Transmitter Fire Knocks Two Virginia Stations Off Air.
Eastern Shore Radio “Coastal Country” WESR-AM and adult contemporary “The Shore” WESR-FM Onley-Onancock, VA were taken off air today (April 7) when a fire destroyed the stations’ transmitter house. “We’ve
A reported fire took place at their transmitter around 2:20 am.
The blaze, which was reported by a neighbor, brought fire units from seven nearby communities to the scene and resulted in the loss of the station’s main and auxiliary transmitters.
“We actually just got finished putting a new tower up, and luckily it’s fine, thankfully there’s no damage there,” General Manager Will Russell tells Inside Radio. “We’ve actually already secured a replacement building that we’re going to bring on site, and then I’m hopeful we can be back on, on some sort of backup temporary status, within a week’s time.”
Streaming of both stations was restored nearly 12 hours after the fire, Russell says. “We have a meeting tomorrow with an engineer [who’ll] take a look at what needs to be replaced and what can be saved.”
As to what caused the blaze, Russell says, “I don’t know that we’ll ever find out. I’m hopeful we can, as we go to replace and do all to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but I don’t think we’ll really ever have any closure on that.”