Editorial Note: Dino K6RIX our fearless photographer and now reporter on the scene has added some information and corrections to my original post in Comments #1 below. I greatly appreciate this contributions and corrections. MLW
If this wasn’t so serious and dangerous, it might be funny. But it’s not.
This all started while I was taking my blogging sabbatical during 2004–
On the morning of December 19, 2004, I was lying in bed reading the Sunday paper and drinking coffee, while listening to Leo LaPorte do his Tech Guy show on KFI (640 AM) when all of a sudden I heard a POP followed by ominous dead air. Now for those of us who have been around radio stations a healthy portion of our lives, the popping sound was unmistakable– and like all good little radio engineers I began to count out loud one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand… to see if it were a temporary problem with the transmission, as Leo does his show remotely from his studio in Petaluma, CA. But by the time I got to ten seconds, I reached for the telephone to call the station’s producers here in LA to advise them.
The phone was answered on the second ring by a producer who was clueless that I was about to totally screw up his morning. After doing a quick intro I informed the producer/board operator, "Look, I’d heard a massive pop onair, and KFI’s dead air." These words tend to strike fear in the hearts of most broadcasting types. I further suggested whomever was running the show had better call the Chief Engineer ASAP and screw up his Sunday Morning. Because in my never so humble opinion from personal experience that someone or something had just caused the tower to fall. KFI’s 50,000 watts was off the air. I know he must have looked down at his console about this time, because all I heard was the loudest gulp heard in history– and a "THANK YOU!" as he hung up.
Next I reached for the scanner to see if there was any emergency activity, while refilling my coffee cup. Sure enough there were emergency services moving toward the tower site in La Mirada– there had been a reported airplane crash. Add two and two– and you’ve got one hell of a mess on a Sunday morning when most modern stations are not fully staffed. No doubt hell was breaking lose at KFI– and I was just glad not to be on staff. Lucky for KFI they powered up the back up transmitter within an hour and Leo was back on the air.
However over the next couple hours we learned that Jim and Mary Ghosoph, of Temple City had been flying a rented single-engine Cessna and had taken off about 9:30AM from El Monte airport. It was when the Ghosph’s were headed on final approach into Fullerton Airport to pick up some friends for a day on Catalina Island, when the small airplane had hit the tower square on and crash. The Ghosoph’s died in the crash. Witnesses on the ground reported they saw a huge fireball and the 760-foot-tall tower collapse. Federal investigators from the FAA later ruled the accident pilot error. (The tower is well marked on all FAA maps and material.) Thankfully no one was in the transmitter, the parking lot or surrounding building that morning, which averted further injuries.
Since that time KFI has been operating with a temporary 204-foot-tall tower which was erected on the La Mirada site until a more permanent solution could be found. The major objections have come from local pilots and Fullerton airport officials who are concerned that if Clear Channel (who owns KFI,) was allowed to build another tall tower, or even one with or without 24 hour tower lighting another airplane crash could occur. The antenna is 1 1/4 miles from the Fullerton Municipal Airport. This is the second clear day crash into a KFI tower at that location in the past 40 years.
Clear Channel (who purchased KFI since 2000) needed to rebuild the tower in its current location. While the reasons are a technical overload for most to understand– it is basically because KFI is a government licensed and mandated 50,000 watt clear-channel AM radio station who is legally bound to be able to broadcast news and emergency information to a very wide area of the Los Angeles Metro area in case of a major emergency, such as earthquake, natural disaster or attack. Without KFI’s ability to broadcast at that power puts all citizens in the Los Angeles area, as well as most of Southern California at risk. There are very few radio stations who hold this type of license in the USA. In today’s real estate market there is no other suitable or affordable location in which the company can relocate the high tower necessary to broadcast to the demanded coverage area without overlapping into other Southern California radio stations coverage areas. FYI: FM stations can not carry this powerful a signal– and the only way to get this type of effected coverage area is by the using a large vertical tower where the tower IS the ANTENNA.
Long Story - Short: While both the pilots and KFI had serious concerns, a compromise had to be reached. No doubt this is one of those situations where you can’t please all of the people all of the time. However the good of the greatest number of people had to be held to a higher importance.
A compromise was reached and all the approvals were given to have KFI and Clear Channel build a new tower on the site. The height of the tower was reduced from 760 to 684 feet above the ground. A "top hat" antenna was added to the top of the tower design to give the added length to the antenna to give the station the required power necessary to achieve the proper signal and strength. Clear Channel agreed to add flashing white lights during the day and flashing red lights at night for pilot safety. The FAA, and FCC and the powers that be in the City of La Mirada all came to some reasonable agreement. However not everyone was happy about it being rebuilt: namely the local pilots and some officials at Fullerton Airport. But again you can’t please all of the people, all of the time. But at least Clear Channel had tried.
So some two years after the crash, on Saturday, March 15, 2008, Seacomm Erectors, began to build a new 684-foot-tall tower at La Mirada site.(Thanks to George Jacob, N6VNI for the photo left.)
Everything appeared in this video, to be going just fine. By Tuesday the tower had reached about 250 300 feet… when about 2:30 p.m. the tower came crashing down. Photos of the carnage are thanks to Rick Dino K6RIX who happened to be onsite that day. The photo of the tower falling on the right is Rick’s Dino’s and I thank him for letting me snag it. More of his photos are on his site here.
Lucky for everyone involved there was no one riding the tower at that point when the gigantic erector set’s pieces came crashing down. See corrections from Dino below in the comments section #1. There had been guys up there attaching the sections earlier. However there was one construction worker, whom we don’t have a name on yet who was injured as he was knocked off a construction platform next to the tower as it fell. Dino states he was within 15 feet of the failure point, and got taken in to the hospital for a check up– .
As a result of the tower collapsing there was damage to a couple of the trucks in the parking lot, and a hole was knocked in the roof of one of the warehouses. But all in all it appears everyone in the immediate area was very lucky– as it could have been a lot worse in that busy lot surrounded by all the warehouses and commercial trucks that surround the tower area today.
It’s my understanding that insurance and safety people are all over the site trying to investigate the cause. No doubt it will be something simple that got compounded then failed. It normal is in these cases. It will be interesting to see if this gets settled quickly.
My inside confidential sources who are all broadcast and tower engineers, are telling me that it appears the point of failure in the collapse is where the lower slant bar and turnbuckle separated. It is being debated if the steel in the components were too soft or if the tread sizes were mismatched could have also contributed.
But time will tell– this should get interesting. Wonder how long it’s going to take KFI to get a new-new tower up?
Tags: KFI, Clear Channel, Broadcasting, AM Radio, Radio, tower collapse, radio tower, broadcast tower, structure collapse, LaMirada, 640AM
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