Tower Down In Kansas or someplace

[genlock]

KSNF-TV Joplin, mo/Pittsburg,Ks Tower broken and fell.
Looks like a "t"top or candelabra type.
Good news: A homeowner won a new pickup truck and a remodeled bathroom, new roof for house too.
Station management expects engineering to have the thing fixed and up and running by tomorrow.

Pix

http://fourstateshomepage.com/content/f ... ?cid=65151

[Cameron]

The yellow-section on the ground looks like a gin-pole to me.
"Weather" may have had a little help.

The station used to be an affliate and sister-station to rfhertz's station.
Luckilly, I don't think this is one of his headaches because they split from that group.

Big "whew" for him.

Yep. Gin-pole.

They had a piece of equipment up there that typically wouldn't be on the tower and when this storm moved through, they were talking about winds up to 100 miles an hour. It couldn't withstand that much wind," said John Hoffman, general manager of KSNF.

[genlock]

Strange to see a tower break apart at an elevated level like that.
There were two stations on that tower. That and the smaller sections of the tower wreckage
prompted me to issue the "t"top comment. That thing in the bathroom is some sort of pulley.
Maybe part of a gin pole assembly kit? Their buildings also sustained some damage.
Lotsa work ahead and much spending to be done for a station in the middle of nowhere.
One of the stations was a fox affiliate. Locals will miss the Southern 500 tonight.

[genlock]

http://www.koamtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10328496

Unknown antenna bent by winds in same market.

[rfhertz]

Yup, KSNF is not one of mine anymore. The tower was rigged and a crew was swapping out antennas at the top. The crew had arrived for work, noted the extremely high winds, and had to force the staff out of the building. Had the tower crew not done that... then the 7am news would have been "interrupted" by a piece of tower that crashed into the air studio and newsroom. I am very familiar with the tower firm that was working at KSNF. They are very cautious, VERY professional. A detailed structural analysis would be required before any work was done on that structure. There were 100mph straight winds that morning. Not a good recipe for any tower, especially one with a gin-pole atop it.
The same company stacked the new WOWK tower, and have done several big jobs for me since.