WCMY(AM), in Ottawa, Ill., fixed the effects of what the station said was an act of vandalism and returned to air Saturday.
According to Program Director Jay LeSeure, someone snapped off a lightning arrester at the transmitter site and damaged an antenna tuning unit, while the transmitter was on last Friday; the action took the AM, which normally operates 500 watts day/38 watts night on 1430 kHz, off the air.
The vandal also stole some equipment, according to the NRG Media-owned station.
WCMY’s Internet stream remained on. Its sister station, WRKX(FM), uses a different transmitter site and remained on the air.
WCMY tells listeners that newscasts that would have aired Friday afternoon and Saturday morning will be available for a week on its website in the “on demand” section.
