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California fires impacting Mt. Wilson transmitter site

S

Stanislav

It looks like the famous Mt. Wilson transmitter site near L.A. is about to be overrun by that massive wildfire.

The last reports I have seen had the fire starting to encroach on the site, all personnel evacuated, and hope pretty much lost for saving it. The site contains not just the transmitters of all major L.A. TV stations, but cellphone and public service repeaters as well, not to mention the famous Mt. Wilson Observatory.

There's an active thread here:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=151865.140

And here are a few reports from this morning, most of which seem to be several hours old:

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=6990735

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fire-mount-wilson31-2009aug31,0,6711216.story

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hLFhZW56oBsRT1_qh-BaEGWbSXvQD9ADI4200

This would no doubt be the worst such natural disaster in TV history, given the number of stations that would be affected. (9/11, of course, affected a large number of NYC stations, and several engineers were among the thousands losing their lives, but that was very much a "man-made" disaster.) Two firefighters have already lost their lives battling this blaze. From what I read, everyone who normally works on the mountain is evacuated and safe.

Those wishing to comment should probably use the already active thread -- I just wanted to post a summary for those who may not visit the L.A. boards to be aware of it.
 
Neglected to mention the FMs...sorry. TV would only lose the 15% of their audience that is OTA in the L.A. area (they can still feed cable/satellite via fiber from their studios), but the FMs would be off completely if this thing overruns the mountain. Some of the TVs are already preparing for the worst by simulcasting on subchannels of the very few L.A. stations that do not transmit from Mt. Wilson, such as KVEA, which along with KWHY transmits from nearby Mt. Harvard. (Of course, as big as this fire is, for all we know, that peak may soon be threatened as well...)
 
Stanislav said:
Neglected to mention the FMs...sorry. TV would only lose the 15% of their audience that is OTA in the L.A. area (they can still feed cable/satellite via fiber from their studios), but the FMs would be off completely if this thing overruns the mountain. Some of the TVs are already preparing for the worst by simulcasting on subchannels of the very few L.A. stations that do not transmit from Mt. Wilson, such as KVEA, which along with KWHY transmits from nearby Mt. Harvard. (Of course, as big as this fire is, for all we know, that peak may soon be threatened as well...)
Click to expand...

I think someone on the LA board said that there's only one FM that has alternate facilities in the LA basin.
 
radioman148 said:
Stanislav said:
Neglected to mention the FMs...sorry. TV would only lose the 15% of their audience that is OTA in the L.A. area (they can still feed cable/satellite via fiber from their studios), but the FMs would be off completely if this thing overruns the mountain. Some of the TVs are already preparing for the worst by simulcasting on subchannels of the very few L.A. stations that do not transmit from Mt. Wilson, such as KVEA, which along with KWHY transmits from nearby Mt. Harvard. (Of course, as big as this fire is, for all we know, that peak may soon be threatened as well...)
Click to expand...

I think someone on the LA board said that there's only one FM that has alternate facilities in the LA basin.
Click to expand...

Not true. Most of the FMs on Mount Wilson have some sort of aux facilities elsewhere. The exceptions are KPCC (89.3), KPFK (90.7), KKGO (105.1), KLVE (107.5) and possibly KSCA (101.9).
 
Given the multitude of communities in the L.A. market, unless the big corporate concerns have bought up everything, there are probably some smaller CATV systems that still get their broadcast channels off-air. Not to mention institutional MATV setups (hospitals, motels, etc.) that do likewise. (I wonder, when they cite percentages of OTA viewers in a market, if they include these private multiple MATV systems, or just count individual households?)
 
>>Not true. Most of the FMs on Mount Wilson have some sort of aux facilities elsewhere. The exceptions are KPCC (89.3), KPFK (90.7), KKGO (105.1), KLVE (107.5) and possibly KSCA (101.9).>>

OK, thanks.
 
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