KMOX-FM site hit by the St. Louis tornado

[Mark Roberts]

Audacy news release:

How Audacy Remained On Air Amidst Tornado Devastation | Audacy Inc.

St. Louis' KMOX (KMOX-FM) provided critical community service over the weekend while a tornado touched down. As ominous storm clouds gathered over the

audacyinc.com

Note that the reference is to KMOX-FM (the former WHHL), and not to the AM station, whose transmitter site is in Illinois and wasn't affected. KMOX-FM was able to return to the air somewhere around an hour and a half later.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Scott @fybush 's take on the situation:

Sometimes, AM Still Matters (or at least it should)

It's every broadcast engineer's nightmare: a line of intense storms heading right for your station's tower. For Audacy's KMOX in

radioinsight.com

While not disagreeing with Scott, I have to wonder what the reaction would have been if the scenario had been flipped: if that tornado had ripped through Pontoon Beach or nearby areas in Metro East (Illinois) heading for the KMOX AM site, leaving the FM side alone at its Central West End location in Missouri. Certainly, I recognize that the AM site has been hardened for emergency use, but if a tornado goes after your tower, your risk mitigation can never be absolute.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

KMOX 1120, like many of the clear channel AMs (WSM, WLS, WCBS WHSQ), has a backup tower, a backup studio, and a tremendous amount of spare equipment. It would be very difficult to take KMOX totally off the air once an engineer could assess any damage and figure out what needs to be patched together.

St. Louis's KTRS 550 lost two towers to a wind storm in 2006. They were only briefly off air, and were able to operate with special temporary authority while the antenna was rebuilt. The cover of this edition of Radio Guide had a photo of the damage to KTRS back then: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/A...ring/Radio-Guide/2006/Radio-Guide-2006-09.pdf

AMs with directional antennas usually have the ability to operate the antenna in several modes.
The most flexible AM I know of was one I just learned about. I was recently at 680 WRKO/Boston, and learned that the station has the ability to broadcast in non-directional modes from any of their three towers, plus the two directional patterns the license requires.

 

[DavinaR]

I wonder if on air during the storm they told people if we go off air on fm, you can switch over to am 1120 and hear us. At night KMOX am comes in here in Denver Colorado.