Nostalgia Fix

One of the main reasons I don’t allow the general populous to post to the PBRTV Facebook page there is I don’t have time to moderate the pages with a hawk’s eye. (Thanks to the reader who suggested that I employ a social media team… but I don’t have time to moderate them either!)

Many of our readers have told me that they do not participate in social media… and for many reasons, I don’t blame them. Believe it or not, however, there are other pages on Facebook which talk about radio history in Pittsburgh! Every now and again, when I am surfing I will see something posted on my wall/feed or whatever the social media lords are calling it now.

This Stations of America article was posted by Rob Grayson to a Radio History page on Facebook operated by Jim Haller.

Although we aren’t sure what publication this was actually a part of, we can deduce that it was published somewhere between April 17, 1936 and March 29, 1941. The dial placement for WJAS at that time was 1290 AM. It was that 1941 date when the NARBA (North American Radio Broadcast Agreement; AKA – “The Havana Treaty”) shuffled frequencies across the continent and WJAS moved to 1320.

The transmitter move to “1475 Crane Road” in Banksville (Pittsburgh Ward 20) in 1935 is of note not only for it’s closer proximity to the city, but eventually the studios would move to that area. The site was put in what is now Banksville Park. For a time, KQV was diplexed from that same tower site before getting its now defunct 5-tower array in Ross Township in the late 1940s. A large tower, which I am pretty sure is operated by Crown-Castle, still occupies space on the Banksville Park spot and has a few low-power TV stations and other communication tools on it. When Cecil Heftel bought the stations (1320 and 99.7) in 1973, he moved both transmitters from there with 1320 moving to Swissvale and 99.7 moving to the WIIC-TV tower. But it was 1976 when the studios for both were moved from downtown into the newly constructed Broadcast Plaza at 1459 Crane Avenue.

Hopefully we’ve simplified the first few cards in the WJAS History Cards File at the FCC for you!

Got a history tidbit to share with us? Do not hesitate to do so – info@pbrtv.com!

And please… buy a hat! They’re just $23!