More Towers Downed After Michigan Ice Storm
• Last week we reported on that devastating Northern Michigan ice storm that cut power to some 90,000 area residents and took down the tower of Macdonald Garber Broadcasting Top 40 WKHQ (106 KHQ)/Charlevoix-Traverse City, MI.
At the time, VP of Programming Peter Garber explained that accessing the tower site was a bit dicey. On Friday, he checked in with this update: “We’re up to six towers down due in the area to the ice storm, two of which are ours.” Garber explained that, in addition to the loss of WKHQ’s tower, the tower of AC sister WLXT (Lite 96.3) was discovered lying on the ground Thursday morning when they finally gained access to the transmitter site, navigating around downed trees and power lines. Garber added, “They appear to have buckled under the weight of the ice, which causes them to break somewhere in the middle and collapse on themselves. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
While WKHQ’s tower came down between last Sunday and early Monday morning, they believe the Lite 96.6 tower came down Wednesday and was discovered it Thursday. “Both stations are still off air,” he said, “but at least we’re able to stream now that power and internet have been restored to our studio location.”
We are working on confirming the downing of other company’s towers and will update later.
