• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Trying to recall - BNS Tower Fatalities

N

Nu_Roo_2

I recall that some years ago there were some fatalites when some kind of craft hit the Twin Rivers tower.  But I can't remember any details beyond that.  Any help filling in the details would be appreciated.
 
I used to live in Ohio at the time. I believe a hot air balloon became entangled and popped. All aboard the hot air balloon were killed and an engineer on the ground was also killed.
 
The regular BNS tower is easy to spot. However those new HD towers they are harder to see and have guide wires all over the place which are even harder to see. I'm sure those are just accidents waiting to happen. :eek:
 
I had no idea that ever happened. Of course I was 16 at the time so watching the news was never an option for me. Sad to hear though.

I currently live in Canal Winchester and I see Hot Air Balloons quite often flying around this side of town. I believe they take off and land somewhere around here. Maybe Rickenbacker?
 
i remember it well. right in morning drive. the only fatalities were the four people in the gondola. commuters actually got to watch it happen from the comfort of their cars. as i recall the pilot got the blame for not gaining altitude quickly enough and not accounting for the winds. of course he never had the opportunity to tell his side of what happened
 
I knew the Chief Engineer and the Transmitter Engineer at the time and visited the facility some time after this event. I recall they had their antenna on the ground and it was pretty much torn up...more so than I would have thought from the balloon, but it could be that the repair crew just dropped it.

They were fortunate to have a backup transmitter and tower and were on the air while repairs were being made to the primary units. That tower also has many FM stations' shared antennae but I don't recall if they were damaged.

I recall seeing the two towers from Riverside Drive when I first moved to Col. and for a while I thought they were the goal posts at the OSU stadium. Silly me!

Neil
 
There was no damage to the FM antenna, but the FM stations on the master antenna did have to shut down and use their aux. sites during the times there were people on the tower performing the repairs. WXMX (98.9) was allowed to stay on at low power since their antenna was not part of the master at that time and was located much farther down the tower. They used just the output of an exciter plugged into their 3 bay antenna, which gave decent coverage inside I 270, but that was about it.
 
I remember this incident very well. I was at the tower site the night before it happened with a tower crew doing some work on the tower for a client. The guy from the tower crew knew one of the pilots for CPD and the pilot saw someone on the tower and came near. The tower man recognized his buddy at the controls. The pilot smiled and waved then flew away. The accident took place the next morning and I never saw that tower the same after.

WXMX was allowed to stay on the air at full power only because there were located further down. The station had a regular transmitter putting out (Don't quote me on this) around 3KW. It was also hooked into the community diplexer at that time. The station did have to lower it's power to half or less in order for the tower crew to work on the tower after the accident.




CatFM said:
There was no damage to the FM antenna, but the FM stations on the master antenna did have to shut down and use their aux. sites during the times there were people on the tower performing the repairs. WXMX (98.9) was allowed to stay on at low power since their antenna was not part of the master at that time and was located much farther down the tower. They used just the output of an exciter plugged into their 3 bay antenna, which gave decent coverage inside I 270, but that was about it.
Click to expand...
 
RF Man said:
WXMX was allowed to stay on the air at full power only because there were located further down. The station had a regular transmitter putting out (Don't quote me on this) around 3KW. It was also hooked into the community diplexer at that time. The station did have to lower it's power to half or less in order for the tower crew to work on the tower after the accident.
Click to expand...

If I remember right, 98.9 was around 800 watts until 1997 when Jacor lowered it even more to bump it up to its current 2600 watts at 581 feet.
 
xiradiodotcom said:
RF Man said:
WXMX was allowed to stay on the air at full power only because there were located further down. The station had a regular transmitter putting out (Don't quote me on this) around 3KW. It was also hooked into the community diplexer at that time. The station did have to lower it's power to half or less in order for the tower crew to work on the tower after the accident.
Click to expand...

If I remember right, 98.9 was around 800 watts until 1997 when Jacor lowered it even more to bump it up to its current 2600 watts at 581 feet.
Click to expand...

in the records i found, 98.9 started out in 1990 at 3000w at 121m above ground, then in late 1993 moved to the top of the tower (255m) with 580w, it was 2 years later in 96 that they dropped back down to 177m with the current 2600w
 
Wow...Jacor ownership of 98.9 completely slipped my mind.

I worked there when it was The Mix 98.9, owned by Mary and Mike Mahaffey, then I worked there when it was The River-Country 98.9 owned by Tri-Cities Radio (Alan Gray) then I went back when it was Jammin Oldies under Radio one and stayed for a couple of years or so when it became the current R&B/Classic Soul.

Lots-o-history with the frequency (I guess that explains my screen name!). Kinda feel strange forgetting one of it's stages of life!
 
RF Man said:
WXMX was allowed to stay on the air at full power only because there were located further down. The station had a regular transmitter putting out (Don't quote me on this) around 3KW. It was also hooked into the community diplexer at that time. The station did have to lower it's power to half or less in order for the tower crew to work on the tower after the accident.
Click to expand...

The only stations on the diplexer are the ones on the master antenna near the top of the tower just below the TV masts. WXMX later moved to that antenna with much lower power as noted, but they started out (and were still at the time of this incident) as a completely independent operation with a 3 bay antenna much lower on the tower. Even at that lower site, the station had to reduce power when climbers were on the tower. A borrowed McMartin exciter was brought in for that purpose since there was no aux. xmtr. and the regular xmtr. couldn't be stepped down low enough.
 
Now that I think about it, that was a Wilkinson exciter if I remember correctly. We had a Wilkinson xmtr. at an FM station I worked for and it was a piece of junk, but that could have been partially due to its age. As for appearance, it looked like a piece of military surplus gear. We had a lot of trouble keeping it on the air and we didn't have an aux. to back it up. Those were the days...
 
Now that I think about it more I believe it was connected to it's own antenna and not the combiner. It's regular operation was through a Harris transmitter. This was during the Mary Mc Haffey period when the station was known as "The Mix 98.9" and the studios were right off of Dublin Rd.

[/quote]

The only stations on the diplexer are the ones on the master antenna near the top of the tower just below the TV masts. WXMX later moved to that antenna with much lower power as noted, but they started out (and were still at the time of this incident) as a completely independent operation with a 3 bay antenna much lower on the tower. Even at that lower site, the station had to reduce power when climbers were on the tower. A borrowed McMartin exciter was brought in for that purpose since there was no aux. xmtr. and the regular xmtr. couldn't be stepped down low enough.
[/quote]
 
I know this is off topic but if I remember right.. Mix 98.9's studios where off Watermark drive (which is off dublin rd) when they started back in the day.
 
xmusicmatt said:
I know this is off topic but if I remember right.. Mix 98.9's studios where off Watermark drive (which is off dublin rd) when they started back in the day.
Click to expand...
1650 Watermark, 2nd floor. we had a small gym and sauna on the first floor! Those were the days!!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom