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KDKA AM

KDKA AM

KDKA AM is a U.S. class A clear channel AM radio station located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that operates on 1020 kHz.

History

KDKA started broadcasting on November 2, 1920 as the world's first commercial radio station, owned by Westinghouse Electric Corporation. KDKA also claims to be the first radio station broadcasting on a regular schedule. That claim is complicated by the fact that radio prior to 1920 was mostly experimental and good records are not kept for all "experimental" signals of contesting stations. KDKA's roots began with the efforts of Frank Conrad who operated KDKA's predecessor 75 watt 8XK from the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania from 1916. Conrad's musical offerings proved unexpectedly popular and his operations continued until his employer, the Westinghouse Electric Company, realized the potential of this new medium and applied for an official broadcasting license in 1920, granted on October 27. The KDKA callsign was assigned sequentially from a list maintained for the use of US-registry maritime stations, and on November 2, 1920, KDKA broadcast the US presidential election returns from a Westinghouse building in East Pittsburgh. There is some indication that the new license had not been received by that date, and the station may have gone online with the experimental call sign of 8ZZ that night. The original broadcast was said to be heard as far away as Canada. The first broadcast of KDKA was from a shack located on the roof of a Westinghouse building in East Pittsburgh. The radio station continued to broadcast there for many months. The station continued to get upgrades and increased range, and within five years received reception reports from as far away as Australia and Antarctica. After 75 years of ownership by Westinghouse, KDKA became a CBS owned-and-operated station in 1995, when Westinghouse merged with CBS. Viacom later bought CBS, and KDKA-AM is now part of Infinity Broadcasting Corporation.

Historical Controversy

Although 8XK is widely believed to have been the first radio station in the world to conduct regularly scheduled broadcasts, the issue is disputed. Contenders for initial broadcasts include:
- Charles Herrold of San Jose, California who used several different call signs over time: FN, SJN, 6XF, and 6XE, and eventually KQW (which would become KCBS)
- Lee De Forest's 2XG in New York
- Harold J. Power's 1XE in Boston, Massachusetts
- 2XN from the City College of New York
- 2ZK in New Rochelle, New York
- 8MK in Detroit, Michigan (now WWJ)
- XWA in Montreal, Canada (now CINW). Ironically, due to various corporate mergers over the years, KDKA is now a sister station to the other two stations with the strongest claims to be the oldest surviving commercial station--KCBS and WWJ. Despite the common ownership, WWJ and KDKA both still claim to be the world's first commercial radio station.

Today

KDKA became a full-service radio broadcaster, carrying music, news, and sports, a format that continued until 1990. Today, KDKA is a news and talk radio station. It broadcasts 24 hours per day with 50,000 watts using a non-directional antenna. Its signal reaches large portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia during the day and much of the eastern half of North America at night. Its transmitter is located in Allison Park, Pennsylvania, and residents living near the transmitter report hearing the station on the telephone, in braces, and even from bedsprings.

External links


- [http://kdkaradio.com KDKA Radio]
- [http://kdkaradio.com/history.shtml KDKA History]
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Category:Class A radio stations in North America Category:Viacom radio stations

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Am radio

AM radio is radio broadcasting using Amplitude Modulation.

History

AM was the dominant method of broadcasting during the first two thirds of the 20th century and remains widely used into the 21st. The Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook list approximately 16,265 AM [http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2013.html stations worldwide]. AM radio began with the first, experimental broadcast in 1906 by Reginald Fessenden, and was used for small-scale voice and music broadcasts up until World War I. The great increase in the use of AM radio came the following decade. The first commercial radio services began on AM in the 1920s (the first American radio station was started by Frank Conrad: KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Radio programming boomed during the "Golden Age of Radio" (1920s–1950s). Dramas, comedy and all other forms of entertainment were produced, as well as broadcasts of news and music. see History of radio for main article

Operation

AM radio technology is simpler than either FM radio or DAB. An AM receiver detects amplitude variations in the radio wave. It then amplifies changes in the signal voltage to drive a loudspeaker or earphones. The earliest crystal radio receivers used a crystal diode detector with no amplification.

Frequencies

AM radio is broadcast in on several frequency bands:
- Long wave is 153–279 kHz; it is not available in the Western Hemisphere, and European 9kHz channel spacing is generally used.
- Medium wave is 530–1,710 kHz in the Americas and 530-1620 in other parts of the world. In the Americas 10kHz spacing is used; elsewhere it is 9kHz.
- Short wave is 2,300–26,100 kHz, divided into 15 broadcast bands. Shortwave broadcasts generally use a narrow 5kHz channel spacing. The allocation of these bands is governed by the ITU's Radio Regulations and, on the local level, by each country's national telecommunications administration — for instance, in the U.S., the FCC.
- Long wave is used for commercial radio broadcasting in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia (ITU regions 1 and 3). In the Americas this band is reserved for aeronautical navigation. Due to the propagation characteristics of long wave signals, the frequencies are used most effectively in latitudes north of 50°.
- Medium wave is by far the most heavily used band for commercial broadcasting. This is the "AM radio" that most people are familiar with.
- Short wave is used by radio services intended to be heard at great distances from the transmitting station. The long range of short wave broadcasts comes at the expense of lower audio fidelity. The mode of propagation for short wave is different (see high frequency). AM is used mostly by broadcast services — other shortwave users may use a modified version of AM such as SSB or an AM-compatible version of SSB such as SSB with carrier reinserted. In many parts of the world short wave radio also carries audible, encoded messages of unknown purpose from numbers stations. Frequencies between the broadcast bands are used for other forms of radio communication, such as baby monitors, walkie talkies, cordless telephones, radio control, "ham" radio, etc.

Limitations of AM radio

Because of its susceptibility to atmospheric interference and generally lower-fidelity sound, AM broadcasting is better suited to talk radio and news programming, while music radio and public radio mostly shifted to FM broadcasting in the late 1960s and 1970s. Medium wave and short wave radio signals act differently during daytime and nighttime. During the day, AM signals travel by groundwave, refracting around the curve of the earth over a distance up to a few hundred kilometres (or miles) from the signal transmitter. However, after sunset, changes in the ionosphere cause AM signals to travel by skywave, enabling AM radio stations to be heard much farther from their point of origin than is normal during the day. This phenomenon can be easily observed by scanning an AM radio dial at night. As a result, many broadcast stations are required as a condition of license to reduce their broadcasting power significantly after sunset, or even to suspend broadcasting entirely during nighttime hours. (Such stations are commonly referred to as daytimers.) Some other radio stations are granted clear channel rights, meaning that they broadcast on frequencies whose use is restricted and thus relatively unaffected by interference from other stations. The hobby of listening to long distance signals is known as DX or DX'ing, from an old telegraph abbreviation for "distant". Several non-profit hobbyist clubs are devoted exclusively to DXing the AM broadcast band, including the National Radio Club and International Radio Club of America. Similarly, people listening to short wave transmissions are SWLing. AM radio signals can be disrupted in large urban centres by skyscrapers and other sources of radio frequency interference (RFI). FM signals, however, are not affected as much by these types of interference. As a result, AM radio has lost its dominance as a music broadcasting service, and in many cities is now relegated to news, sports and talk radio stations.

Other distribution methods

Stereo transmissions are possible (see AM stereo), and there is work underway to add digital radio services to currently existing AM transmissions. In the United States, the iBiquity company is developing a proprietary standard for medium wave transmissions, while Digital Radio Mondiale is a more open effort often used on the shortwave bands, and can be used alongside many AM broadcasts. While FM radio can also be received by cable, AM radio cannot be, although an AM station can be converted into an FM cable signal. In Canada, cable operators that offer FM cable services are required by the CRTC to distribute all locally available AM stations in this manner.

See also


- FM broadcasting
- Extended AM broadcast band
- CAM-D, a proposed hybrid digital radio format for AM broadcasting

External link


- [http://www.salestores1.com/woreltab.html Table of Voltage, Frequency, TV Broadcasting system, Radio Broadcasting, by Country].
- [http://www.dxtuners.com Listen to live AM radio transmissions]. Category:Radio

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

:This article is about the city. For the song, see Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (song). For other places, see Pittsburg. Pittsburg Pittsburgh is a city in Western Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 334,563 (metropolitan area 2,358,695), making it the second-largest city in the state. Pittsburgh, nicknamed The Steel City, was traditionally considered the center of the American steel industry. In recent years the city has turned to technology, especially biotechnology and robotics, leading the Wall Street Journal to dub the city "Roboburgh." The Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute and numerous private companies have made Pittsburgh perhaps the top robotics city outside of Japan, while the University of Pittsburgh boasts one of the top [http://www.medschool.pitt.edu/ medical schools] and one of the best [http://sti.upmc.com/ organ transplant institutes] in the world. The city is also one of the nation's major nonprofit centers, home to major funders such as the Heinz Foundations and thousands of other nonprofit organizations. Pittsburgh also has a booming art scene and a long history of supporting culture and the arts.

History

France was the first European country to send settlers to the forks of the Ohio River. They did so after capturing a small British garrison founded by William Trent. The Virginia colony sent Major George Washington with a scout named Christopher Gist to deliver a message to the French, demanding their withdrawal, and to reconnoiter their positions. The French refused. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia then sent Washington back in command of a small troop of colonial soldiers, but the French forced him to surrender at a makeshift fort, Fort Necessity. During the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the British colonies captured Fort Duquesne, which sat at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, at the part of downtown Pittsburgh now known as "The Point". The British built a larger fort on the same site and named it Fort Pitt in honor of the British statesman William Pitt the Elder. Fort Pitt was garrisoned in case of French attack during the French and Indian War, but by the time the improvements were made the war was over. William Pitt the Elder Pittsburgh was located in an area that was claimed by both Virginia and Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was briefly the seat of government for the short lived District of West Augusta, a Virginia county designed to compete with Pennsylvania's Westmoreland County, based in nearby Hannastown, which also claimed the region. In 1780, Virginia and Pennsylvania agreed on the current boundaries of the state and Pittsburgh officially became part of Pennsylvania. After the Revolutionary War, Pittsburgh was the center of the Whiskey Rebellion, which was put down by state militias ordered in by President George Washington. Beginning in the early 19th century, Pittsburgh's proximity to large coal deposits and excellent positioning along major trade routes made it one of the world's leading industrial powerhouses. Steel production was a major industry for many years, earning the city its nickname, "The Steel City". Pittsburgh lies at the confluence of the Monongahela River and Allegheny River, which merge to form the Ohio River, ultimately draining into the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. As an industrial city, Pittsburgh was also a major hub of early railroad activity. Millions of European immigrants settled in and around Pittsburgh in the 19th and early 20th centuries to seek employment in the steel mills, coal mines, railroads, or numerous associated industries. The production of glass, for both industrial and decorative use, was also an established industry in the city. On July 21, 1877, a day after bloody rioting in Baltimore from Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh staged a sympathy strike that was met with an assault by the state militia — Pittsburgh then erupted into widespread rioting. Another major confrontation occurred during the Homestead Strike in 1892. 1892 Thanks to the presence of the nearby Bettis Laboratory and the Shippingport power plant, Pittsburgh became the world's first nuclear powered city in 1960. With the recessions of the 1970s and the advent of cheap foreign labor, Pittsburgh's steel mills found themselves unable to compete with foreign steel mills, and most closed down. This created a ripple effect that decimated the local economy, as railroads, mines, and factories across the region shut down, one by one. The collapse of the US steel industry in the 1970s marked a major turning point for the city of Pittsburgh, and brought with it an unexpected renaissance as the mills closed and Pittsburgh began to shed its image of a dirty, smoky place. Pittsburgh was spared the fate of other postindustrial Rust Belt cities as the basis of the economy dramatically shifted from heavy industry to services and high technology. Pittsburgh is also home to various new skyscrapers, the tallest being the U.S. Steel Tower, famous for having only three sides. Also notable on the city skyline is the futuristic PPG Place. Pittsburgh's population decline during the last half century is remarkable:

Geography and climate

PPG Place Pittsburgh is located at (40.441419, -79.977292). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 151.1 km² (58.3 mi²). 144.0 km² (55.6 mi²) of it is land and 7.2 km² (2.8 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 4.75% water. Pittsburgh is located at the center of a fairly expansive set of river valleys, and much of the city's residential population is situated on or near the slopes of those valleys with certain neighborhoods (particularly south of the Monongahela) nearly inaccessible by car during the winter. As a result, Pittsburgh is widely believed to be right behind San Francisco as the "steepest" city in the United States. A pair of "inclines", or trams (cable cars on inclined rails) ascend the slope of Mount Washington, assisting in local public transportation; several tunnels are major access routes through the slopes. Pittsburgh has more public staircases (700) than any other city in the United States, followed by Cincinnati and San Francisco. Many of these staircases have street names and street signs, and lead to hillside neighborhoods that can be inaccessible by car, especially in the winter. Pittsburgh has been called the "east coast's San Francisco".

Climate

Pittsburgh has a temperate climate, with four seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter). Spring and Fall generally have cool temperatures, Summer is warm and Winter is cold. The winters are usually not extreme, with an average temperature between 20 °F and 30 °F (−7 °C to −1 °C). In spring, the city warms up gradually; summers are moderately warm and somewhat humid. The average temperature during the summer months ranges between 70 °F and 80 °F (16 °C and 21 °C). The average annual rainfall is 36.9 inches (937 mm), and the average annual snowfall is 20.5 inches (52 cm).

People and culture

Demographics

Winter temple in Pittsburgh attracts large Hindu/Indian immigrant crowds from the BosWash megapolis.]] According to the census of 2000, there are 334,563 people, 143,739 households, and 74,169 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,324.1/km² (6,019.0/mi²). There are 163,366 housing units at an average density of 1,134.9/km² (2,939.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 67.63% White, 27.12% African American, 0.19% Native American, 2.75% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.66% from other races, and 1.61% from two or more races. 1.32% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 143,739 households out of which 21.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.2% are married couples living together, 16.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 48.4% are non-families. 39.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 13.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.17 and the average family size is 2.95. In the city the population is spread out with 19.9% under the age of 18, 14.8% from 18 to 24, 28.6% from 25 to 44, 20.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 90.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 87.8 males. The median income for a household in the city is $28,588, and the median income for a family is $38,795. Males have a median income of $32,128 versus $25,500 for females. The per capita income for the city is $18,816. 20.4% of the population and 15.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 27.5% of those under the age of 18 and 13.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. Pittsburgh generally has among the lowest, if not the lowest crime rates of any comparably sized city in the United States.

Museums, arts, and entertainment

United States Wealthy area businessmen of the 19th century, including Andrew Carnegie, the Heinz family and Henry Clay Frick, donated large sums of money to local educational and cultural institutions. As a result, Pittsburgh is rich in art and culture. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is world-class, performs in Heinz Hall, which also plays host to other events throughout the year. The Benedum Center and Heinz Hall provide venues for numerous musicals, lectures, speeches, and other performances. Pittsburgh is also home to one of only two professional brass bands in the world, the River City Brass Band. Other musical arts groups include the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra (PYSO) and the River City Youth Brass Band, both of which include top musicians from the Pittsburgh area, in addition to the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, a nationally and internationally acclaimed semi-professional choir. These performances produced by these intensive programs are usually free to the public. Pittsburgh also boasts several visual arts museums, including the Andy Warhol Museum, dedicated to the works of Pittsburgh native Andy Warhol. The Carnegie Museum of Art is home to works by such luminaries as Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and many others, along with galleries of sculpture, modern art, the Heinz Architectural Center, a large film and video collection, and various travelling exhibits. Installation art is featured outdoors at ArtGardens of Pittsburgh. The Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece Fallingwater is about an hour's drive from downtown, and the North Shore boasts an 1895 neogothic church, Calvary Methodist, whose interior was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany; the church's stained glass windows are some of the largest and most elaborate work Tiffany ever created. Pittsburgh Filmmakers teaches media arts and runs three "art house" movie theaters. The Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University has four resident companies of professional actors. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History has extensive dinosaur collections on display, including the complete first Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered, and an Egyptian wing. The building may be distinguished by a life-size statue known as, "Dippy the Diplodocus" to the right of the main entrance. Other dinosaur statues are visible around the Pittsburgh area, these decorated by artists nationwide and sold as a benefit to the Carnegie Museums. The Carnegie Science Center is more technology oriented. Pittsburgh also houses the country's National Aviary. Phipp's Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, in the Oakland region of Pittsburgh, feature seasonal and global plants in a recently-remodeled Victorian-style greenhouse. More additions to the Conservatory are scheduled to begin in 2005. Just up the street from the Conservatory is the Schenley Park Golf Course, one of Pittsburgh's premiere public golf links. Kennywood Park is widely regarded by rollercoaster connoisseurs to have one of the best collections of functional rollercoasters in the world, including several early 20th century wooden coasters: the Racer, the Thunderbolt, and the Jack Rabbit. A water park owned by Kennywood, Sandcastle, is another local amusement park. Recently, Pittsburgh has gained a reputation for its large indie rock scene. Several notable indie rock bands have come from Pittsburgh in recent years, including Rusted Root, Don Caballero, and punk rock band Anti-Flag. Some of these bands have ventured into film scoring and video, such as Jesse Prentiss and Jamal Morelli's "Ritual Space Travel Agency" and Ben Opie's "Watershed" The David L. Lawrence Convention Center, located on the south bank of the Allegheny River, is quickly becoming some of the most sought after convention space in the country, as it is able to accommodate all sizes of conventions, exhibitions and conferences. Certified with a Gold rating by the [http://www.usgbc.org/ U.S. Green Building Council's] [http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] initiative, the building is considered the first ever "green" convention center and world's largest "green" building. The convention center hosts such prominent events as the [http://www.pittsburghauto.org Pittsburgh International Auto Show], the [http://www.awea.org/wp06.html Windpower 2006 Conference & Exhibition], the [http://www.youthspecialties.com/NYWC National Youth Workers Convention] and the 2005 National Council of Teachers of English National Convention.

Sports

Club Sport Founded League Venue Logo
Football 1933 National Football League; AFC Heinz Field Heinz Field
Baseball 1882 Major League Baseball; NL PNC Park PNC Park
Ice Hockey 1967 National Hockey League Mellon Arena Mellon Arena
Basketball 2000
- 		American Basketball Association Mellon Arena and Peterson Events Center Peterson Events Center
Soccer 1998 United Soccer League Falconi Field Falconi Field
Baseball 2001 Frontier League Falconi Field Falconi Field
Football 2002 NWFA Rubenstein Stadium Rubenstein Stadium
---- Pittsburgh has a strong connection to sports. In addition to the major sports teams listed above, many famous athletes were born and raised in the Pittsburgh region, including Stan Musial, Honus Wagner and both Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. in baseball, and former world champion boxers Michael Moorer, Billy Conn and Paul Spadafora. However, the Pittsburgh area is known for producing football greats, in particular quarterbacks. The "cradle of quarterbacks," as the Pittsburgh area is known, produced Hall of Famers Dan Marino, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Jim Kelly and Joe Namath as well as dozens of other quarterbacks of note including Johnny Lujack, Gus Frerotte, Marc Bulger and the modern NFL's first black quarterback, Willie Thrower. Metro Pittsburgh has also produced football standouts in other positions, including Mike Ditka, Ty Law, Jack Ham, Curtis Martin and Tony Dorsett. Not surprisingly, football is the major sport across the region on all levels; high school, college and professional. Baseball and hockey are also big draws as well as minor and school league basketball. Pittsburgh had the most public swim pools per capita than any other place in the world. Most local high schools have indoor pools and many communities, country clubs and home-owner associations have vibrant summer swim clubs. Pittsburgh has been called the "city of champions" for its success in sports. The city and region enjoyed a string of championships in the 1970s. Not only did the Steelers win four Super Bowls under just one coach and a core group of players (a feat that Pittsburgh alone holds), but the Pirates won six division championships, and bracketed the decade with World Series victories over the Baltimore Orioles in 1971 and 1979. Even the Pittsburgh Triangles of the short-lived World Team Tennis took the Association championship in 1975, their second year of play. Although they missed the flurry of championships in the Steel City in the '70s, the Penguins brought home back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships in the early 1990s. The 1970s also saw the University of Pittsburgh Panthers win a National Title and contest for two others. Some minor polls named Pitt #1 in those years. Overall, the school has won nine football National Championships and two basketball National Championships. The city also celebrated the American Basketball Association's Pittsburgh Pipers, which won the world's first modern basketball championship (which for the first time allowed the dunk and three-point shot) in 1968. The Pipers later changed their name to the Pittsburgh Condors, but would never again reach the heights of that first season. Pittsburgh was the home to the minor league basketball Rens of the 1950s and 1960s and the Piranah's in the early 1990s. One of the lasting legacies of the Pittsburgh basketball scene was the 1979 movie The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh that cast the fictional "Pittsburgh Pisces" in the finals and included cameos of many great NBA and Harlem Globetrotter Greats. The campy movie was almost B-grade in its quality but has garnered a cult-following, it was not, however, the greatest regional piece captured on film. The same cannot be said of Slap Shot, the quirky 1977 hockey comedy shot in nearby Johnstown, which is widely loved in hockey circles, as well as All the Right Moves capturing the passion of local High School and College Football in the Pittsburgh region. Pittsburgh's rich sports heritage also features the Negro Leagues, stomping grounds of baseball greats Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige. Pittsburgh hosted two Negro League teams in the 1930s and 1940s. The Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays were dynasties in their own right, competing in the Negro League world series almost every season for twenty years. The region's sports history included a few upstart professional teams such as the baseball 1890 Pittsburgh Burghers and the 1914-15 Pittsburgh Burghers, the 1980s USFL Pittsburgh Maulers (owned by San Francisco 49ers owner DeBartolo) and the Arena Football League Pittsburgh Gladiators of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Pittsburgh hosted the first-ever "Arena Bowl", with the home team making two appearances in it. The region also once had a thriving college football scene with Duquesne University, Carnegie Mellon University (then called Carnegie Tech), the University of Pittsburgh, and Washington and Jefferson College, all making "major" bowl game appearances and ranking high in national polls from the 1910s through the 1940s. Although Robert Morris, Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne still field NCAA I-AA or Division III teams, only the University of Pittsburgh program plays a Division I national schedule. Both Central Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Puffins (a founding member team) compete in the [http://www.eteamz.com/powha Pennsylvania-Ohio Women's Hockey Association (POWHA)], a women's amateur travel league. Central Pittsburgh was the first non-founding team to join the league in 2004. They quickly became a force finishing second in both the regular season and the playoffs, losing to the [http://eteamz.active.com/labattbluesicehockey Cleveland Blues] by one goal in the POWHA Championship game. In their previous meeting with the Blues they had tied 4-4 and won 4-0. They were the only team in the league to shutout the Blues, who finished first in both the regular season and playoffs.

Politics

From the Civil War era to the 1930s, Pittsburgh was considered a Republican stronghold. Since the Great Depression, Pittsburgh has been dominated by Democratic candidates. Considered socially liberal, Pittsburgh citizens tend to be members of the Democratic party. This is primarily due to the city's labor union population, which has continued to dwindle with the decline of the U.S. Steel market. Democratic candidates have been elected consecutively to either the mayor's office or city council since 1933, when David L. Lawrence led the party to power. A majority of Pittsburghers in the inner-city are very democratic and push for civil rights, where the outlying areas tend to be Republican and conservative. The city has an ordinance protecting GLBT citizens from dscrimination. It is the only city within a 200 mile radius with such protections and has thus become a beacon to people of alternate lifestyles. The mayor serves a four year term and the last election was held on November 2nd, 2005. Bob O'Connor, from the city's Greenfield neighborhood, will replace Tom Murphy in 2006. City council members are chosen by plurality elections in each of nine districts. The city is currently facing a financial crisis and has been declared a "distressed municipality" by the state. This may result in massive cuts to city programs and debates over which taxes to raise, or it may bring about long-lasting political change. So far, the city has fared well through this process, and has even began to grow, with the recent addition of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. relocating their corporate headquarters to the South Side neighborhood. Recently, a buyer has been found for the defunct Lord & Taylor store downtown, and preparations are under way for three new mixed occupation buildings downtown.

Economy

Pittsburgh has adapted in the wake of the steel industry's collapse. The primary industries have shifted from steel manufacture and heavy industry to high technology, robotics, health care, biomedical technology, finance, and service-based fields. Education, from primary/secondary through magnet schools, specialized professional institutes, and top-flight universities, is also a major local employer. Pittsburgh has a very low cost of living compared to other cities in the Northeastern U.S. The average price for a 3- to 4-bedroom, 2-bath family home in Pittsburgh is $162,000, which is well below the national average ($264,540 as of October 2004, according to the Federal Housing Finance Board). Fixer-uppers and smaller homes in the city can be found for under $50,000.

Corporations headquartered in Pittsburgh


- 84 Lumber
- Alcoa (Fortune 500)
- Allegheny Energy
- Allegheny Technologies (Fortune 500)
- Bayer USA (Fortune 500)
- DQE
- FedEx Ground (Fortune 500)
- Federated Investors
- GNC
- Giant Eagle
- Heinz (Fortune 500)
- Medrad
- Mellon Financial (Fortune 500)
- PNC Financial Services (Fortune 500)
- PPG (Fortune 500)
- Respironics
- U.S. Steel (Fortune 500)
- WESCO International (Fortune 500)
- Westinghouse (Fortune 500)
- EDMC
- American Eagle Outfitters

Education

The Pittsburgh region is home to many universities and research facilities, the most prominent of which are Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon University houses one of the oldest computer science school and the oldest drama school in the United States, both of which are widely considered to be among the best in their fields. Carnegie Mellon University also houses internationally renown research centers including the world-famous Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and the Robotics Institute, the first of its kind in the world and a leader in the field of robotics. It also houses a top ten [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engrank_brief.php] engineering school, and its top ten [http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/MB_05_Scoreboard.pdf] business school is consistently ranked among the best in the nation. Carnegie Mellon University is famous for its unique interdisciplinary environment and as an innovative leader in education. Carnegie Mellon University is affiliated with 12 Nobel Laureates. The [http://www.health.pitt.edu/ Health Sciences Department] at the University of Pittsburgh and the [http://www.upmc.com/ University of Pittsburgh Medical Center] operate some of the finest hospitals in the world, and an advanced medical research center that performs pioneering work in organ transplantation, AIDS and cancer research, and many other fields. University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine is ranked amongst the top twenty graduate medical programs nationally [http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/directory/dir-med/brief/glanc_04101_brief.php]. The university is also known for its respected programs in its departments of Asian studies, business, philosophy and philosophy of science, as well as for its [http://www.law.pitt.edu law] and engineering schools. Pittsburgh public school teachers are paid well relative to their peers, ranking 17th in 2000-2001 among the 100 largest cities by population for the highest minimum salary offered to teachers with a BA ($34,300). Pittsburgh ranked fifth in the highest maximum salary offered to teachers with an MA ($66,380). Local public schools include many charter and magnet schools, including [http://www.cityhigh.org/ City Charter High School] (computer and technology focused), [http://homewoodes.pghboe.net/ Homewood Montessori], [http://gifted.pghboe.net/ Pittsburgh Gifted Center], [http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/FrickMiddleFactSheet.asp the Frick International Studies Center], [http://capahs.pghboe.net/ Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts], and several schools for blind, deaf, or otherwise challenged children.

See also


-