KCTV Broadcast Tower
| KC-TV Tower | |
|---|---|
Kansas City, Missouri | |
| Coordinates | 39°04′14″N 94°34′51″W / 39.07056°N 94.58083°W |
| Completed | 1956 |
| Owner | Gray Television |
| Height | 317.6 m (1,042 ft) |
KC-TV Tower is a 1,042-foot (318 m)[1] high freestanding steel lattice tower located at East 31st Street on Union Hill (south of downtown) in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.
History
Construction on what would then be KCMO-TV's transmitter and the highest free-standing steel tower (without guy lines) in the world began in 1955. In February 1956 the first signal was emitted by antennas on the tower. Construction costs were $420,000; 600 tons of steel and 26,000 screws were used.[2] The vertical cantilever construction is 24.38 m wide at the base. At the time of its completion the KCTV Tower was the third tallest freestanding structure in the world behind only the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building[3] and had surpassed the Eiffel Tower by 18 feet becoming the tallest tower in the world of any kind.[4][5] The Eiffel tower would regain the title of the tallest tower the following year by adding a broadcasting aerial which increased its height to 1,052 feet (321 m).[6][7]
The KCTV tower has become a widely recognized Kansas City landmark, in large part because of the string lights that used to adorn the four corners of the structure's frame, which can be seen for miles around the immediate metropolitan area at night. It is so recognized that KCTV incorporated the "tall tower" – as the station referred to it on-air – into the logo it adopted as part of an imaging revamp in November 1999 (at which time, it also adopted the current KCTV 5 News identity as the title for its newscasts), which remained in use until May 2002. The tower is owned by the private television broadcaster KCTV and is right next to the KCPT(PBS affiliate) studios on 31st Street in 125 East Kansas City. These studios formerly housed KCMO/KCTV before their move to suburban Fariway, Kansas. KCTV is the regional partner of CBS in Kansas City and now broadcasts its programs digitally (digital channel 24.3, HDTV 1080i). The striking transmission tower has long served as a trademark in the transmitter's logo.
The tower itself is of the same design as the 750-foot (228.6 m) transmission tower on which ABC affiliate KQTV upstate in St. Joseph (which, coincidentally, also began broadcasting on the date KCTV commenced operations, September 27, 1953) maintains its transmitter antenna and the 843-foot (256.9 m) WTVR TV Tower in Richmond, Virginia. Both of which were completed three years earlier in 1953.
The tower is an integral part of the Kansas City cityscape and part of the city's history. In 1972 two activists climbed to the top of the tower to protest the Vietnam War.[8] They remained on the structure for 14 hours. The otherwise illuminated tower remained dark during the 1973 oil crisis in order to urge the city's citizens to save energy. In the 1980s, there were serious considerations to redesign the tower to look like a gigantic saxophone to commemorate the legacy of jazz in Kansas. Falling icicles have damaged nearby buildings in the vicinity of the KCTV tower.[9] From the 1970s until 2001, the tower also served as a weather beacon to signal residents and visitors of inclement weather affecting Kansas City and its immediate surrounding communities. For this purpose, station engineers switched individual sets of lights on the tower and modified them to flash when a severe weather watch or warning was issued for any county in the immediate Kansas City area by the local National Weather Service Forecast Office or the National Severe Storms Forecast Center/Storm Prediction Center, activating them in descending order – in one or more of three sections – in pertinence to the specific weather situation:
- Lights flashing on the top third of the tower indicated that a severe thunderstorm watch, tornado watch or winter weather advisory was in effect
- Lights flashing on the top two-thirds of the tower indicated that a severe thunderstorm warning or winter storm warning was in effect
- Lights flashing on all sections of the tower indicated that a tornado warning was in effect or that highly threatening weather would occur
After the
In 2015, a
Tower tenants
KCTV is the only station broadcast from the tower.
See also
- Lattice tower
- List of tallest towers in the world
- List of tallest freestanding structures in the world
- List of tallest freestanding steel structures
- List of famous transmission sites
References
- ^ "KCTV Tower". Structurae. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ Myers, Keith (September 8, 2015). "Meredith will be acquired by Media General in a television merger". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
- ^ "125 Years of Skyscrapers | Newgeography.com". www.newgeography.com.
- ^ "KCTV Tower 2, Kansas City - SkyscraperPage.com". skyscraperpage.com.
- ^ Campbell, Matt (November 13, 2018). "Will the KCTV5 tower ever light up the KC skyline again? We answer your KCQ". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
- ^ "Eiffel Tower, Paris - SkyscraperPage.com". skyscraperpage.com.
- ^ "Eiffel Tower, Paris: Facts, Architecture, History". 64.130.23.120.
- ^ The Kansas City Star (subscription required)
- ^ "Will the KCTV5 tower ever light up the KC skyline again? We answer your KC Q".
- ^ Campbell, Matt (November 17, 2018). "Group wants to relight the KCTV tower for 'tallest public art piece in the world'". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved July 31, 2023.