Copper thieves take tower
Johnstown-Altoona-State College:The Daily American in Somerset County reported Wednesday that thieves took a 120-foot radio tower sometime last week. The value of the steel tower was estimated to be more than $50,000.
Paint Township police said that the thieves had to have a vehicle able to handle rugged terrain - and that they couldn't have used ATVs because the tower was hauled away. The red and white tower was last seen on Thursday (Sept. 4) and officials think it was stolen over the weekend while the town was filled with spectators for a Dog Run. Guide wires were cut to pull the tower over taking tree branches and a live transformer with them on the way down. In addition to the transformer being taken about 120 feet of copper wiring was also stolen - copper has a high scrap value these days. Scorch marks were also found on the ground suggesting that the tower was cut up using acetylene torches.
A $1000 reward is being offered by the land owner for information leading to arrest and conviction of the thieves. The owner had hoped the former WBBR tower into a cell phone tower.
Readers’ Forum
The news item saddens me and takes me back to my days in west-central Pennsylvania radio. It also requires a correction.
The station was W W B R, not, as the Somerset paper reported, W B B R (which is, of course, today’s call sign for New York’s Bloomberg AM 1130). At one time, I understand it may also have been known as W B E M, but the Daily American could have done a little better homework on the callsign.
Incidentally, Wikipedia basically gets it right on the history of WWBR/WBEM, which was at 1350 on the dial, but it then goes on to say an application has been made to return that station to the air. Not quite, as Wikipedia itself pointed out some grafs down.
Michael Horvath, one-time owner of WZUM and what now is WPGR, is building a new station on AM 1350 that will have Geistown (another Johnstown suburb) as its city of license.
Pat Cloonan (URL) - September 12, 2008 at 3:12 pm
It’s also worth mentioning that the WBEM call letters (“You’re on The Beam,” was our catchphrase) came to be when Hank Baughman purchased the station in 1985, along with a former salesman from WPXI. I was a part of all that, doing afternoons on the station. The staff we inherited were very nice folks, although a few were a bit resentful of this “TV guy from Pittsburgh” taking over the station that had been owned by the same family, since it went on in the mid-60s. THE GM was the son-in-law of the previous owner. Hank held onto the station for only about a year. It was then purcharsed by a fellow named Ron, who also owned WRTA (I think those were the calls) in Altoona. It went dark, not too long afterthat. Hank bought it for $180k and sold it for $40k less.
The format that we ditched in the first week or so was one devised by the previous owner—a trainwreck of ALL songs (and I do mean ALL) with the word “love” in the lyric..which meant you’d have smarmy 1940s ballads clashing with some rock song from the 70s. The programming came from automated reel to reel machines on what we called a “cart carousel.” I threatened to smash the thing, the first day, since it would often go crazy and play the tapes at the wrong speed. It was like it was possessed! One day, I just pulled the plug on the damn thing (My engineer was on duty and I wonder to this day if he didn’t have something to do with it’s final fit—But I THANK HIM!). I called Hank and told him that I was taking it live. He told me to have fum.
Hank then took the station satellite, with ABC Talkradio. I couldn’t wait to see how the elderly listeners (as many of them were) would respond to Drs. Toni Grant and David Viscott having one of their discussions about sexual functions and malfunctions. Sure enough, the little old ladies would call and complain every morning. The funny thing was, their HUSBANDS would call later in the day saying, “Don’t listen to my wife, she’s full of it—I LOVE you radio station!”
I’ll never forget the audio console: It didn’t have switches to open the mic, like most boards. This was “touch sensitive,” like some lamps. Problem is, it had been touched far too many times and you’d have to sit there, frantically licking your fingers, touching and smearing the button to get the mic to turn on before your song ran out. Horrible design, to be sure, but someone must have thought it brilliant.
Ed Weigle - September 13, 2008 at 08:21 am
OK, lets see those guys try to steal one of the TV towers that are about 700ft tall or more. Now that’ll be a lot more tricky.
Tom Lavery (URL) - September 14, 2008 at 4:32 pm