It’s high time to answer some towering questions
Burlington is no city, but it has a skyline. It has three transmitter towers standing ankle-deep in the wetlands behind Kohl’s. They make Burlington visible from Quincy and beyond. Yet considering their stature, we don’t know much about them. Until now!
What do the towers do?
They transmit the talk radio station WRKO, at 680 AM, the home of Howie Carr and erstwhile home of Jerry Williams, Gene Burns and Dale Dorman. It’s been all-talk since 1981.
Who built them and why?
They were built in 1946-1947 by a Lawrence radio station called WLAW. The station belonged to Hildreth & Rogers, which also owned the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune newspaper. Here’s a 1946 tidbit about WLAW’s plans for Burlington. Once the towers were up and running, the station called itself the most powerful in New England.
Although WLAW was headquartered in Lawrence, the company still bought advertising space in Burlington’s high school yearbook:
The name WLAW makes sense (Lawrence), but what does WRKO stand for?
Through a couple of buyouts, the station became WRKO in 1957. The letters “RKO” date back to RKO Pictures, which stands for Radio-Keith-Orpheum. And the “W” prefix applies to all radio stations east of the Mississippi River. Everything west starts with a “K.”
Why build three towers for one radio station?
Sometimes it takes a team of towers to aim a signal in a unique way that avoids interference from other radio stations.
How far does the WRKO signal go?
Here’s the coverage map showing two zones. The inner zone has a stronger signal, strong enough to reliably penetrate your house walls and reach a radio in your kitchen or garage. In the outer zone, the signal will reach outdoor radios and car/boat audio systems.
Why build towers in a wet meadow?
Amplitude modulation (AM) radio towers use long underwater wires, akin to tree roots, to boost their electrical conductivity. The wires are just as long as the towers are tall. So the visible part of an AM tower is only half the device. The rest is underwater. Here’s an old diagram of such a “ground system.”
Other local AM radio stations have soggy towers too. The towers for WEEI sit on the Charles River watershed in Needham, and WBZ‘s twin towers stand at the water’s edge in Hull.
Will the water shock people?
No, ceramic insulation on the wires keeps the water safe, but the towers themselves are charged with electricity, so touching them will kill you. That’s why FCC regulations require protective fencing around the base. Anything that touches an active AM tower, even a weed, will transmit the signal — and also burn. This video is not fake. The plant is actually outputting the radio signal while it ignites, a phenomenon known as radio frequency burn, or RF burn.
Why are the towers red and white, and why do they have flashing lights?
The Federal Communications Commission requires the markings and lights to help airplane and helicopter pilots see the towers during the day and night. The red and white colors stand out against most sky backgrounds, and the flashing lights stand out against the night sky. If you don’t comply with those regulations, you get slapped with serious fines, and your name gets published for all to see. Here’s a list of violators going back 23 years:
Why is the middle tower shorter than the other two?
It’s all about the signal. Just as angling your cell phone can sometimes change bad reception to good, or adjusting your TV antennae (a long time ago) could reduce “noise” on the screen, the same goes for tower signals. In Burlington, the middle tower is 393 feet tall; the outer two are 440. The formula works for that spot.
Are the towers taller than the “Burlington skyscraper” across the street in the office park?
Definitely. The building at 700 District Avenue is only 152 feet tall. Even the shortest tower is more than twice that height.
Do the towers ever interfere with everyday electronics?
They certainly did. In 1972, Burlington residents became frequent WRKO listeners, but not by choice. The towers apparently needed some fine-tuning, because Burlington residents heard the station every time they turned on a TV, or stereo, or tape deck, or were placed on hold during a phone call. The station vowed to rectify this interference on a case-by-case basis and asked anyone affected to call in and provide the details.
Does lightning strike the towers?
It certainly does. Here’s a 1947 account of two Burlington lightning strikes during the same storm.
On Meadow Road, there’s a brick building that seems related to the towers. What happens in there?
The audio feed from WRKO’s Medford studio arrives there. Then powerful transmitters put that audio on the 680 signal and send it along the wet ground wires to the towers for broadcast. Telecommunications enthusiast Scott Fybush took these shots of the transmitter room:
Special thanks to:
- John Kennedy, Senior VP of Technical Operations at Audacy, the airborne and internet radio provider that owned the towers before selling them to iHeart six years ago.
- Broadcast journalist and tower enthusiast Scott Fybush. Every year he sells a tower calendar.
- Telecom engineer Marty Hadfield
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Loved geeking out on this one! Thanks, RF!
Very interesting! I am amazed how you continue to find new and intriguing local topics!
Fascinating piece … I grew up on mid- Lexington street in the mid -60s and 70s; and remember only getting WRKO (Dale Dorman) on my small round blue radio!!! Now I know why!!!!
I remember as a kid being able to press down the switch arms on the phone and being able to listen!
Always remember the telephone had rko on in the background! I remember an unattended death at the building years ago also.
You’ve piqued my interest. Do you have any more info that you could share about the death?
I believe this was also WNAC for a time
Years ago I remember WNAC was on its mail box on the street the Burlington highway Dept is, it was probably late 1960s and early 1970s
Yes. Sometime in the early 1950s WLAW sold out to WNAC which had a lower powered transmitter on 1260 AM in Quincy. WLAW then became WNAC and the old 1260 frequency became a new station called WVDA, later WEZE and now its something else but I cannot remember…it’s Brazilian Portuguese Christian programming now. Then many of us remember old stodgy WNAC changed to WRKO and rock and roll music in 1967.
Good job on this article getting the facts correct. I’m a broadcast engineer and Burlington resident all my life. I often find it funny when “lay persons “ try to explain how all works. You did your research and explained the ground system and directional pattern (why 3 towers) well.
P.S. One thing I would decribe differently is the signal does not travel from the building to the towers along the “wet ground wires”. Coaxial cable transmission lines lead to each tower base to some tuning equipment in those little shacks under the towers we call “dog houses” then bonded to the tower with the coax shield ground connected to the buried ground radials. I know I’m getting to technical now. lol!
Very good explanation of how the WRKO transmission towers operate. As a kid in Salem, MA I regularly listened to the Lone Ranger radio broadcast on station WLAW. I knew the station was in Lawrence but didn’t realize the program was transmitted from the towers in Burlington.
Very interesting and informative article. I’ve been curious about the towers for years and your article supplied the answers Thank you!
Very interesting. Thank you.
Very interesting and informative thank you.
I remember getting RKO on our phone near the car wash. RKO and WROR were my first intro to Rock music.
Nicely done and glad you got some help from Scott Fybush and the others for this article. As a teenage radio geek, living less than a mile away from the WRKO towers provided me with a advantage at the height of “be the tenth caller at 931-16-68” giveaways: the RF came through the PHONE LINES, so being able to dial the first 6 numbers left me with only the “8” to dial on the trusty old rotary dial phone while listening to the song fade ON THE PHONE. Worked like a charm, to be honest. 10 albums, multiple concerts (including Chicago with the opening act being some guy name Springsteen, 3rd row at the old Garden. Couldn’t hear for a week! It was awesome!)