New Antenna For WCHG Installed On New Warm Springs Mountain Tower

Warm Springs, VA – The signal from WCHG, 107.1 FM, is once again coming in strong and clear, thanks to a new antenna on Warm Springs Mountain. The old antenna, along with antennas for Bath County emergency services and communications for the Homestead resort all came crashing down this past February when the old tower collapsed in a wind storm. A new tower was put up on April 18th, and Allegheny Mountain Radio Chief Engineer Chuck Niday says he got the new WCHG antenna hooked up Thursday evening.

“Well, it’s actually on the air, it’s been hooked up” says Niday. “I ran a couple quick tests on it and hooked it up to the transmitter like 20 til six to test it out and it seems to be working all right, so I just left it.”

He says the tower crew has also been busy replacing antennas for Bath County.

“There’s three antennas up there for the County, and then there’s one that’s been put up for a community repeater” he says. “But there’s only one feedline that’s been installed and that’s for the county fire dispatch channel, that should be hooked up Friday.”

Niday says Bath Emergency Services Director Andy Seabolt has done a good job of coordinating the process, and were nice enough to accommodate AMR as well.

“Well they consider us part of the County’s public safety system as a way of notifying the public of things” he says. “So they wanted us to get our signal back up to snuff.”

He says he’s impressed with the new tower.

“Well it’s the same height, but it’s heavier; it’s a much more substantial tower” says Niday. “And it’s a self supporting tower which means it doesn’t have any guy wires to rot out of the ground. An anchor for a guy wire failed and allowed the tower to topple over when high winds hit it back in February. It’s rated for higher winds than what the other tower was rated for.”

Niday says that the new antenna will also allow WVMR-FM [91.9FM] to once again broadcast the WCHG signal after the AM station [WVMR 1370AM] signs off at sunset.