There was only one word to describe Saturday for a group of stations serving the Texarkana region of Texas and Arkansas. “Crazy,” Jeff Easterling told us. “Just a crazy day. But it’s the nature of the beast.” Easterling, a broadcast veteran of around 40 years, hosts “Texarkana Talks” on 107.1 KTFS(FM), one of seven stations operated by Local First Media Group in Texarkana. What Easterling believes to be a two-stage lightning strike hit the Wake Village transmitter site where several of the cluster’s stations transmit, knocking the stations off the air. The cluster shared video from the site in the immediate aftermath on Facebook. In many parts of the U.S., it has been a rough August for severe weather, and the Texarkana region is no stranger to it. According to lightning incidence data from 2006–2015, Bowie County, home to Texarkana, Texas, averages 12 to 21 cloud-to-ground strikes per square mile per year, which is among the highest in Texas. But this was even noteworthy for the area situated along the Red River. “We believe the transmitter site took an initial strike, then a second strike that ignited a transmission line dehydrator and set the cabling on fire,” Easterling said. Wes Spicher of Local First Media Group told Easterling on “Texarkana Talks” Monday that he arrived at the transmitter site to find a roll of wire on fire. They each commended the Wake Village Fire Department and Southwestern Electric Power Company for their swift response. Spicher acts as the operations manager for the seven stations, in addition to handling on-air, production, marketing and namely this week: engineering. “I have to thank my dad who shared with me his engineering knowledge back in the 1980s,” Spicher told us. Right now, his biggest concern is cooling the 12×12 cinderblock transmitter building in the unrelenting Texarkana heat. The transmitter equipment rack for 107.1 KTFS(FM). This photo was taken following the lightning strike after Wes Spicher conducted a cleanup at the Wake Village site this week. After an electrician inspected the site Tuesday, Spicher said getting air conditioning restored remains the top priority to protect the STL receivers, auxiliary power and lighting, while ensuring the three-phase electrical system operates safely to avoid further fire risks. The status of the transmitters at the site — including 104.7 KTOY’s Broadcast Electronics FM 2C — will not be known until power is restored. A visit from an… [TheTopNews] Read More.
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