Industry News

UPDATE: Fire Threatens Broadcast Towers on Mt. Wilson

The L.A. Wildfire’s Eaton section began “crawling up” the region’s iconic Mt. Wilson yesterday afternoon (1/9) and now (1/10) is threatening the antenna farm and broadcasting transmitters located up there, as well as the historic Mt. Wilson observatory. Should the fire reach the top of the mountain, it could pose significant communications issues and limit the broadcasting capabilities, to one degree or another, of Los Angeles’ major TV and radio stations.  According to multiple reports, hand crews have arrived at Mt. Wilson to fight the blaze.  Most of Los Angeles’ TV stations broadcast from Mt. Wilson, including KCBS (CBS 2), KNBC (NBC 4), KTLA (Channel 5), KABC (ABC 7), KCAL (Channel 9), KTTV (Fox 11), KCOP (Channel 13), KCET (PBS SoCal 2 Channel 28), KOCE (PBS SoCal 1 Channel 50) and KMEX (Univision 34). FM stations broadcasting from there include KPCC-FM 89.3, KPFK-FM 90.7, KUSC-FM 91.5, KRRL-FM 92.3, KCBS-FM 93.1, KLLI-FM 93.9, KTWV 94.7, KLOS-FM 95.5, KNX-FM 97.1, KKLA-FM 99.5, KKLQ-FM 100.3, KRTH-FM 101.1, KSCA-FM 101.9, KIIS-FM 102.7, KOST-FM 103.5, KBIG-FM 104.3, KKGO-FM 105.1, KPWR-FM 105.9 and KLVE-FM 107.5.  Many of the accompanying buildings housing equipment are built of massive cinderblocks hopefully providing an adequate level of protection from the blaze.  See more info on the fires below.