not insuredEmployees of a radio station in the American state of Alabama are faced with a major mystery. Thieves made off with the station’s 60-meter-high transmission tower and there has been no trace since. It will cost at least $100,000 to replace the mast.
“In all the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Brett Elmore of radio station WJLX told The Guardian. “I know that thieves in this region steal whatever, but this really beats everything,” he previously wrote in a message on Facebook.
The theft was discovered last week by gardeners who maintain the area around the tower, according to Elmore, the local station’s general manager. “They called me and said the tower was gone. I said, ‘What do you mean the cell tower is gone?'” The director reported the theft, but Elmore said the local police were as surprised as he was.
The mast had stood since the 1950s in a clearing in a wooded area near the town of Jasper, Alabama, close to a large poultry farm. According to Elmore, the thieves cut the cables to the tower and fled with the car. Transmitting equipment was also stolen from a building next to the mast.
Not insured
The theft has major consequences for the radio station. According to Elmore, the stolen items were not insured. Replacing the transmission tower will cost between 100,000 and 150,000 dollars (about 93,000 to 140,000 euros), and that is ‘more money than we have.’
Additional problem: the stolen items also included equipment to broadcast on the AM frequency. The channel could still broadcast on the FM frequency, but WJLX does not receive permission from the regulator FCC (in full: Federal Communications Commission). For now, the station can only make online programs.
There is currently no trace of the transmission tower. Elmore: “But surely someone must have seen or heard something?” He also told a local news site: “It is clear that you do not transport a 60 meter high tower by road. So they had to dismantle it or cut it into pieces to get it out of here.”
Watch our most popular news videos in the playlist below:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss anything from the stars.
Yes, I want free unlimited access
2024-02-10 08:43:12
#tower #Thieves #60metre #high #radio #transmitter #mast
