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WTBS Tower coming down?

B

bnaivar

I saw a tower crew working at the top of the old WTBS tower this afternoon. I wonder if it's finally coming down?
 
I can see the tower out my office window. At 4:22 p.m. looks like there's somebody dangling about halfway up it. Actually moving down. But right now it's still there!
Peter Wallace
Day1.org
 
They have been talking the past couple of years they were gonna take it down. The skyline isn't going to be the same. That's prime real estate, I don't know why they'd want to take it down, but oh well.
 
From what I heard: there was a tower light failure, and they were replacing something (probably a bulb.)
How expensive are those bulbs, just out of being curious...
 
notalkallstatic said:
From what I heard: there was a tower light failure, and they were replacing something (probably a bulb.)
How expensive are those bulbs, just out of being curious...
Click to expand...

A 600 watt beacon bulb is $125 and a 60 watt side light is $32.
 
Sad to say it's coming down. It's an Atlanta skyline trademark. I started working at ch. 17 in 1976 and parked my green v/w beatle under that tower for many years before we moved to Techwood. How ironic it's coming down and my friend Bill Tullis passed. I have nothing but happy memories of my 13 years with Turner.
 
Do you have to inform the FAA when you take a tower down? I know when you go strobe sometimes you do not have to paint the towers red a white. I am guess guessing you have to have the “temporary” approved light as you take it down like when you put it if it requires lighting. Atlanta’s airspace is very controlled so VFR is not an issue like rural areas. I doubt if any general aviation gets close to downtown except helicopters. A lot of pilots do “check” with landmarks. On the approach to Washington’s Regan National there use to be a set of smokes stacks that almost always seen out of the window on appoach. One time the smoke stacks were not where they usually are and we ended up going around.
 
As I drove down 14th Street today, I looked up and they are working on taking it down. The old Ch 17 antenna is gone, and so is the old WARM-WNNX antenna. Maybe even a section or two of tower are gone.

Get your pictures while it lasts.
 
secondchoice said:
Do you have to inform the FAA when you take a tower down? I know when you go strobe sometimes you do not have to paint the towers red a white. I am guess guessing you have to have the “temporary” approved light as you take it down like when you put it if it requires lighting. Atlanta’s airspace is very controlled so VFR is not an issue like rural areas. I doubt if any general aviation gets close to downtown except helicopters. A lot of pilots do “check” with landmarks. On the approach to Washington’s Regan National there use to be a set of smokes stacks that almost always seen out of the window on appoach. One time the smoke stacks were not where they usually are and we ended up going around.
Click to expand...

Yep, you have to notify it as dismantled so they can update sectional charts. And yes, Class C airspace extends to about a 35 mile radius of Hartsfield, you can fly VFR, but you must be in contact with Atlanta tower and within about a 30 mile radius you much have a Mode C transponder on your aircraft. When general aircraft must fly through Atlanta's airspace, they route it right over the Hartsfield runways to keep it out of the way of approach and departing aircraft. TBS's old tower is more of a land mark for folks on the ground verses folks in the air. Still sad to see it go.
 
BRENT said:
I think it will make the skyline look better. IMO
Click to expand...

I agree. I'd rather see a high rise building there than a radio tower.
 
When the tower went up, Eathel Holley installed a new antenna and higher power transmitter at the channel 17 tower for his station WLTA-FM, which is now WNNX. Didn't he have his radio studios there? At the time, WLTA was easy listening and they played Seth-Thomas clock chimes on the hour and half hour. I once heard someone refer to the station as "Seth."
 
DuckBlue said:
When the tower went up, Eathel Holley installed a new antenna and higher power transmitter at the channel 17 tower for his station WLTA-FM, which is now WNNX. Didn't he have his radio studios there? At the time, WLTA was easy listening and they played Seth-Thomas clock chimes on the hour and half hour. I once heard someone refer to the station as "Seth."
Click to expand...

How would this affect Q100? Scroll down for the answer:























WLTA-FM was 99.7, the "old" WNNX and the current WWWQ (slight correction)
 
DuckBlue said:
When the tower went up, Eathel Holley installed a new antenna and higher power transmitter at the channel 17 tower for his station WLTA-FM, which is now WNNX. Didn't he have his radio studios there? At the time, WLTA was easy listening and they played Seth-Thomas clock chimes on the hour and half hour. I once heard someone refer to the station as "Seth."
Click to expand...

Here is some "clock" history in Georgia radio.

What is now 590 WDWD(AM) in Atlanta was earlier WPLO and before those calls was WAGA. It operated on 1450 then 1480 (1941) in Atlanta before moving to 590 in the 1940s. Prior to Atlanta, it was in Athens using the call sign WTFI. Originally WTFI went on the air in Toccoa at Toccoa Falls Institute (now Toccoa Falls College) as a 500 watt full time station on 1450. The year was 1927. Bulova Watch Company bought the station when it was operating in Athens and moved it to Atlanta then sold it to Storer Broadcasting that placed WAGA TV on the air. WAGA-FM is now WVEE.
 
artsutton said:
DuckBlue said:
When the tower went up, Eathel Holley installed a new antenna and higher power transmitter at the channel 17 tower for his station WLTA-FM, which is now WNNX. Didn't he have his radio studios there? At the time, WLTA was easy listening and they played Seth-Thomas clock chimes on the hour and half hour. I once heard someone refer to the station as "Seth."
Click to expand...

Here is some "clock" history in Georgia radio.

What is now 590 WDWD(AM) in Atlanta was earlier WPLO and before those calls was WAGA. It operated on 1450 then 1480 (1941) in Atlanta before moving to 590 in the 1940s. Prior to Atlanta, it was in Athens using the call sign WTFI. Originally WTFI went on the air in Toccoa at Toccoa Falls Institute (now Toccoa Falls College) as a 500 watt full time station on 1450. The year was 1927. Bulova Watch Company bought the station when it was operating in Athens and moved it to Atlanta then sold it to Storer Broadcasting that placed WAGA TV on the air. WAGA-FM is now WVEE.
Click to expand...
I remember that 103.3 was WPLO-FM (first freeform AOR and then country, possibly a simul of the AM side) before flipping to disco and then urban as WVEE.

590 and 103.3 were sisters, both owned by the PLOugh drug company (now part of Schering-Plough). Not sure when Plough got out of the picture, or when 590 and 103.3 parted ways (with 590 to ABC/Disney and 103.3 to Infinity/CBS).
 
590 and 103.3 were sisters, both owned by the PLOugh drug company (now part of Schering-Plough). Not sure when Plough got out of the picture, or when 590 and 103.3 parted ways (with 590 to ABC/Disney and 103.3 to Infinity/CBS).
Click to expand...

Jabba, 103.3 had a couple of owners between Schering-Plough and Infinity--DKG and Summit.
 
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