Mystery befalls radio station as 200-foot tall radio tower completely disappears

Radio station staff have been left scratching their heads as, in an unexplained mystery, a 61 m (200 ft) radio tower disappears without a trace.

The crime wasn’t discovered until staff arrived at the radio-station building for a shift earlier this month (2 February).

In an as-yet-unexplained mystery, workers at Jaspers radio station discovered that the huge radio tower that had been a landmark on the roof was no longer there.

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It’s a pretty big theft in more ways than one in a mystery resembling the plot of a heist movie.

And, of course, mystery disappearances always dominate headlines: think missing flight MH370.

They also persist, such as Amelia Earhart’s plane, which is thought to have been recently found 87 years on.

Things appearing can also be a mystery, like this Boeing 737 that was discovered in field with no explanation.

Back to Jaspers, and the building had sadly also been vandalized by the thieves.

Staff had arrived to straighten out the studio before work began.

As well as reporting the crime to police, they also posted about the mystery on their Facebook page, WJLX 101.5 FM.

“This is going to get out eventually, so I might as well make it public before it does. I have heard of thieves in this area stealing anything, but this one takes the cake,” they said in the post.

“This morning, my bush hog crew went down to a tower site we have behind MarJac to do an early cleanup of the property before we did some more work down there.

“When he arrived, he called and notified me that not only was my building vandalized, but my TWO HUNDRED FOOT TOWER WAS GONE!

“They stole every piece of equipment out of the building, cut the guy wires to the tower and SOMEHOW managed to down a 200′ tower and take it from the property.”

“I have tried all weekend to figure it out and I just can’t,” station general manager, Brett Elmore, said in a statement.

“I have been around the radio business all my life, been in it 26 years professionally and I can say I have never heard of anything like this, I have seen it all now.

“When [staff] arrived he called me on Friday and said the tower is gone. I said ‘what do you mean the tower is gone?’ I was like ‘are you sure you are at the right place?’

“He said no, the tower is gone, there are wires everywhere and it is good.

“This really hurts a small operation like this but like I say, I believe we are going to find out who did this, it is a federal crime and it absolutely will not be worth it for them.”

A quick update on 9 February counted the cost of the vandalism and mystery theft.

“Unfortunately, the transmitter site was uninsured. We are currently working to rebuild, but being a small market station in Alabama, we have a large hill to climb,” it read.

“We must purchase a new transmitter, tower, various equipment such as processing, engineering work, etc. Our colleagues at Bohn Broadcast estimated this could be a $60,000 project, if not more.

“This has affected the operation of our AM, which needs a complete rebuild, and our FM, which is currently off the air.”

Anyone with information should contact Jasper Police Department 205-221-2121.