Thursday, December 11, 2014

ME Radio: Wind Storm Knocks WMDR Off-Air

The 200-foot tower of WMDR 88.9 FM in Oakland ME, collapsed Wednesday morning in a windstorm atop Streaked Mountain, just east of Paris, Maine.

Scott Fybush at NERW reports it was a scary day for engineer Joel Eppley. He told NERW that conditions were so foggy that after hiking up the icy hill past trees that blocked the road, he still couldn’t see the bent-over tower until he was practically atop it.

Eppley says the custom 10-bay Shively directional antenna had been put into service less than a year ago, and that station owner Light of Life Ministries doesn’t have an auxiliary site in service for the 100 kW/1282′ C0 signal that serves much of western Maine.

For now, “God’s Country 88.9″ is off the air while Eppley works out a plan to get it back in service, at least at reduced power. The tower collapsed within a tight 50-foot radius, as it was designed to do, and the transmitter shack appears relatively undamaged, but the big challenge now for the station is a basic one: clearing the road so that there’s any kind of vehicle access to the site at all.

WMDR 88.9 FM (100Kw) 60dBu Coverage
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