In this letter to the editor, the author responds to the story, “Saving a Slice of Carolina Radio History.” Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email [email protected].
I am in my early 70s and have spent a lifetime in the radio business.
As a youngster, I was fascinated by all the nighttime signals from stations in cities like Chicago, New York, Nashville, Wheeling, Atlanta, Fort Wayne and even Charlotte, N.C.
I have watched many changes over these decades. Whether I like the changes or not is irrelevant.
As far as trying to “preserve” the WBT transmitter site, I must ask: Who, outside of old radio people, really care?
For almost 100 years, WBT broadcast from rural farmland which was NOT a destination location.
Now, it is surrounded by the encroachment of a rapidly growing city.
Truthfully, the land is probably now worth more than the radio station ever could be. And while now inside the city, it is still not a site 99.999% of the population have as a destination location or on their bucket list.
I’ve been in this business for over 54 years. Sadly, old radio people can’t get past the fact the world has changed, and old transmitter sites are of no interest outside of a miniscule group of aging broadcasters like me.
The question is who maintains and pays for all this? Taxpayers? Why interfere with what the owners of the property desire to do with what is theirs?
If successful, the question becomes who maintains and pays for all this? Who offsets the owner’s losses? In addition, the Blaw-Knox towers look impressive, but technically nothing that special.
Those three towers will not be cheap to keep in the air after all these years.
— Bob Biermann
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