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KTWL 103.5 tower falls

F

First Fone 65

Guest
Some people are so blessed they could fall in a bucket of C--P and come out smelling like a rose," Rubber Check Roy " 500 ft Hempstead tower which KTWL 105.3 was on, came down in a storm last week, seems old silver tongue has convinced FEMA to pay for it since it serves the area with emergency information ? but with the known speed of FEMA in making payments, which may even be slower than Roys, I don't see it happening anytime soon ?
 
KTWL has a granted CP in place moving to a new site right off of 105. Is there really much of a reason to even rebuild the Hempstead tower? Doesn't FEMA likely end up just paying off the destroyed tower, KTWL ends up moving to its new site while incurring less out of pocket cost to Henderson, and 105-3 inches closer to its mission of becoming a Woodlands radio station? Isn't this the way of the radio world, nowadays?

I'll have to go check the tower out. There were some bad storms up there last week, but this is the first I've heard that this tower fell in the process.
 
From the FCC database, the tower is registered to Doug Vernier Telecommunications Consultants.
 
:cool:Might want to check the guy wires for tool marks.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Why should FEMA pay for the tower? Wouldn't the owner have insurance?
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I was asking myself the same question. You'll have to pose it to First Fone, since he was the one to state that "ol' silver tongue has convinced FEMA to pay for it".

My contribution, if you can call it that, was to say that if FEMA does indeed pay for it, he can apply it to the build out of the new site and abandon the Hempstead site altogether. What followed Frank's post, I'm not touching with a ten foot pole.
 
Here is the ASR owner information.

Contact Info
Doug Vernier Telecommunications Consultants
721 West 1st Street, Suite A
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Doug Vernier
[email protected]

Owner Info
Farmers Communication
9306 Belmart Rd.
Potomac, MD 20854-1623
Roy Henderson
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Had me worried for a moment - at first I though Cypress radio had a problem. It looks like just a type in the thread title.
 
Last thing I heard was no insurance and FEMA was a question mark, Unless it is declared a disaster area, I don't think FEMA even gets involved.
there have been some locations declared a disaster area, Don't know if Hempstead was one of them ?
 
JoeFM said:
Rapaho and I exchanged a few messages today. There is no insurance or FEMA money to deal with this tragedy. He is currently looking for a solution to get 105.3 back on the air as quickly as possible.
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The phone numbers are on the FCC public site.
 
One way is to rent a 100 ft portable light tower and set it up next to the KTWL transmitter shack with a basic antenna on top, and that will get You back on the air quick, same location, no co channels problems involved in a location move, use present transmitting facilities, just run coax to portable tower.

2nd option rent space on a near by tower, until tower can be rebuilt. takes time and more expensive, and involved moving transmitter and associated equipment.

3rd option go ahead and move tx to new location You already have a CP for, and build the new tower there. set up portable tower at present location to get back on the air quick, and then build out at new site seems like the best way to me.

You might be able to salvage a 100 feet or more of the old tower and use existing anchors for a temporary tower.
 
Were there any Police/Fire/EMS services with space on the tower?
That might have been the rationale for FEMA to pay for the replacement.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Were there any Police/Fire/EMS services with space on the tower?
That might have been the rationale for FEMA to pay for the replacement.
Click to expand...

Or cell companies? They would probably pay to get their cell antennas back up.
 
I'm just wondering why in the world the tower was not insured. Perhaps it was in bad shape and could not be insured.
 
By the photos it looks like the tower had a structural failure in the middle somewhere, causing it to buckle and come down. Either a middle guy failed, or the wires were too taught on top, causing the middle of the tower to kick out. That's why it snaked around the cow pasture rather than laying flat out.
 
Tower insurance is expensive with only a very few companies that write it, most are COD, He should be able to file a FEMA claim regardless of what the tower was being used for just on the basic of a business loss. most of that area had major flood and wind damage, or course We all know how fast FEMA settles claims So don't hold Your breath for a settlement any time soon, last I heard there were still outstanding FEMA claims in New Orleans and that's been a number of years.
 
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