Radio station baffled after 200-foot radio tower disappears
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A radio station is on standby after thieves somehow stole a 200-foot radio tower in Alabama.
No one’s sure how the ambitious bandits made off with the heavy steel structure, WJLX station general manager Brett Elmore told WBRC.
“I have tried all weekend to figure it out, and I just can’t,” Elmore told the TV station.
“I have been in the radio business, around it all my life and then in it professionally for 26 years, and I can say I have never heard of anything like this,” he added. “I can say I’ve seen it all now.”
Elmore learned of the theft on Friday when a landscaping crew went to the rural tower site to maintain the property, but there wasn’t much left to maintain.
“When he arrived, he called me Friday and said, ‘The tower is gone,’” The station manager explained.
“I said, ‘What do you mean the tower is gone? Are you sure you are at the right place?’ He said, ‘The tower is gone. There is wires everywhere, and it is gone.’”
Thieves dismantled the tower by cutting the wires that secured the tower and also stole other equipment from the property, Elmore said in a post to Facebook.
Elmore said the radio station will work to rebuild the tower, but Elmore wants thieves to know — loud and clear — that he will work with investigators to find out who committed the puzzling federal crime.
“This really hurts a small operation like this, but like I said, I believe we will find out who did this,” he said. “It is a federal crime and it absolutely will not be worth it to them.”
If caught, the suspects would face a fine or up to 10 years in prison.
The Jasper-based radio station used the tower for its AM radio channel, Elmore said.
Elmore said WJLX was able to get temporary authority from the FCC to continue broadcasting its AM channel through other means.
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