PORT ANGELES — With impressive precision, the radio tower from which KONP-AM broadcast for decades was cut down Sunday morning.
The mast was cut in half, and a crane lowered the piece perfectly into the parking lot of the Peninsula Daily News’ Port Angeles offices next door to the former studios of the radio station.
The second half soon was detached from the ground and set beside the upper portion.
KONP General Manager Todd Ortloff said the tower was cut apart and salvaged. However, he kept the top beacon — a glass-enclosed light about the size of a watercooler jug that will be cleaned up and placed in the station’s lobby next to a relic Associated Press teletype machine.
Because the station was put on the air in 1945 by the then-owners of the Port Angeles Evening News — predecessor newspaper of the Peninsula Daily News — two smaller red beacon lights are now on display with newspaper memorabilia at the Port Angeles offices’ entrance.
The station’s transmitters for 1450 AM and 101.7 FM are in east Port Angeles near Peninsula Golf Club.
Read our earlier report on the tower removal: https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20130607/NEWS/306079991/0/SEARCH
