MOUNT WASHINGTON BURNS

[Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com>]

Sorry about the all-caps, but...damn!

Mark Erickson of WOKQ just called me to tell me that the former WMTW 
building on Mount Washington NH was completely destroyed in the fire this 
afternoon. Only the metal entranceway survives. Everything else is 
simply...gone.

WPKQ 103.7 and WHOM 94.9 are off the air; WPKQ's transmitter (in the old 
Armstrong building) and antenna are intact; WHOM's transmitter (in the WMTW 
building) was destroyed and the status of its main antenna is unclear. Its 
backup antenna is intact.

However, the loss of the WMTW facility means no generator power on the 
Rock. The Observatory staff were evacuated by Sno-Cat a short time ago. 
Mark says they'll try to haul a generator up there tomorrow (can you 
imagine - in this weather?), and WPKQ could be back on the air tomorrow.

As for WHOM, its programming will shortly reappear on one of the WCYY 
frequencies in the Portland market (I'm guessing most likely WCYI 93.9 
Lewiston), and the expectation is that a STA will soon be filed to use the 
WBLM 102.9 auxiliary facilities in New Gloucester as
a temporary WHOM site until something can be done up on the mountain.

The DX potential here is interesting, of course; one wonders, also, if 
whatever started the fire would have been caught - and quickly - if channel 
8 were still up there and the building were still manned 24/7.

Yikes.

You can see some of my pictures here: 
http://www.fybush.com/site-020206.html. There is a link there as well to 
Norm Gagnon's excellent Mount Washington material.

Garrett Wollman got there on a SUNNY day when he could see the towers, and 
his pictures are here: http://www.bostonradio.org/radio/digicam/mtwashington/

-s