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KQV Memories Page 3 |
| "Do
you know where Bob DeCarlo is these days. I knew Bob from 1973-75
when I did a Jr. Achievement Radio show on KQV Sat. & Sun. mornings.
He was my Jr. Achievement advisor. I've been following his career
ever since.
(Bob is now is now the morning host and program director at WPBC-FM, B 95.1 in Panama City, Florida.) I love your site. Its great to hear the old airchecks & jingles. I have many fond memories of my time at KQV. I hope you can get some airchecks from the Joey Reynolds era. That was my favorite time at the station. Keep up all the good work. Robert Goldberg (8/10/99) "Good Morning Jeff, I am the wife of the late George Hart. I just visited your web site and I just had to let you know how wonderful it was to see that George has not been forgotten. Thank you so much. I know if George were here today he would enjoy reading & responding to your web site. He was taken away from all of us much to soon. Thank you again, & continued good luck. Sincerely, Jeannie (8/09/99) George was always a favorite of mine. George was kind enough to give me a lot of advise as I was getting started in radio. We corresponded from his days at KQV through 96KX, FM97 and 3WS. I found out about George's passing while trying to call him to give him news about getting a new job in radio. George has been gone since March 1993... but will never be forgotten. Thanks for having been a great friend. Jeff "Jeff, I did a story on KQV's history for the Tribune-Review's Sunday magazine that ran today (Aug. 8). One of the sidebars includes a plug for the website. ... John Mehno (8/8/99) Great job John. Check out this article on KQV's first 80 years. John Mehno's KQV History We recently corresponded with one time KQV jock Bill Western. "Jeff, I was there for about 4 months in early spring of 1961 (started about May I think). Did mornings with Alan Boal for news and Pie Traynor did sports. I was on the air, 6 am till 9:30 am when the Breakfast Club aired. Henry DaBecco followed at 10:30 or 11:00, I think. I was there for a very short period because I got drafted! There was a billboard across from Forbes Field that said "KQV goes Western on Monday". Every body thought "Oh God, They're gonna play hillbilly music". Then I hit the air with the usual top forty on Monday morning. Wish I could have been there longer, I loved Pittsburgh. I will dig around and try to find a tape (from KQV) but I don't think I've heard one for 10 or 15 years. Lots of stuff in boxes, I'll look. My Very Best to You, Bill Western (8/2/99) Bill is now Morning Drive (4-9am Mountain Time) Classic Country on the Jones Satellite Net and Chief Broadcast Engineer (Radio and TV) for the AARP, Washington DC. (courtesy: Johnny Williams 440 Satisfaction) "Hi -- My name is Greg McAtee, I have worked in Pittsburgh Radio for about 20 years , my current stint is as a traffic reporter with Radio stations WBZZ (B-94), WZPT and WQED-FM. I've enjoyed looking at your pages, and having grown up in Pittsburgh, seeing all the tributes for KQV and 13Q brought back a lot of memories. "Hi Jeff, I enjoyed the kqv presentation. I was in my kid years and still am in my older years a dxer. Kqv was a rare catch for me, living in New England I always got WPOP in Hartford on 1410. On Monday mornings back in the 60s and 70s they were off for maintenance so I usually heard WING from Dayton on the frequency. I heard KQV once in 1970 on a Monday morning." ... Joe Nerney (7/26/99) Gary Gears' brother Greg was kind enough to dig up an old aircheck of Gary's days at The Big 14. Hi aircheck is now online in it's entirety. "Hi Jeff, I got my old machine back last night, and for the first time in many years listened to the tape. I can't be sure, but perhaps you will remember some of the references to events and music that will help place the date of the recording. Gary had written 1970 KQV/ WLS on the reel. Some mentions of Father's Day coming up etc., would seem to indicate mid June, maybe? (the first was a weekday tape, the 2nd one is Sunday June 6, 1970) What did surprise me was that 45 minutes was of KQV, and the remaining 15 minutes were while he was doing a vacation replacement or fill-in for Jerry Kaye at WLS, and mentions towards the end having just flown from Pittsburgh to Chicago . Best regards, Greg
Gears (Thanks Greg. Many Pittsburghers have
fond memories of the Big "G")
"I grew up in the hills north or your town. I remember always listening (When my mother would let me) to KQV, the BEST station in town. George Wendall (7/5/99) "This site is fantastic (except for some reason I am unable to download the jingles and airchecks). From about 1964 till 1969, I never went anywhere without my transistor radio, and it was almost always tuned to Groovy QV. Starting in about 1966, and continuing to this day, I have had a major interest in chart stats, starting with the Finest 40, and today studying the Billboard charts. especially the 60's and 70's. In the mid and late 60's I never missed a week going to National Record Mart to get a 45 and pick up the Finest Forty chart. I, for some odd reason, can remember the weekly chart path of certain songs (my wife says that my head is filled with useless information, which is why I can't remember the things that are truly important). Alas, all of my Finest 40 sheets disappeared along with my baseball cards. Rick Martin (6/8/99) "Great job! As a former Pgh'er, I wallowed in nostalgia and enjoyed every bit of it. I'll be back for more, again and again. Adrian Cronauer" (4/27/99) (you may remember Adrian Cronauer from "Good Morning Vietnam" (Jeff)) "Hi, Jeff... I believe I arrived at KQV in 1970 (Spring) and left in 1973 (December). I replaced Mike McCormick who went to Chicago to program WLS (and took Gary Gears and Fred Winston with him soon after, unfortunately for us). I was followed by Mel Phillips who was followed by Jim Carnegie. The News Director who was there when I arrived was Phil Hayes (who we called "Filets"), who also went with Mike to WLS I think. KQV was the AAA Farm Team for the Windy City it seems. I brought Carl Eckels to Pittsburgh and he was our News Director through my tenure and beyond. We had two major defections during this period, both instigated by former managers. First, McCormick took our mid-day and PM Drive personalities, News Director, and Traffic Manager to the ABC-Owned station in Chicago, WLS. When 13-Q signed on, our Sales Mgr, Larry Garrett, went there as GM and took quite a few others with him: sales people, executive assistants, Editorial Director, Promotion Manager, some on-air folks, etc, etc. I had to fill every air shift with new talent but two (Chuck Brinkman & Jay Davis). By this time Jim Quinn was programming the ABC-FM station in NYC, WPLJ. Bob Harper (4/4/99) Bob is now a consultant based in San Diego (Jeff) I asked
Bob about the Music Power Jingles... (his answer)
"I remember that KQV Cube too. It was 14 (of course) tons. You had to guess how many hours, minutes and seconds it would take to melt. I have an aircheck of Dave Scott talking about the cube. KQV was also playing a song titled “The Girl Without a Top" (aircheck with Chuck Brinkman). I don't know if this was at the same time as the ice cube contest but it seems to tie in with your recollection of the topless girl. Do you remember the Murray’s
Militia promos with Colonel Splendid, Lieutenant Cavindish and the secretary
Daffney? My favorite was the atomic mousetrap or maybe Christmas shopping
at Gimbels. I have a number of these airchecks on my personal web page
at http://members.tripod.com/~dburton/index.html.
Stop by and check them out if you're interested. Dave Burton
(3/18/99)
"Jeff, You have a wonderful site here. I was actually looking to see if you had information on past DJ's. I worked at KQV from around 1971 to 1975 (the fun years) and it was good to see so much information. I did want to find out if you had more pictures of the staff, more particularly, the KQV Picnic at West View Park or when celebrities came to the radio station. Thank you again for putting this information on the internet and maintaining it. .... Lu Ann Dawson (3/07/99) "I remember the day the Beatles arrived at Greater Pittsburgh Airport. Listening to the Chuck Brinkman show on my trusty transistor radio, they went to an airborne announcer, who followed the Beatles' motorcade from the airport, all the way down the Parkway West, and into downtown. I can't ever recall hearing a traffic report like that before that date and time! I also recall a summer-time contest or promotion downtown: "Come see the girl in the topless bathing suit, and guess the date the giant block of ice finally melts away (World's Biggest Icecube)". Don't recall who ultimately won the contest (or even what the winner received!), but DO recall being disappointed that the topless" girl standing by the blocks of ice was about two years old! After all, it was a family show! Tom Atkins (2/24/99) "Dear Jeff, Let me thank you so much for the KQV page. I thought I might add a fact or two as I am thinking of them. Jim Quinn began in radio
on WLYT-FM in Cleveland Heights Ohio, went to Conneaut, Ohio (WEEO?), and
then to WING 1410 AM in Dayton, Ohio before coming to Pittsburgh.
When he left Pittsburgh the second time it was first to New York City where
he was PD at WPLJ-FM, the ABC owned and operated FM in New York (formerly
WABC-FM). Then he did the 7-Midnight shift on WPIX-FM also in New
York City before going to WKBW in Buffalo. He did mornings on 13Q and middays
on WTAE, mornings with Don Jefferson on B-94, and now mornings on WRRK.
Personally, I consider Jim Quinn one of the most talented persons ever
on Pittsburgh radio.
Dear Jeff, Very much enjoyed the KQV page. It certainly brings back some memories of some of the characters who worked there over the years. I have known some of them. An interesting fact: Jay "Brooks" Stricklett, along with Greg Scott, Ed Sherlock , George Hart, John Gallagher, Bill Green, Gary Waight (deceased in 1987) and Fred Winston were all Journalism and Communications under grad students -- AT THE SAME TIME-- at Point Park College, in Pittsburgh. GK Breakwell (2/1/99) "Jeff, Thanks so much for your great KQV web site. I was listening to some of my old KQV tapes, the Final Jim Quinn show and came across some Jay Davis air time. Its reasonably high quality recorded off of FM. Its mostly music but Jay's voice is between music cuts. Are you still looking for Jay's stuff. I could edit it down to only the parts with his voice or make a copy of the whole thing. Let me know if you are interested. One memory I had from the last Jim Quinn show. At the time Howard Huggers was rumored to be trying to buy ABC. Jim could not resist a jab at the worlds richest man not being able to buy it saying he did not have the price of a ticket to Jim's going away party. Dave Burton (12/18/98)
Thanks
Dave, some of these have been added to the web site. Jeff
"Hello Jeff, You have a great website honoring 14 KQV. Very impressive. ... Mike Gallant, (12/18/98) "Hi Jeff, Thanks for the neat KQV site, fantastic. Amazing what's come up on the net in the past few years, I've been trying to track Chuck Brinkman down for years and you gave the answer. I'm trying to finish a book on Led Zeppelin's Hunt Armory 1/21/69 "concert" (playing as the New Yardbirds for a few hundred people) and Chuck had been in charge of the concert. On another note, my mom left high school in the early '30's and came to Pgh to attend Pitt but instead took a dare and applied for a job at KQV where she ended up as a DJ and sang live on radio. She put in 20 years with almost every prominent station until around '54 when she retired to raise me. When my parents (both musicians) passed away we started a fledgling grant at LaRoche College in their memory, for musicians, and I just got info from Paul Stabile, the college contact, that a guy named Jeff Ritter was doing a research project on Pgh DJ's of the '50's - '80's, I believe, haven't had a chance to get in touch with him. Have you had contact with him? Looks like you've got some great info he could use. Well-- thanks again for filling in the blanks on Chuck! Jim Quinn told me several years ago that he thought he was around Dallas but I never had any success finding him. ... Rob Wesley 11//21/98 "Jeff, I only had time to dip briefly into your site, but I intend to spend some time with it as soon as I can. It appears superbly done! I was Morning Man at KQV for 1962 and '63. Went from, there to WFIL, Philadelphia, and to WCBS, NY. I have enjoyed the walk down the KQV Nostalgia lane you offer. I would like very much to pass on some recollections of l962 and 1963 at KQV. I may have an air check as well .. moldering in my garage probably ... another relic of my mis-spent youth. Thanks for the memories, though; it was a very good two years , amongst some very memorable people. If you should run into Henry DaBecco, please give him my warmest respects. Regards, ... Jim Gearhart NJ101.5 (10/13 & 10/15/98) "Jeff: Great web pages. Growing up on KQV and 13Q (and WTAE) while DXing WLS and others makes your site a must! I have several 13Q music sheets with pictures you may be able to scan (Jessie, Tanner, Brother Al, etc). I've also got the 13Q year end chart for 1973 (I think). If you would like me to mail them to you, I will (I trust anyone who goes to all this trouble). I will try to scan them for E-mailing, but who knows what I will do with them (accidentally or not). I am not very computer savvy. I've had the pleasure of working with a few of the people on your various sites, including Jessie and Cary Pall; and I currently work with Chuck Brinkman and Bob DeCarlo at KLUV in Dallas. ... Jay Cresswell (9/29/98) "Jeff, Love your stuff. As a devoted KQV fan, I'm delighted to be listening to KQV South (actually, KLUV), where Chuck Brinkman and Bob DeCarlo bring back memories. In fact, DeCarlo worked at two of the same radio stations I used to work at when I was a student at PSU. They were WDFM (now called WPSX) and WMAJ. Bob was there in the 60's, I worked there in the 70's when DeCarlo was at 14 KQV. I also worked a couple of years at WRSC/WQWK in State College, Pa. There, my friend Kevin Nelson and WENDY WILLIAMS had the most successful morning show Central PA has ever heard. Wendy Williams worked with Kevin until early to mid 80s. Wendy then quit and got into real estate in that area. That's all I know for sure - but I'll bet Kevin Nelson could give you some more information. Kevin still works at WRSC, 1390 AM, State College. They have a web site - just search for WRSC, and ignore the references to some sailing club! (Kevin is the one that looks like Buzz Lightyear!) Hope this helps! Would love to find out if you can track Wendy down. It's nice to see so many others misspent their youths hanging in front of the KQV window, watching the jocks make magic! Until just a few years ago, I had an original KQV Rock People poster and Frisbee. The Frisbee ended up where all good Frisbees end up - unrecoverably placed on a roof! The poster was lost in a flood. If anyone has a copy of that poster, I'd sure love to see it posted on your most excellent site. Keep up the great work - God how I miss that station.
I promise, this is the last memory from me tonight. Mid to late 60's KQV
was giving away a car - I don't remember what kind it was, but I do remember
that the trick was to guess the names of three songs. KQV didn't
play any part of the songs - people just called in and guessed, and then
were told that they had zero, one, two or three of the songs correct.
The crowd I hung with was absolutely certain that "Cherish" by the Association
would be one of them. I've forgotten what two of them were, but the
one that, in retrospect, shouldn't have surprised any of us was "The Mighty
Quinn" by Manfred Mann.
"Jeff, I'm Big Jay Sorensen ... I worked with Hal Murray at WHLW in Lakewood, NJ.. must have been '74 or so.. Joey Reynolds brought him in ... I have worked with Joey on a couple of occasions. First at the legendary 11/7 radio (WHLW) from '73-'76.. he even invited me to go to KQV with him when he programmed it in the mid 70's. (he did take Jerry Kristafer and Marsha Kniceley with him ... and a few others..) Hal was in a sorry state. I think that the business just passed him by ... I liked him, but his timing seemed way off and he seemed confused often ... then he left for the wilds of small town Florida .. heard he passed away a few years back ... And ... I also worked with Jim Gearhart at WKXW in Trenton, NJ (the station is huge in Jersey.. as "New Jersey 101.5". I helped launch the format with consultant Walter Sabo in 1990. Gearhart was "hiding" on the sister station WBUD .. calling himself Jim Hart ... Walter remembered him from WNBC in New York as a very creative guy .. and he put him on in the morning on the FM, he has been there for 8 years now with super ratings ... Ironically, I was brought to NY with Joey Reynolds on WNBC to replace the Howard Stern show.. I was the board-op / sidekick.. (Jay the Jock) .... Oh and I know Walt Golden fairly well.. I think he is still on KQV, am I correct? He was there 10 years ago doing news ... Came to visit me at NBC in NY once .. Well.. be big......" Big Jay Sorensen... (8/13/98) Big Jay had a fantastic show at WNBC-AM in New York called the Time Machine. It was a recreation of the great sound shared by WABC & KQV. ... Jeff On the subject of old KQV newspaper coverage: in 1969-70 Ed Blank was TV-radio editor of the Pittsburgh Press and did a series of Personality Profiles, usually on Friday. I know that he featured Chuck Brinkman and Fred Winston and there were probably others. Has anyone mentioned Steve Rizen's game show on WIIC (now WPXI)? "Give It a Whirl" aired weekday afternoons sometime around 1966. ... John Mehno (8/7/98) Jeff, Remember as a youngster going to KQV on a Sunday where my father played trombone in the orchestra a live broadcast. I remember going up on the elevator in the Chamber of Commerce Building 50 years ago. WOW !!! I now reside in Ft Myers Florida where I also play the same trombone (as my dad played) in a dance band ... Sandy Bell (7/29/98) "Jeff, I enjoyed your KQV tribute page. Living in the Harrisburg area I never heard KQV but since I have an interest in top 40 radio I like to read about various stations. I do have a question about one of the KQV personalities - do you know if Bob Harper worked at WSBA in York, Pa in the late sixties using just the name Harper? Again, a very good write up on KQV. Sincerely:"... Dave Lewis (7/07/98) Dave, There were 2 Bob Harpers at KQV. One was known as Bobby Harper. He came to KQV from WIXZ part time in 1970 and did overnights for a while. The other Bob Harper was KQV's program director in the early 1970's. He started as a dj at WSBA and later was pd there. ... Jeff |
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KQV Memories Page 3 |
This page updated on May 30,
2017 .