Residents of neighborhoods near Sutro Tower in San Francisco and around the new broadcast tower on Lookout Mountain in Colorado may not appreciate the beauty of these structures, but the news last week that the Sears Tower may become the Willis Tower has met with strong opposition from many residents of Chicago. They see the tower, with its twin masts on top supporting antennas for most of Chicago's TV broadcasters, as a landmark and object to the name change.
Willis Group is leasing 140,000 square feet of space in the building and will have naming rights to the tower.
While the official name may change to Willis Tower, I suspect most of the engineers working on transmitters in the building will continue to call it the "Sears" Tower, as will many long-time Chicago residents.
Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. He has been with NBC since 1985 and is currently vice president of broadcast technology for NBC/Telemundo stations.
