N.Y. TV Stations Lose Transmitters

Nine New York television stations--including the flagships for every major network--lost transmitters positioned atop the World Trade Center’s north tower.

But the catastrophe knocked out only their over-the-air broadcasts, not the signals carried by area cable-TV networks.

Some of the stations were able to resume over-the-air broadcasts from other sites. WCBS, for example, switched to its antenna on the Empire State Building, said Dielectric Communications, the company that built and installed the World Trade Center’s 360-foot-tall antenna. Other stations affected include WABC, WNBC, WWOR (Fox) and WNET (PBS).

Maine-based Dielectric had four trucks of replacement parts on the way to New York by Tuesday afternoon, said Don Olzey, Dielectric’s marketing head. Eighteen FM radio stations had been using the World Trade Center antennas, according to a spokesman at Harris Corp., which manufactures broadcast equipment.