The Day the Towers Fell

Despite the fact that my newscasts are only one minute in length, I spend a fair amount of time each morning scanning every source imaginable for story ideas.  This morning I spotted a story that brought back memories of my early days in radio.

WITN-TV in Washington, North Carolina reported this morning that a severe storm had snapped two support wires of a 180 foot radio tower in the town of Smithfield.  The tower, which had not been used for some time, was leaning and in danger of collapse, so nearby Highway 70 had to be closed.  Hours later, work crews intentionally brought down the tower.

The story from Washington, North Carolina is very reminiscent of something that happened to a radio station that I used to work for, 100.5 WCMS-FM in Virginia Beach, two decades ago.  On March 19th, 1992 (I had to dig out an old WCMS calendar to find the exact date,) an intense storm knocked down the station's 500-foot FM tower and two smaller AM towers at the transmitter site on the Elizabeth River.  The station was off the air for only six hours; another station allowed WCMS to use space on its FM tower.  The first song that we played when the station returned to the air?  "It's only the Wind" by Billy Dean.  Amazing...I can't remember to pick up my prescription at the Rite Aid but I can remember that 20 year old fact.

It took five months for the station to rebuild the towers and the transmitter building.  I was there for the ceremony to christen the new towers, as you'll see in the incredibly dorky photo below.  Good lord, I still have that tie in my closet ;)  Can't believe it's been 20 years.

Eric Stevens and Jim Long, the WCMS Afternoon Team, in 1992.