NE OKC antenna farm

[OKCexpat]

This is for Pete and his wonderful drone camera shots. In another thread here I was yacking about radio nostalgia which lead me to recollections of the huge antenna farm extending from (approx) Wilshire on the south up to (past?) Kilpatrick north.....Broadway extension on the west to I-35 on the east. Shame the KWTV MONSTER is no longer there at Wilshire.....

I'm a total radio/TV nerd (once worked in the biz in OKC). At night, when driving North, there is one bridge on I235 coming from downtown which "reveals a bazillion" of slowly blinking red lights from the dozens of towers in the antenna farm. Similar along I35 looking West.

More than a few times working with out-of-town consultants, they were blown away by that "Farm".....day or night. I don't recall the quantity exactly, but there are a bunch of towers 1500+ feet tall and a bunch of "short" ones. Short being a few hundred to 1000 feet.

They sure look cool at night!!

Too nerdy? lol

[Bunty]

Too nerdy? How greatly so! I love the OKC antenna farm simply because it brings in 56 TV channels for me in Stillwater rock steady with just an indoor flat RCA antenna from Walmart. Just try comparing that to the Tulsa TV stations. Quite unlike the OKC stations, the Tulsa stations are too far from around 75 miles away and can't remotely be had with just an indoor TV antenna. Even OKC channel 46.1 and 46.2 manages to come in rock steady even though they are only at 27 kw. But their 1365' tower helps out a lot. Compare that with KWTV-9 with 748 kw and 1568' tower height.

Also, thanks to the nearness of the OKC antenna farm the OKC FM radio stations come in with a stronger stereo signal in Stillwater than the Tulsa FM stations. KMOD Tulsa comes in with a steady stereo signal but not as noise free as the KCAT, OKC!

I wouldn't be surprised if people in Enid appreciate the OKC tower farm as well!

[OKCexpat]

Dammit...I had a (too long?) reply written, but didn't remember to check that "secret box" at login so I lost it.

@bunty, the Farm was intentionally built on a "high" (by OKC standards) ridge because TV and FM signals are "line of sight". Gaylord (WKY) and Griffin (KWTV) engineers began the concept decades ago and everyone followed. Find a high pile of dirt, erect 1/3 mile tall towers, and get a large diameter of coverage area.

Newest big tower is the one just south of the Kilpatrick at Eastern. The "candelabra"/triangular structure at the top has three antennas, each supporting more than one TV station. All the tall towers also have FM transmission antennas on the side.

I hope Pete can get some of his great pix (FAA probably limits how close he can go)....but especially a night shot from I235 just north of downtown.

Sir Nerd signing out.....roll the Star Spangled Banner audio and the Indian Head test pattern.

[TheTravellers]

Dammit...I had a (too long?) reply written, but didn't remember to check that "secret box" at login so I lost it.
...

The site auto-saves replies/posts every so often (30 seconds, maybe?), and you can click the text that says "restore auto-saved text" that appears on the lower left of the reply box to get it back. I'm always logged in, so I'm not sure if it saves across log-ins/log-outs, but it may.

[OKCexpat]

Thanks, @TheTravellers. I'm a relatively newbie here and still figuring out the quirks (?) of the board.

[scottk]

The original KWTV/OETA tower and KAUT towers have come down in the past ?decade? or so. As mentioned above, I know there are a lot of things on the giant tower just south of the turnpike between Kelly and Eastern, are there any other towers that are slated to come down due to age or consolidation?

Driving back from Tulsa at night it's always cool to see the cluster of tower lights off in the distance on the turnpike to let you know you are getting close to OKC.

I vaguely remember the small Tornado in the late 90's that touched down near KOCO's tower, it did damage to their radar, but I don't think there has ever been a tower loss in the NE Farm due to weather.

Many remember the Moore Tornado that damaged the 3 KOMA/KOKC AM Towers on the south side.

[OKCexpat]

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...o/62210962007/

In 1998, WKY radio's main tower was toppled during a tornado. On Britton Road just a bit East of the Broadway Extension.

I clearly recall watching Gary England's live tower shot when the tower collapsed. I wish I can find a Youtube/whatever of that event.

EDIT found the video clip. Title says it was "WKY-TV", but Gary England correctly identified it as WKY radio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKj63mt47kU