[TowerTalk] Ice storm in eastern Canada/NE USA

[Fred Hopengarten]

From:
Fred Hopengarten  K1VR               781/259-0088
Six Willarch Road
Lincoln, MA 01773-5105
permanent e-mail address:  fhopengarten@mba1972.hbs.edu

OK, you wanna hear about tower disaster? Try this, courtesy of North East
Radio Watch (NERW):

From: LCollinsMA W1GXT <LCollinsMA@aol.com>
To: k1vr@JUNO.COM
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 09:01:17 EST
Subject: FYI

MAINE - On the US side of the border, Maine's stations suffered the
most serious damage.  The New Gloucester tower used by WKZS (99.9
Auburn) collapsed in the storm, and "Mix" expects to be off the air
for a while while it secures a new tower.  In Sanford, WCDQ (92.1)
lost its tower to the storm as well.  Its web page (www.wcdq.com)
says the transmitter shack at the base of the tower was spared.  In
Gray, the tower site shared by WPXT (Channel 51), WPME (Channel 35),
and WJBQ (97.9) is back up and running after the heavy ice bowed the
tops of the towers towards the ground.  Once the ice melted, the
towers snapped back into place, allowing all three stations to return
to the air.  WPXT was able to stay on many cable systems, since
there's a major cable headend adjacent to the tower site.

Maine Public Television has been off the air due to failure of the
microwave network that linked its transmitters statewide.  Public
broadcasting engineers focused their attention on restoring radio
service first, and flagship WMEA (90.1) is now back on the air. 

Our correspondents in Maine report these stations also suffered
outages as a result of the storm: 

WMSJ (89.3) Freeport - dark
WMPG (90.9) Gorham - dark
WYFP (91.9) Harpswell - dark
WMME (92.3) Augusta - dark
WOXO (92.7) Norway - dark
WCYI (93.9) Lewiston - dark
WXGL (95.5) Topsham - dark
WLOB-FM (96.3) Rumford - dark
W245AB (96.9) Portland - off air because its primary, WKZS, is gone
WPOR-FM (101.9) - using backup facilities at its Forest Avenue studio
WQSS (102.5) Camden - reportedly suffered antenna damage
WBLM (102.9) Portland - off since Thursday because of severe icing at
 its antenna site on the WGME-TV (Channel 13) tower in Gray
WABK (104.3) Gardiner - dark
WBCI (105.9) Bath - dark
WLAM-FM (106.7) North Windham - off because of tower damage at the
 WPXT site, which it shared
WTHT (107.5) Lewiston - off because it shared the downed WKZS tower;
 NERW wonders whether they can reactivate their old site
WGAN (560) Portland - running on generator power at the transmitter,
 WGAN was on all through the storm with all-night news updates
WJTO (730) Bath - hasn't been heard in Portland for several days
WLAM (870) Gorham - apparently dark
WZAN (970) Portland - on-air but unable to switch to night pattern

We've also heard that there may have been problems at the transmitter
sites of Ellsworth's WKSQ (94.5) and WWMJ (95.7); we hope to hear more
soon from our readers up that way.

On the TV side, WCSH (Channel 6) and WGME (Channel 13) in Portland
have both been going on and off the air because of ice and power
problems.  WCSH has been reaching many listeners without power, since
its audio carrier at 87.75 MHz can be heard even on battery-powered FM
radios.  NERW wonders whether power-less listeners appreciated the
helpful advice given out by one WCSH reporter during a live shot
Saturday night, when he noted that while viewers without power could
use kerosene or propane heaters to stay warm, "electric heaters are a
safer alternative."  Mm-hmm.:



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