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Vandals take down KRKO's Towers

These are not vandals. They are, as you stated, terrorists. And they should be locked up until their 20 cent an hour prison pay takes care of the economic hardship their actions have caused. There are ways to express a political view. This is not one of them.
 
I wouldn't be too quick to buy into the eco-terrorists and ELF postings. There are locals there who just don't want the towers and some of them may be acting out. This makes the corporate pigs web site they put up about the Skotdals small time harrasment now. It's too bad that this happened but maybe Andy will be able to localize the station more and gain support from the surrounding community. Now's the time to bring back in local news, more live and local programs and show people that KRKO isn't corporate. Even with the increased power they never showed up on the PPM so go the other way and be really live and local and visible in the North End. Make people aware of you so they will feel outrage when something like this happens.
 
Yikes! Some people don't want to see the towers go up...so they rent a bulldozer and knock them down. Shouldn't be overly difficult to figure out who did the deed. Bet someone is going to do some serious jail time...you've got the vandalism, but you have the FCC to deal with and I personally wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of Andy's wrath....Andy's a great guy and has spent a ton of money to get KRKO and the soon to be 1520AM up and rolling right...only to have some boneheads pull a stunt like this. I'm sure KRKO is well insured and the insurance company will definitely go after the folks that did this mis-deed.

Again--you can express your political and non-political views, but there is a time and place and way to do it, and this AIN'T it!!
 
Absurd. Totally absurd. But you can bet IF those who did this are caught they'll probably work out a plea deal with prosecutors and end up getting off with no jail time and MAYBE a fine.

Meanwhile KRKO eats the cost of repairing the towers and has to chalk it up to "the cost of doing business".
 
The encouraging thing is that this becomes instantly a FEDERAL crime ... my understanding is anyone who interferes with any EAS retransmission is in violation of a Federal statute. Means investigating team will be higher level than just Sno County Sheriff, and they have some great resources at their disposal for forensics.

My view is the fight is over ... whoever did this gets one way ticket to federal prison and towers go back up. No more appeals or being heard because this act blew that. If there was ANY sanity on the part of neighbors, that sanity will no longer have a chance of being heard. Then again, people who do this stuff don't think with all cylinders in the first place.

I watch enough TRU-TV investigative shows and am boiling mad enough that I'll go out there today with my magnifying glass and volunteer to help the investigation! Am SOOOOO sorry, Andy. This is off-the-charts stupid.

(Ironically I have to wonder how much national talk radio is responsible for getting people to react this way....the line between antagonism and call-to-action has become SO blurred in the name of entertainment and ratings that many people think this is how they are supposed to act).


I lived in HOU when the locals were bombing Pacifica transmitter off the air (twice) as a means of "expression" against the Liberal content. Turns out to be a faction of KKK (big shock, eh) and they are doing time STILL from a 1970 crime. Hope these guys like prison food.
 
That's okay, they can just go get a new antenna from RadioShack - oh wait, nevermind.
 
From the pictures on KIRO-TV's website (http://www.kirotv.com/slideshow/news/20724883/detail.html) looks like they chopped away at the metal base. Those vandals were lucky the tower didn't fall on them, although I think it should have just for their stupidity!

Looks like the tower where the excavator was left at, fell cleanly. Is it possible for them to salvage some of the tower structure (the side that's top facing now) that isn't bent up, to help build a new one (to save some money)? Or is it pretty much welded all together as opposed to being all connected by bolts?

Looks like some sort of cement barrier should be errected, to prevent this from happening in the future.
 
LITTLEBOYBLUE said:
(Ironically I have to wonder how much national talk radio is responsible for getting people to react this way....the line between antagonism and call-to-action has become SO blurred in the name of entertainment and ratings that many people think this is how they are supposed to act).
Click to expand...

Really? That's quite the leap. Who would incite that sort of reaction? Who has? I think you're off base with that assertion.

So sorry Andy. This is so disturbing and beyond unnecessary.
 
swhyde1980 said:
Looks like the tower where the excavator was left at, fell cleanly. Is it possible for them to salvage some of the tower structure (the side that's top facing now) that isn't bent up, to help build a new one (to save some money)? Or is it pretty much welded all together as opposed to being all connected by bolts?

Looks like some sort of cement barrier should be errected, to prevent this from happening in the future.
Click to expand...

No the tower(s) are a total loss. Once the steel is stressed and then hitting the ground like that, not even a single nut or bolt can be reused.

Based on the helicopter photos that were sent to me, it appears that the excavator that was used to do the damage may have been parked on the site next to some other heavy equipment inside the transmitter building chainlink fence. The photo showed the fence toppled away from the building by something heavy with tracks.
 
Cumeanary said:
LITTLEBOYBLUE said:
(Ironically I have to wonder how much national talk radio is responsible for getting people to react this way....the line between antagonism and call-to-action has become SO blurred in the name of entertainment and ratings that many people think this is how they are supposed to act).
Click to expand...

Really? That's quite the leap. Who would incite that sort of reaction? Who has? I think you're off base with that assertion.
Click to expand...

More pondering than an assertion; and certainly wasn't implying that anyone had given THIS group instructions to go be idiots. My point is that talk/politics have become so competitive that inciting people to stunt for media is a way to ramp things up and provide entertainment at the same time. Town Hall Interruptions (vs. discussing opposing points of view) illustrate the point. A LONG time ago we decided it's OK that entertainment and ratings far exceed any ethical guidelines we could impose on ourselves as responsible journalists. As we continue to push that bar, I don't think we should be surprised when people think it's OK to push their bar in how they think expressing themselves is OK. I think we could be better leaders and role models, but that makes for boring shows. Am I correct in my original assertion? Probably not. Is there room for us to do beter ... I think so. Will it happen in my lifetime? No way.
 
Me thinks the term "TERRORISM" is more appropriate than "VANDALISM". The FBI doesn't get involved in "VANDALISM". To me, that's more like graffiti or something. Just my 2-cents.
 
OPEN LETTER TO THE ELF.........

To Whom Is Responsible For The KRKO Tower Destruction,

What was the intended message? Were you just out to get free press coverage to your "cause"?

First, you HAD to go and rent a digger with an INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE. What? Like you can't be bothered to fork over a few extra bucks to rent out the clean and green solar/hemp powered electric ones out there? And you're pissed off because you heard these towers were spoiling somebody's view while at the same time, you're spewing enough CO2 into the atmosphere to melt off the Alaskan tundra. And do you know how much ozone you've just collapsed with that SPRAY PAINT you used? Did you even CHECK to see the CFC levels and lead inside them?

I'll bet you didn't even sprinkle salt and do the Sacred Earth dance around the towers, holding bundles of burning sage before knocking them down, did you?

So come clean, this really isn't about "saving the earth" is it? It's about making up a phony reason for just wanting to f--k things up for the hell of it. Because if you really cared about the environment as much as the name Earth First implies, you would have found less environmentally destructive ways of doing it.....
 
If the perpetrators are caught, they will do some serious jail time. And, more than likely, the destroyed property was insured. BUT, that unfortunately doesn't mean that the perps won't wind up having the last laugh. The insurance premiums on the site are bound to go WAY up--so much that it could become impossible for Andy to make a profit from the stations. Think about that! It could mean the end of KRKO and it could mean the end of 1520 before it even got built.
 
Hang on here. Just because we all love this business, let's not whore out the "terrorism" term. Over the past eight years, that word has been used way too fast and loose. Yes, this is a crime that should be prosecuted by the Feds, and I hope the guilty get put away for a long time, but let's not get carried away.
 
I feel bad for Andy.

I got a chance to meet him, and tour his operation, along with Scott Fybush on the appropriate "Big Trip" covering the Pacific Northwest. 2007, I think.

By that point, he'd already been fighting the good, legal fight to get his upgrade to KRKO. 1520 wasn't in the picture at that point, I believe.

There, I said it again, "good, legal fight". He won all his points, all appeals were exhausted, and he finally got approval for the upgrade...and then, this.

I really hope it's a federal case here, due to the status of KRKO and the new facility as federally-licensed operations. I hope they throw the book at the cowards who short circuited the process just to "win".
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
I feel bad for Andy.

I got a chance to meet him, and tour his operation, along with Scott Fybush on the appropriate "Big Trip" covering the Pacific Northwest. 2006, I think.

By that point, he'd already been fighting the good, legal fight to get his upgrade to KRKO. 1520 wasn't in the picture at that point, I believe.

There, I said it again, "good, legal fight". He won all his points, all appeals were exhausted, and he finally got approval for the upgrade...and then, this.

I really hope it's a federal case here, due to the status of KRKO and the new facility as federally-licensed operations. I hope they throw the book at the cowards who short circuited the process just to "win".
Click to expand...
 
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