AM 800 Tower Stripped Of FM Bays

[Laurence Glavin]

This may amount to much ado about nothing, but the 6 or 7 FM antenna bays  for 
93.7 that have been attached to the WNNW-AM 800 tower in Andover for decades
have been stripped away, apparently along with the STL dish pointed towards Boston.
There's still a dish for the WNNW feed emanating from The City Formerly Known as
The City Called The Town Of Methuen.  I don't know when this occurred, but 
I just noticed it yesterday (Sunday) so I drove over to the tower site to see
if the antenna elements were still on the ground at the base of the tower, or
were carted away by the riggers.  I don't believe I could be accused of
trespassing since the gates were wide open, and voila (a little French lingo),
right at my feet were the support structures and all the FM bays.  The WNNW
tower still has a number of cell phone antennas.  I seem to recall that the 
AM 800 tower was a second backup for the 93.7 operation (I think it was WQSX
at the time) after it was moved to Peabody.  This makes some sense;  the
location is closer to the ocean, so a northeaster that may deliver snow inland
might bring sleet and freezing rain to Peabody, possibly bringing down the
tower there, as happened in Maine several years ago.  It's also not far from
the airport ("I don't know anybody who lives at the airport", George Carlin)
and as we know from recent experience, small planes and helicopters can sometimes 
clip radio towers.  But nonetheless, the 93.7 sections are gone.  I wonder if it 
has something to do with belt-tightening at Entercom;  perhaps they told
Costa/Eagle that they weren't interested in paying rent anymore, and the 
latter decided to remove them to cut down on the weight on the SW side of the 
tower, or to offer space for more cell phone antennas or maybe some of
the services that will be made available after the digital TV conversion.
In any event, somebody had better remove all that metal, including copper,
or somebody else may just do it for them.


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