You can’t fix… well, I’ll try…
September 1, 2020Alright, listen up. Seems many don’t really understand the concept here. So we’ll try to help you figure it out. As with everything else this year, the post you see below has been turned into a political melee. You’ll see what I mean in a second.
You might recall that in November 2017, Entercom (based in Bala Cynwyd, PA) bought the grouping of radio stations owned by CBS Radio, Inc. Entercom called it a merger. And I suppose it was in a sense, but CBS still exists as a separate company and not only has a network but a slew of TV stations in its portfolio. Perhaps this would clearly explain it:
“CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation, and consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s and Infinity Broadcasting since the 1970s. The broadcasting company was sold to Entercom on November 17, 2017.”
Wikipedia (It actually had the best explanation!
That means KDKA-TV (2), still based at Gateway Center downtown, is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of ViacomCBS.
KDKA-AM (1020) and KDKA-FM (93.7), along with WBZZ (100.7 New Kensington) and WDSY (107.9) are owned entirely by Entercom Communications, Corporation. While AM 1020 used to be at Gateway Center, it moved to Foster Plaza about a decade ago and, again, just to be clear, with its sister radio stations is now owned by Entercom.
Little wonder that today’s post from KDKA-TV has confused the listeners and viewers even more:
There is no word as to who is calling KDKA-TV about Ms. Bell and why (nor do we care so please spare us your opinion), but it also seems that nobody really knows to call the radio station – a separate entity from TV.
Although CBS – after its affiliation with Westinghouse Broadcasting (with which it DID merge and where Frank Conrad started KDKA radio 100 years ago) has the legal rights to the callsign KDKA, they granted Entercom to continue using the call letters on the radio station – especially given that they were first there and THEN on TV. (It’s a complicated legal thing…)
Anyway, for those of you in the back who weren’t listening… ONE MORE TIME…
- KDKA-TV is owned by CBS/Viacom’s subsidiary – CBS Television Stations.;
1 Gateway Center; Pittsburgh PA 15222; 412-575-2200 (DO NOT CALL HERE FOR WENDY BELL.)
- KDKA-AM/FM (and WBZZ-FM and WDSY-FM) are owned by Entercom Communications Corp.; 651 Holiday Drive; Foster Plaza Bldg 5; Pittsburgh PA 15220; 412-920-9400 (CALL HERE FOR WENDY BELL AND LEAVE THE SWITCHBOARD DOWNTOWN ALONE!)
Meanwhile, PBRTV does question the professionalism in the TV station posting such info to social media but assumes that the volume of phone calls coming in must be intense! /
Wow -she must have stirred SOMETHING up on radio. Must be nice to see people talking about a 100 + year old radio station. If only KQV could have done that it may have survived in its original configuration. (By the way, what’d she do now?)
KQV’s original configuration would have had the transmitter still in Banksville Park on Crane Avenue! 😉 It’s alive and well from North Versailles though! Don’t know what Wendy did… perhaps someone will tell us soon. (Not that I want to get into that.)
I guess you mean those two towers (with what looks like a TV antenna on one of ’em) behind the Crane Avenue studios of WJAS/WSSH? I was under the impression that those were the original WJAS towers.
https://www.radioworld.com/industry/watch-engineers-reenact-kqv-transmitter-shutdown
Wait I was kind of right (tell my wife)! This video says it was 1000/500 diplexed on the original WJAS towers. I was more referring to the 5-tower signal from North Hills for KQV, but now I’m a little smarter! Thanks.
You got it! They were both JAS AM&FM. Heftel moved the studios to that property after moving the transmitters from the property!
Oh I had two pretty good years inside that Crane Avenue building. Sad part is that the move to Greentree was the precursor to the station sale to Nationwide. As we all know a new owner brings in a new company culture and having worked on the legendary 13Q under Nationwide was a bit different from Heftel. Cecil sold radio. Nationwide sells insurance. When Dick Ferguson left the leadership of Nationwide he took E. Karl with him and that really changed things. Crane Avenue was a far cry from the Kossman Building and the days of traffic jams created by Don Cox. In 1979 they decided to remodel the building which was a nightmare in itself. We tried to talk to management about renting the (then vacant) 2nd floor Kossman location for a “temporary” 13Q studio. We didn’t know that the remodel was to prep the station for new owner Beni Broadcasting. Management said “no”. (Why wouldn’t they? You don’t dump even more money into a station you’re about to sell.) We always wondered at the irony of having new studios next door to the site of the old transmitter. Word was the new site (Squirrel Hill) was miscalculated and one of the towers wasn’t where it should be. That necessitated lowering the nighttime power to 3980 watts from the daytime 5000. It became a moot point with the ascent of 96KX and WPEZ. WTAE was as strong as ever as was KDKA but when the $10,000 cash calls and other big promotions went away 13Q’s days were numbered. It was fun while it lasted though!!
Probably another Twitter boycott campaign going on and the TV folks don’t want to get caught up in it. This problem should have been anticipated when they chose to split the call letters between two different owners.
The KDKA/TV confusion by the public has been around forever. When I worked for the radio side (CBS Radio at the time) and went out with the station vehicle, many more people approached me to talk about the TV station than the radio station. Probably didn’t help that so many personalities (Shummer & Larry, Marty) worked for both. I got a lot of complaints about the network TV shows too. I got a lot of comments about sitcoms and soaps. I eventually stopped explaining.