City Of Annapolis.MD. selling radio tower and land

Mon Aug 8 02:00:49 CDT 2011

When I left Gannett in 2006, the going rough price estimate for simple 
(non-AM) towers (from a couple of vendors) was about $1k per foot.  That did 
not include any buildings.  And, it did not include monstrosities like what 
we had to build in Denver (or the Mt. Sutro tower in San Fran).  Several 
times, we exceeded that per-foot amount.  $360k to built an 860ft tower 
seems pretty low in this day and age.  But, I'm used to non-AM towers that 
are more substantial because they are supporting an antenna and transmission 
line going up, not as the radiator itself.

Painting (or greasing guys) depends a lot on the area.  I agree with the 
mitts Chip, and they are also how guy wires are sometimes greased (which 
does not apply here).  We did have some towers that were painted with 
brushes, and even sprayed (but they were tented first).  It appears from the 
write-up that this is in an urban setting, at the edge, or inside, a 
community park.  So, there could be some concern for paint hitting unplanned 
things.

One last thing, I wonder if the quoted 150k was really just to paint, or if 
it also includes bringing the tower up to a more recent EIA spec.  If there 
has been a history of poor maintenance, or if someone is insisting that it 
be brought up to the most recent spec, that could cost significant dollars. 
If I recall, there are various versions of the EIA RS-222 spec, which are 
lettered according to release date.  Most towers are grandfathered to the 
RS-222 spec as of data of manufacturer.  Occasionally, a local government 
entity will require that a tower be upgraded to meet more recent specs, 
usually in areas of high winds (tornadoes, hurricanes, etc) or ice loading. 
This is normally triggered when other work is required on the tower.  We ran 
into this a lot during the DTV transition.  Some towers are cost-prohibitive 
to upgrade, and new towers are constructed instead.  I think there were also 
different load calculations between the RS-222 versions.  The last version I 
remember was version "F", but most people thought of "E" as the target. 
With this tower being in an urban setting, maybe there was a requirement to 
strengthen it as well.

Any way you look at it, these are big bucks to spend on such a short tower.
Terry

-----Original Message----- 
From: Chip Fetrow
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 2:14 AM
To: tacos at amrad.org
Subject: FW: City Of Annapolis.MD. selling radio tower and land

As someone who has built and maintained a lot of towers I have to
ask:  What are they smoking?  I have contracted large and tall towers
to be painted and I do not recall one EVER being five figures, much
less six figures.  I recall the largest being 860 feet tall, with a
five foot face and +/- 4 inch diameter legs.  That entire tower was
about $360k from the first core drillings to being on the air.  The
tower in question may have a face of 8 to 12 INCHES, and legs under
1-1/4 inches.

$150,000 to paint a 240 foot AM radiator?  They cannot be serious.  It
could be REPLACED for less than that!  The great thing about AM
radiators is they must sit out in a field, in the open with no cars
parked under them.  In this case at least 1/4 wave needs to be clear
in all directions at 870 kHz.  That is roughly 283 feet in every
direction from the base of the tower (excluding a small cabinet for
the ATU (Antenna Tuning Unit) which no one would care if it got paint
droplets on it, and could easily be covered with plastic.

Also, towers are painted with a mitt, not a brush or a sprayer.  They
don't drop much paint.  What little paint that does fall from up high
will solidify on the way down.

Anyone who would buy the tower hoping to rent it tack to Bay
Broadcasting would be hosed anyway as IT APPEARS WYRE may have a FCC
Construction Permit to move the station to "Essex," MD to serve
Baltimore.  The CP is on Radio-Locator, but not on the FCC MB web
page.  This is not unusual, the FCC MB web site has been broken for a
few months ever since they have "improved" it.

http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=70352

http://radio-locator.com/info/WYRE-AM

Finally, I know some towers are not maintained properly, but the tower
will need to be repainted because of fade LONG before the paint
fails.  Also, nearly all towers still standing today are galvanized
steel which is then painted.  I only know of two, very old, black iron
towers.  You can bet the owners of those towers know what they have
and are TOTALLY up to speed on maintenance and paint.

THIS tower is pretty old, and COULD be a black iron tower.

It is OLD and could be a tower not properly maintained.

Just because it is old doesn't mean it is not maintained.

--chip

On Aug 7, 2011, at 12:35 AM, tacos-request at amrad.org wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2011 21:57:42 -0400
> From: "William F. Fenn" <bfenn at cox.net>
> Subject: FW: City Of Annapolis.MD. selling radio tower and land
>
> Tower Companies that employ riggers have to pay insurance premiums,  meet
> OSHA Safety Standards, insure the paint doesn't get on automobiles  that 
> are
> below and down wind while jumping through many other hoops.  If the  paint
> gets on any cars they may end up having to pay for a new paint job.   They
> may also have to scrape the old paint off the tower, remove rust and 
> prime
> the surface before applying the new paint.  $150,000 may sound a  little
> expensibe but is probably not that outrageous when one adds the cost  of
> paint and the equiptment needed to do the job to the previously 
> mentioned.
>
> Bill
> N4TS

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