I’m sure many readers will agree with me that tower sites can be a thing of beauty—for instance the string of red lights on South Mountain at night in Phoenix; the sight that meets the traveler when flying into Houston’s Hobby Airport past the Missouri City antenna farm and its 2,000-foot towers; the stubby, rugged towers on Sandia Crest above Albuquerque; a lone tall tower in the middle of a field in West Texas; and, of course, Mount Wilson with its towers of many unique styles tightly packed around buildings erected by the pioneers of FM radio and TV in southern California. These are just a few examples I can think of. It was refreshing to see an article “Network towers over Corning” by Larry Wilson from the Corning, N.Y. bureau of the Star-Gazette.
Wilson starts the article saying, “On a remote hillside overlooking Corning, six towers host a stunning array of broadcast services ranged from digital television signals to 911 communications.” He describes the towers one by one, the 800-foot tower carrying the digital signal of WSKG public TV, the 450-foot tower carrying several radio and TV stations as well as translators, and the smaller towers providing cell phone service and communications for Corning Hospital and the New York State Department of Transportation.
The article also focuses on the tower business, where stations no longer own towers but lease them from professional site managers. Included with the article is a photo of the towers and some satellite dishes on the ground. Those readers that appreciate the beauty of tower sites can buy a 16-by-20-inch print of the photo for $48.80 on the Star-Gazette Web site!
