[BC] TV tower kills birds

[SHAFFER, RANDY L]

Churck wrote -
(snip)
>Is this just some sort of anomaly, or is this more common than I thought?
>In the 15+ years I have been in broadcasting (I'm a neophyte- I know) I have 
>yet to see
>a dead bird at the tower site, and I've been to a few. Is this a regional 
>issue?

Our 1000ft tower has attracted turkey vultures for years. On certain days there would be over a hundred circling the tower, sitting on the tower, pecking at our antenna heater wires, and, yes, hitting the guy lines and falling to the ground. Not as many as mentioned in the article. The most I recall was maybe a dozen over the course of a summer.
We were co-located and our traffic department had the second floor "penthouse" with windows that overlooked the roof and parking lot. One day there was a frantic page "engineering to traffic NOW!" I ran upstairs to find a Turkey Vulture had landed, slightly mangled, with it's head about 12" away looking right at the window which was right in front of the Assisant Traffic Managers desk. They were disgusting birds to move. They are large with the aroma of days old road kill.
That is one reason I'm glad we aren't at the transmitter site anymore.

Randy Shaffer
WLYH-TV/WHP-TV
Harrisburg, PA