Today KQV-AM (1410) is a respectable all-news station, but in its wilder youth, it was something else entirely.

	1973 print ad Click photo for larger image.

Anyone who grew up here in the '60s probably remembers it as a powerhouse that blasted Motown and British Invasion hits -- music that remains a staple of oldies formats like WWSW-FM (94.5). But what happened between songs was equally important -- the popular DJs, the memorable contests and slogans. Throughout the decade, it was known by many aliases: Colorful KQV, Fun Lovin' KQV and Groovy QV.

XM Satellite Radio will rewind and replay some of those memories today in a five-hour live tribute to the old KQV on Channel 6/The '60s, 4 to 9 p.m. Nonsubscribers can tune in online by signing up for a three-day free trial of the service at listen.xmradio.com.

On Fridays, XM's '60s music channel features "Sonic Sound Salutes," a tribute to the classic Top 40 radio stations, from markets large and small. These sonic re-enactments mix '60s hits with air checks of well-known DJs, commercials, jingles, contests, local news and references to local happenings and clubs of the era.

The voice behind the XM radio tribute comes straight out of the same screaming Top 40 DJ tradition it celebrates. Even off-mike during a phone interview, host Terry "Motormouth" Young talks in that manic nonstop rhythm. The radio veteran worked in many markets -- from Philadelphia to New Orleans to Detroit -- before landing at XM.

"For five hours, we are going to turn our channel into KQV from the 1960s," Young says. "You'll hear the songs and the jingles and DJs you remember. When you listen to it, it's like a time warp."

John Harrington, XM Satellite Radio The voice behind XM Radio tributes to stations such as KQV is Terry "Motormouth" Young. Click photo for larger image.

Young has been preserving this unique slice of American pop culture since a very early age.

"I wanted to be a disc jockey ever since I was a little kid," Young says. Growing up in Roanoke, Va., he would listen to the 50,000-watt Top 40 stations that blasted their signals across the country at night -- like WABC-AM in New York and CKLW-AM in Windsor, Ontario. "I would tape the stations and imitate the jocks," he recalls. Over the years, he amassed a collection of tapes.

Young approached XM with the idea of re-creating the sound and texture of the classic Top 40 stations, and they told him to go for it. "The [listener] response was phenomenal."

He chose KQV because it was one of the first radio stations in the country -- it started broadcasting as 8ZAE in 1919, and in 1922, the FCC granted it the call letters KQV -- and because it was one of the first of the Top 40 formats.

The list of news people and personalities who worked at KQV reads like a who's who in local and national broadcasting: Chuck Brinkman, Jim Quinn (who's still on the air here as a talk host on WPGB-FM 104.7), Bill Burns, George Hart, Al Julius and Dave Scott. In the early '70s a guy named Jeff Christie, whose real name was Rush Limbaugh, did a stint there.

	KQV Radio disc jockey Jeff Christie was honorary chairman of the Variety Club "Celebrity Hike for Handicapped Children" walkathon in 1973. Jeff Christie's real name is Rush Limbaugh. Click photo for larger image.

To create "Sonic Sound Salutes," Young has tracked down hours' worth of air-checks from collectors and recorded jingles, and talked to people who grew up listening to the stations and were willing to share their memories with him.

Young says he was able to get more information about '60s Pittsburgh and KQV than many of the other cities whose sounds he's featured in tributes. One source was Jeff Roteman's KQV Web site, a massive online repository of all things KQV, including recorded air checks, hit surveys, personality lineups, history and more (14kqv.cjb.net).

Young says he gets calls from people all over the country who grew up with the stations he features and who remember them as the soundtrack of their youth.

But younger listeners who weren't even born yet are checking it out, Young says, "because of the excitement and the energy of the radio and because you've got groups like The Kinks and The Rolling Stones doing licks that Fall Out Boy does today. The kids can hear that."

The tributes preserve a piece of radio history: a time when broadcasting was a mass appeal format, as opposed to today's much more focused formats that target specific demographics. A 1963 ad KQV placed in the trade journal Broadcasting outlined how the station managed to draw 24 percent of the market's listening audience -- a share that would be unheard of today.

Also gone from the airwaves are most of those high-volume motormouth personalities, XM's Young notes. "I'm one of the last of these dinosaurs who knows how to do it."