What better time to take the gondola to K-1? None, none at all. We do work for the two radio stations that are on the peak of Mount Killington, near Rutland, Vermont. In the summer, usually, we can drive up there in a four-wheel drive truck. In the winter, the gondola is the way to go. On this day, there was a 48-56 inch base, light north winds, and air temperature around 10° F (-12° C) .
The reason for the trip today; is repair work on the Nautel VS2.5 transmitter. All three power supplies and the power supply summing board needed to be replaced.
Looks like a great site to go to in the winter! Do you ski down then you are done?
I just know I’d drop my Xcelite roll kit and it won’t stop until it gets to the bottom!
Went to Killington in the summer of 1979. How high is this site? Picked up WABC AM 770 NY.City on a hand held transistor radio, 202 miles distant in the DAYTIME! Signal was way down in the mud, and I had to orient the loopstick antenna various ways until I could hear something recognizable above the static. Maybe it was just AM band conditions? Maybe not, who knows? But at one point I heard that familiar gong and the ” WABC chime time is”. Amazing!
Uhhh, WABC stopped using the chime well before 1979.
Paul!
This is my site, this is where my BUG started. 12 years old!
I worked at WZRT/WJJR over the years.
Excited to find this on your blog when I wasn’t even looking for it!
Send me an email, I would love to chat about who you went up with and what you were working on!
P.S. I have some great pics of this site in the summer (From just this summer actually) if you would like to post the comps!
Mike
Hey Mike, I’ll shoot you an email off line
Chucky, Not Mr. Gennaro, in response to your mildly snarky comment, let me set the record straight. First off I know what I heard that day up at Killington. I can back up what I am saying. In 1979 WABC AM was experiencing a loss of listeners, since FM began taking away their audience. This is common knowledge. That year 3 well known air personalities were let go, I think Harry Harrison was one of them. Based upon what I was told by an ABC engineer I knew, they brought in a new PD, I think his name was Grady or Brady or something like that. He decided to change things around, and wanted to move the format back to the top 40 that was so successful in previous years. He felt that they format drifted too far away from their roots. And maybe it did. Thats what wrong with WCBS FM today. Anyway they were trying to get the ratings back by using nostalgia, and on THAT DAY AT KILLINGTON I heard them attempt this. It is true that the gong went into retirement, but on rare occasions it and some older PAMS jingles were used, but very very rarely. One of the workers at the ABC Field Service Shop in Lodi N.J also told me that some of these were recycled on occasion.
If you look at the numbers, ratings and billing, there is absolutely nothing wrong with WCBS-FM.
I really enjoyed watching the new tower going up with a chopper assisting. It’s hard to believe the adverse weather conditions at the peak during the winter. For a while it looked like more than an inch of radial on the tower and antennas. For a while this year one vertical antenna was horizontal! I wonder if you have a wind or wind chill index not to be exceeded? My wife and I have season passes, and a personal limit of -50 wind chill prediction on the NOAA weather station. If we had to buy day tickets I wouldn’t go below -30 windchill, or -15 F. Also I wouldn’t climb that tower in any season, due to excess shaking of the knees.
Larry,
Rochester VT and Bellport NY