western pennsylvania branding newsradio 1020 kdka slogan pittsburgh s news weather and traffic frequency 1020 khz also on hd radio via kdka fm 93.7 hd 2 first air date november 2 1920 1920 11 02 format news talk language s english power 50 000 watts class a facility id 25443 transmitter coordinates 40 33 33 n 79 57 11 w 40.55917 n 79.95306 w 40.55917 ; 79.95306 main antenna 40 33 39 n 79 57 20 w 40.56083 n 79.95556 w 40.56083 ; 79.95556 auxiliary antenna callsign meaning none . assigned from a sequential roster 1 affiliations cbs radio news owner cbs radio cbs radio east inc. sister stations kdka fm kdka tv wbzz wdsy fm wpcw webcast listen live website pittsburgh.cbslocal.com kdka 1020 khz am is a class a clear channel radio station owned and operated by cbs radio and licensed to pittsburgh pennsylvania . its studios are located at the combined cbs radio pittsburgh facility in the foster plaza on holiday drive in green tree and its transmitter site is at allison park . the station s programming is also carried over kdka fm s 93.7 hd2 digital subchannel . 2 kdka features a news talk format . operating with a transmitter power output of 50 000 watts the station can be heard during daylight hours throughout central and western pennsylvania along with portions of the adjacent states of ohio west virginia and new york plus the canadian province of ontario . its nighttime signal covers much of eastern north america . kdka has described itself as the pioneer broadcasting station of the world 3 and traces its beginning initially using the temporarily assigned special amateur call sign of 8zz to its broadcast of the 1920 harding cox presidential election results on the evening of november 2 1920 . contents 1 history 1.1 initial point to point service license 1.2 addition of a broadcasting service 1.3 the 1920s 1.4 1930s and 40s 1.5 1950s 1.6 1960s 1.7 1970s 1.8 1980s 1.9 1990s 1.10 2000 and beyond 1.10.1 studios moved sale speculation 2 priority claims 3 references 4 external links history edit although kdka s history has been extensively reviewed there are some inconsistencies between accounts leading one researcher to note while the kdka story is often recounted the details tend to vary slightly both in the secondary source material and in the published recollections of the participants including differences in the chronology of events and the relative importance of the parties involved . 4 initial point to point service license edit kdka s establishment was an outgrowth of the post world war i efforts of the westinghouse electric and manufacturing company of east pittsburgh pennsylvania to expand its commercial operations in the radio industry . during the war westinghouse received government contracts to develop radio transmitters and receivers for military use using recently developed vacuum tube equipment that was capable of audio communication in contrast to the earlier spark gap transmitters which could only be used to transmit the dots and dashes of morse code . at the time of the entry of the united states into world war i in april 1917 the government ordered all civilian radio stations off the air . however during the conflict westinghouse received permission to operate research radio transmitters located at its east pittsburgh plant and at the home of one of its lead engineers frank conrad in nearby wilkinsburg . 5 harry p. davis westinghouse vice president and founder of kdka . with the end of the war the government contracts were canceled . however westinghouse moved aggressively to establish itself as a national and international provider of radio communication . its primary competitor in this effort was the radio corporation of america rca which had recently been formed as a subsidiary by westinghouse s arch rival the general electric company of schenectady new york using the assets of the marconi company of america . the effort to establish westinghouse s radio industry presence was led by company vice president h. p. davis . 6 in order to strengthen the company s patent position especially related to receivers he spearheaded the purchase of the international radio telegraph company primarily to gain control of a heterodyne patent originally issued to reginald fessenden and also arranged for the purchase of the commercial rights to the regenerative and superheterodyne patents held by edwin howard armstrong . however because of the competitive advantage rca had in international and marine communications initially there appeared to be limited opportunities available to westinghouse . 7 although it would gain its fame as a broadcasting station kdka actually originated as part of a project to establish private radiotelegraph links between westinghouse s east pittsburgh factory and its other facilities to avoid the business expense of paying for telegraph and telephone lines . in september 1920 a newspaper report noted that a new high power station to operate under a special or commercial license is being installed at the westinghouse plant in east pittsburgh . it will be used to establish communication between the east pittsburgh plant and the company branch factories at cleveland o. newark n. j. and springfield mass . where similar outfits will be employed . 8 an application signed by h. p. davis was submitted to the eighth district radio inspector s. w. edwards in detroit who forwarded it to washington and on october 27 1920 westinghouse was issued a limited commercial station license serial 174 with the identifying call letters of kdka . 9 this limited commercial grant was consistent with the standard practice being followed at this time for licenses issued to companies engaging in private radio communication . neither kdka s original application nor the resulting license mentioned broadcasting only that the station was to be used for radiotelegraphic communication with stations located at the westinghouse facilities in cleveland newark and springfield plus station wcg in brooklyn new york which was operated by the recently acquired international radio telegraph . 10 at this time radio stations in the united states were regulated by the department of commerce s bureau of navigation . beginning with the introduction of licensing in late 1912 the standard practice had been to assign call letters starting with w to radio stations in the eastern united states . however kdka happened to receive its assignment during a short period during which land stations were being issued call letters from a sequential block of k call letters that had been previously been assigned only to ship stations . although the original policy was restored a few months later kdka was permitted to keep its non standard call sign . 11 addition of a broadcasting service edit circa 1921 photograph of the 9th floor kdka transmission room . shortly after beginning the process of setting up kdka to be used for point to point communication a series of events occurred which resulted in it also becoming a broadcasting station which would overshadow its original role . prior to world war i frank conrad had operated an experimental radiotelegraph station with the callsign 8xk . 12 following the war the u.s. government again allowed the operation of civilian radio stations and conrad revived 8xk which was located in a detached two story garage at his residence . he used the knowledge gained during the wartime period to upgrade his station to begin making audio transmissions and became well known among radio amateurs for his experimental activities . 13 on october 17 1919 conrad made the first of what would become a semi regular series of entertainment broadcasts . 14 during this time the joseph horne department store ran daily full page advertisements in the pittsburgh papers and in its september 23 1920 placement stated that the store had started selling amateur wireless sets for 10 upwards . 15 six days later the store s september 29 installment included a small notice titled air concert picked up by radio here which noted that its demonstration set had been used to receive one of the conrad broadcasts . 16 h. p. davis saw this advertisement and immediately recognized the limitless opportunity of adding radio receivers to the lines of appliances sold to the general public by westinghouse 17 and in order to create demand for the receivers he decided that westinghouse should provide regular programming as an incentive for persons considering a purchase . davis held a staff meeting with his radio cabinet and asked them to have a station operational in time to broadcast the presidential and local election returns on november 2 1920 . election return broadcasts had been a tradition since shortly after the development of radio although due to technical limitations initially they could only be done using morse code which greatly limited the potential audiences . 18 following the development of vacuum tube transmitters that made audio transmissions possible the first spoken word election night broadcast was made on november 7 1916 by the deforest radio telephone and telegraph company s station 2xg located in the highbridge section of new york city in conjunction with the new york american announcing the results of the wilson hughes presidential election . 19 on august 31 1920 the detroit news whose detroit news radiophone began making daily broadcasts on august 20 had broadcast local primary election results . 20 westinghouse s preparations included the construction of a shack and antenna system on the roof of the nine story k building at the east pittsburgh works in turtle creek pennsylvania . 21 frank conrad had originally planned to broadcast the election results over 8xk in cooperation with the american radio relay league but shifted his efforts to help with the westinghouse broadcast . he and donald g. little had primary responsibility for constructing a 100 watt vacuum tube transmitter . a telephoned temporary authorization was received to operate under the call sign of 8zz . 22 the first z in this call sign indicated it was a special amateur grant 23 which was a classification that permitted the use of transmitting frequencies other than the congested 200 meter 1500 khz standard amateur wavelength . although the pre broadcast publicity and contemporary accounts stated that 8zz was the call sign used for the election night broadcast for example in 1922 l. r. krumm westinghouse s superintendent of radio operations referred to westinghouse s station at east pittsburgh now known as kdka the matured successor of 8zz 24 later reviews including a 1930 re creation of the original broadcast often incorrectly state that the kdka call sign was used during the debut broadcast . 25 extensive regional publicity by westinghouse heralded the upcoming broadcast both among technically knowledgeable amateur radio enthusiasts plus through the organization of public listening sites toward a more general audience of potential future radio receiver purchasers . promotional announcements described the offering as a joint effort between westinghouse and its international radio telegraph subsidiary 26 and a. e. braun an international radio telegraph officer who was also the president of the pittsburgh sun made the arrangements for his newspaper to provide election results to the station . 27 in the days before november 2nd a series of test transmissions were made to check the equipment . the announcer for the election night broadcast was a publicity department staff member leo rosenberg . frank conrad stood by at his home station 28 ready to take over using his 8xk transmitter if the east pittsburgh transmitter failed but the effort was successful with one newspaper report noting that the returns by wireless telephone which were transmitted from the westinghouse international radio station at east pittsburgh were exceptionally clear and distinct . the service was utilized by many amateurs to entertain gatherings at their various stations . between announcements of the returns radiophone music was transmitted which added much to the entertainment . 29 this westinghouse broadcast was not unique that evening at least two other stations made audio transmissions of election returns