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KYW (AM)

KYW is a class A AM radio station on 1060 kHz licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. KYW is owned by the CBS Radio (formerly Infinity Broadcasting) unit of CBS Corporation, and has an all-news format. The station was one of the three original Westinghouse all-news stations, along with WINS in New York and KFWB in Los Angeles.

Its studios are located at 400 Market Street in Center City (downtown) Philadelphia along with sister CBS Radio station WYSP. Its transmitters are located in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania.

History

KYW began in 1921 in Chicago. It was jointly owned by Westinghouse and Commonwealth Edison. Westinghouse later bought out ComEd's share and became sole owner. In 1934, the assignment of clear channels took a frequency away from Illinois and gave it to Pennsylvania. Westinghouse then moved KYW to Philadelphia. Shortly after the move, it became Philadelphia's NBC affiliate--an affiliation that lasted 20 years. In 1952, KYW acquired a television counterpart when Westinghouse bought WPTZ-TV, the nation's third commercial television station and NBC's second television affiliate.

From 1956 to 1965, Westinghouse and NBC swapped ownership of Westinghouse's Philadelphia cluster and Cleveland's NBC cluster of WTAM radio and WNBK-TV. NBC had to seek a waiver for the swap since KYW and NBC Radio's flagship, WRCA (660 AM, the frequency is now occupied by WFAN) were both clear channel stations; at the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of clear-channel stations with overlapping nighttime coverage. Westinghouse changed the Cleveland cluster's callsigns to KYW-AM-FM-TV, and the Philadelphia cluster became WRCV-AM-TV. During this period, WRCV once again carried programs from NBC Radio.

In 1965, when the FCC reversed the swap, the KYW calls returned to Philadelphia while the Cleveland cluster became WKYC-AM-FM-TV. To this day, the KYW stations insist that they "moved" to Cleveland in 1956 and "returned" to Philadelphia in 1965. However, the two stations' facilities remained the same.

On September 21, 1965, shortly after Westinghouse regained control of KYW, it once again dropped its NBC radio affiliation and converted the station into one of the first all-news stations in the country. It has been one of the highest-rated radio stations in the country since then and has been the market leader in Philadelphia for much of that time. Its television cousin took advantage of this popularity by incorporating a version of KYW's musical sounder into its news themes from 1991 until 2003. In addition, a television program entitled "KYW Newsradio 1060 This Morning" aired from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. on sister station WPSG in the early 2000s, adapting KYW's "clock" to television. The show was popular among local cable programming in its daypart, and in late 2004 was usurped (due in part to a new affiliation to Traffic Pulse) by KYW-TV/WPSG-TV staff and assumed the name "Wake UPNews".

Westinghouse bought CBS in 1996, a few months after KYW-TV dropped its longtime NBC affiliation and became a CBS station as part of a deal between Westinghouse and CBS Radio.

KYW is currently the easternmost station in the United States whose callsign begins with the letter K.

The station has been broadcasting in the IBOC digital radio mode, using the HD Radio system from iBiquity since September 2007 after an initial testing period. KYW is also re-broadcast by sister station WYSP-FM on its HD-2 digital sub-channel. From 1986 until 1998, KYW had been broadcasting using the C-QUAM AM Stereo system , but abandoned C-QUAM AM Stereo about the time of the CBS-Westinghouse merger and went back to the standard AM mode (in mono).

Studios

KYW's studios are currently located, along with sister station 94.1 WYSP at 400 Market Street in downtown Philadelphia. KYW is located on the 10th floor, while WYSP occupies the 9th floor. The station moved into these studios in March, 2007. After anchor Steve Tawa signed off from Studio K at 5th and Market Streets at 1:59pm (EST) on March 9th, 2007, broadcasts from the new studios began at 2:00 pm. The first broadcasts from the new location came from Studio K, with anchor Brandon Brooks. This took place after 3 years of planning.

Previously, the stations studios were located at 5th and Market Streets. They had been in that location for nearly 35 years.

The station's very first studios were on Walnut Street.

Format Features

The assortment of local, national, and global headlines are read at the top and bottom of each hour, with news summaries at the quarter hours immediately before the sports report. Besides the main news stories, KYW also carries a variety of other features.

KYW currently receives news reports and sound-bites, plus continuous coverage of breaking news from ABC Radio and CNN Radio as well as CBS Radio.

AccuWeather

AccuWeather, a weather forecasting American media company, provides local weather reports for the station's listenership. The current conditions and shore forecast are read every few minutes. The five day regional forecast and discussion is given at :07, :14, :37, and :44 after every hour. At :29 after every hour the Poconos and Jersey Shore forecast are read. The Jersey Shore forecast is also given again at :59 after every hour. After a weather anchor gives an extended report, the main anchor will repeat the current conditions and the day's high and low.

Business News

Regular business reports are issued at :25 and :55 after every hour.

"The Opening Bell" show airs at 9:18am each weekday morning focuses on the day's planned activities on Wall Street. Vince Hill is the main Opening Bell anchor. Reports from Fred Sherman -- whose trademark signoff is "Fred Sherrrrrrman" -- of Royal Bank (formerly of Sovereign Bank) are also given.

Market Closing Recap airs at 4:15pm weekdays, recapping the day's action on Wall Street.

Dateline KYW

Known to listeners as the Community Calendar, the anchor reads information regarding events open to the public that could be useful to the people of the Delaware Valley. Airs weekdays at 8:53pm, 9:53pm, 10:53pm, and 11:53pm, Saturdays at 1:53pm, 3:53pm, and 6:53pm, Sundays at 3:53pm, 4:53pm, and 6:53pm.

Education Report

Dr. Marciene Mattleman gives an education report Monday through Wednesday at 3:40pm and 11:10pm, and Sundays at 5:10, 6:10 and 7:10 in the morning.

President's Weekly Radio Address

President George W. Bush's weekly radio address is carried Saturdays at 10:07am.

Sports

Sports reports are given at :15 and :45 after every hour.

Traffic and Transit on the Twos

Area traffic reports broadcast at :02, :12, :22, :32, :42:, and :52 after every hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Station Identifications

KYW Jingle

Every fifteen minutes, the station's famous jingle ("KYW, Newsradio--1060!") is played, and the top stories are recapped.

At the top of every hour, a recording of Dick Covington (who died in 2004; all other station imaging is done by Sean Caldwell) is played announcing the following information: "All news, all the time. From Independence Mall, this is Newsradio KYW 1060 Philadelphia, a CBS Radio station, serving Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware."

At :30 past the hour, the recording is slightly different, announcing that KYW is "the news authority in Philadelphia."

At :15 and :45 past the hour, after the song is played, there is no recording. As the song fades out the following message is always read by the current anchor. "KYW Newsradio 1060 (music clip then fades into current anchor).... You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world. This is KYW, the newscenter on your radio dial. Online and On Demand at kyw1060.com." The anchor will then introduce his/her self and move directly into the stories. Usually, the current weather conditions on Independence Mall are announced.

In addition, at exactly the top of the hour and :30 past the hour a beep is played over anything else that is being broadcast.

Teletype

A noticeable 'trademark' of KYW is the constant sound of teletype machines printing in the background. This sound plays constantly during times when the news is being read by a KYW reporter at the headquarters. During other times, particularly during commercials or taped news segments, including AccuWeather forecasts, it is not heard. It is intended to allow the listener to immediately know the station that they are listening to and saves them from checking. A similar teletype sound is also carried by sister (and former Group W sister) news stations 1010 WINS in New York City and KFWB News 980 in Los Angeles, California.