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WMVP AM 1000 Transmitter

Koolmotor said:
I was in the Chicago western suburbs in early November and took some last images of the old WMVP-1000 site in Downers Grove. I was back in the area one day last week (Feb. 13) and was surprised to see the towers still standing. I took some more images of the WCFL building on a bright, cold winter day. When WBBM moved from their longtime transmitter site in 2019, the towers were knocked down within days of the change.
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Drove by the ex-WMVP transmitter site last week. The towers and the building (with the WCFL call letters) are still standing. However I did noticed many JULIE underground utility marking flags on the property, which means that very soon there will be a lot of digging going on. Here is a pic I took.
20250414_154931.jpg
 
CADXER said:
Drove by the ex-WMVP transmitter site last week. The towers and the building (with the WCFL call letters) are still standing. However I did noticed many JULIE underground utility marking flags on the property, which means that very soon there will be a lot of digging going on. Here is a pic I took.
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Since the towers are in a residential area, I assume they will be disassembled in sections by a tower deconstruction crew similar to the way they went up. Cutting or setting charges on the guys would be too risky with houses close by. As a result, it won't be a quick demolition like the WBBM AM site was.
 
JoeU said:
Since the towers are in a residential area, I assume they will be disassembled in sections by a tower deconstruction crew similar to the way they went up. Cutting or setting charges on the guys would be too risky with houses close by. As a result, it won't be a quick demolition like the WBBM AM site was.
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Towers can be successfully felled without disassembly by using strategic cutting of guy wires so the tower collapses rather than falling. In any case, from my recollection of seeing the site multiple times, even if the towers fell straight over, they would land within the property. Remember that the length of the ground system wires is generally the same as the antenna height, so that means that the property will accommodate either a fall or a collapse.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Towers can be successfully felled without disassembly by using strategic cutting of guy wires so the tower collapses rather than falling.
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I think the concern might be how much ground shaking might occur with adjacent houses, sort of a small earthquake. Anyone been standing nearby when a tower is deliberately collapsed?

There was one old 1500’ TV tower here in Houston that was disassembled rather then collapsed as there were various pipelines in the area, IIRC.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I think the concern might be how much ground shaking might occur with adjacent houses, sort of a small earthquake. Anyone been standing nearby when a tower is deliberately collapsed?
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Yes. There is a little "thump´" like tossing a big trash bag on the ground. If towers are made to collapse, they buckle and fall with pieces on top of each other at the base area. No big thump at all.
Mediafrog+ said:
There was one old 1500’ TV tower here in Houston that was disassembled rather then collapsed as there were various pipelines in the area, IIRC.
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Same goes if there is a valuable building on the site. A lot of urban area AMs have everything from office parks to warehouses to shopping centers surrounding them (KTAR is one of the shopping center ones, KTNQ is in a warehouse development).
 
Definitely just a mild thump. When WXXI in Rochester took down its four AM 1370 towers a few years ago, I didn't feel any shaking standing right outside the fall zone. There are townhouses and apartments and a school in close proximity and they were not affected at all.
 
fybush said:
Definitely just a mild thump. When WXXI in Rochester took down its four AM 1370 towers a few years ago, I didn't feel any shaking standing right outside the fall zone. There are townhouses and apartments and a school in close proximity and they were not affected at all.
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Even if you look at tower "decommissioning" online, there is nothing like watching one fall on the scene. The most amazing thing is that they fall or collapse much more slowly than Hollywood disaster movies would make you think.
 
Does the license to cover from the Joliet site need to be officially “Granted” by the FCC before the Downers Grove site demolition can occur? The Joliet site is currently a Construction Permit site. Official “License to Cover” site is still Downers Grove”.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Even if you look at tower "decommissioning" online, there is nothing like watching one fall on the scene. The most amazing thing is that they fall or collapse much more slowly than Hollywood disaster movies would make you think.
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In 1967, my family moved to Centerville, Iowa, in a house that was across the street from the original KCOG transmitting tower. This was a self-supporting tower that had been replaced by a new tower elsewhere in town, still in use. The next year, the tower was taken down. The crew that did that had problems. For one, the tower almost hit our house. For another, the crew inadvertently started a grass fire.

An exciting day, to say the least.

The tower was supposed to be reassembled near Decorah (way the other side of the state) as a tourist attraction but I’m not sure that ever actually happened.
 
The original self supporting towers were cut down section by section with a torch and lowered to the ground with a crane back in 2006.
 
Demolition of the legacy WMVP a.k.a WCFL Downers Grove transmitter site has begun. The original transmitter building is now rubble. Main transmitter building is probably next. Neighbor states that 35 houses between 1.2 and 1.5 million dollars will be going up on the site. IMG_0411.jpegIMG_0412.jpeg
 
JJSPC said:
Interesting since the license to cover for the new site is still listed as pending.
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Unless there are specific conditions attached to a construction permit, a licensee can generally begin operating under its CP facilities once a license to cover application is filed. You don't have to wait for it to be granted.
 
The main transmitter building still standing as of last night.

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Main transmitter building 90% demolished as of 5/28/2025. If the call letters are going to be saved, some one needs to do it quickly.
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Demolition of the main building is underway. Someone posted under these pictures on Facebook that he was able to retrieve the "WCFL" letters off the front wall. He says he plans to put them on Facebook Marketplace.

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Crazy question but I would assume the towers are still lit at night until they come down even though the buildings have been destroyed already.
 


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