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Ice causes 2 TV towers to collapse

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Ice causes 2 TV towers to collapse By MICHAEL HADDIGAN Staff writer Two Raleigh TV transmission towers broke apart and crashed to the ground Sunday morning when tons of shifting ice fell® from supporting guy wires, causing the towers to sway violently and collapse. The towers for WPTF-TV, channel 28, and WRAL-TV, channel 5, in Raleigh are in a rural area near Auburn off U.S. 70, south of Raleigh. Both stations went off the air immediately, but returned later in the day with makeshift operations. There were no injuries, but the stations suffered millions of dollars in damage. Contractors at the scene said that thick ice had coated the towers and 1 supporting wires during the weekend winter storm. In Sunday morning's sunshine, however, the ice began melting and shifting. The guy wires sagged, placing increased tension on 1 the towers, which broke apart and fell in sections. Stations on cable As of Sunday night, WPTF. TV and WRAL TV were being shown on their normal channels on most cable systems. WRAL was being broadcast over channel 40, pre-empting programs from WKFT-TV of Fayetteville, but WPTF was not available to viewers without cable. The television listings on page 6D in today's News and Observer were printed before any arrangements were made to restore over-the-air service. "They just started doing the watusi and then they came down," said Billy Williams of Panama City, Fla., one of several contractors working in the area Staff photo by Roger Winstead WPTF-TV operations director Chuck Britt uses a telephone repairman's telephone to talk with his Raleigh office. He is standing amid the rubble that was the 2,000-foot WPTF-TV tower and the transmitter building See TV TOWERS, page 12A
Article from 11 Dec 1989The News and Observer(Raleigh, NC)
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