Radio tower Goes Down in Ice Storm

April 14, 2013

A coating of 2 inches of ice and high winds brought down a radio broadcast tower, April 10, as a spring storm slammed into southwestern Minnesota, damaging trees and power lines.

In the rural town of Worthington, Minn., the top three quarters collapsed of a tower owned by the Radio Works, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

The company has a total of three towers in the area, with the antennas of three FM stations and one AM station. The AM station, KWOA, is on the air using low power on a backup antenna, KITN is also on the air using low power, KSUQ is off the air and KZTP was off the air because of the power outage as of April 11.

Chad Cummings, general manager and co-owner of Radio Works, told MPR, “It did take a backup wire to get our AM back up that we had to knock a lot of ice off of. That meant getting payloaders out here to pull bucket-boom trucks and pickup trucks to get to it.”

A state of emergency was declared in the area, including Worthington, and National Guard called in to help. With thousands out of power, whole towns were being powered by diesel generators.