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Start Free Trial NowTitle: Fallen tower
Description: KTKA
Fallen tower Continued from page 1 come straight down, then shifted to the southwest which would have brought it directly onto the building housing the transmitter. Fortunately, it was twisted back to the north before it fell. “The whole thing never touched out side our property,” he said. “Most of it is piled in an 8-foot stack right at the base.” Krohe estimated the value of the tower at about $700,000, the antenna at $200,000. The damage estimate might go higher with the replacement of the. wave guide and if the twisting of the wave guide caused any damage to the transmitter itself. Krohe estimated that the tower, which was erected last June by Atlas Tower, Vinita , Okla., would take three to four months to replace. Station officials could not say just what would be done about getting the station back on the air. “We might make some decisions tomorrow,” said Czechanski. “The tower will have to be rebuilt. “The other stations have been most sympathetic in offering any help that we might need,” Czechanski said. “The loss of channel 49, even for a few months, is a loss for the whole commu nity.” He figured each day off the air for a station means a loss of $3,000 to $5,000. Harry Strader, general manager of KSNT-TV, said that even though chan nel 27’s tower was tested to stand strong winds and 2-inch ice loads, he wasn’t sure the 1,050-foot tower about 30 paces south of the KSNT studios would handle both. “In my 16 years here, I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s scary,” Strader said early Monday before abandoning the building for a safer location. The station was knocked off the air by loss of power about 6:50 a.m. Monday. Strader said the station was back on the air about 2:30 p.m. Monday and some of the twist and lean observed earlier had stopped. “If we get winds we might be in serious trouble yet,” he said. "The real danger,” he said, “is prob ably the melting of all this ice. It comes down as projectiles. Our build ing has been constructed for protec tion but cars and people might be in danger,” he said. That same sentiment was voiced by Bob Fidler, operations manager at KTWU-TV. “I think that unless we were to get high winds, our biggest problem may be the melting ice.” KTWU, Topeka’s public station and owner of the oldest tower, had a tower crew in to tighten guy wires and re paint the tower last fall. Fidler said that could have been for tunate since the tower appears to be holding up under the tremendous ice load. “And we say that with crossed fingers,” he said. Other than power outages and con siderable icing on the towers, WIBW- TV continues to operate. In an effort to stay on the air Sunday afternoon, the station used its only line of power to link the CBS network feed directly into the transmitter during the NCAA basketball game meaning that the sta tion did not have power to air com mercials. All four television stations and sev eral of Topeka’s radio stations were off the air or on emergency power during the storm. Pat Powers of KTPK-FM said his station’s tower near Skinner’s Nursery north of town was leaning severely. “The next 24 hours will determine a lot.” AT KANU in Lawrence, which lost its tower to vandals in 1982 and just this month began building a new one, the ice is merely a delay. A1 Berman of KANU-FM said about 400 feet of the 650-foot tower is up. “Ours is okay. Its guyed down and secured and it isn’t loaded down with extra equipment yet. Betty Beatty, manager of Cablevi- sion of Topeka, said loss of power at the office site has meant that genera tors have been keeping the “headend” operating, but the system has trunk and feeder line damage throughout the system. She estimated 1,200 individual ser vice lines down at 5 p.m. Monday. “We’ll really know how bad we are down by Tuesday or even later — when everyone gets power back.”
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Clipped 1 month ago
- Topeka Daily Capital
- Topeka, Kansas
- Mar, 20 1984 - Page 2