Holiday weekend storms brought down the tower used by Connoisseur Media’s classic alternative “95.9 The River” WERV in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, IL. The 353-foot tower owned by Vertical Bridge collapsed, leaving the station to take to social media urging listeners to listen to their web stream instead. WERV now tells listeners that it back on the air with a limited signal.
In a filing with the FCC, Connoisseur Media says the station is now using a single bay antenna and a portable guyed tower located at the stations’ studios to get back on the air. The temporary facilities are operating at an effective radiated power of 370 watts, well below its usual 2,850 watts. The result is WERV is mostly now covering only Aurora, and not the surrounding communities.
Connoisseur tells the FCC it plans to operate from the temporary tower until repairs can be made to the downed tower. That could take some time since the building that housed its transmitter alongside the tower was heavily damaged when the tower came crashing down…