Stolen 200-foot tower doesn’t keep Alabama radio station off the air, thanks to help from friends

Stolen 200-foot tower doesn’t keep Alabama radio station off the air, thanks to help from friends

Jasper radio station WJLX is back on the air nearly two weeks after thieves stole one of its towers.

Earlier this month, landscapers discovered the 200-foot radio tower for the station’s AM site was gone when they went to clean the area near the station. The small transmitter building had also been vandalized. Station general manager Brett Elmore said the estimated cost for the new tower is about $200,000. He didn’t have any insurance on the property and was out of money.

Without the tower, WJLK’s AM station was off the air. WJLX petitioned for the FCC to give it a waiver to continue to broadcast on the FM station, which was still on the air, Elmore told CNN, but the agency denied the request, saying FM translators are prohibited from operating when the primary AM station is off the air.

“The community here – they depend on us,” Elmore told CNN. “The main part of broadcasting is to serve your community and our community has had its radio voice silenced.”

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The story of WJLX’s stolen tower has garnered national attention. And last week, fellow broadcasters reached out to Elmore to offer some temporary relief.

Now WJLX’s signal is up and running again thanks to the help of media executives out of New York. Early last week, Elmore got a call from John Zellner, the president of programming operations and digital music at iHeartMedia.

“He’d heard the story and read about it. And seen it on TV and he wanted to do anything he could to help,” Elmore told ABC 33/40.

Zellner and iHeartMedia executive vice president Jeff Littlejohn worked with Elmore to set up an HD signal package for WJLX on channel 102.5 HD 3. Now, iHeart Media will share their HD3 signal out of Birmingham so the station can broadcast on 102.5 and 101.5 out of Jasper.

Customers who have an HD radio in North and North Central Alabama will be able to hear WJLX on 102.5 HD 3. Elmore says he’s still working to get funding to replace the the radio tower. But in the interim, he’s glad the signal is back on, even temporarily.

“It’s been a long two weeks. I just wanted to get back on the air at some point. We’ve had so many people reach out all over the country and all over the world. It’s been mindblowing,” Elmore said. “I made a lot of really good friends out of this. That’s one positive thing. Colleagues from all over the country. But we’re back on the air and we’re planning to get that A.M. back on as soon as we possibly can.”