3 ND Stations Struggle With Downed Towers

Two North Dakota radio stations went off the air Wednesday evening when their broadcasting tower northeast of Dickinson collapsed after the ground beneath it shifted, said Jeff Glaser, Dickinson Clear Channel Radio business manager.

Country 99.1 FM KCAD and Rock 92.1 FM KZRX have returned to air with low power and a temporary tower.  The two stations hope to be back-up to full power by the end of the weekend.

“The shifting took place on an anchor that pulled the tower down,” Glaser told The Dickinson Press. “I think it’s more of a sink.
“There’s cracks up there and it almost kind of looks like an earthquake.”

The incident is believed to have been caused by saturated soil, Glaser said.

Parts of the tower landed on a nearby transmitter building, causing minor damage, he added. The tower isn’t salvageable, since it broke into several parts on its way down, Glaser said.

“There’s pieces all over the place,” he said. “That thing is busted, bent, twisted, everything. It’s gone.”

Meanwhile in Fargo, 970 AM WDAY radio was back on the air Thursday at reduced power after being silenced because of Monday’s windstorm.

The high winds and storms damaged all three WDAY-AM 970 radio tow-ers, toppling one over.

WDAY Operations Manager Susan Eider said the station was able to get back 40 percent of its power around 5 p.m. Thursday.

“We’re hopefully going to be able to increase that power as time goes on,” Eider told The Forum of Fargo.