This is a situation that is and will be playing out over and over throughout the country as the decay advances. W*** signed on the air in March 1963. I believe this is the original tower:
As you can clearly see from this picture, this tower has several problems. Aside from the loose guy wires, the rust, and general structural decay, it is bent in several places. Currently, the forces are in equilibrium, but for how long, no one knows. It is certainly not safe to climb. At 144 feet, it is no longer required to be marked or lit, thus, over the years, the paint peeled, the weep holes filed up, and the guy wires rusted and loosened, which leaves us with the situation today.
At the transmitter building, there are other issues with the basement flooding, mold, etc. Truth be told, this station makes no money on its own. It would cost several tens of thousands of dollars to fix all these issues, and for what; a high end of the broadcast band class D AM station which has not shown up in the ratings for fifteen years. Once upon a time, it was a surviving, perhaps not thriving, local radio station. Those times have long since passed.
The question is; what to do with it? Sign it off and surrender the license? Fix all the problems and continue to broadcast? Donate it? If so, who would take it? Or, more likely, wait until the tower collapses and deal with it then.
I’d imagine that there are many others just like it dotting the country. On the whole, the AM broadcasters that are viable would be better off if this dead wood was cut away and discarded.