I am from Walker County and saw a facebook post regarding this whole situation, so take this with a grain of salt, but apparently the owner of this tower was not paying the proper fees for this station and was not legally broadcasting per FCC guidelines. I wish I had taken screenshots of those comments when I stumbled on it. If true, it’s definitely suspicious.
This is the saddest looking transmitter site. Looks like it was scrap in the sky. Rotting away, just waiting for enough guy wires to fail for it to come down. Landscapers probably jammed their equipment on fallen wires.
You can see a photo of it in happier days by searching DDG images for "WJLX station". Notice how even back then it didn't have a service drop to the shack. Must of been running off of "AA" batteries...
@@MrWaalkman Power supplied to a radio station is always connected underground. Indeed it is connected below the massive ground-plane that is buried under ground, and likely made of Copper, but good luck stealing an Acre of wire mesh buried a foot or 2 below the weeds!
After seeing the state of this property, I have a good idea of what happened. Knowing that the FCC License for the FM station was contingent on the AM station also broadcasting. The AM station was operating at an extreme loss, so the AM station was abandoned years ago. I'm sure that The FCC found out that the AM station was not broadcasting and asked why. The owners said we just found out last week that the transmitter and tower was stolen. That's just my opinion.
my thought was the station had switched towers at one point, and when they needed to go back to the original so the main could go down for repairs / upkeep, they figured out the original left some time ago. In the first video it was stated that a crew was sent out to trim down weeds, in my opinion, it was so that techs could get out there to reactivate the site. Edit: For what it's worth, If I had been sent out to a site for cleanup, and found that what I was to be cleaning up was no longer present... Yeah, I wouldn't touch shit either. I'd be on my phone with my customer asking if I was in the right place, with the addendum of "Hey! There isn't a tower here." Also tends to explain the single set of tracks. One layer coming in, one layer going out and you can tell the vehicle was backed out.
As a radio engineer (in the UK) I have visited some fairly run down sites. There are generally signs of engineers vehicles leaving trails or the odd components box left behind. As an armchair detective I believe the tower was taken down and the cabin stripped out before 2017. A cynic might think they have lied to the FCC in order to keep the FM licence going.
@@rexmasters1541- If this AM station was in fact on the air as you say…..it could easily have been a temp antenna. This transmitter site still looks like the tower antenna has been gone for a long time. The owner could have installed a long wire or even a shortened tower. It would be very easy to build an antenna matching circuit. Sure, a temp antenna wouldn’t have the same coverage area, but it would work. I could match the transmitter into a 10 foot length of pipe. “This smells like yesterdays diapers.”
Many AMs exist today only because of their FM translator and would turn their AM off in a second if the FCC would let them. But FM translators are to help AMs survive today's market- not to replace the AM.
The wires you found on the ground are the guy wires that at some point kept the tower upright. The tower sat on top of the concrete pillar behind the building with some sort insulator between because the tower was the antenna. The ceramic insulators found periodically in the guy wires also prevent the signal from going from tower to ground. Having visited many sites of this vintage in the course of my communication career, I'm all but certain the tower & equipment haven't been on site for months if not years.
6:00 You can see the concrete base of the antenna tower. The base insulator is gone. They had no lighting on this tower because there's no Austin Ring Transformer and spark gap. That would have been on a separate concrete base. The tower must have been right under the 200ft limit. From the stock photo pictures of when the tower was still up, it was not a folded unipole design.
The thumb latch on the lockset is facing outward, meaning the inside of the door is facing outward. Look how weathered the inside of the door is. That door has been open, exposed to the weather, for a very long time.
Open door flapping in the wind is probably why the lower hinge is broken. Padlock still on the door frame and hasp still on the door tells me that entry was NOT forced. IOW, someone opened it and never bothered to close tight.
Well, it's going to be hard to fool people. There are businesses and a large produce place down that road. People would notice when the last time they saw the tower, and residents would know the last time they heard it on the air. Beyond that, the utility company would be able to tell, by the electrical usage, when the transmitter was last active.
Since the electric meter is long gone, and that the feed wire was cut, and rusted.... They haven't had power there for a very long time. The electric company there will have record of when the owner told them to cut the power and pick up the meter. Which I am betting was quite some time ago. I wonder if the guy will cash in on the GoFundMe page he started before he gets arrested.
@@csudsuindustries Thanks. The movement of the camera is very erratic most of the time. They need to learn to observe everything an pan the camera slowly.....
@@csudsuindustries Good observation! - I was looking for the pole. I still don't see anything that looks like a drop from the pole to the building. Apparently, judging from how the meter pan looks, the drop was cut sometime ago.
As an electrical engineer, that was my first thought too. Check the monthly bill for usage, at some point it took a big dive. I bet they have to go back quite a few years tho to spot it.
Records show that they reported to the fcc they were having issues with the transmitter in 2017. What I would guess is at that point they probably decided it wasn't really repairable and scrapped it. Then for whatever reason they decided recently they would report it all stolen and start up this go fund me saying oh it was stolen we can't afford to replace it. What id say is it was already abandoned and scrapped probably since 2017. Nobody stole this tower over night that was operating and then some landscapers noticed it wasn't there anymore.
Not to mention, if it was scrappers that stole the tower, why didn’t they steal that piece of copper cable laying on the ground at the corner of the building, and the rest of the fence. That story is absolute bs
All that growth around the building is many months of growth. Also the padlock is closed and undamaged. Anyone forcing the door would've either ripped it out or cut it.
I noticed right away, there is no sign of commercial electric power. Then the meter box looked like it’s been empty a long time. Cant have a radio transmitter function with no electricity.
There was a utility pole about 50 feet away. As the video moves around you can pick out the yellow covers on the guy wires off in the distance. if you pause the video, you can clearly see a pole mounted transformer.
I have a theory, when he shows the end of one of the guy wires it looks frayed like it broke and wasn't cut. We know it was standing in 4/2022 from Google images. I have since seen an image on reddit that shows it gone supposedly in 11-2023. I think it fell down probably late 22 or early 23 from lack of proper maintenance and someone (other than the proper people) noticed it was down, so they went to it, cut it up loaded it up in a truck for scrap and left. This may have been done over weeks time as they took parts of it paying attention to see if anyone else noticed they took parts of it so they kept going back till they took all of it. Then the site sat like this for a year or two to become all grown up with vegetation covering up all the tracks from whoever removed it. Then when the FCC came knocking the proper people went to the site to notice it like this and claimed it was stolen recently. But it definitely was not removed within the past few months for the weeds to be all grown all over the way they are.
Why did they leave several hundreds of pounds laying on the ground of steel guy lines? It can be cut and hauled like rebar and it adds up fast in raising the steel weight.
My humble opinion is that someone involved with or formerly involved with the operation/maintenance of the station removed the tower and the equipment, then had the electricity turned off. Check the local power company to see when power was turned off, and who initiated that process.
Cue "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids!" At the risk of beating a dead horse, here's a few more observations: So @8:18 we see the power pole that used to feed the building from an overhead drop. What happened to the overhead drop? Are we to believe that it was stolen as well? A search for the last time that the electricity bill was paid for this property would be instructive... What about the telephone line, or however the station received its programming. Long gone as well. The meter socket has had the Line side as well as the Load side of the service removed. By all appearances it was fed using #2 aluminum SE cable. It's probably more profitable to scrounge for beer cans out behind the local bar than it is to wreck out a short run of #2 AL SE cable. Definitely more fun... And I'll bet my Master Electrician's license that it has been down for at least three years. No scratches or chipped paint on the tower pedestal? What did they do, use a helicopter to fly away with it? Was there a police report filed?
that old cloth covered service cable was probably copper, but well weathered over time. The power feed? Storm damage and removal by the power company if it wasn't an active account? If removed, then probably a nice cut and taped off. If vandals... probably a chop job and jagged ends.
@@rupe53 The old cloth covered cable is known as "Service Entrance", or "SE" cable. It could be "Nickel-Coated copper", but I'm not sure how that would make a difference. You can see where the "drop" went up at an angle to the left and got painted over when that area was painted in brown. Leaving a track for us to see where it was located. Notice that there is a strap halfway up as well. The load side cable from the meter goes down and to the left. And I see it now! The meter was relocated to the right to make room for whatever was in the brown area. You can see the outline of the old meter socket and what looks like the "shadow" of a 2" rigid conduit on the left. Was this a used shack that got relocated to this site, and not a new one built just for this station? The offset meter socket had been bothering me. :) The little fence is curious too, it appears to me that its purpose was to restrict access to the area where the service drop came in because the cable was probably below the legal height for a service drop. Which if you do a DDG image search for "WJLX station" you will see some nice photos that include the fence, and it appears that the fence is overgrown. How are you supposed to read the meter? Not that there was a service drop there any longer anyway. Now this could all be moot, as there could be an underground service that we haven't seen. But if that were the case, there would be a conduit going up the pole from ground level, which there isn't. The (missing) drop looks to have been completely removed by the power company, does anyone know any of the guys who work for Alabama Power? Just ask one of the boys. Be sure to bring donuts and coffee and show up on break. :) So your point about the missing drop is a good one. And my money is on Alabama Power having removed it. And the easement for the power lines appears to be overgrown. Any bets on if the power to those overhead lines have been cut off? And there is a tag in the lefthand side of the brown area It might be interesting to know what it says. But I would be careful of revisiting the area.
@@MrWaalkman that meter socket looks 50s vintage to me and for all we know the existing socket could have been an upgrade or a damaged replacement, which is why it was moved. Patch job during a storm or service change on the fly? I seriously doubt nickel clad wire was a thing in that era... and rubberized cloth was common even before WWII. That meter socket is also the style used on overhead service, so I doubt there was ever a buried conduit feed. Service may be off at the cut-out fuse by the road in the case of a single user like this. That could be seen by Google street-view if we had more information to go on. They also don't maintain utility right-of-way on private property so hard to say on the growth issue. BTW, my training is in trouble shooting and investigation of these things. Old electrical and evolution of changes seems to be something I notice. OTOH, it helps to be on-site, so questions get answered as you find more clues.
@@rupe53 You wouldn't move a damaged socket, you would replace it and leave it in the same place. And meter sockets generally don't fail. This one was passing probably less than 30 amps with the AC on full blast, which isn't much of a load even for one of these relics. And it's pretty obvious that it got moved because something was going in its place. But that probably happened before the shack was moved to this location. Possibly it was used for a higher powered station that required more equipment than this one did and that equipment got left behind. I will have to defer to station operators for that one. Well you shouldn't. Nickel clad copper was very common in the "Knob and Tube" days (in fact it was the only thing used that I can recall. And you can still buy it). The "joints" (or "connections" in layman's terms) were soldered together using an Electrician's blowtorch to melt the solder in a ladle, and the ladle filled with molten solder would be brought up to coat the unsoldered connections. Dangerous as all get out. Nickel was used to aid in the soldering I suppose since copper oxidizes rather quickly. You can still find this style of wiring in the older homes in probably every city in the nation. Prior to that, we would occasionally see where the abandoned gas lamp feed pipe would be repurposed as an electrical wireway to the modernized (or replacement) lamp. And rubberized cloth was used for the aforementioned nickel coated copper wires. And the damn stuff would turn to dust all the way to the wire clamp in the light fixture box on every-damn-fixture-in-the-house that got worked on. There was no way to replace the fixture without reinsulating every wire in the box. And did I mention that every wire was soldered? It would take forever to re-insulate those wires. Did I mention that I'm old? I started in the trades the week that I got out of high school in 1975. Agreed on the meter socket being intended for an overhead feed. Note how the AL-CU (although I have my doubts as to them being rated for AL-CU but they have lasted this long) terminals in the meters show that the feed into the meter was maybe #6 while the load side was #2? Maybe the disconnecting means was a fusible link. :) And no ground rod. Jus sayin'... It's not the oldest one that I have ever seen, that honor goes to a 30A 110V (no 220v to that house!) porcelain surface-mount meter that I took out when I rewired my ex-sister in law's house in Lincoln, NE (I did the entire job over the memorial day weekend in 1984. And that included driving to and from Colorado Springs, CO to Lincoln, NE). I should have kept that meter. :) I highly doubt that there ever was an underground feed as well, but even though it is an extremely unlikely possibility, it still is a possibility. To cover all of the bases I felt that I needed to mention it. Even though there is no evidence whatsoever that I can detect of an underground feed. And lord knows I've installed enough of them. So yeah, it didn't get there that way. And the fencing around the meter area was likely required because the service drop was below the minimum elevation height and a physical barrier was required in place of elevation. So that's another indication of an overhead feed. What cut-off fuse? (aka "Service Disconnect") It wasn't always required, and this installation pre-dates that requirement. Besides, you would see that either next to the meter, or mounted on the pole. So it wasn't installed (since they weren't required). In Colorado (where I got my licenses), it wasn't required until after the mid-eighties and even then it was at the discretion of the "AHJ" (the inspector) in Colorado. But I can't speak for Alabama. Past that point I was working as a Controls Engineer for a Kansas company, and then later on as an engineer for Saturn and then GM. I'm sure a lot has changed in the electrical world in forty years. So while I may not know how things are done these days, I'm pretty savvy as to how they used to be done. I checked Google Maps Street View when I first got interested in this. It takes you as far as the parking lot at the Chicken plant. You do get to see who is manning the guard shack at least. :) But in any case, by all appearances there has been no power to this shack for ages.
@@MrWaalkman Got news for ya... I am older. The service disconnect I spoke of is actually the cut-out fuse on the feeder pole at the street. The utility can pull that and drop the entire sideline. (single user feed) I have also experienced those older solder joints, which were usually dipped into a solder pot instead of using a torch near an opening in a ceiling. After that they were covered in friction tape. (cloth electrical tape) That's what we all used in the 50s / 60s. (I started young) When I talked of replacing a meter / service on the fly, that would be installing the new next to the old so swap time was quick. Looks ugly because nothing lines up and you pull the other stuff off afterward and it looks even worse... but it's all new. BTW, nickel plated aluminum is now a thing in large gen sets. I did that for 25 years before retiring. Oh, I have also experienced gaslight being repurposed for electric lighting, but never done any myself. I did have a customer that still had a gas generator in the basement to feed the original gaslights. That same house also has a fully automated coal stoker boiler. What a work of art, right down to the open knife switches and individually mounted fuses in ceramic Edison sockets. I had another customer who still had an original K&T system that was a full 100 amps, installed well over 100 years ago. All the fuses were in a custom wooden cabinet fashioned with beadboard and nicely varnished. That was a gem, but I didn't have a camera on the job in those days.
That place has been abandoned for a LONG time...nothing recent has happened there except the fresh looking tire tracks in the mud. They need to drag this station owner out there by his elbows and have him show them how there was any radio station broadcasting from that muddy patch of weeds and that long abandoned building. I didn't see any evidence of any working power lines coming in there either unless I missed it. I call BS on the whole thing. Did I hear towards the end something about a gofundme page? That fraudster needs to go to jail ASAP. I just reported it to go fund me as a possible fraudulent page attempting to scam money. I can't believe there almost up to $20,000 already. Included a link to this video and the statement that if this is indeed the owners reported address for the station, there hasn't been a radio station here for years.
I don't think that site was on air for years YEARS This is all BS Having worked for a radio network that owned 30 stations, including AM stations, taking down a tower and taking it away is no small feet We are talking needing flat bed trucks
That site appears to have been abandoned for 7 to 10 years, if not longer. If they had an AM signal, it was obviously being broadcast from somewhere else. The power meter appears long gone. I’d report them for possible fraud asking for money based on a story that isn’t true. The authorities can find out when the request to disconnect power was fulfilled.
we don't know if they ever requested the power be shut off. It may have been pulled for non-payment or even due to faulty equipment. (storm damage?) Possibly during Hurricane Sandy?
Ok.. something occurred to me here. These days, it's not uncommon for an AM station to have a different transmitter location for the new vs the old site. I've seen this happen before, for such reasons as changes in leased land arrangements, wherein, the radio station transmitter had to be relocated to stay on the air with a special temporary authorization granted by the feds (FCC). Here's an example of where the station owner had to vacate the original transmitter site to the 'new' temporary location... th-cam.com/video/1hxsvYK0qik/w-d-xo.htmlsi=GvZ_Vdogf256ysX8 So, this may have been the case with WJLX. From your video, it's very obvious that this transmitter site has not been active for a long time. Just wondering where they were broadcasting from if not this site. 🤔
@William Collier. Brett Elmore, the person that set up the Gofundme also had a Gofundme about 2 years ago for the "long time voice of Jasper" that passed away. He was affiliated with WJLX. I would be willing to bet that the station went off-air shortly after his passing.
As many commenters have noted in this, and the other video is that the electrical power bill/usage timeline will clearly explain the exact time and date when this transmitter was de-commissioned: PRECISELY !
well, that tower certainly didn't fall in the direction of the building so that leaves 3 other directions to look for clues. It's a fairly open lot so we're looking for maybe broken small trees of less than an inch in diameter. If he had walked out 71 paces in a few directions he might have seen something eventually.
The two soft patches by the concrete post were probably where the sections were being dropped and churned up the ground. Two years of weather have flattened the ground out leaving it too wet for the surrounding vegetation to reestablish itself.
Just for consideration many towers collapse downward (not necessarily like a tree being cut) with the loss of guy lines. There would be lots of disturbance of the ground in or around the base. Whatever happened there occurred many months ago and with full knowledge of the operators.
The collapse can be one of two ways. If the tower has three anchors and one anchor fails, then the tower can fall over like a tree. Otherwise a tower will collape on itself. These guys missed the money shot. They need to video the anchors. I have investigated a tower in Morton, Il. that fell over because the anchor rod rusted. This tower was built in 1957, and a anchor failure is highest on my list. There is a chip on the base pier that may indicate the direction of fall. The chip should line up with the failed anchor. This tower had three anchors.
All one has to do is call the power company that services that area and they can tell you the exact date service was cut. Let the FCC find it's been abandoned for several years. Fines galore will be issued.
Looking at the conditions of the transmitter site I fully agree with your assessment of this site. It's likely it's been abandoned for a few years, all one needs to do is talk to the power company about billing and power usage.
I think the tower fell down MONTHS ago due to broken guy wires (visible stress failure in the wire that goes through the fence "under the stick"). I think the station knew about it and just kept illegally broadcasting on the FM Translator. They probably got wind of an inspection coming soon or just thought they pushed their luck enough and had to come up with a story so they wouldn't get caught violating their license by continuing to operate the translator.
The FCC will use this excellent video evidence to fine this owner and ban him from EVER having a broadcast license in the future. At the 8 minute mark, the concrete base of the tower is clearly visible. That tower was removed (not stolen) quite some time ago. I wouldn’t let this guy run the prison radio station😂
the meter socket is on the building and the power pole is about 50 feet away. You can see the yellow covers on the guy wires as the video pans around. Just pause and look closely.
Yeah, from this video, it does not appear there has been an operating transmitter there for quite some time. Professional broadcast engineers are saying that. It sounds like this station has been in violation of its license for some time. They are using there FM translator as their primary transmitter. WJLX is not really the translator's call sign. Translator stations get call signs that are some mixture of letters and numbers. I think the numbers indicate the channel they are on and possibly the one they are retransmitting. They are only recently being used to transmit AM stations on FM, they are also used to help FM stations provide coverage in low lying areas within their footprint, (allegedly) they are not supposed to be used to extend the footprint of a station. However, I listen to a non-profit Christian music station. They have two big transmitters in the area, but they are located outside the major metro area and there are dead spots. So they have three translator stations one retransmits the station south of the metro area, and they have a translator in another major metro area. Then two of them retransmit the main transmitter north of the metro area, by about 30 miles. My question is there is another station NW of me about 65-70 miles. They run a number of transmitters and translators, every four hours, I think, when they do the required station ID at the top of the hour, they give the callsigns and frequencies of all of the transmitters and translators. The rest of the time they only ID the transmitters. This other group that operates in my area, just gives the ID of the two transmitters, for the translators just the frequency it's on and the city where it is located. Is that in compliance with the rules? To this case at hand, I think the owner for some reason wants to raise funds to put the AM station back on the air, and operate more legally. Probably afraid they were going to get caught by the FCC, and they can issued ruinous fines as well as shred your licenses. They are known for going after every license you have. AM, FM, studio transmitter links, translators, Ham, and GMRS. The FCC these days mostly responds to complaints. In broadcasting sometimes a competing station will find some reason to file a complaint against you. If there are marital issues, a divorce lawyer finds the station owner is doing something illegal, they or a unhappy soon to be ex-spouse will rat you out to the FCC, FAA, and possibly the IRS. It can get real nasty. Speaking of competitors being nasty, I was talking to the engineer at the local non-profit public radio station owned by a local university. They wanted to make a change and a commercial TV station filed an objection with the FCC. He said he contacted their engineer, they all know each other, and asked why? "The guy said because we are a--h-les." There was another situation when the FCC did some reclassification of FM stations kind eliminating a certain class. So you either had to move up with the big guys or down with the little guys. This station had been renting space on an old TV tower and were there antenna was lower than the other FM station up there. A station like 100 miles away found out that theses guys antenna was just a little lower than what it needed to be for I think it is class A status. I mean like maybe 10-20 feet. They ratted them out to the FCC. So they quickly packed up and moved to a tower up the road a little ways, but they got to be at the top of this tower. So, you can get away with some things for a time, but somebody may issued a complaint with a government agency then you are in trouble.
If this transmitter was active / operational, the electric power consumption data, should reflect usage / consumption, and time. Do a FOIA, request. Then there’s the part of the lack of tracks damage from equipment and activity, and the overgrowth. How thing looks like a half-assed fraud, maybe for insurance, or to create a capital loss, for taxes or bankruptcy?
"According to Nielsen Media Research radio listener statistics (2021), 88% of Americans listen to terrestrial (AM/FM) radio on a weekly basis. This is approximately 293 million..." About 28 times those who follow Usher, but about half of those following Taylor Swift.
Which is why it was important that the public should not go and trample a crime scene. Instead of knowing what the hell to look for, like the pin in the concrete base, and the chip in the concrete, the ends of the guy lines being cut, or the pad where the transmitter sat, they just stumbled around messing up the tracks where the ground crew drove in, made their discovery, and left.
Probably a insurance job that building hasn't been taken care of for a long time . If the tower and cables were stolen for scrap they were stolen a long time ago and someone just noticed it missing
The cable you're looking at on the ground is just a guy wire. The insulator is in case of lightning strikes. There will be a grounding point (usually the towers foundation) that is intended to deal with lightning, the guy wires would melt if they tried carrying the current. The only thing on that site that would be energized would be a 2400kV transmission line from the transformer to the towers base. Typically those are about 3 inches in diameter and less than 30 feet long.
At about 8:22 theres a straight line of cleared vegetation straight through the trees and grass. Maybe its coincidence but it lines up with the damaged fence and tower base
what gets me is this.... surely SOMEONE had this signal had been active and IN SERVICE would have been listening SOMEWHERE. After seeing this you'll NEVER convince me this was a recent takedown. This has been down for quite some time and now the station is playing the public as a fool.
You had me until the reference to CPB funding. Nope. No funding for a commercial station like WJLX. Power bills will be damming evidence of the time line on this on. GM will be doing time.
in WJLX tower site 10-21-2023 is that the tower laying on the ground going left? Straight line item . I can see the tower and shadow in the first to pictures. wish I could highlight here what I am seeing in WJLX tower site 10-21-2023. sometimes satellite pictures as they get Stitched you get some odd artifacts or slight misalignment. But I believe I see the tower in all 3 pictures. straight lines for seldom found in nature. Need more pictures past oct 23 now.
About that October 2023 picture, I agree with another observer that what that high resolution picture shows is the power company's pole with a white step-down transformer on it. Most of those transmitters require a 208/230 volt power source, so there will be 3 wires on that cable between the pole and the electric meter mounted on the side of the building. In that picture the radio station released to the media, you can still see the drop cable on the right side of the picture if you zoom in far enough. Part of the cable is obscured by trees.
Here we are a month later and wondering if there's more video available plus a bit more commentary or perhaps speculation? You guys have more good information than most of the news stories out there.
Yep, you may be right. Google Street View at 3603 Florida Ave facing at that direction appears to confirm 06/2022. However, all that means is that the tower was still standing...not that there was an active AM transmitter at the site.
Lets put some of your argument in perspective: Landscapers may have gone to the site to give an estimate. The building is not in a state far from sites I have worked at. Radio work can be miserable ie opening a door and having moths fly out like bats in the evening out of a cave. Crawling under antenna wires hoping you won't disconnect someone else's transceiver just to get to the one you need to work on. Dust, spiderwebs, and mold Questionable security was something I scratched my head at. Not going to say it on TH-cam because it would be a horrible thing to let out of the bag and a huge disservice to my fellow Americans. The soft dirt is evidence of digging or a machine that was recently there. Power companies sometimes remove a meter (especially when its a modern meter) when there is an event that will damage it or potentially cause fire and or death. Riggers and tower guys do some amazing feats and yes sometimes get seriously injured or die. Unless AM towers are welded it may have been unbolted. Yes its common for 200ft towers to be dropped like a skyscraper or grain tower however its not impossible to dismantle. Having experience with radio, rapid decay, inability to maintain my stuff, 60 amp service, unusual rain followed by intense dry periods ... its not surprising to see damage and weeds looking like its been years. I haven't tried AM radio in years so is it possible no one was listening to it since last year. Also I tend to be floored by this generation that look like Scooby Doo villains and also have the strangest world view. I notice things that look like no one been there for a long time yet there's people obviously there because well the people themselves are evident of it. IE parts of the city where the city trys to hide with weird artwork. Some people don't clean up and think nothing of letting things rust and break down. Ie the farm with 30 years of broken vehicles and equipment that looks like a recycle yard. Yet is not. Some TH-camr may know of a site that can be used as an argument for the sake of TH-cam notoriety, however is not the actual site. Yes it seems like tweekers would have left far more evidence, and may have inside the building. The rectangular object kinda looked like a mattress. However its unlikely a person that knows how to use the equipment would risk a potential prison sentence just to steal some old technology that is a thing of the past. Aliens would purchase the site and broadcast from it, ask for donations to fix and update it. I know because I am one of those people who don't belong to this world. We do it all the time because we want everyone to join us. As much as we're called rigid and hateful we actually don't want anyone to be dead dead. If the radio station owner is telling an all out lie its my hope he, she or they (assuming more than one owner) turn back from deception and thieving. Its also my hope for anyone who read my comment to Come, come to where you will thirst no more. Come to where love endures forever.
Someone's been claiming that sites been in operation way longer than it was.. Google maps are about 6 years old unless you subscribe.. I'm going with around 4 years dormant.. stay safe 🏴
@@Misack8 More recent satelite info shows it fell sometime around October last year. As referenced in the comments section of this channels latest video about the subject.
One thing that has not been mentioned: since when do landscapers work in February in the USA? Also, that place has clearly been abandoned for years. And if it was scrappers, they would have taken ALL of the metal there, not just the antenna. I call bs. It’s a scam.
February would be the logical time for the grass field to get cut for spring. It's Georgia, that is what the grass would look like after a few months of growth. The police would have the power company pull the meter to discover when, exactly, over the last few months the power wasn't being used, narrowing down when the theft happened. And no, the station manager never said it was spotlessly removed. He reported the landscapers finding the guy wires strewn about. "Without a trace" means no idea where it was taken or by who, not it being spotless.
This tower has been gone for a few years our more Ok where is the Power polls for the incoming power to power this building up can call light company and ask was the power shut off this site Bet you it been years as watching this it show it been gone for years the owner is trying to pull a scam
There hasn't been an active radio tower, or equipment, on that location in years. Going to check satellite images if possible, I'm guessing all of that equipment was removed a decade ago. Maybe the tower was stolen after it being abandoned, but if so then was years ago and not last week.
Nice of you to contaminate the crime scene. You went and messed the entire site by walking around where the cops and the FEDS will be trying to figure out who dunnit... I hope you left a card for them to call you, so they can try and figure out your participation in the crime...
lol. Messed the entire site. That’s comedy gold right there. Left a card… I almost pee’d when I read that part. They left an entire video right above your comment.
@@bryantwalley Sadly, the boobs were walking around, leaving footprints all over an active crime scene, and not even looking at the important areas of interest. They looked into the building, but didn't show any video of where the transmitter pad and cables were, they walked around the tower base, but never looked at the base and the tower pin, the tower would have rested on while standing, if it was shiny, then the tower was still up till a month ago, but if it was corroded, then the evidence would say it was down for a long time. Too much evidence that it was a cut and run, and they would have done it in the middle of the day, when most people were working, and the sounds of working were normal. All AM tower sites are worth a lot of money. They rent space for other transmitters, cell phone service, and whoever else needs a tower to park antennas on! The buildings only receive paint and maintenance when inspected, and not always then! But if they were not renting space on their tower, they were really hurting for income.
Maybe they were caught for transmitting on the FM station only. They are now trying to fund replacement the long gone AM transmitter and Antenna-Tower to go back on the air?
@@DandyDon1 that's the point of the go fund me page, except elsewhere they state that replacement of the gear will be around $150k so who knows why they are asking for $60k.
18:30 The old meter may very well have been abandoned. Most power companies like Alabama Power use remote metering solutions for their industrial consumers (like the neighboring chicken factory). Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is typically automated and allows real time, on-demand interrogations with metering endpoints. Knowing that, how did they get power to the transmitter site? I don't see underground utilities or power poles on the road to the site.
...and Its Alabama. Moreover, these good-old boy rednecks could care less about truth...this story has gone viral and there sucking down PBR's by the case laughting their assses off 🤣 @@DandyDon1
This whole story(as told by the station owner) was already ridiculous, but when you turned around from measuring the 200ft…that’s when it became extremely comical!
no because Alabama police are too busy writing traffic tickets to help balance the city's budget (Brookside, Alabama,) or they're too busy arresting 82 year old women for not paying a trash bill (Valley, Alabama).
Not only that, but the ends of each wire in the guy cables would be pretty even as they would have used a grinder or cable cutter. The wires in the cable at the broken end being at multiple different lengths makes me think they failed rather than being cut.
A 200 ft tower being taken down and dismantled would leave obvious fresh signs on the ground. There is nothing obviously fresh on that ground other than the tire tracks that you saw coming in.
It is obvious what happened, aliens simply lifted the tower off the base with their space shift and flew away. They will be reactivating the transmission in order to brainwash us. What the aliens don't know is nobody listens to AM anymore.
according to posts on their facebook the FCC was coming after them for inspection and their tower fell down 5 years ago and they made this story up before the FCC went and inspected it lmao.
@@ratbag359 yea but I found the tower on google maps and it looks like it was actually up this year when google last took pics of it. So pretty interesting story. We'll see where it goes
@@gg-gn3re : Someone found the tower up & visible in early 2022. Supposing that it _did_ fall ~2018-2019, then I wonder if they paid the bill to get it put back up, or if whoever did the work had to resort to other means. Regardless, there supposedly wasn't any sign on the tower when Google came by again in 2023, so...
@@absalomdraconis You can see it on google maps updated in 2024. So we'll see where the story goes, but it's still up a few months ago. You can't see this on street view so where ever you are looking is wrong. Send me longitude & latitude
That facility doesn't seem like it's been maintained for at least months, if not years...
I am from Walker County and saw a facebook post regarding this whole situation, so take this with a grain of salt, but apparently the owner of this tower was not paying the proper fees for this station and was not legally broadcasting per FCC guidelines. I wish I had taken screenshots of those comments when I stumbled on it. If true, it’s definitely suspicious.
This is the saddest looking transmitter site. Looks like it was scrap in the sky. Rotting away, just waiting for enough guy wires to fail for it to come down.
Landscapers probably jammed their equipment on fallen wires.
Those three people that listen to that station will be very sad.
You can see a photo of it in happier days by searching DDG images for "WJLX station". Notice how even back then it didn't have a service drop to the shack. Must of been running off of "AA" batteries...
@@MrWaalkman Power supplied to a radio station is always connected underground. Indeed it is connected below the massive ground-plane that is buried under ground, and likely made of Copper, but good luck stealing an Acre of wire mesh buried a foot or 2 below the weeds!
After seeing the state of this property, I have a good idea of what happened. Knowing that the FCC License for the FM station was contingent on the AM station also broadcasting. The AM station was operating at an extreme loss, so the AM station was abandoned years ago. I'm sure that The FCC found out that the AM station was not broadcasting and asked why. The owners said we just found out last week that the transmitter and tower was stolen. That's just my opinion.
Only a dumb redneck thinks he can pull off this lie. Apparently he thinks everyone is stupid.
my thought was the station had switched towers at one point, and when they needed to go back to the original so the main could go down for repairs / upkeep, they figured out the original left some time ago. In the first video it was stated that a crew was sent out to trim down weeds, in my opinion, it was so that techs could get out there to reactivate the site.
Edit:
For what it's worth, If I had been sent out to a site for cleanup, and found that what I was to be cleaning up was no longer present... Yeah, I wouldn't touch shit either. I'd be on my phone with my customer asking if I was in the right place, with the addendum of "Hey! There isn't a tower here." Also tends to explain the single set of tracks. One layer coming in, one layer going out and you can tell the vehicle was backed out.
True
As a radio engineer (in the UK) I have visited some fairly run down sites. There are generally signs of engineers vehicles leaving trails or the odd components box left behind. As an armchair detective I believe the tower was taken down and the cabin stripped out before 2017. A cynic might think they have lied to the FCC in order to keep the FM licence going.
Much truth there be in that probably.
This site was broadcasting right before the theft.
@@rexmasters1541 yup... and the theft was how many years ago?
@@rexmasters1541- If this AM station was in fact on the air as you say…..it could easily have been a temp antenna. This transmitter site still looks like the tower antenna has been gone for a long time. The owner could have installed a long wire or even a shortened tower. It would be very easy to build an antenna matching circuit. Sure, a temp antenna wouldn’t have the same coverage area, but it would work. I could match the transmitter into a 10 foot length of pipe. “This smells like yesterdays diapers.”
Many AMs exist today only because of their FM translator and would turn their AM off in a second if the FCC would let them. But FM translators are to help AMs survive today's market- not to replace the AM.
I don't want to say every single aspect of the claimed story is bullshit... but there's no way that station owner is telling the whole truth.
The wires you found on the ground are the guy wires that at some point kept the tower upright. The tower sat on top of the concrete pillar behind the building with some sort insulator between because the tower was the antenna. The ceramic insulators found periodically in the guy wires also prevent the signal from going from tower to ground.
Having visited many sites of this vintage in the course of my communication career, I'm all but certain the tower & equipment haven't been on site for months if not years.
6:00 You can see the concrete base of the antenna tower. The base insulator is gone. They had no lighting on this tower because there's no Austin Ring Transformer and spark gap. That would have been on a separate concrete base. The tower must have been right under the 200ft limit. From the stock photo pictures of when the tower was still up, it was not a folded unipole design.
Came for the X-Files, stayed for the True Detective with a dash of Blair Witch.
The thumb latch on the lockset is facing outward, meaning the inside of the door is facing outward. Look how weathered the inside of the door is. That door has been open, exposed to the weather, for a very long time.
Open door flapping in the wind is probably why the lower hinge is broken. Padlock still on the door frame and hasp still on the door tells me that entry was NOT forced. IOW, someone opened it and never bothered to close tight.
facts. the exposed door tells all
Well, it's going to be hard to fool people. There are businesses and a large produce place down that road. People would notice when the last time they saw the tower, and residents would know the last time they heard it on the air.
Beyond that, the utility company would be able to tell, by the electrical usage, when the transmitter was last active.
Since the electric meter is long gone, and that the feed wire was cut, and rusted.... They haven't had power there for a very long time. The electric company there will have record of when the owner told them to cut the power and pick up the meter. Which I am betting was quite some time ago. I wonder if the guy will cash in on the GoFundMe page he started before he gets arrested.
How was electricity brought in? Via a Utility pole? Underground? I don't see evidence of any electrical pole.
@@DandyDon1 13:49 you can see the pole with the step-down transformer on the top.
@@csudsuindustries Thanks. The movement of the camera is very erratic most of the time. They need to learn to observe everything an pan the camera slowly.....
@@csudsuindustries Good observation! - I was looking for the pole. I still don't see anything that looks like a drop from the pole to the building. Apparently, judging from how the meter pan looks, the drop was cut sometime ago.
As an electrical engineer, that was my first thought too. Check the monthly bill for usage, at some point it took a big dive. I bet they have to go back quite a few years tho to spot it.
"Someone's Cheating & Lying!" BUSTED!
Records show that they reported to the fcc they were having issues with the transmitter in 2017. What I would guess is at that point they probably decided it wasn't really repairable and scrapped it. Then for whatever reason they decided recently they would report it all stolen and start up this go fund me saying oh it was stolen we can't afford to replace it. What id say is it was already abandoned and scrapped probably since 2017. Nobody stole this tower over night that was operating and then some landscapers noticed it wasn't there anymore.
At best. The condition of items suggests a much longer lapse in maintenance.
Maybe it experienced problems but I think there’s more to this story.
On another video someone mentioned Google StreetView showing the tower up early 2022, but showing no signs the next time Google came through.
Not to mention, if it was scrappers that stole the tower, why didn’t they steal that piece of copper cable laying on the ground at the corner of the building, and the rest of the fence. That story is absolute bs
This. If it was scrappers, ALL of the metal there would be gone.
there is video footage of it being cut down
@@rigamortis5882Where is the video?
All that growth around the building is many months of growth. Also the padlock is closed and undamaged. Anyone forcing the door would've either ripped it out or cut it.
This looks like a level in a horror video game, abandoned for a century, if you looked deeper in that room - you'd find a zombie.
I noticed right away, there is no sign of commercial electric power. Then the meter box looked like it’s been empty a long time. Cant have a radio transmitter function with no electricity.
There was a utility pole about 50 feet away. As the video moves around you can pick out the yellow covers on the guy wires off in the distance. if you pause the video, you can clearly see a pole mounted transformer.
I delivered towers as a young man. No way any tower was moved worked on Stolen in at least a year. Exception, lifted out by helicopter, very unlikely.
I have a theory, when he shows the end of one of the guy wires it looks frayed like it broke and wasn't cut. We know it was standing in 4/2022 from Google images. I have since seen an image on reddit that shows it gone supposedly in 11-2023. I think it fell down probably late 22 or early 23 from lack of proper maintenance and someone (other than the proper people) noticed it was down, so they went to it, cut it up loaded it up in a truck for scrap and left. This may have been done over weeks time as they took parts of it paying attention to see if anyone else noticed they took parts of it so they kept going back till they took all of it. Then the site sat like this for a year or two to become all grown up with vegetation covering up all the tracks from whoever removed it. Then when the FCC came knocking the proper people went to the site to notice it like this and claimed it was stolen recently. But it definitely was not removed within the past few months for the weeds to be all grown all over the way they are.
Why did they leave several hundreds of pounds laying on the ground of steel guy lines? It can be cut and hauled like rebar and it adds up fast in raising the steel weight.
My humble opinion is that someone involved with or formerly involved with the operation/maintenance of the station removed the tower and the equipment, then had the electricity turned off. Check the local power company to see when power was turned off, and who initiated that process.
Cue "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids!"
At the risk of beating a dead horse, here's a few more observations:
So @8:18 we see the power pole that used to feed the building from an overhead drop. What happened to the overhead drop? Are we to believe that it was stolen as well? A search for the last time that the electricity bill was paid for this property would be instructive...
What about the telephone line, or however the station received its programming. Long gone as well.
The meter socket has had the Line side as well as the Load side of the service removed. By all appearances it was fed using #2 aluminum SE cable. It's probably more profitable to scrounge for beer cans out behind the local bar than it is to wreck out a short run of #2 AL SE cable. Definitely more fun...
And I'll bet my Master Electrician's license that it has been down for at least three years.
No scratches or chipped paint on the tower pedestal? What did they do, use a helicopter to fly away with it?
Was there a police report filed?
that old cloth covered service cable was probably copper, but well weathered over time. The power feed? Storm damage and removal by the power company if it wasn't an active account? If removed, then probably a nice cut and taped off. If vandals... probably a chop job and jagged ends.
@@rupe53 The old cloth covered cable is known as "Service Entrance", or "SE" cable. It could be "Nickel-Coated copper", but I'm not sure how that would make a difference. You can see where the "drop" went up at an angle to the left and got painted over when that area was painted in brown. Leaving a track for us to see where it was located. Notice that there is a strap halfway up as well. The load side cable from the meter goes down and to the left.
And I see it now! The meter was relocated to the right to make room for whatever was in the brown area. You can see the outline of the old meter socket and what looks like the "shadow" of a 2" rigid conduit on the left. Was this a used shack that got relocated to this site, and not a new one built just for this station? The offset meter socket had been bothering me. :)
The little fence is curious too, it appears to me that its purpose was to restrict access to the area where the service drop came in because the cable was probably below the legal height for a service drop. Which if you do a DDG image search for "WJLX station" you will see some nice photos that include the fence, and it appears that the fence is overgrown. How are you supposed to read the meter? Not that there was a service drop there any longer anyway.
Now this could all be moot, as there could be an underground service that we haven't seen. But if that were the case, there would be a conduit going up the pole from ground level, which there isn't. The (missing) drop looks to have been completely removed by the power company, does anyone know any of the guys who work for Alabama Power? Just ask one of the boys. Be sure to bring donuts and coffee and show up on break. :)
So your point about the missing drop is a good one. And my money is on Alabama Power having removed it.
And the easement for the power lines appears to be overgrown. Any bets on if the power to those overhead lines have been cut off?
And there is a tag in the lefthand side of the brown area It might be interesting to know what it says. But I would be careful of revisiting the area.
@@MrWaalkman that meter socket looks 50s vintage to me and for all we know the existing socket could have been an upgrade or a damaged replacement, which is why it was moved. Patch job during a storm or service change on the fly? I seriously doubt nickel clad wire was a thing in that era... and rubberized cloth was common even before WWII. That meter socket is also the style used on overhead service, so I doubt there was ever a buried conduit feed. Service may be off at the cut-out fuse by the road in the case of a single user like this. That could be seen by Google street-view if we had more information to go on. They also don't maintain utility right-of-way on private property so hard to say on the growth issue. BTW, my training is in trouble shooting and investigation of these things. Old electrical and evolution of changes seems to be something I notice. OTOH, it helps to be on-site, so questions get answered as you find more clues.
@@rupe53 You wouldn't move a damaged socket, you would replace it and leave it in the same place. And meter sockets generally don't fail. This one was passing probably less than 30 amps with the AC on full blast, which isn't much of a load even for one of these relics.
And it's pretty obvious that it got moved because something was going in its place. But that probably happened before the shack was moved to this location. Possibly it was used for a higher powered station that required more equipment than this one did and that equipment got left behind. I will have to defer to station operators for that one.
Well you shouldn't. Nickel clad copper was very common in the "Knob and Tube" days (in fact it was the only thing used that I can recall. And you can still buy it). The "joints" (or "connections" in layman's terms) were soldered together using an Electrician's blowtorch to melt the solder in a ladle, and the ladle filled with molten solder would be brought up to coat the unsoldered connections. Dangerous as all get out. Nickel was used to aid in the soldering I suppose since copper oxidizes rather quickly. You can still find this style of wiring in the older homes in probably every city in the nation. Prior to that, we would occasionally see where the abandoned gas lamp feed pipe would be repurposed as an electrical wireway to the modernized (or replacement) lamp. And rubberized cloth was used for the aforementioned nickel coated copper wires. And the damn stuff would turn to dust all the way to the wire clamp in the light fixture box on every-damn-fixture-in-the-house that got worked on. There was no way to replace the fixture without reinsulating every wire in the box. And did I mention that every wire was soldered? It would take forever to re-insulate those wires.
Did I mention that I'm old? I started in the trades the week that I got out of high school in 1975.
Agreed on the meter socket being intended for an overhead feed. Note how the AL-CU (although I have my doubts as to them being rated for AL-CU but they have lasted this long) terminals in the meters show that the feed into the meter was maybe #6 while the load side was #2? Maybe the disconnecting means was a fusible link. :) And no ground rod. Jus sayin'...
It's not the oldest one that I have ever seen, that honor goes to a 30A 110V (no 220v to that house!) porcelain surface-mount meter that I took out when I rewired my ex-sister in law's house in Lincoln, NE (I did the entire job over the memorial day weekend in 1984. And that included driving to and from Colorado Springs, CO to Lincoln, NE).
I should have kept that meter. :)
I highly doubt that there ever was an underground feed as well, but even though it is an extremely unlikely possibility, it still is a possibility. To cover all of the bases I felt that I needed to mention it. Even though there is no evidence whatsoever that I can detect of an underground feed. And lord knows I've installed enough of them. So yeah, it didn't get there that way. And the fencing around the meter area was likely required because the service drop was below the minimum elevation height and a physical barrier was required in place of elevation. So that's another indication of an overhead feed.
What cut-off fuse? (aka "Service Disconnect") It wasn't always required, and this installation pre-dates that requirement. Besides, you would see that either next to the meter, or mounted on the pole. So it wasn't installed (since they weren't required). In Colorado (where I got my licenses), it wasn't required until after the mid-eighties and even then it was at the discretion of the "AHJ" (the inspector) in Colorado. But I can't speak for Alabama. Past that point I was working as a Controls Engineer for a Kansas company, and then later on as an engineer for Saturn and then GM. I'm sure a lot has changed in the electrical world in forty years. So while I may not know how things are done these days, I'm pretty savvy as to how they used to be done.
I checked Google Maps Street View when I first got interested in this. It takes you as far as the parking lot at the Chicken plant. You do get to see who is manning the guard shack at least. :)
But in any case, by all appearances there has been no power to this shack for ages.
@@MrWaalkman Got news for ya... I am older. The service disconnect I spoke of is actually the cut-out fuse on the feeder pole at the street. The utility can pull that and drop the entire sideline. (single user feed) I have also experienced those older solder joints, which were usually dipped into a solder pot instead of using a torch near an opening in a ceiling. After that they were covered in friction tape. (cloth electrical tape) That's what we all used in the 50s / 60s. (I started young) When I talked of replacing a meter / service on the fly, that would be installing the new next to the old so swap time was quick. Looks ugly because nothing lines up and you pull the other stuff off afterward and it looks even worse... but it's all new. BTW, nickel plated aluminum is now a thing in large gen sets. I did that for 25 years before retiring. Oh, I have also experienced gaslight being repurposed for electric lighting, but never done any myself. I did have a customer that still had a gas generator in the basement to feed the original gaslights. That same house also has a fully automated coal stoker boiler. What a work of art, right down to the open knife switches and individually mounted fuses in ceramic Edison sockets. I had another customer who still had an original K&T system that was a full 100 amps, installed well over 100 years ago. All the fuses were in a custom wooden cabinet fashioned with beadboard and nicely varnished. That was a gem, but I didn't have a camera on the job in those days.
That place has been abandoned for a LONG time...nothing recent has happened there except the fresh looking tire tracks in the mud. They need to drag this station owner out there by his elbows and have him show them how there was any radio station broadcasting from that muddy patch of weeds and that long abandoned building. I didn't see any evidence of any working power lines coming in there either unless I missed it. I call BS on the whole thing. Did I hear towards the end something about a gofundme page? That fraudster needs to go to jail ASAP. I just reported it to go fund me as a possible fraudulent page attempting to scam money. I can't believe there almost up to $20,000 already. Included a link to this video and the statement that if this is indeed the owners reported address for the station, there hasn't been a radio station here for years.
I don't think that site was on air for years
YEARS
This is all BS
Having worked for a radio network that owned 30 stations, including AM stations, taking down a tower and taking it away is no small feet
We are talking needing flat bed trucks
That place hasn't operated in a VERY long time! Looks like that story was a hoax! - Ye Olde Radio Broadcast Engineer...
That site appears to have been abandoned for 7 to 10 years, if not longer. If they had an AM signal, it was obviously being broadcast from somewhere else. The power meter appears long gone. I’d report them for possible fraud asking for money based on a story that isn’t true. The authorities can find out when the request to disconnect power was fulfilled.
we don't know if they ever requested the power be shut off. It may have been pulled for non-payment or even due to faulty equipment. (storm damage?) Possibly during Hurricane Sandy?
Probably trying to get the internet to pay for a new tower
Probably getting the Internet to pay for legal fees.
Ok.. something occurred to me here. These days, it's not uncommon for an AM station to have a different transmitter location for the new vs the old site. I've seen this happen before, for such reasons as changes in leased land arrangements, wherein, the radio station transmitter had to be relocated to stay on the air with a special temporary authorization granted by the feds (FCC). Here's an example of where the station owner had to vacate the original transmitter site to the 'new' temporary location... th-cam.com/video/1hxsvYK0qik/w-d-xo.htmlsi=GvZ_Vdogf256ysX8
So, this may have been the case with WJLX. From your video, it's very obvious that this transmitter site has not been active for a long time. Just wondering where they were broadcasting from if not this site. 🤔
check to see the last time a power bill was payed for there and that meter has been gone a long time
@William Collier. Brett Elmore, the person that set up the Gofundme also had a Gofundme about 2 years ago for the "long time voice of Jasper" that passed away. He was affiliated with WJLX. I would be willing to bet that the station went off-air shortly after his passing.
As many commenters have noted in this, and the other video is that the electrical power bill/usage timeline will clearly explain the exact time and date when this transmitter was de-commissioned: PRECISELY !
well, that tower certainly didn't fall in the direction of the building so that leaves 3 other directions to look for clues. It's a fairly open lot so we're looking for maybe broken small trees of less than an inch in diameter. If he had walked out 71 paces in a few directions he might have seen something eventually.
There probably was never a landscaping crew out there to begin with, either.
Thanks for this. I have been very curious as to how the owners story could possibly be true. Looks like it is all a lie.
The two soft patches by the concrete post were probably where the sections were being dropped and churned up the ground. Two years of weather have flattened the ground out leaving it too wet for the surrounding vegetation to reestablish itself.
Just for consideration many towers collapse downward (not necessarily like a tree being cut) with the loss of guy lines. There would be lots of disturbance of the ground in or around the base. Whatever happened there occurred many months ago and with full knowledge of the operators.
The collapse can be one of two ways. If the tower has three anchors and one anchor fails, then the tower can fall over like a tree. Otherwise a tower will collape on itself. These guys missed the money shot. They need to video the anchors. I have investigated a tower in Morton, Il. that fell over because the anchor rod rusted. This tower was built in 1957, and a anchor failure is highest on my list. There is a chip on the base pier that may indicate the direction of fall. The chip should line up with the failed anchor. This tower had three anchors.
All one has to do is call the power company that services that area and they can tell you the exact date service was cut.
Let the FCC find it's been abandoned for several years. Fines galore will be issued.
Looking at the conditions of the transmitter site I fully agree with your assessment of this site. It's likely it's been abandoned for a few years, all one needs to do is talk to the power company about billing and power usage.
I think the tower fell down MONTHS ago due to broken guy wires (visible stress failure in the wire that goes through the fence "under the stick"). I think the station knew about it and just kept illegally broadcasting on the FM Translator. They probably got wind of an inspection coming soon or just thought they pushed their luck enough and had to come up with a story so they wouldn't get caught violating their license by continuing to operate the translator.
The FCC will use this excellent video evidence to fine this owner and ban him from EVER having a broadcast license in the future. At the 8 minute mark, the concrete base of the tower is clearly visible. That tower was removed (not stolen) quite some time ago. I wouldn’t let this guy run the prison radio station😂
Where`s the power line for the station and the meter? I didn`t see it
the meter socket is on the building and the power pole is about 50 feet away. You can see the yellow covers on the guy wires as the video pans around. Just pause and look closely.
Note to self: Don't hire the same lawn maintenance company that the owner uses. They suck. A cow would have done a better job.
Yeah, from this video, it does not appear there has been an operating transmitter there for quite some time. Professional broadcast engineers are saying that. It sounds like this station has been in violation of its license for some time. They are using there FM translator as their primary transmitter. WJLX is not really the translator's call sign. Translator stations get call signs that are some mixture of letters and numbers. I think the numbers indicate the channel they are on and possibly the one they are retransmitting. They are only recently being used to transmit AM stations on FM, they are also used to help FM stations provide coverage in low lying areas within their footprint, (allegedly) they are not supposed to be used to extend the footprint of a station. However, I listen to a non-profit Christian music station. They have two big transmitters in the area, but they are located outside the major metro area and there are dead spots. So they have three translator stations one retransmits the station south of the metro area, and they have a translator in another major metro area. Then two of them retransmit the main transmitter north of the metro area, by about 30 miles. My question is there is another station NW of me about 65-70 miles. They run a number of transmitters and translators, every four hours, I think, when they do the required station ID at the top of the hour, they give the callsigns and frequencies of all of the transmitters and translators. The rest of the time they only ID the transmitters. This other group that operates in my area, just gives the ID of the two transmitters, for the translators just the frequency it's on and the city where it is located. Is that in compliance with the rules? To this case at hand, I think the owner for some reason wants to raise funds to put the AM station back on the air, and operate more legally. Probably afraid they were going to get caught by the FCC, and they can issued ruinous fines as well as shred your licenses. They are known for going after every license you have. AM, FM, studio transmitter links, translators, Ham, and GMRS. The FCC these days mostly responds to complaints. In broadcasting sometimes a competing station will find some reason to file a complaint against you. If there are marital issues, a divorce lawyer finds the station owner is doing something illegal, they or a unhappy soon to be ex-spouse will rat you out to the FCC, FAA, and possibly the IRS. It can get real nasty. Speaking of competitors being nasty, I was talking to the engineer at the local non-profit public radio station owned by a local university. They wanted to make a change and a commercial TV station filed an objection with the FCC. He said he contacted their engineer, they all know each other, and asked why? "The guy said because we are a--h-les." There was another situation when the FCC did some reclassification of FM stations kind eliminating a certain class. So you either had to move up with the big guys or down with the little guys. This station had been renting space on an old TV tower and were there antenna was lower than the other FM station up there. A station like 100 miles away found out that theses guys antenna was just a little lower than what it needed to be for I think it is class A status. I mean like maybe 10-20 feet. They ratted them out to the FCC. So they quickly packed up and moved to a tower up the road a little ways, but they got to be at the top of this tower. So, you can get away with some things for a time, but somebody may issued a complaint with a government agency then you are in trouble.
That site has obviously been abandoned for years. I would guess no less than five years, minimum. Likely much longer.
If this transmitter was active / operational, the electric power consumption data, should reflect usage / consumption, and time. Do a FOIA, request.
Then there’s the part of the lack of tracks damage from equipment and activity, and the overgrowth.
How thing looks like a half-assed fraud, maybe for insurance, or to create a capital loss, for taxes or bankruptcy?
Who is listening AM or FM radio in 2024?
"According to Nielsen Media Research radio listener statistics (2021), 88% of Americans listen to terrestrial (AM/FM) radio on a weekly basis. This is approximately 293 million..." About 28 times those who follow Usher, but about half of those following Taylor Swift.
The concrete base has a fresh chip on one side. That's where the tower impacted it when it was cut loose.
Which is why it was important that the public should not go and trample a crime scene. Instead of knowing what the hell to look for, like the pin in the concrete base, and the chip in the concrete, the ends of the guy lines being cut, or the pad where the transmitter sat, they just stumbled around messing up the tracks where the ground crew drove in, made their discovery, and left.
looks like it has been abandoned for years. I have seen remote places that are only accessed 1 a year in the Army looks waay better than that
Probably a insurance job that building hasn't been taken care of for a long time . If the tower and cables were stolen for scrap they were stolen a long time ago and someone just noticed it missing
It was not insured.
The cable you're looking at on the ground is just a guy wire. The insulator is in case of lightning strikes. There will be a grounding point (usually the towers foundation) that is intended to deal with lightning, the guy wires would melt if they tried carrying the current.
The only thing on that site that would be energized would be a 2400kV transmission line from the transformer to the towers base. Typically those are about 3 inches in diameter and less than 30 feet long.
At about 8:22 theres a straight line of cleared vegetation straight through the trees and grass. Maybe its coincidence but it lines up with the damaged fence and tower base
It doesn't quite line up. What you are seeing is a road down the forest.
@@Misack8 yeah, somebody else mentioned power probably runs through there
what gets me is this.... surely SOMEONE had this signal had been active and IN SERVICE would have been listening SOMEWHERE. After seeing this you'll NEVER convince me this was a recent takedown. This has been down for quite some time and now the station is playing the public as a fool.
This hasn’t been their in years as you can clearly see heavy rust power meter is missing and no fencing and two hundred foot mast would have hit trees
This all seems very sketchy. Haven't been able to find useful info about a Gates #1 AM transmitter cabinet - mentioned in FCC doc.
You had me until the reference to CPB funding. Nope. No funding for a commercial station like WJLX. Power bills will be damming evidence of the time line on this on. GM will be doing time.
in WJLX tower site 10-21-2023 is that the tower laying on the ground going left? Straight line item . I can see the tower and shadow in the first to pictures. wish I could highlight here what I am seeing in WJLX tower site 10-21-2023. sometimes satellite pictures as they get Stitched you get some odd artifacts or slight misalignment. But I believe I see the tower in all 3 pictures. straight lines for seldom found in nature. Need more pictures past oct 23 now.
About that October 2023 picture, I agree with another observer that what that high resolution picture shows is the power company's pole with a white step-down transformer on it. Most of those transmitters require a 208/230 volt power source, so there will be 3 wires on that cable between the pole and the electric meter mounted on the side of the building. In that picture the radio station released to the media, you can still see the drop cable on the right side of the picture if you zoom in far enough. Part of the cable is obscured by trees.
Here we are a month later and wondering if there's more video available plus a bit more commentary or perhaps speculation? You guys have more good information than most of the news stories out there.
I keep thinking you're at the wrong place, but I'm in Iowa, so I don't know where it was. Good work if it is correct.
It’s the right place. Several pictures online confirm this is where the tower was.
Where is this location?
Can you link an article for the guy claimiythis theft? Im a little lost here
Take your pick. Create a search for WJLX AM tower stolen, and many many links turn up.
BTW, I thought this was one of the AR-type horror things at first, as that is quite a good location to do some spooky AR stuff.
That's an abandoned site, and hasn't been used in years
I feel sorry for the station owners, even the landscapers ripped them off.
Get me video of the meter
I want that meter number and current reading
Remember a football field is 100 yards which is 300 feet so the tower is 2/3 of a football field.
At coordinates 33°48′54″N 87°16′19″W Google earth pro's last image date is 4/2022 and it looks like the tower is standing as of that date.
Yep, you may be right. Google Street View at 3603 Florida Ave facing at that direction appears to confirm 06/2022. However, all that means is that the tower was still standing...not that there was an active AM transmitter at the site.
That fence is a dead giveaway.
there is just much evidence that it wasn't there a week ago. I'm betting years.
probably decommissioned it when they built the new tower.
What is the address for the tower. I want to see it on Google street view and figure when it was last standing
I satelite operator has released images that show the tower present until around october last year, with it's shadow disappearing after that
Lets put some of your argument in perspective:
Landscapers may have gone to the site to give an estimate.
The building is not in a state far from sites I have worked at. Radio work can be miserable ie opening a door and having moths fly out like bats in the evening out of a cave. Crawling under antenna wires hoping you won't disconnect someone else's transceiver just to get to the one you need to work on. Dust, spiderwebs, and mold
Questionable security was something I scratched my head at. Not going to say it on TH-cam because it would be a horrible thing to let out of the bag and a huge disservice to my fellow Americans.
The soft dirt is evidence of digging or a machine that was recently there.
Power companies sometimes remove a meter (especially when its a modern meter) when there is an event that will damage it or potentially cause fire and or death.
Riggers and tower guys do some amazing feats and yes sometimes get seriously injured or die.
Unless AM towers are welded it may have been unbolted. Yes its common for 200ft towers to be dropped like a skyscraper or grain tower however its not impossible to dismantle.
Having experience with radio, rapid decay, inability to maintain my stuff, 60 amp service, unusual rain followed by intense dry periods ... its not surprising to see damage and weeds looking like its been years.
I haven't tried AM radio in years so is it possible no one was listening to it since last year. Also I tend to be floored by this generation that look like Scooby Doo villains and also have the strangest world view.
I notice things that look like no one been there for a long time yet there's people obviously there because well the people themselves are evident of it. IE parts of the city where the city trys to hide with weird artwork.
Some people don't clean up and think nothing of letting things rust and break down. Ie the farm with 30 years of broken vehicles and equipment that looks like a recycle yard. Yet is not.
Some TH-camr may know of a site that can be used as an argument for the sake of TH-cam notoriety, however is not the actual site.
Yes it seems like tweekers would have left far more evidence, and may have inside the building. The rectangular object kinda looked like a mattress.
However its unlikely a person that knows how to use the equipment would risk a potential prison sentence just to steal some old technology that is a thing of the past.
Aliens would purchase the site and broadcast from it, ask for donations to fix and update it. I know because I am one of those people who don't belong to this world. We do it all the time because we want everyone to join us. As much as we're called rigid and hateful we actually don't want anyone to be dead dead.
If the radio station owner is telling an all out lie its my hope he, she or they (assuming more than one owner) turn back from deception and thieving. Its also my hope for anyone who read my comment to Come, come to where you will thirst no more. Come to where love endures forever.
Someone's been claiming that sites been in operation way longer than it was.. Google maps are about 6 years old unless you subscribe.. I'm going with around 4 years dormant.. stay safe 🏴
Dude, you should have went inside the building, you could have found the 190 million dollar Edvard Munch painting.
Ankone tknow the location and is able to look on google maps and do a roll back to see if it was there a year ago?
Most recent imagery is from 4/2022 and it was still standing.
@@Misack8 More recent satelite info shows it fell sometime around October last year. As referenced in the comments section of this channels latest video about the subject.
@@morph- Exactly! I went after the other video and found this but forgot I made this comment...
One thing that has not been mentioned: since when do landscapers work in February in the USA?
Also, that place has clearly been abandoned for years. And if it was scrappers, they would have taken ALL of the metal there, not just the antenna.
I call bs. It’s a scam.
February would be the logical time for the grass field to get cut for spring. It's Georgia, that is what the grass would look like after a few months of growth. The police would have the power company pull the meter to discover when, exactly, over the last few months the power wasn't being used, narrowing down when the theft happened. And no, the station manager never said it was spotlessly removed. He reported the landscapers finding the guy wires strewn about. "Without a trace" means no idea where it was taken or by who, not it being spotless.
@@DeepPastry-m7d I presume you typo'd 'Bama..., but still. I've totally seen people "mow" the field on New Year's day in Tennessee too.
Texas
January 2024, Landscapers cutting grass in Bellingham, WA and this scene is in the south. Definitely landscapers working, but not on this property
Interesting, I live in MD and I’ve never seen landscapers working here any earlier than March.
So I'm calling bulshit on the story of the tower being stolen
Don’t condone your trespassing, but this story is not true. This site was off the air for a longtime.
This tower has been gone for a few years our more Ok where is the Power polls for the incoming power to power this building up
can call light company and ask was the power shut off this site Bet you it been years as watching this it show it been gone for years the owner is trying to pull a scam
You might not know shit about shit but you know about that shit and that didn’t happen yesterday😊😊😊😊😊
Alleged theft. Dude, it's gone.
It's gone, but definitely not stolen
Are you sure you’re at the correct site?
This was posted 11 years ago th-cam.com/video/l1Srg9WEPzw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=kXMc-VIavkX_qXQe
There hasn't been an active radio tower, or equipment, on that location in years. Going to check satellite images if possible, I'm guessing all of that equipment was removed a decade ago. Maybe the tower was stolen after it being abandoned, but if so then was years ago and not last week.
Not a decade, as shown by satellite, but several months at least.
Tower can be seen as late as October 2023 with Google Streetview.
Weres the tower base
the tower that was there has been long gone for a long time so what they said is false not true
Milford Crescent
It's spelled "guyed" wires. You were close lol
Hernandez Helen Walker Helen Garcia Brian
Definitely not technicians scouting the area ...
Nope! Just some curious people that live close by. Thanks for watching
Brown Matthew Thompson Edward Gonzalez Sharon
thanks for the video but this video of the tower being stolen is bull shit is bull shit is bull shit
Nice of you to contaminate the crime scene.
You went and messed the entire site by walking around where the cops and the FEDS will be trying to figure out who dunnit...
I hope you left a card for them to call you, so they can try and figure out your participation in the crime...
lol. Messed the entire site. That’s comedy gold right there. Left a card… I almost pee’d when I read that part. They left an entire video right above your comment.
@@bryantwalley I doubt the feds or cops will find it, and if they did, they would waste time and money looking for these nuts.
@@bryantwalley Sadly, the boobs were walking around, leaving footprints all over an active crime scene, and not even looking at the important areas of interest.
They looked into the building, but didn't show any video of where the transmitter pad and cables were, they walked around the tower base, but never looked at the base and the tower pin, the tower would have rested on while standing, if it was shiny, then the tower was still up till a month ago, but if it was corroded, then the evidence would say it was down for a long time.
Too much evidence that it was a cut and run, and they would have done it in the middle of the day, when most people were working, and the sounds of working were normal.
All AM tower sites are worth a lot of money. They rent space for other transmitters, cell phone service, and whoever else needs a tower to park antennas on! The buildings only receive paint and maintenance when inspected, and not always then!
But if they were not renting space on their tower, they were really hurting for income.
sus.
Bs story 😅
Path of flattened brush looks to be made by a tracked vehicle. Skid steer bushhog?
The tracks could have been left by a police 4x4 driven there to investigate the "theft".
@@wizardgmb I do this everyday. F250 doesn't lay down brush like that
The owners are hardcore baiting/scamming with that $60k go fund me. They need to be stopped. Shameful.
Maybe they were caught for transmitting on the FM station only. They are now trying to fund replacement the long gone AM transmitter and Antenna-Tower to go back on the air?
@@DandyDon1 that's the point of the go fund me page, except elsewhere they state that replacement of the gear will be around $150k so who knows why they are asking for $60k.
I would bet that the tower will never get rebuilt and whatever they raise on GoFundMe will mysteriously disappear
@@rupe53 Well it is one of those J*sus stations, maybe they think the l*rd will provide?
Clearly this is a total scam end of story.
No electric service, no weather head, no meter, long abandoned. If a tower was indeed there (it wasn't) it was not in service.
The site apparently has been silent for quite some time. There is not even any power lines visible in the video.
yes BUSTED Alabama Power will definitely have usage records.
18:30 The old meter may very well have been abandoned. Most power companies like Alabama Power use remote metering solutions for their industrial consumers (like the neighboring chicken factory). Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is typically automated and allows real time, on-demand interrogations with metering endpoints. Knowing that, how did they get power to the transmitter site? I don't see underground utilities or power poles on the road to the site.
@@WA4OSH Watch carefully at 13:49 and you will see the power pole. I don't see anything that looks like a drop from the pole to the building.
@@WA4OSH the remote smart meters still hook right into that box bro
That place has been abandoned for years. What is amazing is the fact someone would concoct a story like that and expect people to believe it.
Well it is the south..... ;)
...and Its Alabama. Moreover, these good-old boy rednecks could care less about truth...this story has gone viral and there sucking down PBR's by the case laughting their assses off 🤣 @@DandyDon1
@@DandyDon1Stuff like this is done in the north also.
This whole story(as told by the station owner) was already ridiculous, but when you turned around from measuring the 200ft…that’s when it became extremely comical!
The average american police investigator won't do a better or worse job than these guys...
no because Alabama police are too busy writing traffic tickets to help balance the city's budget (Brookside, Alabama,) or they're too busy arresting 82 year old women for not paying a trash bill (Valley, Alabama).
Lets see you do a better job with your low iq
Just look at the ends of the Guy cables, Fresh cut. the ends would be shiny..
Not only that, but the ends of each wire in the guy cables would be pretty even as they would have used a grinder or cable cutter. The wires in the cable at the broken end being at multiple different lengths makes me think they failed rather than being cut.
A 200 ft tower being taken down and dismantled would leave obvious fresh signs on the ground. There is nothing obviously fresh on that ground other than the tire tracks that you saw coming in.
It is obvious what happened, aliens simply lifted the tower off the base with their space shift and flew away. They will be reactivating the transmission in order to brainwash us. What the aliens don't know is nobody listens to AM anymore.
I heard about this tower being "stolen" on Lehto's Law. Hopefully we'll see (very soon) that the owner has been arrested for fraud on Lehto's Law
If I left a *house* in this condition it would be condemned by the county/city and the property auctioned off. Where is the FCC in all this?
according to posts on their facebook the FCC was coming after them for inspection and their tower fell down 5 years ago and they made this story up before the FCC went and inspected it lmao.
@@gg-gn3re that would explain why one of the guy-wires looked like it had snapped.
@@ratbag359 yea but I found the tower on google maps and it looks like it was actually up this year when google last took pics of it. So pretty interesting story. We'll see where it goes
@@gg-gn3re : Someone found the tower up & visible in early 2022. Supposing that it _did_ fall ~2018-2019, then I wonder if they paid the bill to get it put back up, or if whoever did the work had to resort to other means. Regardless, there supposedly wasn't any sign on the tower when Google came by again in 2023, so...
@@absalomdraconis You can see it on google maps updated in 2024. So we'll see where the story goes, but it's still up a few months ago.
You can't see this on street view so where ever you are looking is wrong. Send me longitude & latitude
Thanks for going out there. Very interesting to see what looks like long term disrepair.