200-foot radio station tower stolen without a trace in Alabama, silencing small town's voice
A radio station manager says the theft of its giant tower has silenced what used to be the voice of a small Alabama town and surrounding county
JASPER, Ala. — The theft of a giant radio tower has silenced what used to be the voice of a small Alabama town and the surrounding county, the radio station's general manager said.
A thief or thieves made off with the 200-foot (61-meter) tower, shutting down WJLX radio in Jasper, Alabama. So far, no arrests have been made.
“The slogan of our station is the sound of Walker County, and right now with our station down, the community has lost its sound and lost its voice,” WJLX General Manager Brett Elmore told The Associated Press. “This hurts, and it hurts our community.”
The theft was discovered Feb. 2, when a maintenance crew arrived in the wooded area where the tower once stood and found it gone. They also found that every piece of broadcasting equipment stored in a nearby building had also been stolen.
“To break into my building and steal all my equipment, and the tower?” Elmore said. “Hell, leave me the tower — that’s the most expensive thing to replace.”
Elmore said he suspects that the tower's guy wire was cut first, which would have brought the structure to the ground. Then he believes it was cut into smaller pieces and hauled away. “Some pretty simple tools you could get from Home Depot could cut this up in no time,” he said.
The station had no insurance on the tower or the equipment, and he estimates that it will take $60,000 to $100,000 to rebuild. “We're a small market, and we don't have that kind of money,” he said.
Elmore has heard from people around the nation hoping to help, and a GoFundMe page has been launched online to raise donations. He said he was reluctant
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