KATV Tower

The KATV Tower was a 2000 ft (609.6 m) tall TV mast (or antenna tower) built at Redfield, Arkansas, USA in 1965 at coord|34|28|24.0|N|92|12|11.0|W. Its FCC registration and other sources claim that it was built in 1967, but they are incorrect; ironically, the other television tower near Redfield, the Clear Channel Broadcasting Tower Redfield, also has an incorrect construction date on its FCC registration.

It was the second tallest structure in the world, after the KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, when it was built; in recent years it was tied with 15 other 2000-foot masts, all built after it, as the fifth tallest structure in the world (sixth counting the submerged Petronius Platform).

In addition to the analog and digital transmitters of its namesake KATV, it also hosted the analog transmitter of KETS, the flagship station of the Arkansas Educational Television Network; KETS' digital transmitter is at the nearby Clear Channel Broadcasting Tower Redfield.

On January 11, 2008, at 12:46 PM local time (1846 UTC), the tower collapsed. [http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0108/487185.html] [http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=de8ac5eb-a5a6-40b9-aeb6-7e924c93f618] The cause of the collapse remains unknown at this point. The crew chosen to replace older guy wires, massive cables that keep the structure in place, claim that as they were loosening one of the older guy wires, the structure began to shake and suddenly collapse. Amazingly, no one was injured. The structure broke into 3 pieces as it came crashing down, which was what it was designed to do.

This tower will not be rebuilt. KATV has received City of Little Rock, FAA and FCC approval to build a new tower on Shinall Mountain near the Chenal Valley neighborhood of Little Rock, where Little Rock's other major-network affiliates (KARK-TV, KLRT-TV and KTHV) are located, as well as KATV's temporary analog signal (on KTHV's backup tower) and digital signal (a subchannel of KWBF). [http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0608/528809.html] Though the Shinall Mountain tower will be shorter, the mountain's higher elevation will raise KATV's antenna to a similar overall height.

See also

*List of masts

Image of tower

External links

* [http://www.katv.com/anniversary/getfile.hrb?file=history_timeline.htm KATV station history timeline (shows correct 1965 date)]
* (incorrectly gives 1967 date)
* (incorrectly gives 1967 date and location in South Dakota)
* [http://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b7096 Skyscraperpage.com diagram (incorrectly gives 1967 date)]
* http://www.terraserver-usa.com/GetImageArea.ashx?t=1&s=10&lon=-92.203056&lat=34.473333&w=600&h=400&b=2&bc=ff000000&g=2&gc=80ff0000&f=&fs=12&fc=ffffffff&logo=1&lp=--- None ---
* http://arkansasmatters.com/content/fulltext/?sid=5bed024d1524eb1541b4551811e625d9&cid=64106
* (for Shinall Mountain replacement)