• 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

Dude, where's my antenna?

This AM station was silent for years, yet kept running the W268BM translator. The tower being stolen is a coverup to try to save the license of the translator. The reason this came out now is because someone drove through Alabama recently ;)

I wonder why the Houston translators didn’t come up with this excuse
 
nd2023 said:
This AM station was silent for years, yet kept running the W268BM translator. The tower being stolen is a coverup to try to save the license of the translator. The reason this came out now is because someone drove through Alabama recently ;)

I wonder why the Houston translators didn’t come up with this excuse
Click to expand...
I think you are wrong. How would doing $100,000 worth of damage to your own business save your license? Instead it puts your license at risk. because now it's $100,000 to get back on. There was no insurance and the translator had to sign off with the AM gone.

The AM transmitter could have been fixed for way less than one hundred grand.

An AM station in a small Alabama town is only worth about $100,000 with a translator. Many broadcasters would just turn in the licenses after this happened.

I suspect this was a hit job by someone connected to radio who is a real whack job.
 
Last edited:
DavidEduardo said:
I don't think any translators are so equipped.
Click to expand...
The translator, no. But operators who care about compliance will have failsafes set up. I have a customer who feeds a translator off a HD2 and we set up a silence sensor to kill the carrier of the translator via remote control if the HD2 drops off.

But you have to care and be willing to spend a little money to set things like that up. :)

There’s a lot that’s just weird about this story, though. I would be more inclined to believe someone vandalized the station if the tower was in a crinkled heap because someone snapped a guy wire. It’s having the tower hauled away that makes it a little fishy.
 
johndavis said:
The translator, no. But operators who care about compliance will have failsafes set up. I have a customer who feeds a translator off a HD2 and we set up a silence sensor to kill the carrier of the translator via remote control if the HD2 drops off.

But you have to care and be willing to spend a little money to set things like that up. :)

There’s a lot that’s just weird about this story, though. I would be more inclined to believe someone vandalized the station if the tower was in a crinkled heap because someone snapped a guy wire. It’s having the tower hauled away that makes it a little fishy.
Click to expand...
This is the second AM in Walker County Alabama to have it's tower stolen. The other station never came back.

Cut a guy wire. After it falls, take a welders torch and cut it up. Load it on a flatbed truck. Now take bolt cutters and break into the shack and steal the gear. With 4 guys you are out of there in an hour.

I've had to take down a few towers that were mine when I upgraded to taller towers at a new site.
 
Last edited:
Flying Dutchman said:
I think you are wrong. How would doing $100,000 worth of damage to your own business save your license? Instead it puts your license at risk. because now it's $100,000 to get back on. There was no insurance and the translator had to sign off with the AM gone.
Click to expand...
A conforming tower around 200' and a 1 kw AM transmitter and the necessary repairs to A/C, power and STL gear are not going to be $100 k. The ground is still there, the tower anchors still there and the gutted structure are there.
 
Back
Top Bottom