[BC] WMRO Radio Tower, Gallatin Tennessee

[Scott Bailey]

To Barry and All on the List:

In the past, as many of you know, there has been a battle between me (WMRO 
Radio) and the City of Gallatin over the height of my radio tower, and the 
county taxing me as if my tower was a cell tower, not an AM Broadcast tower.

I wanted to send this email to all of you that I have been working with the 
Sumner County Tax Assessor's Office and I have gotten somewhere with them. They 
realize my tower and my radio station is an asset to the City of Gallatin, not 
a hindrance, especially in an emergency. They understand that my tower's height 
must stay where it is for it to work.

They are adjusting my County and City taxes where I can afford them. My tower 
will be moved back to personal property, instead of real property.

As most of you know, I replaced my tower in 1999. My father and I took down an 
aging, rusting, windcharger, guyed tower, and put up a 150' Pirod Tower. The 
current tower is 85.6 degrees, 45.69 meters. At the time, we were going back 
with a 197' tower, but we found it was less expensive to buy the 150' tower and 
it was close enough to being 90 degrees for 1560 Khz.

My tower is very sturdy, and unless a F4 Tornado comes right at it, it's not 
coming down. So let me repeat, WMRO's tower is staying right where it is. I'm 
not buying a smaller tower or smaller AM radiator. 

I do have a few issues that I not happy with of last year's installation of three new skirt wires, and I have retain somebody from Knoxville to come this summer to fix that, but right now,
the skirt wire antenna is working satisfactory. We are working on a new idea for a ground 
system, so that problem is solved thanks to an idea from Phil Alexander.

WMRO's tower is grounded. There are no insulators under it. I'm a firm believer 
of the skirt system. 

I received a nice email from Mark Garrett, KA9SZX, and wanting to know if he could help in anyway. I appreciated his nice email. I'm going to print it and file it. Thanks Mark for your kind words.

In closing, I have projects to work on with the tower when the weather warms up 
here, and I may ask a few questions here on the list, but I want to take time 
out to thank all of you for being so nice and kind. Speaking for my late father, 
William "Bill" Bailey and myself, we thank all you guys. You're a blessing to me 
and my little AM operation.

--
Scott Bailey
WMRO Radio, Gallatin, TN