KRMO (Monett) tower collapses

[Mark Roberts]

The tower for Monett stations KRMO(AM) and KKBL(FM) collapsed on October 24. The stations plan to rebuild on the same site near Monett. KRMO is a class D station at 990 kHz with 2.5 kw daytime and low nighttime power; KKBL is a class A FM station at 95.9 MHz.
More from the Lawrence County Record: Monett radio station tower collapses

 

[secondchoice]

At least they were mowing the antenna field. I can take you to a couple of AM sites that haven't been mowed in a decade. If I was rebuilding this I would try for a grounded tower with a shunt feed for AM. Maybe pick up some cellular antenna rental income. Also you don't have to check the glass insulator at the base, the guy wire insulators, no isolation coupling for tower lights.

 

[radiofan2023]

I’ve never heard of a tower just falling like that, hopefully they can figure out what happened.

 

[secondchoice]

Lucky nobody got hurt. I would check what's left of the guy wires.

 

[davideduardo]

I’ve never heard of a tower just falling like that, hopefully they can figure out what happened.

Storms, vandalism, accidents caused by vehicles on premise and failure of guys or tower sections themselves are the main causes of tower failure.

In the case of a shorter AM tower, an improperly galvanized section or rust to a scarred location on the sections can happen. I have seen a tower fail because the mount of a microwave antenna on the side was not tight enough, it moved in the wind and ate through the galvanization and eventually rust caused the tower to collapse.