Today, Reid and I began the process of hanging new antennas on the KUWR tower for two new Laramie stations, KUWL and KUWY. These stations will serve Laramie with 24/7 Jazz and classical music respectively. The stations will be relatively low in power (about 100 watts) compared to KUWR’s 100,000 watts.

I had originally hoped to have these stations on the air long before now but for a number of reasons the project timeline slipped more than it should have. I am still hoping to have them on the air by mid-October. There are a number of things that still need to happen before these stations can go on the air but the most critical and weather sensitive is getting the antennas hung on the tower. Reid worked on preparations for hanging the antennas while I worked on some additional equipment preparations in the building.

Two new antennas…Still on the ground for now…

When we arrived at the site we found that it was already pretty busy…Our neighbors from KCWC Public Television were having new antennas hung on their tower as well!

KCWC and KUWR towers

KCWC’s tower crew

One thing that made the antenna installation more difficult was the wind…The wind in Wyoming is strong enough when standing on the ground…It is magnified while up on the tower!

Reid braving a relatively calm day on KUWR’s tower while mounting 1 of 4 brackets for the new antennas

We managed to get two of the four brackets installed for one of the two antennas. We will continue with the project tomorrow.