Plane Crashes Into Lubbock Television Tower

[Mr Tony]

Lubbock first responders rushed to the 5600 block of avenue A Wednesday evening to a plane that crashed into the KCBD television tower.

"A large portion of the tower is destroyed and the plane came to rest in a field just north/north east of the station/tower. There is one confirmed fatality," LFR said.
http://www.everythinglubbock.com/st...television-tower/38698/5OX2k18xQUWz1ETYHUoDIw

KCBD is the NBC affiliate in Lubbock. Right now reports are low powered station KJTV-CD is airing NBC on theirt -2 station. All cable systems in the Lubbock market are currently airing KAMR-NBC out of Amarillo

 

[dfergie]

Plane flew out of here last night ...
http://www.currentargus.com/ci_27463169/plane-leaving-carlsbad-crashes-lubbock

 

[mdonnelly]

Wow. I was at the Lubbock airport visiting the WW2 glider museum there the other day. You can look out on the runway and the terminal from the glider hangar. It's not a busy airport. I drove away from Lubbock on Tuesday and the weather was clear. it seems that a lot of doctors die piloting their light airplanes.

 

[dfergie]

It was clear to the state line at least when I headed in about 7:10 pm ...

 

[Jim5506]

Evidently he was coming in too low.

The tower is about 6 miles south of the north-south runway and was about 750 feet tall.

Strong winds out of the north so he was on approach, but too low.

About half of the tower came down.

 

[navychop]

How long to replace?

 

[dfergie]

That's right we had strong winds along with a cold front hitting about then...

 

[Jim5506]

WAG - 6 months, but I have no basis for my guess.

They are using the Lubbock Schools studios until they are cleared to get back in theirs. which is co-located with what's left of the tower.

Both Dish and Suddenlink are using an Amarillo station this morning instead of KCBD.

They'll probably get a temporary low power transmitter up and running in 3-5 days, maybe Raycom would loan them a channel since they broadcast MyTV and CW on two different RF channels simultaneously.

 

[navychop]

I $u$pect they'll be HAPPY to make a $pecial loan.

 

[Jim5506]

Low ceiling probably forced him to come in below 800 ft (tower was 814 ft).

He may have clipped the north guy wires for the antenna.

The antenna appears to have had a triangular guy wire system, when the north cables were cut the tower fell to the south, away from the studios, if he had cut the SE guy wires the tower would have possible fallen over the studios.

 

[dfergie]

I liked KCBD when we had it over KOB or KOBR ... more regional type coverage.

 

[Jim5506]

We got KBIM's weatherman when KGGM took over channel 10, Steve Divine is getting grey.

 

[Jim5506]

A security camera shows the plane looked to be flying on its side you can see both wing lights, passed between the two top guy wires the lights disappear as both wings are sliced off.

The fuselage was found intact several hundred yards north of the station, so it evidently did not strike the tower itself.

Weather may have been a factor, freezing drizzle and low ceiling.

Pictures of the scene appear to show the landing gear was in the down position.

Engineers just dropped the remaining portion of the tower since it was deemed unstable.

 

[Mr Tony]

They'll probably get a temporary low power transmitter up and running in 3-5 days, maybe Raycom would loan them a channel since they broadcast MyTV and CW on two different RF channels simultaneously.

right now it is available on a low powered station

Right now reports are low powered station KJTV-CD is airing NBC on theirt -2 station

 

[Mr Tony]

Thanks to Suddenlink Cable, Ramar Communications and Raycom Media there is now a low power signal (480i) back up on 11.1 over-the-air here in Lubbock coming off the KJTV-CD tower.

As of Thursday evening, Suddenlink is now piping in KWES-TV (NBC) from Midland/Odessa. KJTV-CD is picking up that signal off Suddenlink and broadcasting it out on digital channel 32.2, which is remapping back to 11.1 (labeled as KCBD-TV).

KCBD-TV is broadcasting a newscast from the Lubbock Independent School District's (LISD) television center for now. LISD has a direct feed to Suddenlink. Suddenlink has been picking up the KCBD makeshift newscast and splicing it over the newscast airing from KWES-TV. The KCBD news programming is being aired on the LISD-TV cable channel and on their normal cable channel. However, all other programming is coming from KWES-TV.

The remains of the KCBD tower were knocked down around 6:00 p.m. this evening. Once they get power back on and get clearance they should be able to get back into their television building and studio at 5600 Avenue A.

 

[Mr Tony]

Found this information on KCBD.com Friday evening:

A replacement antenna from our sister station in Tucson, Arizona is on its way to Lubbock.

“That antenna should get here tomorrow and we should be able to put it up on another tower early next week and be at 100 percent by midweek next week,” Jackson said.

 

[navychop]

Had one just laying around or a used, taken down and relocated one?

 

[Mr Tony]

must have had one laying around.
http://www.kcbd.com/story/28045920/kcbd-90-percent-operational-after-tragic-plane-crash

Despite the past day's events, KCBD General Manager Dan Jackson said the station is already about 90 percent operational.
“Right now, we're broadcasting on all cable companies and systems locally,” Jackson said. “We have a signal out over the air on a .2. We are broadcasting on Direct and Dish.”
The remaining 250 feet of our tower was taken down yesterday. A replacement antenna from our sister station in Tucson, Arizona is on its way to Lubbock.
“That antenna should get here tomorrow and we should be able to put it up on another tower early next week and be at 100 percent by midweek next week,” Jackson said.

 

[navychop]

Any word on if they could repair and reuse the old antenna from the old tower? Or way too damaged in the fall?

How hard is it, anyway, to buy a replacement TV antenna, new or used? Doesn't sound like a stock item. And don't they vary a bit with the intended transmission frequency?

 

[Mr Tony]

Trip posted some good info on it on the towers and who owns them over at avs. Here is a snippet

In a lot of the larger markets, the stations do not own their towers. (Think Empire State Building, Sears Tower, the various Richland Towers in Dallas, etc.) In smaller markets, or on mountaintops where much shorter (and thus cheaper) towers are in use, then the stations tend to own them.

In Lubbock, KTXT, KCBD (until recently), KPTB, and Ramar own their towers. KLBK/KAMC/KBZO-LD are on a single shared tower owned by American Tower, as is KNKC-LD on a different American Tower.