Creepy Abandoned TV Station

Last month, I wrote about abandoned radio stations.

Here's an abandoned TV station. KVVV-TV Channel 16, Galveston, TX has been off the air since 1969.

Here is what remains.......

http://s220.beta.photobucket.com/user/InvisibleTexan/library/RUINS%20OF%20KVVV-TV%2016

Abandoned Radio Stations

Radio stations are a unique breed. Some of them sign on the air and gain instant success, some never amount to much. Or until they are bought and transformed by another entity. And there are those that just simply fall by the wayside.

Every major city has a few AM radio stations that were once popular 40-50 years ago that have gone through countless ownership/call letter/format changes and now languish as unknown ethnic, religious, Radio Disney, sports or fourth string talk formats. The intentions of the owners were good. A new and untried format. Or a stab at competing with the heritage local station with a different spin on their format. But somehow, fate had other plans.

Let's look at a few of those who somehow just fell apart and their remains still stand.......

WHOW 1520 AM Clinton, IL 

Probably the very best (and rare) example of a radio station that has gone to hell.....and BACK to tell about it.

Photo by Tim Messer -  http://photos.tmesser.com/v/radio/whow/

I don't know what the hell happened in here. But Casey Kasem never did it this way. Note the ashtray on the console and dig that Radio Shack mixing board .......

Please note the station had signed off in 2002, about the time these pictures were taken. Note the lack of computer equipment in the WHOW on-air studio. Virtually ALL radio stations in 2002 - including most of the smallest, had fully digital computer controlled automation by that time.) Not WHOW.

There is what appears to be an elderly computer mouse on top of that 1970's vintage automatic record changer you see in the first picture and it's quite possible all the computer equipment was taken out from it. But how many stations played their programming off cassette tapes in 2002? There a LOT of those you can see there, including cassette player - an ancient 1990s ghetto blaster! Most small stations like WHOW rarely, if ever played cassettes in 2002. It just wasn't a suitable quality medium for radio programming 

In fact, cassettes were rarely used in most commercial radio stations beyond recording news bites, occasional public service/religious programs (usually speech), and for DJs to record "airchecks" (a kind of live sampling of how they sound over the air to play for radio stations that hire them....or not., with all the music cut out and just the DJ's monologues and some commercials recorded.) Even THAT had gone to CD-Rs by the early 2000s in most parts of the country, as they were recorded onto hard disk and edited digitally by then.

Today, WHOW is back with modern facilities and runs a News/Talk format with an emphasis on farming news.

There's more....

WISL 1480 AM, Shamokin, PA

Photo by Jim Treese

There's an old gutted tape automation system back there and what appears to be a cart recorder deck and a reel to reel tape deck.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82847&id=660789285&l=f9c85fd27a

WISL was an Oldies station in central Pennsylvania. It left the air in 2003 after it was sold to Clear Channel and a subsequent sale to another broadcaster who could not afford to keep the station on the air and the station's license expired in 2006. The station was officially deleted from the FCC database in 2008. However WISL remains online as a tribute internet radio station  - http://www.wisl1480.com/

KOME 1300 AM Tulsa, OK

Photos by Jim Hartz - Tulsa TV Memories http://www.flickr.com/photos/tulsatv/sets/72157621986456279/

KOME in Tulsa was off the air by 1965 (although the Stetson Hats poster in the studio here looks oddly '80s vintage), the KOME call letters were used a few years later for a rock station in San Jose, CA. However the remains of the KOME station building in Tulsa remain. AM 1300 in Tulsa is now KAKC, an all sports station.

WCHR 94.5 FM Trenton, NJ

WCHR is a religious radio station in Trenton, NJ which currently broadcasts on 920 AM.  WCHR originally broadcast on 94.5 FM. But left the FM dial in 1998 and after a number of call letter/format changes 94.5 is now WPST an Adult Contemporary radio station. This is the former WCHR station building.

KSVY 1550 AM, Opportunity, WA

Photo by Bill Harms

KSVY was an Oldies (later Classical) music station located in the Spokane suburb of Opportunity, WA. The photo above is the remains of the trailer that held their transmitter.

http://radiotowers.info/wa/spok/ksvy/ (You can hear samples of KSVY here.)

Here's the remains of one station in Alabama:

http://rural-ruin.livejournal.com/815925.html

More:

Conelrad Radio

Conelrad was a civil radio alert system used in the early '50s to the '60s. If the Russians ever decided to press the button, you could tune your radio to the nationwide Conelrad frequencies, 640 or 1240 kHz on the AM side of the radio dial and get instructions on how to save yourself and yours from the ensuing fallout. AM radios of that era had tiny inverted triangles on their dials marking the dial positions of Conelrad stations.

You can actually identify any American radio made between 1953 and 1963. Just look for the Conelrad markers. Usually an inverted triangle. But some were inverted triangles in circles.....

The Conelrad stations were the direct predecessors of the annoying EAS data bursts you hear on the radio today.  They were originally a civil defense method of warning radio listeners in the event of a nuclear attack.

There was no music or lite talk on Conelrad stations. They were strictly for emergency information.

One of the biggest questions I get asked is why were Conelrad stations on those frequencies? And why weren't any on FM?

First, all but two broadcast frequencies (all other AM radio stations, including TV and FM stations) were required to go off the air FM radio was still in it's infancy. Most radios were AM only and in the '50s, FM had very few listeners by comparison. TV was also still fairly new and TV wouldn't reach coast to coast and ubiquitous in homes until the early '60s. These wouldn't be the best mediums to inform the public of a national emergency. Secondly, the nature of FM/TV broadcasting would make these stations "sitting ducks" for enemy aircraft with radio direction finding. 

It was through radio direction finding that Japanese aircraft were able to attack Pearl Harbor by homing in on the signal of KGU, Honolulu.

The 640 and 1240 AM frequencies were selected to confuse enemy aircraft RDF. One radio station would broadcast for a few seconds go off the air, then change over to the next station in a chain that would alternate between 640 and 1240. By doing this, it would be very difficult for enemy aircraft with RDF to get a "lock" on any signal accurately.

And yes, there were some actual radio stations on these frequencies. 640 was occupied by 50,000 watt radio stations KFI Los Angeles and WGST Atlanta and 1240 (which was occupied by many lower power 1,000 watt radio stations.)  

It looked brilliant in theory. But in practice, it was pretty clumsy. Higher power radio transmitters (especially the older ones at some radio stations.) weren't made to be shut on and off like that and some transmitters failed. 

     
Conelrad was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System when missiles could be launched instead of dropped from airplanes. Where designated radio stations in each area served as the primary EBS radio stations. Stations in surrounding areas would relay these broadcasts over their signals or would refer the listeners to tune to the originating station. They also broadened their services to include emergency information of severe weather or man-made/natural disasters.

Here's a video tape from 1990 that explains how the EBS worked on the radio/TV station level.

Under the EAS system of today, ALL radio stations regardless of signal reach or MUST participate. The EAS also provides Amber Alerts for missing kids as well as other emergency information.   

This site archives the endless sights and sounds of this nervous era. If you're old enough to remember the Cold War, you'll be in for a really cool flashback and if you're not, welcome to the bomb shelter....

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php