WATERTOWN, South Dakota—The Tower Family Foundation has surpassed a significant milestone, exceeding $3.5 million in total giving.

Since its inception in 2014, the Tower Family Foundation has awarded a total of $3,502,988 in direct financial assistance and scholarships to eligible tower workers and their families.

The Tower Family Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides financial assistance and scholarships to family members of a severely injured, permanently disabled, or deceased tower worker injured or killed in an accident stemming from working at heights on communication structures or other on-the-job related activities.

“From the start, the Tower Family Foundation has remained steadfast in its mission to stand beside industry workers and their families in the wake of workplace accidents and times of unexpected hardship,” explained Tower Family Foundation Board Member and Advisory Committee Chairman, Dan McVaugh.

“It is deeply meaningful to see how our support has helped ease the burden during some of life’s most challenging moments. No worker or family should have to face these circumstances alone, and we are committed to continuing this vital support for years to come.”

The Tower Family Foundation provides critical financial assistance to tower workers and their families in post-accident and emergency circumstance situations. Individuals who know of a tower worker or family recently affected by an accident, are encouraged to submit an application.

In alignment with the Foundation’s core mission, need-based educational scholarships are offered to support individuals who have been severely injured or permanently disabled in the tower industry, as well as to the dependents of workers who have lost their lives or become permanently disabled as a result of work-related incidents. These scholarships aim to provide a crucial financial bridge during the transition to higher education, alleviating the financial burdens that often arise in the aftermath of an accident or permanent disability.

The Foundation also offers a limited number of merit-based scholarships to NATE member company employees and their eligible dependents. Scholarship recipients are selected through a comprehensive review process based on academic achievement and responses to written essays. The deadline to apply for the 2026-2027 academic year is May 31.

Students interested in applying for a Tower Family Foundation Scholarship are encouraged to review the guidelines and complete the official application.

To learn more about the Tower Family Foundation or to make an online contribution, visit towerfamilyfoundation.org.

PORTLAND, Maine—JS Engineering has partnered with Shulins’ Solutions to offer drone-based temperature measurements and visual inspections at RF sites.

Traditionally, these services are performed by trained tower technicians who carefully climb a tower to inspect its physical elements and make repairs.

“While nothing can fully replace a physical inspection, sUAS inspections bring new technology and capabilities, allowing for inspections that can be made more frequently, less expensively and, in many cases, with more detail than a physical inspection — often finding problems not obvious from the ground,” said Shulins’ Solutions on its website.

Leading the charge on this offering are two broadcast and RF consultants: Paul Shulins, president at Shulins’ Solutions, and Jim Stenberg, owner of JS Engineering.

“We obtain the necessary clearances and arrive on site to completely profile your tower and its antennas and transmission lines with both visible and infrared cameras,” said Stenberg in a LinkedIn post. “The high-power zoom visual camera provides details that even a knowledgeable tower climber might miss.”

The infrared profile is then reviewed on site and areas of concern can be highlighted and further studied, said Stenberg.

“By viewing all the antennas/transmission lines on a particular tower, and by performing several tower studies on one trip, we can efficiently share the costs of the service amongst a number of owners, tenants and services,” he said.

JS Engineering, based in Portland, Maine, was originally formed in 2005 to provide RF equipment field service and system testing to the broadcast industry. After a years-long hiatus, in which Stenberg worked for American Tower Corp., the company re-opened, offering its services to broadcast and wireless clients on a contract basis.

Shulins’ Solutions, based in Wickenburg, Arizona, provides monitor, control and protection solutions for transmission sites and broadcast antennas and sUAS drone-based tower inspections, among other broadcasting consulting services.

Click here for more information on the companies’ sUAS drone services.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand, Radio World. 

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL—WUCW-DT, the CW affiliate here, has gone on air with a new Dielectric UHF antenna that employs an end-fed pylon system and reimagines the design of a traditional stacked antenna array, Dielectric said.

The challenging E-Type antenna design addresses current tower code requirements for exposed transmission line and was delivered in a modular configuration that simplified the antenna replacement project for Tower King II, which managed all site preparation and installation work. The system also retained the existing Dielectric repack antenna on the top position without requiring extensive tower modifications, it said.

Several broadcast antennas are located on the south tower at Telefarm Towers, a two-tier transmission site for TV and FM radio broadcasters. 

To optimize tower real estate and provide true omnidirectional performance, WUCW and ABC affiliate KSTP-DT have long transmitted from a top-mounted broadband stacked antenna system. The original system included a Dielectric TU Series Deltastar panel antenna on the lower position of the stacked array, it said.

The existing antenna, configured as a “five-around panel antenna,” was supported by a wide, robust mast.  As replacement loomed, Dielectric recognized the project would prove to be one of the most challenging it has ever faced, Dielectric said. 

“WUCW engineers first considered making an adapter for the top antenna and the existing support system, but changed course toward preferring a modernized stacked array that was simpler and provided enhanced long-term reliability over the panel system,” said James Butts, a mechanical engineer at, Dielectric.

“While that was indeed the result, the work required to get there made this one of the most mechanically unique UHF antennas we have manufactured," he continued. "This WUCW antenna is a very large variant of our E-Type antenna design that was carefully engineered to meet the customer’s unique design needs.”

One big challenge was finding the best way to run the transmission line to the top KSTP antenna. Previous revisions of design codes allowed Dielectric to run the line up the side of an antenna mast, exposed to the elements without increasing the mast drag coefficient, the company said. 

“The latest code revisions required by Telefarm impose mast designs with exposed appurtenances such as transmission line with higher drag coefficients, which greatly increase wind loads,” said Butts. “We had to come up with an antenna feed system design that would obscure the transmission line without increasing the windload on the bottom antenna. That meant routing the feed to the top KSTP antenna under the radome of the bottom WUCW antenna,” said Butts.

Dielectric designed a two-piece mast for WUCW that measures 20 inches in diameter and is two inches thick. The antenna employed innovative technology to verify WUCW maintained an omnidirectional azimuth pattern in both the horizontal and vertical patterns. Typically, the azimuth patterns are distorted on the bottom of a stack antenna due to the transmission line to feed the top. This, along with the mechanical stoutness of the antenna, makes the deployment an innovative achievement, the company said.

To make installation easier, Dielectric split the new bottom antenna into two pieces, adding a flange in the middle, making it possible for the tower crew to raise the antenna and split the lifting load on the tower and ginpole. Total weight without the split would have been close to 30,000 pounds, but the design made it possible to connect the two pieces with the flange, it said. 

“The biggest challenge mechanically was to keep the weight of those two sections low enough for a potential helicopter lift or a reasonably sized ginpole,” said Butts.

Splitting the load in half gave the Tower King II crew more installation options.  “We set the first section and then the second section, and then connected the bottom and top antennas with the transmission line,” said Tower King II owner and President Kevin Barber. “In the end, the thought that Dielectric put into the design and the modularity made the installation very clean and easily achieved.”

More information is available on the Dielectric website.

BURLINGTON, Vt.—A fire struck an antenna of a broadcast tower in Vermont last week, impacting the over-the-air broadcasts of WCAX-TV and WPTZ-TV in the area. Nearly a week later, and using a temporary antenna, service has been returned to 98% of providers in the market, according to WCAX Vice President and General Manager Jay Barton.

As of last Friday, WCAX, which owns the tower, and WPTZ had recordings or online posts that indicated that over-the-air service was not available in many cases, though instructed that the channels’ programming was available through other methods.

Barton provided an update to TV Technology on the status of the repairs and the stations’ service.

As initially reported, no injuries occurred as a result of the fire and no cause of fire has been determined; Barton said priority is to return service and any inspection will have to be completed when the antenna is removed from the tower. There was no additional damage to the tower from the fire, as the fire was contained to the antenna.

WCAX and WPTZ elected to ignore the damage antenna and rather build a temporary antenna, with that process currently underway.

The total over-the-air presence was impacted from the fire, which also impacted cable operators who use the OTA signal as their primary source. While the goal is have complete over-the-air service back as quickly as possible, Barton said they have been working with provider partners to create alternate connections through fiber and other protected direct connections to get the signal back to the headend or uplinks.

According to Barton, 80% of providers had service back within 24 hours, 95% in 48 hours and over the weekend that number reached 98%.

“The entire process has been an exercise in cooperation,” said Barton. “WCAX and WPTZ have been transparent and cooperative with each other, our engineers have been working side by side through this challenge, our corporate teams from Hearst and Gray immediately leapt into action and have worked as a team since the first hour of this problem. Our local TV broadcast community, Vermont PBS, Nexstar Broadcasting’s WFFF and Mission Broadcasting’s WVNY have opened their facilities to us to access immediate reconnections to many cable and satellite providers, and their teams have gone out of their way to help our teams get our stations back on those providers.

“I am so impressed by the total, unreserved assistance we are giving each other,” Barton continued. “We all have good relationships locally and would expect a positive experience in the broadcast community in a time of need, but this has been extraordinary. I can’t say enough how positive the cooperation across all of the TV stations has been.”

Because of weather, Barton said that the timeline is still fluid as for getting over-the-air services totally back up, but expects it to be completed in a matter of days, assuming there are no additional surprises.

UPDATE: WCAX and WPTZ have begun working more with Nexstar and Mission's WFFF and WVNY, according to Barton, which has allowed for them to mount the temporary antenna onto their own tower. The change in plan took place because of rime ice that built up over several nights this week.

Collaborating with Gray, Hearst and now Nexstar, Barton doesn't know if this kind of mutual cooperation is "unprecedented, but it is certainly impressive."

"In my mind, it is this type of mutual support that makes local broadcasting distinctly different than any other field—first and foremost, we are committed to our communities and public service, and this type of cooperation between broadcasters is a might example of that commitment," said Barton.

There is still no official word on when the stations are expected to be fully back on-air.

Also, according to WCAX's website, construction or repair on a permanent antenna will begin in late spring 2020.

UPDATE 12/3: WCAX General Manager Jay Barton says that WCAX is fully back on-air after the installation of the temporary antenna on Dec. 1.

BURLINGTON, Vt.—WCAX-TV and WPTZ-TV have been off the air for traditional over-the-air services since Tuesday, Nov. 19, following a fire on the WCAX-owned transmission tower atop Mount Mansfield in Vermont.

The remote tower hosts antenna for both WCAX, the local CBS affiliate, and WPTZ, an NBC affiliate, as well as Vermont Public Radio and Vox AM/FM. However, only the television antenna for WCAX and WPTZ appeared to have been damaged.

The fire was extinguished by 6 p.m. on Nov. 19. No injuries were reported and the cause of fire has not yet been determined.

As of the time of publish, both WCAX and WPTZ are still off-air.

When TV Technology reached out to WCAX for an update, we were directed to a recording that said the following:

“Currently WCAX is off the air due to the failure of our main antenna at our transmission site at Mt. Mansfield. WCAX engineers and crews from across the U.S. and Canada have been brought in to address the situation. In the meantime, we are working to reestablish connections from WCAX to cable and satellite operators across the viewing area so you can watch WCAX like normal.”

The recording continued to share ways that WCAX viewers could continue to watch, including streaming for free through the station’s website and mobile apps, as well as through paid digital streamers like CBS All Access, YouTube TV and Hulu.

WPTZ offered its own update on its website, in which it said that a tower crew was on-site at Mount Mansfield inspecting the damager and working to restore television service, “though it’s not currently clear when that will be,” the post said. WPTZ informed its viewers that it can still be accessed on Comcast, Xfinity and Charter cable systems, as well as Dish and DirecTV satellite services, as well as through streamed through its website and mobile apps.

SPRINGFIELD, MO--Ozarks Public Television, which lost its broadcast tower in April, resulting in the death of one tower worker and injuring three others, has announced that it has secured space for a new tower at an alternative site in Springfield, Mo., with plans to begin operations in 2-3 weeks at the new site.

In the April 19 accident, tower crew members were working on the 2,000 foot tower to transition the Missouri State University-owned PBS affiliate KOZK-TV in Fordland, Mo., to a new channel when it collapsed. The work was part of an industry-wide channel repack resulting from the 2017 spectrum auctions. Most OTA viewers in the Springfield area lost access to the broadcast signal, although the university has been using a combination of cable and satellite to deliver a low-power signal from the Missouri State University campus in the interim. OPT said it now provides KOZK’s signal to approximately 70 percent of its viewing audience.

Although the new tower will “significantly increase” the station’s OTA coverage, OPT said some communities will still be without a signal with full restoration of the signal expected in several more months.

“Our intent, and our top priority, is returning OPT service to our entire viewing area,” OPT said. “While this is a complex task with many technical, logistical, and regulatory hurdles, we are working diligently to accomplish it as quickly as is possible. We cannot overstate how much we appreciate the support, patience, and kindness of our viewers and supporters as we work through this challenging situation.”

For all our news on the ongoing repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.

A year ago, the National Association of Broadcasters released a video explaining the implications of the channel repack that nearly 1,000 U.S. TV broadcasters are undergoing after the spectrum auctions. The video was designed to inform the public about a complex, dangerous project and how difficult it would be to complete within the 39 months provided by the FCC. In addition to the financial burdens, it emphasized the technical and logistical challenges faced by tower companies.

“There’s no easy template for this work,” a spokesman in the video said. “It’s hard, expensive and dangerous. There are only a handful of companies in America that can do it safely, and there are nearly 1,000 stations to be moved. Unfortunately the math doesn’t add up. Stations are being forced to move without the time and money to do it successfully.”

We are now seeing some potentially tragic results that could come with a deadline that many warned was unreasonable. Last month, Steve Lemay, owner of a Washington-based tower company was killed and three of his crew members were injured when the 1,980-foot tower for Ozarks Public Television station KOZK-TV in Fordland, Mo., collapsed. TV Technology extends our condolences to Lemay’s family and colleagues over this terrible accident.

[Read: Missouri TV Tower Collapses]

Lemay was working on a $3.4 million project to repack KOZK’s channel from 23 to 16. Lemay and his crew were only 100 feet up the tower, attempting to reinforce the structure when the accident occurred. At press time, the station has returned to cable and satellite and is broadcasting on a limited temporary site.

Lemay is the fourth tower worker to lose his life working on a broadcast tower since channel repack work commenced a year ago. In September, three members of a tower crew lost their lives while working on a 1,250-foot TV tower in Miami Gardens, Fla. It has since been confirmed that both the Miami Gardens and Fordland accidents were a result of work done on the repack. To put this into perspective, there were eight tower deaths in 2017 (three which resulted from repack work), and two so far in 2018 (one from repack work), while in 2016, there were seven overall, according to wirelessestimator.com.

Lemay was considered a consummate professional by his peers and had 25 years’ experience in the tower business; the accident is under investigation so we don’t yet know what was the cause. However, what we do know is that despite tower crews taking all the necessary safety precautions, four deaths have occurred in less than a year due to this work and it may be time for the FCC to reconsider its timeline. We may never be able to say directly that a rushed repack schedule played a role in these tragedies; but any responsible observer could conclude that it’s possible — and that taking more time in this process in the interest of safety is the prudent course. Although some funding has been added to the repack budget earlier this year, the commission should also look into extending the deadline to allow for more flexibility in scheduling tower work before more workers get injured or lose their lives.

“The concern a lot of people have about the repack is that the timeframe is based on everything going right,” Iowa Public Television Director of Engineering and TV Technology contributor Bill Hayes told Current. “The fact is, there are so few crews that are capable of doing this work safely and they’re going to be stretched thin. Something has to give and the hope is that what’s going to give is the timeline.”

Hayes added that without extensions to the schedule, “you can be gambling at best with the reliability of your station’s service, and at worst you’re gambling with people’s lives.”

We couldn’t agree more. OSHA ranks tower work as “the most dangerous job in America.” It’s up to the FCC to consider that fact and reevaluate its repack deadlines.

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MIAMI GARDENS, FLA.—On Wednesday afternoon, three tower workers were killed after scaffolding on the television tower for WSVN Channel 7 and WPLG TV Channel 10 collapsed, according to reports by Miami Patch and Local 10 News. The workers were from Texas-based Tower King II and were contracted to upgrade the transmission lines and antennas of the tower to comply with the FCC repack.

“They were removing gear at the top of the tower to install a new TV antenna for Channel 7,” said Steve Ellis, the assistant chief engineer for WPLG TV, in a live broadcast after the accident. “When they were removing this gear, bringing down the second piece—what they call the gin pole lifting device collapsed, sadly taking the life of it looks like three tower workers.” Ellis said that the gin pole was about 960 feet above ground.

Lt. Lay Felipe of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue estimated that the workers fell between 300 and 400 feet.

It is not yet known what caused the collapse, though WPLG TV reported that it observed frayed wires near the top of the tower from its Sky 10 helicopter. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is expected to visit the site on Thursday.

The tower was completed in 2009, per WPLG TV.

For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.

WASHINGTON—FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly thinks thousands of tower owners in the United States were caught up unintentionally in a rule change recently made by Congress. He thinks the change could cause expensive, unnecessary retrofits, so he is recommending tweaks.

In a blog post, O’Rielly said he believes Section 2110 of the FAA Extension, Safety and Security Act of 2016, which requires improved physical markings and/or lighting on small to medium size towers (between 50 and 200 feet), is too broad and could cause unnecessary spending for communication industries.

“Generally, I have avoided critiquing legislation passed by Congress without invitation,” the commissioner wrote. “This is an attempt to highlight a potential unintended consequence, rather than criticism.”

He said that Section 2110 apparently was intended to address dangers to small, low-flying aircraft like crop dusters from structures like temporary meteorological testing towers; but he says language in the provision has far broader consequences.

“If implemented literally, the provision will force expensive retrofits to potentially 50,000 existing towers, such as wireless communications and certain broadcast towers, all new towers that meet the broad definition, and raise tower prices for the next generation of wireless services — all with little gain to air safety,” the commissioner wrote.

O’Rielly estimates that this could cost communications companies thousands of dollars per tower to come into compliance. In addition, the cost could impede development of 5G wireless services, the incentive spectrum auction and implementation of ATSC 3.0, especially in the rural areas where this provision would have the most effect.

He also called it “perplexing” that some technologies are exempted while permanent and non-moving communications towers appear not to be. “In particular, is there any data suggesting wireless or broadcast towers are more susceptible to be air safety hazards than towers used for electric utility transmission or wind turbines? It would seem appropriate that communications towers should be treated similarly to those structures,” he wrote.

While new marking and/or lighting burdens for certain temporary towers is a laudable goal, he concluded, the new provision may have been drafted more broadly than intended and unnecessarily affected communications towers that have little overall impact on agricultural air safety.

“Taken together, it would seem that a small legislative fix to clearly exempt these towers or require the FAA administrator to do so would be appropriate.”

SAN FRANCISCO—Sutro Tower, home to nearly a dozen Bay Area TV stations, has retained the services of Osborn Engineering, a Cleveland-based engineering consulting firm, to study the effects that the FCC’s upcoming spectrum auction and channel repacking will have on Sutro Tower Inc., which manages the structure and the leasing and use of its spaces.

The FCC plans to hold a reverse auction of broadcast television spectrum in 2016 with plans to auction it off to the wireless industry. Depending on their status after the auction, many stations remaining on air will have their channels repacked or shared for more efficient operation and reception.

“The FCC DTV Spectrum Auction and Repacking of tenants at San Francisco’s iconic and complex Sutro Tower structure has prompted the owners to accelerate future planning,” Sutro Tower said in a statement, which added that “this massive undertaking is now underway.”

Osborn will examine FCC regulations, proposed coverage patterns, as well as the option of switching some stations to VHF, and other equipment reconfiguration concerns at the existing site and possible new sites including DTS/Same Frequency Network scenarios. Osborn will coordinate its reports to match the FCC’s early 2016 anticipated auction schedule and repack. It will also take into consideration the effects that the ATSC 3.0 standard could have on channel repacking or sharing.

The two engineers from Osborn Engineering—Don Archiable, executive vice president and director Technical Architecture, Engineering and Technology, and Mark G. Fehlig, P.E., CPBE senior engineer of RF Spectrum—led the FCC DTV Auction efforts and are described by the company as “seasoned broadcasters and as well as architects and engineers with decades of experience with major networks and manufacturers.” Eric Dausman, vice president and chief operating officer for Sutro Tower, has a long industry record, including technical management positions with the NBC Television Network, WNBC‐TV New York, and KGW‐TV Portland, Ore.