The owner of an Alabama radio station is stunned, and out a lot of money, after thieves made off with his 200-foot radio tower.
The theft was discovered Friday when landscapers went to clean up the area.
Brett Elmore, owner of WJLX in Jasper, then received an unexpected, and baffling, call.
“He said, ‘Brett, we’re down here and the tower’s gone.’’
“I said, ‘The tower’s gone?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, the tower’s gone.”
The landscaper assured Elmore he had walked the property, and the massive steel tower was nowhere to be found.
“I said, ‘It’s a 200-foot tower. You would see it somewhere if it was laying around,’’ Elmore said.
The small transmitter building had also been vandalized. At Elmore’s direction, the landscaper looked inside and described what he saw – a wooden table, a metal chair, and a box fan.
“And then I knew. I said, ‘Something bad, bad has happened,’’ Elmore said. “The transmitter was gone.”
“I’m stunned,’’ Elmore said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’’'
“It’s one thing to break into the building and steal the transmitter,’’ he said. “But it’s another thing to steal a 200-foot tower.”
The property where the tower once stood is behind the Marjac Poultry processing plant, which is surrounded by about 50 acres of woods. WJLX has five acres on the edge of that property.
“You would have to know it’s back there,’’ Elmore said. “It’s hard to get to and there’s only one way in and one way out. It’s a dead-end road.”
Elmore called his engineers and the Alabama Broadcasters Association and then went to the Jasper Police Department to file the theft report.
“They said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’’' Elmore said.
That tower was for the station’s AM site. The FM site is on the other side of town.
The AM is off the air, but the FM is still working. Elmore has to get permission from the FCC to keep the FM on the air while they get the tower rebuilt.
Asked how much a rebuild would cost, Elmore said, “More than we have. We’re a small market station.”
The estimate, he said, is expected to be six figures. Elmore did not have insurance on that property.
Elmore said the thieves likely got some copper from the transmitter, but he assumes the tower will just be sold for scrap.
He can only guess how the tower was dismantled.
“Those towers, about 10 or 20 feet they’ll disassemble, but that tower has been there for so long, I don’t see them getting the bolts off,’’ he said. “They probably had to cut it off.”
The Jasper Police Department is investigating. With Marjac Poultry right there, Elmore is hoping someone saw something or that something was captured on surveillance videos.
He also pointed out that it’s a federal crime to tamper with a federally-licenses facility.
“It’s been wild,’’ he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Jasper police 205-221-2121.