Was Once the World's Tallest Structure
The WRBL - WTVM Television Tower in Columbus, Georgia U.S.A.
Frank's Humble Abode at frankosite2020.com
Solo Title Holder from May 1962 to September 1963       Joint Title Holder from September to December 1963

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The former title-holding 1,749-ft tower is actually located in nearby Cusseta, GA. Both the height and the location
allowed for two Columbus, GA stations ---   WRBL TV-3   and   WTVM Channel-9   --- to reach a very wide audience
in both middle East Alabama and middle West Georgia. Through images and text descriptions, this web-page will
tell the basic story of how the tower was constructed and earned its "World's Tallest" distinction.

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Part 1 -- -- Special Articles and Diagrams -- -- Click-on   an   image   to   view   at   full   size

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Part 2 ... The   Tower's   Story

SPECIAL NOTE .... A WRBL station pioneer provided some portions of the information below | Thanx-A-Lotte, Mr. John Suhr

Originally, this tower, erected near Cusseta GA, was only going to be 1,200-feet in height. After the original construction was
completed in 1960, local Columbus officials were inspired to request that an extra 549 feet be added-on, making the tower's
ultimate height 1,749-feet. Both WRBL and WTVM began broadcasting from the new height on Friday May 25th, 1962.

WRBL had first gone on the air in 1953 with a logo created by their artist ("Red" something) and a character named
Wee ReBeL.   He looked a lot like the comic-strip character Henry, but wearing a Southern-style Rebel hat.

Along the same line, WDAK TV {WTVM's prior callsign}, which also first went on-air in 1953, used the "Big Johnny Reb"
logo {also WDAK AM-540's Signature}, long after it wasn't politically correct.

The video signals from both WTVM and WRBL in Columbus were transmitted to the Cusseta tower via microwave dishes on short
towers, making a straight bee-line to the Cusseta tower's receiving dishes. Strong winds would occasionally blow the Cusseta
dishes out of alignment, creating snowy blank screens until workmen climbed up the tower and re-aligned the dishes properly.

The WRBL-WTVM TV tower stood alone as the world's tallest structure for 16 months. In September of 1963, construction on
the WBIR-TV tower in Knoxville, Tennessee, also 1,749 feet in height, was completed. Three months later in December 1963,
the 2,063-foot tall TV tower for KTHI in Fargo, North Dakota (yah, Margie !!) became the world's tallest structure.

The Fargo tower reigned supreme as the world's tallest for just over ten years. Then in May of 1974, the Warszawa Radio Tower
in Plock, Poland (NOTE: some references say Plonck), standing 2,117.30 feet tall, claimed for itself the title of "World's Tallest".
The Warszawa Radio Tower fell down in 1991, which gave to "World's Tallest" crown back to the 2,063-ft Fargo N.D. tower

See Part-3 below for the new "World's Tallest" champion.

Tallest U.S. Structures by State

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Part 3 -- VERY TALL NEWS --- We Have A New Champion!

On April 7, 2008, the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, overtook the 2,063-ft Fargo Tower
in height. Then, on September 1, 2008, the Burj Khalifa surpassed the height of the 2,117.3-ft Warswaza Tower,
and thereby earned the title of "World's Tallest Man-Made Structure".

On January 17, 2009, the Burj Khalifa was topped out at 2,684 feet!! An antenna structure was later
added on to the make the building's final height 2,722 feet.     Pass the Dramamine!


FINAL PIECE -- A TERMINOLOGY NOTE
The word MAST may (inaccurately) refer more to the actual transmitting antenna for a given TV or radio station. The antenna is
usually not very long, maybe no more than 60 to 75 feet.   A TOWER is the very tall structure to which an antenna is attached.

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Local Columbus Georgia - Phenix City Alabama Links

Spano's Restaurant   A famous Columbus, Georgia landmark


1952 Phenix City - Russell County Alabama Brochure
Mentions many things about Phenix City and Russell County, except of course
for certain "after dark activities" that were still going on at the time.


WDAK AM-540 Columbus, GA Top 40 Hits Surveys
|| July 31st, 1969     June 3rd, 1971     December 23rd, 1971     May 18th, 1972     June 29th, 1972


The Southern Open (aka Buick Challenge) Tribute Page
Tribute to the PGA Tour stop contested from 1970 to 2002. All yearly results included.


Wells Dairies Images   Images of Wells Dairies Products

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