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?
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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