Two Choctaw County, OK residents who toppled a 500-foot broadcast tower in Hugo, OK in a brazen copper theft scheme last year have pleaded guilty in federal court, nearly 15 months after the incident cut off a local radio station and triggered a multi-agency investigation. Candice Marie Logan, 34, and Matthew Wilson, 37, pleaded guilty with identical pleas to Interstate …
‘Apocalyptic’ ice storm takes out 630-foot broadcast tower in East Jordan, Michigan
Macdonald Garber Broadcasting’s CHR station, 106 KHQ (105.9 WKHQ-FM) in Charlevoix, Michigan, experienced a significant disruption when its 630-foot tower collapsed Sunday evening in East Jordan. The collapse resulted from what is being described as an “apocalyptic” ice storm that brought multiple days of heavy sleet and freezing rain to the region, leading to substantial ice accumulation. This severe weather …
NTSB report supports SBA Communications’ defense in $50 million lawsuit for tower lighting outage
Houston helicopter air tour company National Helicopter Solutions promoted on their website, “We promise to deliver safe, professional, and exciting helicopter travel in the skies over the city of Houston and Greater Texas.” Sadly, one such tour on October 20, 2024, piloted by Samantha Grandbouche, broke that promise when the 42-year-old pilot crashed the helicopter into an SBA Communications 1,000-foot …
Helicopter slams into SBA’s Houston 999-foot radio tower, igniting blaze, collapsing it and killing all aboard
UPDATE – October 22, 2024 – SBA Communications has released a press statement to address what it described as “incomplete and/or inaccurate information” circulating in news reports concerning the helicopter crash that occurred in Houston, Texas on Sunday. The accident involved the towerco’s 999-foot guyed tower that collapsed, resulting in four fatalities. According to Wireless Estimator yesterday, a Notice to …
No casualties as hot air balloon collision collapses 645-foot tower at Albuquerque fiesta
In 1972, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta began as the highlight of 770 KOB Radio’s 50th anniversary. It broadcast the 13-balloon event’s activities from its two-tower array. The annual event now features 1,000 balloons in the sky, drawing hundreds of thousands of spectators who gather at landing sites all over the city. KOB, a 50,000-watt station, continued to benefit from …
Lawsuit seeks $6 million from an airplane’s insurer after a crash destroyed a radio station’s tower
Agape Broadcasters, Inc., a Christian radio station operator, has taken legal action against American National Property and Casualty Company (ANPAC) to enforce a $6 million judgment against the estate of Marcus Todd Sampson, whose aircraft crash in 2018 destroyed the 1,800-foot KATC TV 3 tower in Kaplan, Louisiana where Agape was the sole tenant. The tower was critical for broadcasting …
Russian missile successfully kayos a Kharkiv TV tower as tower tech warriors risk their lives to restore networks
On March 6, 2022, a Russian fighter jet attacked a television station in Kharkiv, Ukraine, releasing eight 1,100-pound bombs at the station’s 790-foot tower and the adjacent building. Despite substantial damage, the broadcasting infrastructure was quickly repaired, and operations resumed. However, a strike yesterday by a Russian cruise missile has now destroyed the upper portion of the fifth-tallest tower in Ukraine, achieving the …
High 90 mph gusts collapse two West Virginia AM radio station towers
High winds with gusts reaching 90 mph struck Charleston, West Virginia, on April 2, causing significant damage by bringing down two of the four broadcast towers utilized by WCHS (AM) and impacting its sister station WSWW (FM). These towers are part of the infrastructure supporting WCHS, the flagship station of the West Virginia MetroNews network, which serves as a crucial …
Alabama contractor’s tower crews to share in an expected $120 million windfall from an unexpected fine art find
All 22 employees of a four-crew wireless contracting firm in Bessemer, Alabama, are about to get a financial windfall so huge that they wake up each morning rereading a letter from Sotheby’s to ensure it’s not a dream. Each is on the verge of claiming at least $5.45 million, thanks to the auction of an Edvard Munch masterpiece, “The Scream.” …
2005 erected Rhode Island American Tower monopole collapses for no apparent reason
UPDATE: Wireless Estimator has confirmed that the monopole that collapsed on March 25, 2024, in Bristol, Rhode Island, is an Andrew structure. Initial confusion arose when a representative from one manufacturer suggested it was a Fred J. Nudd pole, while a Nudd spokesperson identified it as a PiRod monopole. An individual knowledgeable about PiRod’s designs pointed out that the pole in the …
An unsafe 1,541-foot Texas TV broadcast tower is decommissioned with a picture-perfect landing
On Wednesday, Nexstar Media Group Inc. discovered that a 1,541-foot guyed tower in La Feria, Texas, was unsafe because one of its guy wires had detached. Instead of retrofitting it with a new outer anchor wire, the company decided to decommission the hazardous structure, asking nearby residents to evacuate the area. The broadcaster’s structural engineers then initiated a plan for an …
Residents urged to evacuate area near Texas 1,541-foot TV tower after distressed guy wires failed
The Nexstar Media Group Inc. has raised concerns about a TV tower located south of La Feria, Texas, indicating a slight risk of collapse. Jeff Miller, Nexstar’s VP and General Manager, reported that the issue was investigated on Wednesday afternoon. One of the outer anchor guy wires may have been severed on the east side of the 1,541-foot tower, which is …
Unanticipated stop work order issued by concrete truck driver after he topples a 199-foot tower
While a contractor’s crew was attempting to finish a slab pour on Sunday for a foundation being installed for WNIX’s new transmitter building in Greenville, MS, a concrete truck driver backed into a guy wire, causing the station’s 199-foot tower to collapse. Larry Fuss, President and CEO of Delta Radio, the owner of the news-talk AM radio station, made the announcement …
Stealth steal: Vandals walk off with a 200-foot AM broadcast tower
On Friday, Brett Elmore, general manager of WJLX radio, a nondirectional AM radio station, went on Facebook and announced that someone had made off with his 200-foot-tall guyed tower from a site in Jasper, Alabama, that is located at a dead end near the sprawling Mar-Jac poultry plant. “This morning, my bush hog crew went down to a tower site we …
Alabama state agency is saddened by a tower tech’s death, but it appears that they caused it
Some of the Alabama Forestry Commission’s (AFC) key roles are to protect wildlife, such as inventorying gopher tortoise burrows to improve their habitat. However, its overriding mission is to protect forests from harm. Unfortunately, the state agency failed miserably to protect a Deatsville AFC communications technician last year. As a result, Brett Savage died when a guyed tower that was …
Toppling of Nebraska 300-foot guyed tower might be investigated as an act of domestic terrorism
The Furnas County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) has opened an investigation after a communications tower south of Oxford, Nebraska was intentionally destroyed. The sheriff’s office said the tower, owned by Strayer Communications, was toppled and destroyed on Saturday. Their initial findings indicated intentional damage to a guy wire that was cut and resulted in complete structural failure of the tower, causing …
Austin ice storm’s power outages complicated by 500-foot tower that decimated transmission lines
Over 96% of Austin Energy customers in Austin, TX, currently have power after last week’s ice storm, and the utility expects to have close to full service by Sunday, February 12. Restoring power in some areas can be a multi-day effort, especially when utility equipment is in hard-to-reach areas, such as a greenbelt, or buried under extremely heavy debris. One …
Either Mother Nature or a deficient design caused a New York American Tower monopole to collapse
UPDATE: February 3, 2023 – An American Tower representative has informed Wireless Estimator that the Fred A. Nudd monopole that collapsed in Depew, NY, during a winter blizzard was not subject to the litigation with Nudd and would have been out of scope for any remedial work required to ensure that it complied with design standards. This site was part of …
Vandals destroy three 410-foot towers, unaware their crime would backfire and gift a religious broadcaster
The FBI and local authorities are investigating the felling of three AM broadcast towers owned by Truth Broadcasting Co. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, each one on a different day within less than three weeks. The first collapse witnessed by a nearby homeowner, Cliff Orgnon, occurred on December 21, 2022. After the three towers were destroyed, WSJS went off the air. …
Fighting Mother Nature for 44 years, two tall towers in South Dakota finally succumb
The massive winter storm that moved through the Plains Wednesday morning knocked down a 1,700-foot TV tower and an 800-foot broadcast tower in northeastern South Dakota just outside the boundaries of Garden City. The 1,700-foot guyed tower, constructed in 1978, is owned by Nextar and was the home for CBS affiliate KDLO-TV and KDLO-FM When the tower fell just before …
