The Answer

[Dan Strassberg]

It was late summer 1985--August, I think. As I said in a previous posting,
the new towers had been up for just a few weeks and IIRC, southern New
England was brushed by the fringes of a hurricane. However, I bet Fairbanks
sued the company that constructed the towers. Hurricane or no (wind gusts to
maybe 50 mph), when a tower falls so soon after being completed, there must
be a presumption of defective workmanship.

As I said in a previous posting, this was not the first tower to fall at 100
Mt Wayte Ave. At least one (I think two) shorter towers had fallen in
previous years. The demise of one of those towers was reponsible for
WKOX--while it was still on 1190--changing from a conventional
base-insulated series-fed tower to a taller grounded-base tower that had
previously served only the FM. I think the FM had already moved to the
Needham candelabra by the time the AM tower collapsed (in an ice storm,
IIRC), but a usable tower was already standing on the site and WKOX was back
on the air in a matter of days. If Sid was there at the time of that event,
maybe he can provide some details. For example, was the grounded-base tower
skirt fed or shunt fed when pressed into AM service?

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Vita" <brian_vita@cssinc.com>
To: "'Sid Schweiger'" <sid@wrko.com>; <bri@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 12:54 PM
Subject: RE: The Answer


>
> >
> > >>> A DJ working at WVBF, which was still on Mt Wayte Ave at the time,
> > was hit by the guy wires and thrown across the parking lot,
> > he was fortunate that broken ribs were his only injuries.<
> >
> When did this happen? (approx date?)
>