Helicopter view of the curtain antenna array falling.
On Friday, I spent the afternoon at the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station (a.k.a. VOA Site B) in Greenville, NC.
While there, I was told that the VOA Site A towers, which have long been abandoned, were slated to be demolished this morning. Here’s the report from local NBC TV station WITN:
(Source: WITN)
BEAUFORT COUNTY, NC (WITN) – A series of implosions is all it took to bring down 48 radio towers that have been a part of U.S. history for over 50 years.
It happened Monday morning at the old Voice of America Site A in Beaufort County.
Not used since 2006, the VOA site was sold to Beaufort County as surplus U.S. property.
Environmental Holdings Group of Morrisville teamed up with Controlled Demolition Incorporated to implode and haul off the 48 towers.
It took less than a minute for it all to come down.
Voice of America still broadcasts from Site B to Latin America, Cuba, the Caribbean, and Africa.
Click here to read the full article and watch the video at WITN.
Ok, but why were the towers toppled? Were they no longer used? Did not the VOA decrease its range?!
The towers had not been used for years as Site A had been decommissioned years ago. Site “B” or the Edward R Murrow Transmitting Station is still staffed and in active use.
The BBC is starting AGAIN their SW services because of what happened in Ukraine and in Cremea so why VOA scrapped their towers??? because they are broadcasting on the Internet ,,,.
This is VOA International affairs yes but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
In the next 4-5 years short waves radio may well be an alternative too many country because of the censorship in Europe.
VOA towers were alos a source of Informations if a desaster would occured but these days everyone is counting on Internet and cell phone too save,inform them,,,,,,biggest error just like they are trowing out of radio site many ham radio association.
Gef
it could not be for the price of scrap the price of scrap has plummeted down to about $four dollars per hundred pounds, hardly worth retrieving they will spend as much on hauling it off and demolishing it than it is worth,,
Well i am a listener,,was a listener at VOA on Short Waves and now this.So VOA wont transmit on air waves anymore?? what happenning at the Voices of Freedom in this country??
Shamefull,,
Site A was a receiver site. Transmitters are/were Sites B and C.
Yes, Site B (now the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station) is very much in operation. I just posted a few photos I took there on April 1:
https://swling.com/blog/2016/04/edward-r-murrow-shortwave-transmitting-station-wallpaper-images/
-Thomas
I found this tonight…
The actual demo company’s video, multiple views…
Just so sad & I had seen this array a few times… I have never seen an antenna demo on this scale.
A “better” perspective of how all 48 VOA towers went down
So sad; reminds me of the rush to tear down the CBC site in Sackville when the body was still warm. Also reminds me of the rush to tear up all the streetcar tracks in my (long past) youth to promote the use of the automobile instead of mass transit. Are people in (the economic right) power afraid that we might start using shortwave again instead of the blockable internet? Perhaps the scrap metal value was worth the destruction…
Sorry for goof up. Site C was the receiving site. A and B were transmitting sites. I don’t know if B is still running.