Radio Liberty Towers at Playa de Pals to Be Destroyed Next Week

Thirteen radio towers that serviced a U.S. government shortwave facility in Spain for many years will be blown up next week, according to a local newspaper.
Radio World readers are familiar with the Playa de Pals facility from a story published in 2003 by former managing director for Spain of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty David Hollyer.
Now Hollyer passes along an account by a Catalan newspaper that Radio Liberty’s antennas at Pals will be blown up on Wednesday, March 22.
“The days of Radio Liberty’s antennas (at Pals) are numbered,” the translated newspaper account states. “After years of speculation on the disappearance of the radio station’s 13 towers, next Wednesday 16 kilos of explosives will put an end to one of the Costa Brava’s most picturesque, characteristic and conflicting landscapes. All loads will explode at the same time, at 4 p.m., and after a few seconds the antennas will collapse towards the beach and the areas without vegetation, at a distance from the houses there.”
The cost of the project is about $1.68 million including the removal of electric installations and generators, underground gasoline deposits and concrete antenna guy foundations, the newspaper reported, adding that the Catalan government has discussed using the former radio station’s main buildings as a telecommunication museum or offices for a future nature park.
For a historical recollection about the site, see Hollyer’s 2003 account.