A tower that is home to three Spokane, Wash., AM radio stations, in use since 1936, was dismantled this past weekend.
The Moran Prairie site is shared by 920 KXLY(AM), 700 KXLX(AM) and 630 KTRW(AM) via a triplexing system, which Scott Fybush detailed in a 2013 profile. According to a site history written by Spokane radio historian Bill Harms, the tower dates back to the early days of AM broadcasting.
The 439-foot historic tower was brought down piece by piece by a helicopter on Saturday morning, according to sister station KXLY(TV). The station said that the land is now expected to be redeveloped into apartments and a shopping center.
KXLY(TV) captured footage of the helicopter taking down the landmark in a surrounding area that is now highly residential.
In January, QueenB Radio, KXLY’s owner, filed for Special Temporary Authority with the FCC to move the three stations to the 360-foot east tower, located at the same site and built in 2003.
KXLY’s engineering team told us that it had been preparing for the last year to move all operations to the smaller, directional antenna.
According to the STA, that 2003 tower had previously only been used for KXLX’s nighttime operations.
History
KXLY is the original tenant of the “big” tower. In 1936, when it moved to the site from downtown Spokane, it still had the calls KFPY.
630 AM began diplexing at the tower in 1998, according to Fybush. 700 AM moved there five years later, which precipitated the need for the east tower.
As cited by Harms, in the book “Early Days of Spokane Radio,” George Langford shared details of the site during a 1980 conversation with Thorwald O. Jorgenson. Langford, who served as the chief engineer of KFPY and KXLY from 1929 to 1972, noted that KFPY was a pioneer in antenna technology:
“KFPY was one of the first stations to use a high-efficiency vertical antenna,” Langford noted. “Due to its high performance, several other stations also changed [their setups] based on the demonstrated performance of the KFPY radiation pattern, which comprised a 460-foot tower and a well-designed counterpoise-ground system.”
The transmitter was housed in an Art Deco type building, also built in 1936, and we believe the building is still there — for now.
In 2004, KXLY increased its daytime power to 20 kW non-directional from the big tower, while remaining licensed for 5 kW at night.
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