Historical question about a 1944 Radio Tower Failure in NYC

[BruceS8852]

I received this question from an Engineering Librarians listserv. Please repond to Eunic Wong at [email protected]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One of our civil engineering postgraduate students wants to find out which building was the following paragraph referring to:

"Some spectacular tall radio towers have failed in recent years, mostly under unusual wind conditions. In 1944 an 85-ft FM Radio Antenna tower on top of a 55-story building in New York City's main center twisted about its vertical axis during an 85-mph wind. The corkscrewed steel frame did not collapse and the anchor bolts held securely. The possible damage to life and property if the tower had fallen to the street was tremendous. No one was hurt and the failure was not even noted by the press. The tower was removed and even without this exposure, the building itself takes on some disturbing oscillations during northeast storms, enough to make it impossible to write at a desk located in the top few floors, so that employees are regularly excused during such storm periods..."
Construction Failure (1968 edition, p.151) by Jacob Feld.

We have tried Google, Google Book, Google Scholar, Google News Archives, NYT Archives, Scopus and ASCE database but still could not find further information.

Your expert opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DanStrassberg]

In 1944 an 85-ft FM Radio Antenna tower on top of a 55-story building in New York City's main center twisted about its vertical axis during an 85-mph wind.

Two buildings in New York that hosted FM or TV antennas in that era were 70 Pine St in the financial district and the Hotel Pierre on (I think) Central Park West. I have no idea whether either of them is the building in question. The Hotel Pierre doesn't sound like it because it is not an office building. 70 Pine St is an office building, but I thought it had approximately 70 stores, not "just" 55. For a short time before the Chrysler Building was completed, 70 Pine was the tallest building in New York and probably the world. A prominent building in New York that sported two radio towers for many years was the Park Central Hotel not far from Columbus Circle. I doubt that the Park Central is 55 stories high, though, and its towers were for a a long-wire antenna for an old AM station, WPCH, which shared time with WNYC and WMCA. I believe, though, that Maj Armstrong, who loved tall towers, was once photographed doing back bends near the top of the one of the WPCH towers.

 

[TomT]

Well, first place to look is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City

Which, as the title implies, includes a list of tall buildings in NYC, with the date of construction. Shouldn't take long to make a list of buildings 50 stories or higher built before 1944.

Here's a list of early FM stations:

http://jeff560.tripod.com/fmfirst.html

Same site lists these stations in 1943:

42.8 W2XMN
43.9 WNYC-FM
44.7 WGYN
45.1 W2XWG
45.9 WQXQ
46.3 WHNF
46.7 WABC-FM
47.1 WOR-FM, WBAM
47.5 WABF

The New York Times had these stations listed in 1944

Jan. 1, 1944: 42.3 W2XMN, 43.9 WNYC-FM, 44.7 WGYN, 45.9 WQXQ, 46.3 WHNF, 46.7 WABC-FM, 47.1 WBAM, 47.5 WABF

May 10, 1944: 42.3 W2XMN, 43.9 WNYC-FM, 44.7 WGYN, 45.1 W2XWG, 45.9 WQWQ, 46.3 WHNF, 46.7 WABC-FM, 47.1 WBAM, 47.5 WABF

In the notes, WOR -FM(W2XOR at the time, apparently WBAM by 1944) in 1942 had their antenna on what became known as the Newsweek building at 444 Madison Ave. This building is shown as 42 stories high. Possible??

Of course, the antenna in question may have been some sort of two-way antenna; the author of the paragraph in question may not have known the difference between an FM broadcast antenna and any other type of VHF antenna. As the listings above indicate, in 1944 FM stations operated on frequencies well below the present FM band, (below TV channel 2 and the 6 meter amateur radio band, in fact) and used considerably larger antennas than would be required for modern FM broadcast stations.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Well, first place to look is here:

W2XMN (and later, W2XEA) transmitted from Maj Armstrong's tower in Alpine NJ. WGYN transmitted from 70 Pine St.
(see my earlier message in this thread).

 

[TomT]

Bingo!

What you wanna bet that this is the building:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanin_Building

The "Chanin Building" at 122 East 42nd St. and Lexington Ave. Home of WQXR-FM from 1941 to 1960; it is 56 stories high. Note the self-supporting tower on the roof in the picture.

The tower failure incident probably merited little press in 1944 because of other more pressing stories. There was a war going on at the time. Besides, the tower did not fall.

Let's see what the New York natives come up with. This Ohioan is going to bed.