Radio Memories Vol. 23

When people find out that I worked at WIS, I often get asked if I have ever climbed their towers. The answer is yes, both of them; the 400’ self supporting triangular tower with a 30 ‘ base at the studio downtown and the 1,200’ Tall Tower at the transmitter site in Kershaw County just south of I-20. That tower was recently replaced by WIS’s new tall tower, which now supports their low-power TV station on channel 16 that carries Telemundo, WTES-LD. They were very different experiences, and the shorter tower was the most challenging. 

The short tower downtown was used for three purposes, besides holding up the iconic Christmas Tree Lights that shine over the midlands during the holiday period.

First, it held the Microwave Studio to Transmitter Link (STL) that carried the program signal from the studio to the transmitter. At the time, there was a small parabolic antenna at the base of the tower over the roof of the smaller Studio that pointed straight up to a large metal grid hanging off the side of the tower at a 45-degree angle to the surface. The microwave signal from that small antenna was reflected by the grid to the horizontal path out to a similar grid 400‘ up the side of the tall tower where it was reflected straight down to a similar parabolic receiver antenna. 

Secondly, at the top of the tower, there was a pair of two-way radio antennas that connected the news cars and handheld transceivers that the news crews and the engineering staff used.  BTW, also at the top of the tower was the famous WIS TV Christmas Tree. 

Finally, there were two platforms on the tower that were used as platforms for the microwave receivers used for remote broadcasts. During my time there, these were used for the RCA TVM-6 microwave system through which we brought the signal from the Carolina Coliseum for the USC Basketball Games.  This was the Frank McGuire Basketball Era, and we had a contract to carry all the home games. We also sent these games to other TV stations in South Carolina, so there was a small network of stations that relied on this one microwave system. 

The transmitter and receivers looked alike, a 24”x12”x8” box on a heavy steel tripod with a 6’ diameter parabolic antenna (resembling a big flat bowl) attached to one end of the box. The total weight of either the transmitter or receiver was approximately 150 pounds, and it could be broken down to the 75-pound box, the antenna at about 45 pounds, and the tripod at about 30 pounds. 

At the beginning of each basketball season in December, the engineering staff would haul the transmitter up to the roof of the Coliseum and mount it to a platform where it could be bolted down to the roof. On the tower end, we hired a tower crew to climb the tower, install and align the receiver with the transmitter, a process that involved a lot of yelling over the two-way system as the engineers and the tower crew fine-tuned the alignment. Once aligned, each antenna was stabilized in place with cables and ropes. 

One cold, icy February day with winds gusting up to 35 MPH or so and the temperatures hovering around 30 F, a basketball day, the antenna on the tower drifted so much that the picture from the coliseum became almost as snowy as the weather outside. The studio and remote crews became aware of the problem that morning when they began setting up the cameras and sending a test pattern to the studio. Our Chief Engineer reached out to all the tower crews that he knew, and none of them could get into town in time to realign the receiver. 

I walked into the control room at 4 PM and saw the chief engineer, who was in his 50s, and the morning engineer in his 40s, looking at me. “What!” I said, and they explained the problem to me. They explained the situation and said that someone who knew how those microwaves worked needed to climb the tower with a 15-pound two-way radio strapped to his back (there was no such thing as a handheld two-way back then) and adjust the receiver. I was in my 20s, still young and immortal, so I drew the short stick. 

I had worn a polyester shirt and business wear slacks under my winter jacket, gloves, scarf, and knit cap. So, on went my jacket, cap, scarf, and gloves. On went a 20-pound tool bag. And the 15-pound radio was slung across my shoulder and back. When I stepped out on the studio roof and walked over to the tower leg, it began sleeting again. Great! Just Great. 

There is a steel ladder built into the northwest corner of the tower. It formed a small triangular climbing space between itself and the tower leg with widely spaced steel girders that ran from tower leg to tower leg at approximately 30 to 45 degree angles. There were a lot of ways for me to fall. Oh, and there was no true safety gear, just a rope that I would tie off to the ladder every six feet or so. About 10’ up the ladder, I realized that not only was it sleeting but also freezing rain was starting to coat the rungs of the latter. Again, great, Really Just Great! I had street shoes on. 

Somehow I made it up to the platform and managed, with a lot of screaming into the radio and looking at the signal strength meter on the side of the receiver, I managed to get the receiver back in line, secure it and make it safely to the roof and with ice coating my clothing, back through the door and into master control were it was warm. And the mood was steaming. 

My wife Susan almost never visited me at the station but for some reason she did that day. She showed up while I was up the tower, she had blessed out everyone near master control while I was up there. She blessed me out too when I got down. What can I say, I was young and immortal. 

My climbing experience on the old Tall Tower in Kershaw County was a cakewalk compared to that. In the late 70s, I was the “Chief Engineer” at WIS Radio and was surveying locations in which to locate our Marti Repeater. A Marti was a one-way radio system that allowed radio stations to broadcast from remote locations with studio quality, better than leasing telephone lines. Since the WIS Radio Studios were northwest of town, we needed a repeater to receive the signal from the remote site and transmit it to the station which was located in the Saluda River Basin, a relatively low spot in the Midlands. 

Since the company owned the tall tower, it was a prime location for the repeater, but I needed to look at the platform on the tower that would hold the repeater. The tower had a cross sectional triangular shape of about 20 ‘on each side. It rises to a height of 1,877’ above sea level today, with the top part of the tower being the antenna itself. There were triangular platforms on the tower, evenly spaced every 500’ or so. My target platform was at 1,200’. No, I didn’t have to climb that far. 

There was a coffin-sized elevator that could whisk me quickly and effortlessly to that platform. The elevator controls, up, down, and stop, were on a radio-controlled system. The Transmitter Chief told me that I needed to be quick about it because if the batteries on the radio went dead, I would have to wait inside the elevator for a half hour because if I wasn’t back down by then, he would lower the elevator manually from the ground. At that time, I owned a two-way mobile phone that was actually the same type of radio that I carried up the other tower on my back. So I pulled the radio out of my car and told him that I would call him if I couldn’t get the elevator to go back down. 

So, up I went. By this time, I had earned my Commercial Pilot’s License, my Instrument and Flight Instructor’s Ratings, so I was accustomed to high places. But not open high places. It was a clear afternoon with winds about 10 MPH. As the doors of the elevator opened, I realized that the tower was moving. It was describing a 10’ long figure 8 horizontally through the sky. You can bet that I took my measurements in a big hurry and got that elevator back on the ground in a minimum of time.

I can tell you that it was nothing like flying “lazy 8” maneuvers. 

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Photo Credits: 

WIS-TV tower photo courtesy of John Howard
RCA TMV 6 Microwave courtesy of RCA