WHBU 1240 AM old radio tower demolition

In February of 2000, the old WHBU 1240 AM tower had to be dismantled. I think it was the last rooftop AM tower left in the state. It was mounted on top of the Union Building in downtown Anderson, Indiana. It was taken down because I built a new, better tower on nearby land. The whole structure was about 247 feet high. I, radio station Engineer Sean Mattingly will show you the entire demolition process.

Sean
Click on each tiny image to see a big beautiful version.
 
WHBU #1 #1

BEFORE

 WHBU #2 #2

SETUP

 WHBU #3 #3

THE   STICK

 WHBU #4 #4

FIRE   ESCAPE

 WHBU #5 #5

CRANE   SETUP
WHBU #6 #6

WEIGHTS

 WHBU #7 #7

HANG   ON

 WHBU #8 #8

BRAVE   DUDES

 WHBU #9 #9

CRANE   ERECTION

 WHBU #10 #10

ROAD   CLOSED
WHBU #11 #11

NO   HARRIS

 WHBU #12 #12

MAJESTIC   VIEW

 WHBU #13 #13

A   MURAL

 WHBU #14 #14

HEAVE   HO

 WHBU #15 #15

CAREFUL!
WHBU #16 #16

MIDSECTION

 WHBU #17 #17

COOL   PIC

 WHBU #18 #18

STREET   ACTION

 WHBU #19 #19

TORCH   IT!

 WHBU #20 #20

BIG   CRANE
WHBU #21 #21 THE  ROOFTOP IS A COLD WINDY PLACE IN FEBRUARY. THESE GUYS WERE CAREFUL NOT TO FALL THROUGH THE CENTRAL ATRIUM OPENING OR BUST THROUGH THE GLASS WINDOWS BELOW!

The tower was manufactured by the Blaw-Knox company. Before taking the tower down, I considered many unlikely methods of removing it from the rooftop. Suggested by the staff was: expensive helicopters, dynamite, chopping it with an axe, even calling magician David Copperfield. (He can make large objects such as the Statue Of Liberty disappear). But I settled on a company called Tower Services in Indianapolis. They safely removed the tower on a Sunday. Several people stopped by to watch part of the process. There was even a picture in the paper the next day. It showed a big tower section laying in the middle of Main Street. The upper 6 feet of the historic tower will be housed in a museum in Anderson someday.

I had to do much planning to pull this project off:

  • get a demolition permit
  • clear the project with the electric company because of nearby wires
  • get permission from the city bus company to park a monster-size crane on their lot
  • get permission from Rax restaurant to use their parking lot
  • call crane companies (it was difficult finding one large enough)
  • close busy Main Street
  • put up detour signs and roadblocks
  • evacuate the entire 6 story Union Building
  • coordinate the cancellation of a church service
  • evacuate a nearby building which had apartments on the 2nd story
  • worry about the winter weather

    •  

     

    The tower was cut up in the street by a scrap company. They hauled it off to be recycled. They did save the large ceramic tower base insulators (as seen in picture #17, made by Lapp). Those were given away to various radio engineers, probably used on other towers.

    These pictures posted by  Sean Mattingly, Director of Technical Operations for these Indiana radio stations...

      WBKQ 96.7
      Alexandria/Anderson    		   WMXQ 93.5
      Hartford City/Muncie    		   WERK 104.9
      Muncie    		   W275AJ 102.9
      Muncie    		   WHBU 1240
      Anderson
      WLBC 104.1
      Muncie    		   WXFN 1340
      Muncie