luv my dayton
210 posts
Jan 15, 2013
10:34 AM
|
Don't know if any of you have been by the old WHIO station on Wilmington Ave. but if you don't have pictures you at least better have a fairly good memory as its torn down and nothing left. Who knows what will be put in there next. Would make some sense to put a small grocery or something to help the people out around that area who have to go way out of the way to even get groceries. Becoming a city thats hard to do business in especially if you have no transportation.
|
Steve K
204 posts
Jan 25, 2013
4:35 PM
|
The company that's removing the tower at WHIO is in town. They have a sign up at one of the construction entrances, and there are a couple 500ft steel cables running up to the top of the tower. I suspect that the tower will be completely gone by the end of the week, maybe sooner.
|
Mark1984
69 posts
Jan 25, 2013
6:01 PM
|
I can, for now, see the top of the tower when I stand in the middle of my street in Linden Heights. It was always one of my reference points to find my way around Dayton years ago. Who needed GPS.
|
Steve K
205 posts
Jan 26, 2013
7:51 AM
|
Just stopped across the street from WHIO about 10am this morning (Saturday). There were three guys about 400 feet up the tower installing the the fixture that will allow them to begin removing parts of the tower. They look very small up there (and cold).
|
Perry401
106 posts
Jan 26, 2013
11:50 AM
|
I read that part of the tower or antenna will be taken to Carillon park for permanent display. Does anyone know if this is true?
The original building and studios were built around 1947 and I am sure that there were many issues with them that made them not practical for a modern TV station AND radio facilitys for several stations. There may have been asbestos and other issues that needed to be dealt with too.
If you ever were in the building in the last 20 years you would have seen how the various additions and remodeling had chopped the space into odd sizes and shapes that would be hard to rent to anyone without extensive and expensive remodeling. In addition, there were at least three floor level changes within the building and some oddly angled walls. Some of these were essential features when the building was built as one of the nations first "from the ground up" TV stations, but the small original building, various additions, and odd triangle shaped lot with inadequate parking made the contiued use of the building by WHIO and COX Media impractical, and also makes the building practically unsellable and unleaseable except for similar radio or TV station use.
Tearing down this tower however does not make a lot of sense in light of all the local stations that could use the 500+ feet tower for their antennas. It is possible to put several radio and/or TV antennas on a tower this tall, and some of the smaller stations might have been able to relocate transmitters here.
A realtor I know told me that Cox Media (who owns WHIO) had put a stipulation in the sales contract that would have prevented the building or tower from being used by any "competing" Radio or TV station. There supposedly were several parties interested in taking over the building for use as a radio station with studios and at least one serious TV station proposal for a local low-power station, but these would have not met with the restriction on competition placed in the sales contract. After trying for over two years to sell or lease the building for non-broadcast uses, there was little left to do but tear it down or permit the use by a potential competitor -- something Cox absolutely refused to do -- so down the building came.
There was talk at one time to move the Ohio Museum of Broadcast History (?) into this building, but they wanted to stay in the Columbus area.
Without an active transmiter operating on the tower, demolition of the tower is about the only practical solution. FCC regulation would have permitted cell phone antennas, and local business applications (like communication antennas for delivery services and local police, etc.) but these would have been limited probably to a maximum height of 100 - 200 feet above the ground, leaving the top two thirds of the tower un-used.
There is a real cost in owning a broadcast tower. I know a man who at one time owned a tower near Yellow Springs that I think is now used by WYSO. He told me about all the costs which included upkeep (Almost $100,000 for painting), electricity for the warning lights and lamp replacement (perhaps $1000 per month -- it costa a lot to have someone climb to the top to change the light bulbs), liability insurance, security systems to keep people off the tower, etc.
Maintaining the tower with nobody present on-site 24-7 is a real problem. I am sure WHIO had various alarms and possibly regular drive-bys to check for unauthorized tower visits after they moved to their new facilities. There also are some locals who worry the tower would "fall on my house" is "ugly" and who have voiced concerns that the tower "attracts" lightning to the neighborhood.
Still, there is no reason that the tower could not have been maintained and a small building (or a section of the original building) used for transmitters for other stations other than Cox Media's fear of selling or leasing to a competitor who then might get a bigger share of the market.
I'm sure that after 60+ years of use, the building and tower had been paid off an
|
Perry401
109 posts
Jan 27, 2013
1:38 AM
|
Tall, free standing antenna towers are almost never built now, except in congested urban areas. Most modern antennas require huge lots with acres and acres of land for the guy wires. These guy wires are a constant threat to aviation and on most towers if one is damaged or breaks, the tower is likely to fall. Very few free standing towers line the WHIO Wilmington tower have ever fallen, unless actually hit by an airplane.
I am sure once the tower is gone, the Air Force will be able to change runway approach patterns and the people in the Kettering area near the old tower site will find more heavy military planes flying in their area (they now usually fly over the University of Dayton area).
|
Mark1984
79 posts
Feb 12, 2013
3:57 AM
|
If you haven't been down Wilmington Ave lately. Channel 7's tower is totally gone.
|
blue J
70 posts
Feb 12, 2013
1:50 PM
|
I haven't been over in that area for a little while, and I didn't know the antenna was coming down. What a shame.
As far as good memories of the old WHIO building are concerned, I have vivid memories of going down there with my mother. Some of the commercials she did were shot in the same studio where the news was broadcast- sort of over to the left of where the weather was at that time, they had a large enough space for backdrops, etc...I remember feeling the heat of the lights in the studio; I remember my mother introducing me to the reporters and the on-air broadcasters of the day who she knew- Don Wayne, Jim Baldridge, and Gil Whitney I remember meeting, and I was awed by it because I the only time I had ever seen them was on TV, of course!
I remember what it smelled like in the control room...I remember the sound of the hum of the editing machines and so forth...all good memories.
|
Calhoun
102 posts
Feb 12, 2013
8:03 PM
|
In the early 70s, WHIO AM had a radio personality by the name of Joe Waldman(sp?) who led a group of station on-air talent in a team trivia contest on Friday nights. I know Gil Whitney was part of the WHIO team, can't remember the others.
A group of us from Beavercreek HS (four students and a young English teacher) lost our match with the WHIO team on a late baseball question. My buddy who "missed" the question swore for years he was right and the guy from WHIO was wrong.
Last Edited by Calhoun on Feb 12, 2013 8:05 PM
|
pie8me
130 posts
Feb 13, 2013
10:01 AM
|
The tower is about halfway gone now. They removed the crane type thingie that was attached to the tower and are using a very big mobile crane to finish up. That sucker is tall...say something like 300 feet. On work breaks I go out back and watch them. I am close enough to hear them talking but can't make out what they say. Except for the cuss words...those come through loud and clear. Something must of happend because one of the workers got worked up and let loose a string of profanity that would curl your toes. Cracked me up....
|
Syxpack
51 posts
Feb 14, 2013
10:31 AM
|
Thanks donw for the wonderful last photo of this landmark. Because of my medical problems and age, I haven't been able to get over there for a last look.
|
AllenN71
411 posts
Feb 22, 2013
6:44 PM
|
WHIO always had one of the clearest AM signals in the nation. Back in the late 70s when I was driving a hack in Alexandria with only an AM radio; when ionospheric conditions were right I could pick up WHIO even here in Virginia.
Mainly Rush Limbaugh was responsible for the resurgence of AM radio, under a bridge inaudible but clear as a bell across hundreds of miles of open country. Now Rush and others have taken up residence on the FM spectrum, AM's long distance potential being duplicated and improved by - for a start - "I Heart Radio" The antennae are now not hundreds of feet but dozens of miles high.
But they are called "satellites". And the disconnection fron Terra Firma is, sad to say, more than symbolic.
The flashing red beacons from those old radio masts served to remind those who flew above us that we down here on the ground were still a force to be reckoned with. To us on the ground they provided a comforting and colorful counterpoint to the winkling of the stars. And to the high-flying jet-setters and their pilots, they provided a sort of "sic transit gloria".
In the day, they were looked on as visible symbols of Man's inventive wit. Now and increasingly we are being asked to take the benefits of some far-off satellite for granted.
In one of my first posts here I quoted John Lennon's lyrics from "in my life". They remain apt:
"There are places I remember,
Some the same; and some have changed;
Some forever, not for better;
SOME HAVE GONE, AND SOME REMAIN"
One less thing remains. How very sad.
|
jamesjohnson1970
3 posts
Mar 31, 2013
7:46 PM
|
I'm sure one more Walmart in that spot would hit the spot. It would be the charm Dayton is missing.
|
pie8me
133 posts
Apr 01, 2013
8:40 AM
|
Lot is too small for a Walmart. It could be used for another CVS, Family Dollar or Payday Loan place...you know, stuff we really need.... ;(
|
maxed out
395 posts
Apr 01, 2013
10:32 AM
|
I worked and grew up near Dayton... many great memories that I won't forget.AND.. I won't post anything negative because of my fond memories. My job in Dayton was where I made my living when I was much younger (DPL) and I spent much of my time enjoying the clubs and shopping there. Many firsts happened for me in Dayton when I was in high school. Dayton may not be what it was when I grew up there, but it is still #1 in my mind....
Last Edited by maxed out on Apr 02, 2013 3:42 AM
|
jamesjohnson1970
4 posts
Apr 01, 2013
6:33 PM
|
I heard that, Pie. Nothing like more drugs, Chinese crap, and 500% loans.
|
Susan63
26 posts
May 21, 2014
6:25 PM
|
I heard from a friend that Lou Emm haunted the old WHIO building. Wonder if he is haunted the empty land it was on now?????
|
