007
Pittsburgh:Cornerstone TeleVision is mourning the loss of Oleen Eagle, President Emeritus. Eagle, who was known for her profound faith, was 77 when she died 12/2 of pancreatic cancer. Hired as the first employee by Cornerstone founder, Russ Bixler, she became President in 1994 and was elevated to President and CEO from 2000 - 2003.
According to the McKeesport Daily News (online to subscribers only) Prior to becoming the first employee at what was originally known at Western Pennsylvania Christian Broadcasting Co., Eagle worked in the fashion industry.
A memorial service will be held at the Monroeville Assembly of God on 12/15 at 11:00 AM