WLLH Lowell Transmitter Back On The Air

[Sean Smyth]

On Sun, 8/24/08, Mark Watson <markwats@comcast.net> wrote:
> WLLH's Lowell transmitter is now back on the air, it had
> been off since at 
> least this past Tuesday. From what I was told the power was
> lost at the TX 
> site due to the growth of brush & vines around the pole
> that holds the 
> transformer. (Mass Electric used to routinely cut the
> brush, but apparently 
> National Grid sees no need to do such brush clearing).
> Apparently the growth 
> of the brush & vines completely covered the
> transformer, insulators and fuse 
> jack and caused a pole fire that went undetected, blowing
> out the 
> transformer and causing the loss of power to the site.
> Apparently no one in 
> WAMG/WLLH Master Control was aware that Lowell was off
> either. Once CE Chris 
> Hall was made aware of the situation he went to the TX site
> and discovered 
> the problem. National Grid has made repairs and restored
> power to the site.

Chris Hall is a good engineer from the reading of it -- at least he's a proactive one, and he seems to know his stuff -- but I'm amazed no one noticed 1400 Lowell was off the air for ... days? Really? I guess 1400 Lawrence (presuming IT still is on the air) would have covered much of that turf with a serviceable signal, but still.