• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

AUGUSTA: 2 LANDMARK RADIO/TV TOWERS FINALLY COMING DOWN??

E

electroboy73

I was wondering when I was home for Thanksgiving 2010 if the 2 legendary towers on the hill on Georgia Ave in North Augusta may finally be coming down. I had heard that for years, these old towers (one behind the NEWS-12 (WRDW) studios and one behind the WBBQ/WZNY studios) have not been in use for years. And then, I noticed that shorter one behind 'BBQ is being dismantled. It's half the size that it was, the top looks like it's broken and the tower-lights no longer come on after dark. The taller one behind NEWS-12 remains untouched.

Those towers were there before i was born (1973)! I always remembered you could see the two towers from as far away as Washington Rd in Martinez. Always thought they were impressive. And when I was little and we used to have to go to North Augusta for anything, I would beg my parents to drive by the WBBQ/Ch.12 studios so I could get a closer look. Back then, you could actually drive behind the studios and get out and go walk up underneath them. I remember, i always thought that the big one behind NEWS-12 looked much like the
Eiffel Tower in Paris....(hehe). So, I just wanna know if they're actually being torn down or what the deal is.

It's only my speculation that they maybe coming down because, it would make sense, if they're just a waste of space and money. However, I haven't seen or heard any info on this. So, anyone out there that can maybe shed some light on this?
 
It must cost thousands of dollars to maintain a tower these days, so unless the towers are generating income of some sort, dismantling them woulld make good business sense. If they are still in use, does anyone know about this?
 
No, they haven't been in use in years. WBBQ's stick is out in Gypsieville and WRDW's is one of the four TV sticks seen in Beech Island (I've heard there's been a couple candelabras added, but keep forgetting to check when I'm in town). WEKL's (105.7) antenna is on WAGT's tower (2nd from the left, IIRC) in the Beech Island array.

SN: Is there anybody occupying the WBBQ building? I heard CC moved all the stations over near the Double Tree hotel off Bobby Jones/Wheeler Rd.
 
Those towers were there before i was born (1973)!

If I am not mistaken, those towers were put up in the early 1950s, when both WJBF-TV and WRDW-TV went on the air, unless one or both of these towers had been replaced between then and now.

Both stations moved their transmitter facilities out to Beech Island, what, maybe 40-45 years ago? Memory is hazy, but I seem to recall that WRDW-TV may have purchased a replacment transmitter for the move but I think WJBF-TV physically moved their transmitter from the North Augusta location out to the new building and they were dark for a few days, while the move was being made. The WJBF-TV transmitter was an old Dumont transmitter. I had visited with Walter B. Robinson at the WJBF-TV transmitter site way back when, and I am almost sure the Dumont was gone. Walter had also worked at WRDW radio along with Bob Hunnicutt. This must have been in the mid-1960s.

I can't recall the timing between the WJBF-TV transmitter move and the studio move, that is, did WJBF-TV move their studio before the Beach Island transmitter move or was the transmitter moved first? As I think about it more, I believe the transmitter move was before the studio move. A Wikipedia link indicates WJBF-TV moved studios in 1956, but that means they were only up on the hill about two-three years. That doesn't seem right, but I wasn't even a teenager at that point, so maybe I just don't remember it all too well.

I base this on something I just remembered that when WJBF-TV moved to Reynolds, they had a direct path microwave shot from the studio building out to Beach Island. Then, there was some construction work in downtown Augusta that blocked the microwave path and they had to install a passive repeater, two back-to-back microwave dishes, on a building behind the studio building. That would have been about where the current Morris Museum of Art is currently located.

I also seem to recall WJBF-TV had a fire at some point in the North Augusta studio building and that may have have some decision on the move to Reynolds Street. After WJBF-TV left the hilltop studio location, WBBQ moved, I think that move was from old 15th Street "house" then up to the hill. I do know that WBBQ was up on the hill sometime in the mid to late 1960s.

I remember visiting the 15th Street studios and the AM transmitter was in the building, and I think the AM tower was out back.

Found this link for the old WBBQ AM Transmitter:

http://207.45.187.74/~wa4kcy/page8.htm

and other pictures, as well.



My memory is getting foggy, but where was WBBQ's FM transmitter located before it was up on the old WJBF-TV tower? Maybe it was always up there, side-mounted on the old WJBF-TV in North Augusta, until the move to its current location. . I seem to recall WBBQ-FM used to brag about their 134,000 watts, 100kW ERP in the horizontal polarization and 34 kW ERP in the vertical polarization.

By the way, check Google Earth at 33 24 20.99N 81 50 05.65W
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom