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KYW Celebrates 90 Well-Traveled Years Of Broadcasting

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - We have a birthday to celebrate today.  This radio station is 90-years-old and it's traveled more than most.

The History Of KYW

November 11th, 1921, barely a year after commercial broadcasting began at KDKA in Pittsburgh, another station debuted.

"And this is Westinghouse KYW, Chicago."

Huh? Chicago? That's right.

This station opened with opera music as the Windy City's very first radio station where it was largely as a way for co-owner Westinghouse to sell the radios it made.  This was a success as estimates are there were only several hundred radios there before KYW began broadcasting, and more than 20,000 just one year later.

KYW moved to Philadelphia in 1934, but then relocated to Cleveland in 1956, and finally back here again in 1965, shortly before switching to all-news.

"KYW will begin its service of continuous news programing to the people in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley."

Where we've stayed put for 46 years and counting.

Reported by John Ostapkovich, KYW Newsradio 1060

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