Maine Broadcast Tower Collapses

A 550 foot guyed tower owned by Saga Communications of New England, LLC and used by Portland Maine FM stations WMGX and WYNZ collapsed Thursday afternoon. The WMGX Web site carried a story by Justin Ellis and David Hench from the Portland Press Herald Radio tower crashes down with pictures of the fallen tower. The

Author:: TVTechnology
Updated:: Feb 23, 2018
Original:: Dec 15, 2003

A 550 foot guyed tower owned by Saga Communications of New England, LLC and used by Portland Maine FM stations WMGX and WYNZ collapsed Thursday afternoon. The WMGX Web site carried a story by Justin Ellis and David Hench from the Portland Press Herald Radio tower crashes down with pictures of the fallen tower. The story said the tower was built in 1986 and that when the tower collapsed the weather was rain with winds peaking at 35 mph. The collapse appeared to have been due to failure of a guy wire.

In addition to FM stations WMGX and WYNZ, Saga Communications owns WPOR-FM and four AM radio stations in Portland. Both WMGX and WYNZ were able to get back on the air Friday using on of the other Saga Communications' towers.

The Portland Press Herald said preliminary inspections indicated the 540-foot tower in Portland Maine used by FM stations WMGX and WYNZ collapsed "because metal in the structure's anchoring system had corroded in marshy soil and its guy wires were no longer secure." RF Report reader Mike Leonard in Portland, commenti

The tower was built in 1965 and its guy wires were being repaired when it fell. Fortunately, there was only a single minor injury as a result of the collapse.

KLTV, the ABC affiliate in Tyler, Texas, reported that its main broadcast tower collapsed the morning of Feb. 3. The tower was located near the Red Springs community about 10 miles north of Tyler. Residents around the tower reported hearing the sound of metal crashing around 7:30 a.m., the same time KLTV went off the

This 1964-foot tower in Scottsbluf, Neb., collasped last week killing two contracters and injuring several people on the ground. (Photo provided courtesy

A 2000-foot TV tower 20 miles south of Little Rock, Ark., fell Jan. 11. One person was said to suffer minor injuries.

Regulatory and Standards

At approximately 2:50 a.m. PST, Nov. 29, the upper section of 500 foot transmitting tower used by Spokane, Wash. PBS member station KSPS-TV collapsed, taking that station and another station sharing tower space off the air. According to station engineers, the new antenna being used for DTV transmissions apparently s

It will take at least six months to figure out why a 985-foot TV tower collapsed last week in Huntsville, Ala., taking three lives, according to Occupational Health and Safety Administration officials in that district. The weather was reported clear and calm when the tower, used by WAAY Channel 31, came down around 1 p

The engineers were about halfway up the tower when the collapse began.