Those two climbers had to know those antennas were not active, at least the batwing. If you watch one video the girl (I think it was the girl) just casually grabs one of the batwing antenna elements, as up she goes.
As Scott Fybush (in #7 above) mentioned, that was Channel 4 & 5's antenna. Channel 4 (by itself) was the first TV antenna up on that building going way back, gradually the other NYC channels went up there until the WTC tower site was completed, then they all moved to the WTC. Channel 2 was the only station that for some reason kept their old antenna & transmitter up in the Empire state Building. Following 9/11 they were back on the air from that old site, the transmitter engineer who knew that old transmitter well, came in out of retirement to help.
I think I got this next comment correct, if not please add corrections.
Some of you might recall, the NYC TV Guide had translators (for all the NYC TV stations), listed in it, when the WTC reached a certain height and after it was completed it was causing bad signal problems in The Bronx. So, each channel got a translator, that were all located in The Bronx.
As Scott Fybush (in #7 above) mentioned, that was Channel 4 & 5's antenna. Channel 4 (by itself) was the first TV antenna up on that building going way back, gradually the other NYC channels went up there until the WTC tower site was completed, then they all moved to the WTC. Channel 2 was the only station that for some reason kept their old antenna & transmitter up in the Empire state Building. Following 9/11 they were back on the air from that old site, the transmitter engineer who knew that old transmitter well, came in out of retirement to help.
I think I got this next comment correct, if not please add corrections.
Some of you might recall, the NYC TV Guide had translators (for all the NYC TV stations), listed in it, when the WTC reached a certain height and after it was completed it was causing bad signal problems in The Bronx. So, each channel got a translator, that were all located in The Bronx.