Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tracy Wood, who writes:
Photos of former VOA Delano. All the towers are gone now… How sad.
Note that the smoke is from all of those California fires.
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The VOA Bethany relay station was located in West Chester, Ohio. At its peak the facility had six transmitters broadcasting on a Clear Channel with 250 kW and two transmitting with 50 kW. The transmitters were built by Powel Crosley Jr.’s Crosley Broadcasting Corporation about one mile west of the company’s tower for WLW-AM in Mason, Ohio.
The facility was closed on November 14, 1994; because of changing technologies, the transmissions shifted to satellites. The towers were brought down from December 1997 to February 1998.
The 30,000 sq. ft. former Bethany Station building has been transformed into the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting, a historical center about the history of The Voice of America, Powel Crosley Jr. and radio and television.
The facility features displays and interactive experiences that relate the story of the Voice of America and incorporate other related collections from Media Heritage and the Gray History of Wireless Museum in Cincinnati.
Displays include the radio station control room, re-creations of radio and television studios from the 1920s through the present, Old-time radio memorabilia and from the early days of television, and displays about area pioneers in the development of radio technology.
An amateur radio club, West Chester Amateur Radio Association, operates a ham station using the callsign WC8VOA. The facility has extended hours during Hamvention for visitors to tour the museum and operate the station.
I visited last year & took the tour. I didn’t know what to expect & it was AMAZING! HIGHLY recommended if you’re in the area.
I remember the VOA in Middletown, OH, was between Dayton and Cincinnati off I75. Was also next to WLW 50 kW 700 kHz AM radio station. At one time WLW ran 500,000 W, but eventually FCC limited AM stations to 50 kW.
The Middletown VOA site had large antenna arrays, rombics at 100 ft. I think they had 250,000 W transmitters.
I think it was shut down in late 80s.
73, ron, n9ee