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Tower at 2211 S. Throop St. in Chicago

CADXER

CADXER

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. Maybe some of the other Chicago based members can provide some answers.

If you drive in or near the Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood you can't miss seeing the antenna tower on top of a building located at 2211 South Throop Street. For the longest of time I have assumed that this tower must have been used for some kind of commercial broadcasting (AM or FM). As much as I tried searching for answers I came out empty.

Can someone shed some light on this antenna tower? What stations (if any) used it for broadcasting in the past?

Here is a picture of the tower:

Throop&Cermak.jpg
 
I would have guessed that it was a former tower site for 950, 1390, or 1450, but can't find anything for that location. 1240 is out because all three of that frequency's towers were on the north side of Chicago.
 
That building was apparently originally built for ComEd in the 20s, with support staff for the nearby Fisk power plant. I don't find any record of ComEd having broadcasting interests.
 
From the satellite image, it appears that the tower is gone. It looks like a big mess on top of the building. I see a ladder, maybe a bunch of wires like a ground system. Could well have been an AM site. You'd have to go through all the AM and FM History Cards to see if any TL addresses match up. Has Throop St. been renamed? That would complicate it even more.

I remember seeing a tower across from Chicago Circle Campus, which I toured circa 1967. My cousin's friend thought that one was WEFM. I just remember it had a bunch of bays. But that's a ways away.
 
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Schroedingers Cat said:
From the satellite image, it appears that the tower is gone. It looks like a big mess on top of the building. I see a ladder, maybe a bunch of wires like a ground system. Could well have been an AM site. You'd have to go through all the AM and FM History Cards to see if any TL addresses match up. Has Throop St. been renamed? That would complicate it even more.
Click to expand...
There is indeed no tower anymore at 2211 S. Throop, just south of Cermak Rd. The street has not been renamed.
 
The TL address might have referred to Cermak Rd. on a History Card. Do you see a bunch of wires that look like a torn up ground system/counterpoise wires in the satellite image? I suspect that the ladder had something to do with it also. This would fall into the category of transmitter site Archeology, which is also fascinating.
 
In the early days of radio, they used much lower Medium Wave frequencies for public services and dispatch. That might explain the tower and the torn up counterpoise on the roof. The Police Band went from 1610 to 1720 kHz as I recall. A half wave tower near the middle of the band would be 300 feet. If the building is 198 feet, and the tower 150 feet, that would be a quarter wave. An industrial building might have 14 feet between floors, and that would be 14 floors for ~196 feet. The Emporis Skyscraper site might have information. They often estimate heights with the number of floors and estimates of the distance between floors, and sometimes have the height of the top of the antenna tower on top of a building. It takes some getting used to the heights on that site. If they have a picture, it's easier to figure out what they are referring to.
 
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Now called the Pilsen Industrial Center. Tower height is not shown. If it was registered with the FAA, you might be able to find it on ASRN if you convert the address to coordinates. It might be in the archives of older towers that are no longer there.


Some buildings specify a "spire" height. But you have to look at all the other heights to accurately find the tower height. In this case, it's on top of what appears to be the physical plant (elevators, electrical, HVAC, etc.) above the rest of the building. Sometimes it's to the top of the building proper that a tower is situated.
 
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