As strong spring storms whipped across the United States this week, two West Virginia AM broadcast towers were toppled by beyond-gale-force winds reaching 90mph on Wednesday night. Both towers belong to WCHS, a news station serving the Charleston area.
WCHS, a cornerstone of the West Virginia MetroNews network and a vital source of news across the southern and southwestern part of the state, faced a temporary halt in its operations. The station, also a critical component of the state’s Emergency Alert System, extends its reach through two FM translators, which were also affected.
The tower collapse also affected WCHS’ sister station WSWW-AM, Charleston’s ESPN Radio affiliate. Both managed to resume broadcasting on Thursday. Efforts to repair the damaged infrastructure remain ongoing. Both stations are unsure regarding the future of the fallen towers.
Approximately 140,000 West Virginia residents experienced power outages due to the storm, with some of those still ongoing. With sixteen tornadoes across multiple states, this was only a portion of the widespread devastation caused by the weather event.
This is the fourth major radio transmitter incident in 2024. An Oklahoma tower site was destroyed for copper in January, an Alabama AM allegedly had its tower stolen in February, and a North Carolina AM station had a fire destroy its broadcasting equipment in March, marking one incident each month of the year so far.
