Seems to me that in the 1960s there was a five-tower complex, oriented east-west, in north Montgomery in the vicinity of Lower Wetumpka Road and Anderson Road (the continuation of Lower Wetumpka Road east to the Tallapoosa River bridge... roughly due north of Gunter AFB. I'm fairly certain this was not the WCOV six-tower site, which is to the west off Coosada Ferry Road. I don't know if this was an AM broadcaster or a military site related to Gunter. It disappeared sometime after I graduated from high school and left Montgomery for good in 1972. Does anyone know what I'm referring to?
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Former transmitter site in north Montgomery
- Thread starter ctl
- Start date
I believe WRMA/WLHQ/WSYA(call letters over the years) 950 kHz had a four tower array, east-west, located at the
corner of Lower Wetumpka Road and Stokes road. This would be roughly North of Gunter.
corner of Lower Wetumpka Road and Stokes road. This would be roughly North of Gunter.
The Wattcher said:
Should read WLSQ. Realized it to late to edit.
Got to be it... 4 towers not 5. Thanks! There was also a single tower in the fields near where Green Ridge Rd and Madolyn Ln are today in east Montgomery. (This part of the Eastern Hills subdivision was filled in during the mid 1960s, after the tower came down.) Close to WCCB-TV later WKAB, but different. Any ideas?
Yes it was the night time 950 site....4 towers.....US Broadcasting (WSYA before Cumulus bought it) decided to change to non-directional at night from the daytime site in SW Montgomery. Only about 40 watts at night.....the night site was too expensive to maintain....and it was spurred by a fire at the site destroying the phasor and transmitter.
I did the original build out of the WSYA studios on Madison by the "carwash" when US Broadcasting bought the stations.
cceng
I did the original build out of the WSYA studios on Madison by the "carwash" when US Broadcasting bought the stations.
cceng
The Wattcher said:
Add WREZ to that list of call letters, too from the late 80's. Were there any other calls for 950 left out?
The old single tower that was over in the Eastern Hills subdivison was the WMGY 800 AM tower until the move to lower Wetumpka Road where 103.3 FM was added to it after being removed from the old Advertiser-Journal building on Washington Avenue when the newspaper owned it (WAJM). The 103.3 FM antenna is no longer there. To: CCENG >> Wasn't it there until 103.3 got on the Montgomery Tower Partners tower in 1988?
Also: The 1170 AM six-tower array is no more out on Coosada Ferry Road. The nighttime six tower has been scrubbed and the daytime two-tower array (which was part of the six towers) handles the 10 kw day and 7 watts at night.
As CCENG pointed out, the old AM950 site had a fire that burned up the transmitter, phasor and building in North Montgomery. Funny thing: the ashes had cooled before anyone called the then-engineer Gerald Wilson to go out and check to see why the station was off the air. He discovered the site burned down ... and everything had cooled off. The Fire Marshall stated that the electrical wire inside the conduit right at the breaker box shorted (arced inside the conduit) which evntually caught the building on fire. All of this happened in September, 1990. I remember Gerald telling me about it. The transmitter building was a little 12 by 12 prefab that happened to be the original transmitter building when Joe Hagler put on WQIM-FM 95.3 in Prattvile in the 70's. Gerald Wilson Engineering did that buildout for WQIM.
Also: The 1170 AM six-tower array is no more out on Coosada Ferry Road. The nighttime six tower has been scrubbed and the daytime two-tower array (which was part of the six towers) handles the 10 kw day and 7 watts at night.
As CCENG pointed out, the old AM950 site had a fire that burned up the transmitter, phasor and building in North Montgomery. Funny thing: the ashes had cooled before anyone called the then-engineer Gerald Wilson to go out and check to see why the station was off the air. He discovered the site burned down ... and everything had cooled off. The Fire Marshall stated that the electrical wire inside the conduit right at the breaker box shorted (arced inside the conduit) which evntually caught the building on fire. All of this happened in September, 1990. I remember Gerald telling me about it. The transmitter building was a little 12 by 12 prefab that happened to be the original transmitter building when Joe Hagler put on WQIM-FM 95.3 in Prattvile in the 70's. Gerald Wilson Engineering did that buildout for WQIM.
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