Yesterday, I wrote about the time when radio antennas began to arrive on Lookout Mountain. A few years later, television came to the Denver area, and TV antennas joined the ever-growing collection of radio antennas.
300-Ft. TV Tower on Lookout Mountain Crashes During Wind
69 Years Ago
The December 10, 1953 Colorado Transcript reported that a wind storm had blown over the nearly-completed antenna for KOA-TV. The station was scheduled to go online in two weeks, on Christmas Eve.
No one was injured when the tower crashed down on the northeast corner of the station's new transmitter house nearby. A leg at the tower base buckled under the swaying tower causing it to collapse.
Fortunately, no one was injured, but the estimated cost to rebuild the damaged tower was $35,000.
They were able to rig up a temporary tower, and the station went on-air at 6:30PM December 24, 1953. They showed a Christmas movie followed by the midnight mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
Included on the station's program schedule are such shows as "Hit Parade", Ralph Edwards' "This is Your Life", "Ding Dong School", "I Married Joan", the "Friday Night Fights" and many others.
According to the Denver Public Library:
KOA-TV was a Denver, Colo. based television station that began broadcasting on VHF channel 4 on December 24, 1953. At that time, the station was co-owned with KOA radio by Metropolitan Broadcasting. In 1986 name changed to KCNC-TV. Originally affiliated with NBC, affiliation changed to CBS in 1994.
