Ark. TV Station Tower Falls, 1 Injured

[January 12, 2008]  REDFIELD, Ark. (AP) -- A 2,000-foot television tower that was once the second-tallest structure in the world collapsed Friday while workers were restringing guy wires, knocking two Little Rock-area television stations off the air.

One person suffered a minor injury when the tower collapsed in a field about 20 miles south of Little Rock, said Randy Dixon, new director at ABC affiliate KATV.

"We're off the air. It's a heckuva mess," Dixon said. The station was working to establish a feed to restore its signal to the portion of its audience that obtains programming by satellite.

The collapse also knocked out the analog signal of KETS, a Public Broadcasting Service affiliate in the Arkansas Educational Television Network. AETN said it could be several days before its analog signal was restored.

The National Weather Service said winds were light about the time of the collapse.

At the time it was completed in the mid-1960s, the KATV tower was the second-tallest structure in the world, behind a 2,063-foot TV tower in North Dakota.

[Associated Press]

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