200-foot radio tower, other equipment found stolen

JASPER, Ala. — Last week, a 200-foot radio tower was reported missing in Jasper, Alabama and police are continuing to look for those who are responsible.

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WJLX radio station’s general manager Brett Elmore said that his landscaper last Friday noticed the tower was missing. He also noticed that some other equipment was also missing, according to WBMA. The equipment and the tower are worth about $200,000.

“He said, ‘Brett, we’re down here and the tower’s gone,” Elmore said, according to AL.com.

“I said, ‘The tower’s gone?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, the tower’s gone.” The landscaper walked around the area and did not see it anywhere.

“I said, ‘It’s a 200-foot tower. You would see it somewhere if it was laying around,’’ Elmore said, according to AL.com. The small transmitter building was vandalized as well.

The landscaper also noticed that someone also stole equipment from the small building which included a transmitter, NBC News reported.

“There was a meeting yesterday between the owner and our investigators concerning the matter,” Jasper Mayor David O’Mary told NBC News on Thursday. “At this point, we are still lacking information that we have to have to conduct a full-fledged investigation.”

A report was filed with the Jasper Police Department and Elmore contacted the Alabama Broadcasters Association engineers, AL.com reported. The radio station also contacted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to alert them that the AM station went off the air, NBC News reported.

“We requested a temporary authority to keep the FM translator on until we get the AM back on the air,” Elmore said, according to NBC News.” But unfortunately, this morning, I was notified the FCC denied our request to stay on air on the FM side, so actually, we’re about to go power down the transmitter.”

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