Date of Recording: May 28, 1973
Station: 1320 WKTQ Pittsburgh
Featured Air Talent: Marco Polo
Contributor: Robyn Watts
Aircheck Entry: 1,413
Comments:
How many stations used an approach similar to this one in the early to mid 70s? WKTQ is branded here as The New 13Q. “Don’t Say Hello, say I Listen to the New Sound of 13Q”. And if you do, you win MONEY! Well, yes. One can compare this to WAVZ New Haven around the same time and hear a nearly identical approach.
The jock is Marco Polo, although we don’t know his real name… or maybe that IS his real name!
This is 5 minutes long but the quality is so good you’ll think you’re hearing it for the first time on a widebanded receiver!
Marco Polo is Mark Driscoll. I know because I was working across the street at WIXZ which was being sold to Tony Renda and giving away Bad Spaghetti dinners while Buzz & Mark & Heftel would give away over $250,000 in their first year!
After the February 9, 1976, WHN aircheck, this is my favorite. I still have dozens of 13Q weekly surveys. They did play their songs faster so as to get in more commercials. A retired DJ friend of mine told me that was the reason they played their songs faster. KQV had long been Pittsburgh’s foremost Top 40 station, but they started going downhill around 1970. Cecil Heftel, a onetime Congressman, bought WJAS from NBC early in 1973, and that effectively ended KQV’s tenure as a music radio station. In March 1974, KQV was branded “14K Music Radio”, but the damage was already done, and they reverted to just KQV about four months later. WPEZ-FM ultimately did in 13Q. Sorry if I was too wordy, but I had several points I wanted to make.
I think the date may be wrong on this, as they mentioned opening day for the Pirates, which would have been in April.
I can only go by the date on the tape. You guys point this stuff out and later I’ll figure out the correct one.
This is 100% Marc Driscoll, 13Q’s first afternoon drive jock, as well as the production voice on some of the promos. Notice how he IDs himself as both “Marcus Aureleus” and “Marco Pollo”. And man, some of those records were sure sped up!!
love this aircheck wow the 70s had some radio stations
A fantastic aircheck!
Sounds like it is recorded off their FM simulcast (buried in the TOH ID).
AM could compete if it still sounded like this.
The date of the aircheck is 4/6/73
Beautiful AM radio in the greatest year in music — 1973. Roberta Flack, Dueling Banjos, George Harrison … amazing stuff. Thanks!