A longtime AM station in northwest Kansas is off the air after wind gusts exceeding 80 mph left its tower leaning.
Licensed to Goodland, KLOE(AM) broadcasts on 730 kHz with 1 kW daytime and 20 watts at night. It transmits from a single tower located along Old U.S. Highway 24, just north of Interstate 70 and west of Goodland.
According to owner Kyle Bauer, two of the four insulators supporting the tower broke during high winds that swept through Kansas late on the afternoon of Dec. 18. A third insulator broke this past weekend. Bauer’s Kansas Broadcast Company owns KLOE and sister station 102.5 KKCI(FM) in Goodland, along with three stations in nearby Colby.
While power outages plagued the area and affected the Goodland and Colby stations, the company received calls on Friday that KLOE’s tower was leaning.
Bauer said the structure itself appears intact. The tower sits in a wheat field, and the closest structure — KLOE’s transmitter building — is approximately 320 feet away. If the tower falls, Bauer said, no other property is at risk.
KLOE dates back to 1948, according to the FCC. It has used the same transmitter location ever since and Bauer believes the structure is the original tower.
He is currently in contact with a tower crew to determine if the structure can be saved. The specific insulators designed for the tower are not readily available.
“And most everybody I’ve talked to is in agreement that you don’t want to go back that route,” he told Radio World.
Returning to the air
Instead, Bauer hopes to anchor the tower directly to the concrete foundation. If successful, he plans to install a folded unipole antenna, an option he has already priced.
However, if the tower cannot be salvaged, Bauer said the station will likely go silent.
“Which really saddens me, after the work we put back into it,” he said.
Kansas Broadcast Company had invested in the site, including cleaning up the transmitter grounds, adding LED tower lights and remodeling the KLOE studio.
The company did not carry insurance on the tower, with Bauer citing the uncertain future of AM broadcasting.
Bauer acquired KLOE last year after winning an auction for Rocking M Media’s former Kansas stations. Late last year, the station also switched to a “solid gold” oldies format.
High winds are common on the High Plains, and Bauer estimated that northwest Kansas sees winds in excess of 80 mph at least once a year.
Ironically, the forecast for this Christmas week calls for highly unusual weather for the region: multiple days of winds below 10 mph. It will also be exceedingly warm — temperatures Monday in western Kansas reached nearly 80F, with near-record warmth also expected Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Conditions suitable for tower inspection, Bauer noted.
KLOE does not have an FM translator. Some of its programming, including the “Good Neighbor Hour,” will continue streaming and via KKCI.
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