• 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

Urban transmitter locations

S

Stanislav

The tallest TV towers are usually located in rural areas, or at least relatively distant from urban sprawl (and on a large enough plot of land to maintain a safe separation from any nearby buildings and roads). But some relatively tall sticks, past and present, have been located right smack in the middle of everything, either by design (in earlier times) or through evolution, with sprawl spreading to surround what was once a pretty remote site. What are some examples, past and present? I'm thinking of the sort of case where they would probably never approve the site if someone were wanting to build a tower there today.

One that comes to mind is the former location of WJXT's tower in Jacksonville. Anyone driving on I-95 has seen it -- just south of downtown Jax, looking uncomfortably close to the highway. It's not a super-tall stick (I think it's only 500' or 600' or thereabouts), and I'm not sure how distant it is from anything it could harm in a collapse, but it sure looks pretty damn close. I haven't been up there in quite a few years, but I believe it is still there, and was still available for a long time as an emergency/auxiliary site after they moved to the antenna farm off Hogan Rd. I can't imagine anyone getting approval today to put up a tower like that so close to "civilization."

Others?
 
I can think of two RADIO stations ( both AM ) whose towers are, we could say " a bit close too close for comfort".

*WFIR-AM 960 ( the old WDBJ radio ) in Roanoke, VA..their tower I believe is in the parking lot of a local very popular shopping center. It has been that way for YEARS. I have been told its the same case with Baltimore's WWIN-AM 1400 but I am not sure about them.

*WEPM-AM 1340 in Martinsburg, West Virginia...for years the tower was located in a rather rural area. Dating back to 1946 when the station
signed on the air. However within the last 20 years a number of houses were built within FEET of that tower and on top of that the town of Martinsburg decided to build a new street within INCHES of one of WEPM's guy wires. Of course there is a bar down the street from there ( the town has a TON of those ) and after an incident late one night where a drunk came VERY close to crashing in to the tower, both WEPM and Martinsburg decided to put up a concrete barrier between the street and WEPM's tower.

for TV...
*WAZT in Woodstock, Virginia..their tower ( for channel 10 ) I believe stands in the center of downtown Woodstock. I believe it is right behind a movie theatre.
 
Stanislav said:
The tallest TV towers are usually located in rural areas, or at least relatively distant from urban sprawl (and on a large enough plot of land to maintain a safe separation from any nearby buildings and roads). But some relatively tall sticks, past and present, have been located right smack in the middle of everything, either by design (in earlier times) or through evolution, with sprawl spreading to surround what was once a pretty remote site. What are some examples, past and present? I'm thinking of the sort of case where they would probably never approve the site if someone were wanting to build a tower there today.

One that comes to mind is the former location of WJXT's tower in Jacksonville. Anyone driving on I-95 has seen it -- just south of downtown Jax, looking uncomfortably close to the highway. It's not a super-tall stick (I think it's only 500' or 600' or thereabouts), and I'm not sure how distant it is from anything it could harm in a collapse, but it sure looks pretty damn close. I haven't been up there in quite a few years, but I believe it is still there, and was still available for a long time as an emergency/auxiliary site after they moved to the antenna farm off Hogan Rd. I can't imagine anyone getting approval today to put up a tower like that so close to "civilization."

Others?
Click to expand...

I take it you're talking about standalone towers, as opposed to those on mountains (Mt. Wilson in LA or South Mountain in Phoenix, for example) or skyscrapers (Empire State Bldg. in New York, or Sears Willis Tower and John Hancock Center in Chicago)?

All of those I mentioned are within urban areas.
 
KeithE4 said:
Stanislav said:
The tallest TV towers are usually located in rural areas, or at least relatively distant from urban sprawl (and on a large enough plot of land to maintain a safe separation from any nearby buildings and roads). But some relatively tall sticks, past and present, have been located right smack in the middle of everything, either by design (in earlier times) or through evolution, with sprawl spreading to surround what was once a pretty remote site. What are some examples, past and present? I'm thinking of the sort of case where they would probably never approve the site if someone were wanting to build a tower there today.

One that comes to mind is the former location of WJXT's tower in Jacksonville. Anyone driving on I-95 has seen it -- just south of downtown Jax, looking uncomfortably close to the highway. It's not a super-tall stick (I think it's only 500' or 600' or thereabouts), and I'm not sure how distant it is from anything it could harm in a collapse, but it sure looks pretty damn close. I haven't been up there in quite a few years, but I believe it is still there, and was still available for a long time as an emergency/auxiliary site after they moved to the antenna farm off Hogan Rd. I can't imagine anyone getting approval today to put up a tower like that so close to "civilization."

Others?
Click to expand...

I take it you're talking about standalone towers, as opposed to those on mountains (Mt. Wilson in LA or South Mountain in Phoenix, for example) or skyscrapers (Empire State Bldg. in New York, or Sears Willis Tower and John Hancock Center in Chicago)?
Click to expand...

Exactly -- tall, standalone towers. Not short masts that happen to be on tall buildings.
 
There are plenty of tall towers right in dense urban areas, once you start looking for them.

The old WTBS tower in Atlanta comes to mind - a 1000+ foot self-supporter right on West Peachtree Street just north of downtown. WITI and WTMJ in Milwaukee are in fairly dense urban areas west of downtown. (WITI is another giant self-supporter.)

There are even guyed towers in dense urban areas - WFMJ-TV in Youngstown is in an area that's so built-up, they actually built a freeway (I-680) under one of the guy wires!

More? WBNS-TV in Columbus, the original tower sites of the Omaha TV stations (all of which are still standing, two of them - KETV and WOWT - next to the studio locations), Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, Mount Sutro in San Francisco, KCTV in Kansas City, TV Hill in Baltimore, the towers up and down Wisconsin Ave. in DC, and the list goes on...
 
In the St. Louis area:

KTVI 2 Sappington, MO 1105' tower tower site Actually there are two guyed towers. The facility to the south of the towers is a high school.

KMOV 4 Lemay, MO 1125' tower tower site

KSDK 5 Shrewsbury, MO 1115' tower tower site

KETC 9 south St. Louis Co. 1162' tower tower site

KPLR 11 Shrewsbury, MO 945' but the tower may be taller as it is also used by many FM stations. KPLR moved its digital antenna here from the KMOV tower. tower site The tower is in a cemetary.

KDNL 30 Shrewsbury, MO 1152' tower site The worst affiliate on the ABC network. If the tower weren't in an urban setting, no one would notice if it fell down.

KSDK, KPLR and KDNL are almost on a north south line
 
What about WTVR's transmitter on W. Broad Street in Richmond, VA? Big, tall stick (804') right in the middle of a high-density commercial and residential area. IIRC, channel 6 and 50 kw WTVR-FM are up there...if not others.

That tower has been there for at least 35 years (that I recall) and probably a whole lot longer. To make matters more interesting, it's a beautiful free-standing tower; no guy wires.
 
most of the Pittsburgh sticks are actually right in towards the center of town.
WPXI-TV 11 has a huge guyed tower on the hill hovering right above Heinz Field. WPGH-TV 53 and KDKA-TV2 are just a mile or so north of that. WQED/WQEX are on a freestanding tower with a fork mast, right in the heart of the Oakland university area, 3mi. from downtown. Several large radio towers are scattered around WPXI, as well as just across the river.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom