KDKA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

September 1, 2001
© Bruce A. Conti

The trail starts in Wilkinsburg at the Frank Conrad 8XK home site on the corner of Penn Ave and Peebles. The site was bulldozed shortly after these images were captured to make way for a fast food restaurant. Only the historical marker remains at this site. Before demolition began, the Conrad garage was disassembled brick by brick and placed in storage with future plans to rebuild as part of a broadcast museum.

The next stop along the Conrad KDKA trail is at the Westinghouse Recereation Center on Perry Ave in Forest Hills where KDKA first broadcast via shortwave (above).

The trail ends at the Westinghouse 'K Building' in East Pittsburgh where the Harding-Cox election results were broadcast from facilities on the roof (above). Some years after 2001 when these photos were taken, the K Building was demolished to make way for a new industrial park.
Historical markers and a QSL card commemmorate the event (below).

A vintage Westinghouse transmitter that once provided a clear channel 50 kW on 1020 kHz sits idle in the current KDKA transmitter building constructed in 1939.

KDKA was headquartered with KDKA-TV in the Gateway Building, downtown Pittsburgh, where the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela form the Ohio River, until 2010 when KDKA radio studios moved to CBS radio headquarters in Green Tree.

Return to transmitter site home page.