[BC] KGA's old tower

[Bill Harms]

This photo of one of KGA's old towers from the F.H. McCann collection is 
of particular academic and historical significance. The tower was 
located on Spokane's northside at 325 Rowan Avenue and is sometimes 
referred to as the Lidgerwood site.

http://towers.philcobill.com/gallery2/d/4135-3/19XXFHM6.jpg

Based on my research, this is the story behind this tower.

In 1927, the tower was one of two that was used to suspend a "T" 
antenna. The towers were 220 feet tall and the horizontal element was 
100 feet long. The total distance between the towers was somewhere 
around 250 to 300 feet.

In 1933, they decided to jack the towers up and isolate them from the 
ground in order to reduce signal pattern distortion. In this picture, 
you can see the oaken planks and insulators they used to insulate the 
tower from the ground as well as the hydraulic jacks to lift the tower.

In 1935, Louis Wasmer, KGA's owner decided to use the tower pictured 
here as a vertical radiator, and the engineers removed the "T" antenna 
and the other tower.  This tower was used until 1942 when they moved the 
station to another location. (This information came from FCC records and 
from accounts by people at the time - particularly Al Sparling and Carl 
Partlow.)

This picture tells a story of how stations adjusted to advances in 
knowledge about radio and technology.

The following is a 1933 picture of the original two towers and the 
transmitter building. You can see a faint trace of the horizontal 
radiator wire suspended between the two towers and the vertical lead.
http://towers.philcobill.com/gallery2/d/4167-2/kga-1933-01.jpg
-- 
Bill Harms
Elkridge, Maryland

Check out the Spokane Radio History Pages
http://spokaneradio.philcobill.com

and the Spokane Radio Tower Pages
http://spokanetowers.philcobill.com