Anybody Happen to See This Missing Tower Anywhere?

[Joe Guy]

The first place I would check is eBay...

Alabama station in disbelief after 200-foot radio tower stolen

A radio station in Alabama was forced to go silent after thieves stole its 200-foot radio tower and other equipment from a building.

The station, WJLX, sent a landscaping crew to the site Friday morning for spring cleaning, only to find the 200-foot radio tower gone. When a crew member called the station’s general manager to break the news, he was in disbelief.

“What do you mean the tower is gone? Are you sure you’re in the right place? I actually used more colorful words than that,” Brett Elmore recounted to NBC News. “He said there’s wires all over the ground and the tower is gone.”

Not only was the radio tower stolen, but a nearby building was also vandalized. When Elmore heard the door was left ajar, “that’s when reality was starting to set in that something bad had happened.”

The thieves stole every piece of equipment from the building, including a transmitter. Elmore has filed a report with the police.

“There was a meeting yesterday between the owner and our investigators concerning the matter,” Jasper Mayor David O’Mary told NBC News on Thursday. “At this point, we are still lacking information that we have to have to conduct a full-fledged investigation.”

WJLX notified the Federal Communications Commission that its AM station was silent. The station was hoping to continue broadcasting its program through FM radio in the meantime.

“We requested a temporary authority to keep the FM translator on until we get the AM back on the air,” Elmore said on Thursday. “But unfortunately, this morning, I was notified the FCC denied our request to stay on air on the FM side, so actually, we’re about to go power down the transmitter.”

Despite the setbacks, Elmore has faith WJLX will bounce back.

“Unfortunately, the site was not insured. We’re a small-market station, but we’re going to get back, and we’re going to be back on the air as soon as we possibly can,” Elmore said.

source

[Burning Petard]

Even funnier is that the station did not notice it was off the air.
Wonder how many listeners it has?

snailgate.

[Bicycle Bill]

Even funnier is that the station did not notice it was off the air.
Wonder how many listeners it has?

snailgate.

That's what I was thinking, too... unless, as a small-market radio, it goes off the air overnight (are there any stations, TV or radio, ANYWHERE in the USA that does that any more?).   But even so, you'd think someone — one of its twenty or thirty listeners, or a technician — would have noticed the absence of their signal the next morning and called to bitch or gone to investigate.

Incidentally, the radio station was located in Jasper, Alabama, about 40 miles northwest of Birmingham.

-"BB"-

[Scooter]

That explains a lot.

[Burning Petard]

This is just my opinion,, based on simple and complex ignorance with very little actual experience:

Jasper Alabama is located in the metaphorical heart of the South so well described by Scooter, "recognize the South for the useless shithole of creation that it always has been and forever will be, and so will decide to GTFO."

snailgate.

[ex-khobar Andy]

My recollection is that Jasper AL is where Smitty,* as in Le Chat House, lived. I know that RayThom and Lord Jim and Denniz were there but of course are no longer here - not sure who else here may recall those days.

* Teresa Smith, married to Douglas.

[Burning Petard]

I'm NOT like Biden, I am not a nice old man. Yes I remember Smitty. Off line she did several very unexpected and very nice things for me. She alone is more than enuff to cause me to cry out in sorrow and regret I repeated such a broad condemnation of 'the South.'

snailgate.

[Econoline]

My recollection is that Jasper AL is where Smitty,* as in Le Chat House, lived. I know that RayThom and Lord Jim and Denniz were there but of course are no longer here - not sure who else here may recall those days.

* Teresa Smith, married to Douglas.

You remember correctly, Andy, or else we both remember incorrectly. I think Joe Guy hung around there some, too. Tess and Denniz both died tragically early, though Tess was prepared and ready to go after her long struggle with cancer. (Dennis was killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver on a dark rural highway in downstate Illinois, and that's what killed Le Chat House.)

[ex-khobar Andy]

I didn't mean to hijack this thread into reminiscences but yes: Tess was quite a lady. I knew of course that Denniz was killed in a car crash in Illinois but I didn't know (or had forgotten which is not unusual these days) about the drunken driver.

I remember when Tess's husband Douglas died. We heard periodically of their DIY adventures on the house, so although Douglas never posted, we knew quite a lot about him. They were painting the house and he just died - I don't know if it was a heart attack but it was sudden. And Tess came on that night to tell us, her friends. There might have been one or two FTFs among the group but basically we were all internet friends. I think it was that night, reading about Douglas, that I realized how important we all were in each other's lives. We might have differed some on politics or squabbled about the best way to cook salmon but we were a group of friends like any other.

[datsunaholic]

When I saw "Jasper Al" the first thing I thought of was Tess (Smitty) from Le Chat House and Cafe Darte days.

Yes, I've been around these boards that long. Long enough to have met Lord Jim in person back in the 20th century,

[Burning Petard]

I thought I posted an apology here; It seems to have dissapeared. I think it is important so I try again.

I sincerely regret my disparaging remark about the South and Jasper, Alabama. I do remember Smitty. She was beautiful human being. I say that based on the many things she did via the Chat House. Independent of all that she also surprised me with some unsolicited but much appreciated things she did for me personally off-line.

Smitty’s existence is more than enough to prove me wrong about the South. It is a cliche that the Jewish tradition is that to save one person is to save the entire human race. Smitty saved more than one person.

I am sorry I quoted someone else and endorsed their view of that part of the USofA.

snailgate.

[BoSoxGal]

The South is as beautiful in its own way as every other region of the country - but it does have some very backward politics and the outcomes in the population in terms of measurable things like education, health, etc. are undeniable. I think we can love the South and mourn for her just the same, and to wish for better for Southerners many of whom don’t want the status quo that has existed for so long.

[Big RR]

I've spent a good amount of time in the southern states and agree BSG, it is beautiful in its own way. I have also found many people who are a lot more friendly and outgoing than most of my northern counterparts (there are a number i am still in contact with and correspond regularly), and I hardly find it monolithic in its politics. That being said, a lot of the right wing idiocy does appear to be rooted in the south and the political and economic split between the regions is undeniable; it is what give me pause when I think about moving to Virginia or the Carolinas for retirement. Not that I don't have people in my area espousing the same politics, but just that the density of them is higher in many southern states, and for many of them those politics appear to be the most important thing in their lives.