What's inside the 2nd oldest TV tower in the West

KSDK TV has a storied history as the second oldest TV station west of the Mississippi River in the US.
My Dad and I explore the history and the present for this 50,000 Watt broadcast TV tower-which was built in the 50s to spread KSDK's signal further West from the downtown area.
Mentioned in this video:
- Slo-Mo Guys 'How a TV works in slow motion': • How a TV Works in Slow...
- EEVblog 569 - Tour of an Analog TV Transmission Facility: • EEVblog #569 - Tour of...
- WFAA Original: Tower Climbers: • WFAA Original: Tower C...
#broadcast #engineering #tour
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Contents:
00:00 - TV and... golf?
00:48 - Transmitter room
02:29 - Lots of packets
04:13 - Transmitter up close
05:37 - Feed lines, filters, and waveguides
08:11 - 10 massive water cooling pumps
09:41 - Remote room and old-school HD CRT
11:02 - Power feed and filtering
13:21 - Motorized multi-band satellite
13:55 - Massive generator, multi-kV transformers
14:43 - A fine weathered feed line
15:42 - The red elevator
16:38 - Low-power TV and an AM translator
18:27 - Tx protection
18:55 - If only these walls could talk (could they?)

[@dougtaylor7724]

It’s a blessing to have a Dad like that. He is one of the “if you knew half of what he forgot, you would be a genius “ type of guys.

[@NFlight]

Old school cellular guy here... we called the in/out of the combiners the "Goesinta" and the "Comesoutta". :)

[@benjaminmosnier]

I love how your dad is getting more and more comfortable with the videos. I love the relationship you two have!

[@User0000000000000004]

I worked at Best Buy when rhat HD Trinitron TV was on sale. I believe there were two, a 34 and a 36. There were other TVs that were progressive scan but that was in fact the ONLY glass tube HDTV sold. I was one of only two people in the store who could lift it upbto the display shelf because at the edges there's 6 inches of leaded glass. I know this because I've seen one dropped on the ground and there really is 6" thick glass. It needs that because while the screen is flat on the front, the tube scans across a curved surface inside of it so the further off center you get, the thicker the glass. It's MASSIVE!

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Haha yeah... I think they've left it there mostly because they can't fit a forklift in there to haul it out!

[@eDoc2020]

I remember seeing what I thought was a Philips HDTV in the waiting room at the cable company. Maybe it was a Sony. More recently someone was giving away one of the Sony models on Craigslist.

[@throttlebottle5906]

it was pretty much a special giant glass lens bonded to the front of a CRT to "flatten" the face and picture out. I recall some of the big hype around them, but only ever seen two of them and I date back to the start of VHS and Microsoft(lol).

[@XMguy]

I always wanted one of CRT HD Wegas.

[@XMguy]

I thought they maxed out at 1080i? It's fast enough to rescan a progressive image?

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Don't worry! At half a million subs on the main channel, only a couple years before you yourself are providing TV for a million too!

[@vincentguttmann2231]

The first megawatt tower video already has half a million views on its own!

[@borntoclimb7116]

Greetings from Germany

[@michaeldrainer2299]

Man…. Wish I would have known you guys were going to be shooting there Jeff.. I am Joe’s building mate and take care of that little LP TV in the small cell building for HSN/QVC. The the other Satellite dish delivers our main channel and a few subs. The rest are delivered over IP. Love the content. Keep it up!

[@JeffGeerling]

That's awesome! I know my Dad loves a clean install, and that's about as clean as it gets!

[@bobblum5973]

Back in the mid '70s I was just starting to go off to Linn Technical College to turn my electronics hobby into my career. I was also working part time where my Dad worked, and they had an ultrasonic welder that wasn't working. I looked at it a bit, but the technology was beyond me at the time. So my Dad hired an engineer to fix it on a Saturday. I got to watch and learn, and then the engineer took me to downtown St. Louis to see the transmitter for 98.1 FM (then KSLQ) in the top of the Marquette Building. Same type of equipment and huge "copper pipe" coax we see in this video, but on a smaller scale. Too many years ago to remember that engineer's name, but I fondly recall the experience, and appreciate being reminded of it through this video. Thank you!

[@JeffGeerling]

That's amazing to hear! My Dad worked on KYKY for a few decades as it was owned by EZ Communications, then CBS Radio, then Entercom, now Audacy (probably another owner or two I don't remember)-that's one of the two stations we looked at in our Supertower video!

[@bobblum5973]

@Jeff Geerling I was actually wondering if it was him that I went with to see the facility. Don't recall when KSLQ changed to KYKY. Also, I've noticed there's a newer station in town using the KSLQ call letters! Downtown St. Louis has grown up so much, and I don't go down there that often. But I did recently drive through there and saw the Marquette Building hidden amongst some taller buildings. No more tower and antenna on top, though.

[@JCWren]

We used to have a couple repeaters at the 970 foot level on the 1000' Channel 11 tower in Decatur, GA about 25 years ago. That tower had an elevator, and it would take 11 minutes to go up and 9 minutes to come down. The elevator controls were really sketchy. They operated in the 27MHz band, and were prone to interference. More than once we'd engage the controller to go or down, and the sometimes the car would just stop. We always made sure to have a person on the ground near the manual controls to getting us going again. Besides servicing our repeaters, I'd take my good SLR camera with a telephoto lens up there. Also spent more than a few hours on roof of the Tower Place building and a few the other tall buildings.

[@bobblum5973]

Interference? On 27 MHz? What could possibly be on that band? 🤔 😁 Besides a ton of CB radios, I've also worked on garage door openers, radio-controlled cars, and even a dog training collar that all used 27 MHz signals. They all used the non-CB frequencies that CBers called "A" channels.

[@borntoclimb7116]

Interesting

[@Nick_G7IZR]

19:12 Those bowties are "batwing" or "turnstyle" antennas stacked in an array. Usually older analogue TV, horizontally polarised.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Yeah I know I asked my Dad about them-I believe they've been unused for a few years now, but not sure if they are just going to leave them until a new antenna upgrade someday or not.

[@Nick_G7IZR]

@@GeerlingEngineering I wouldn't climb it, or pay someone to climb it to remove something unused. I'd wait until it posed a hazard or until the space was needed. Talking of climbing, are you going to go up one sometime? You know, just for the clicks? Ah go on! 😁 BTW, these are my favourite series of videos. Keep it up...

[@VPR2B]

Great video -- thanks for all the effort you put into it! I worked at a TV station in California and made quite a few visits to the transmitter -- always in awe of the sheer size of everything out there. Truly massive.

[@jamesdavis5096]

Absolutely fascinating subject. Even better hosts. A real hit

[@invisi1407]

I love these radio tower videos! It's fascinating and I could listen to you and your dad talk about it for hours.

[@bretgreen5314]

Fantastic; brought back such memories for me. In past lives I was on the technical crews at TV stations KVIQ & KEET, then me and another guy (Ray Hansen of Midwest Tower) built the first FM radio tower in Moab Utah, and this was followed with a stint as an Earth-station microwave technician at Echostar. You could say I have RF running through my veins. Subscribed, and looking forward to perusing more of your videos. Thank you.

[@mwolrich]

love seeing your dad shining in his own way, you can tell he’s loves his job

[@rdottwordottwo2286]

Your Dad is a bonafide 19:33 smart guy!

[@garypaulson5202]

Really enjoying this series on radio towers and the connected equipment. Congrats to your dad for having such a cool job

[@MikhailScottKy]

This video brings back memories. My Dad has been in Radio-TV Engineering since the 1960s. I remember being with him when they pulled out the old tube systems and went from a whole room to 2 rack units and how different everything looked.

[@firked]

Another fantastic video! Thank you so much to you and your dad for putting together such a great TV. I live in the UK and have always wondered how all these transmission towers etc. work and now I know :)

[@kc0eks]

This was as awesome as the first tower. Thank you both and to all who allowed it without drama. Best tower documentary on KZbin x2

[@markv1027]

Sure brought back memories of my TV days. Thanks for the video!

[@andykrew336]

I was one of the designers on the ULXTE transmitter series. The heavy iron was always a lot of fun.

[@wa4aos]

You are fortunate to have a father who is knowledgeable in so many areas and great at explaining what he knows. Good for you !!! Enjoy and love him while he's in your life. My dad has been gone for almost 28 years and I still miss him so much!!

[@tectzas]

These videos are so interesting. Getting behind the scenes looks at the stuff that gives us our way of life is very enlightening

[@wernermoura7326]

Hello, I live in Brazil and I love these explanations of transmitters and tv stations, I subscribed to the channel to learn more about all this...knowledge is power. Big hug.

[@JDWatkins]

Thanks, Jeff. I absolutely love this type of content you are putting out. Your dad is doing a great job of breaking down all the gear. Keep the content coming. BTW, you are looking a lot better than when you were updating us about your condition.

[@birdpump]

Wow Jeff, thanks for all these transmitter videos. RF and broadcast is really fascinating and your dad does a really good job of explaining everything.

[@dgolfer2]

Another great video guys. I have driven by the KSD/KSDK tower a bunch in my lifetime here in St. Louis.. My Dad used to work in store on Gravois not far from there and that was on his route to work. A odd point, I used to work in the old building on Olive that KSD/KSDK used as their studio some 40 years ago.

[@bottlerat2318]

I enjoy watching these radio videos, and it's very cool that your dad works for these towers. I also put the EAS video you made on TV to show my family how it worked.

[@garp32]

Great video. You guys do such a great job describing and doing these tours. Keep it up! Very informative!

[@boomxr]

Thank you for sharing this! Much appreciated.

[@humphshumphs]

Absolutely brilliant to watch. I know you are family, but you work together so well. Can't wait for the next installment :)

[@greatamericanbrocast]

Having grown up in St. Louis, I recall several fond memories of KSDK NewsChannel 5, touring their studios in the 80s with my Cub Scout den and meeting some of its local personalities. Moreover, I was always fascinated by the tech side of radio and TV broadcasting, so seeing this video brings things full circle for me and leaves me with a whole new appreciation for their operation. Thank you guys so much.

[@237130]

Love all of this. Thanks for the tour.

[@natep121]

Great videos! Hope this becoming a recurring series!

[@ad7iradio519]

Another great video. Very interesting. Thanks for doing these.

[@W6EL]

Excellent video. What an incredible site. Thank you for pulling back the curtain for us! 73 and good luck on your ham radio test!

[@iamtechnoman]

great videos, looking forward to more!

[@McTroyd]

Pretty neat! I saw a few TV studios growing up, but never this half of the broadcast transmission. Thanks for showing it.

[@RyanGonTV]

Excellent video! Thank you for sharing this 🙂

[@freedomfighter1000]

THIS IS SO COOL TO KNOW BUT I STILL LOVE THE OLD ANALOG WAY OF LIFE

[@downtownPatna]

As an amateur radio operator, I continue to drool over these transmission sites. Thanks for the in-depth tour, and 73!

[@kens.3729]

This is Very Impressive and it’s safe to say the large majority of the population has NO clue what is necessary to Broadcast TV and Radio Signals. Thank you. 👍🙏

[@bladder1010]

Wow, this is very interesting to see! Great behind-the-scenes tour!

[@Lynchie9000]

Excellent job with the video. Very interesting how it all works getting the signals out

[@HeathenHammer123]

Honestly. One of the better more informative channels on YT

[@WagnerGimenes]

I wish I could geek-out with my dad like the two of you. Jealous (in a good way). Thanks for the content. It's appreciated.

[@grinderkenny]

This is so cool to look at and you do a great job of explaining everything. I have always been mesmerized by thing like this. When I was younger i would find my self going to the equipment room of buildings just to see how it all works over the years I have gotten in trouble because of this. I never met any harm.

[@coondogg729]

I don't know why this was recommended to me but I'm glad it was. I never realized what all was involved into just watching a tv station. great video

[@kurtnowak8895]

Love this content

[@eseperio]

Thanks for the video

[@tomas5376]

Fascinating!!

[@THYZOID]

I have little to no knowledge about all that frequency stuff but your video was very interesting and I learned a lot. Thanks!

[@jeremyturner4327]

Awesome video we need more

[@AdrianHiggins83]

Excellent video

[@borntoclimb7116]

Very good video, what a nice tower.

[@mattalbrecht7471]

Fascinating

[@rono108]

Amazing technology. We need this despite the internet age, especially during emergencies. Thank you for a great video.

[@grantjones7821]

loved this

[@PanSatyr]

Thank you. I really miss working with sites and it's great to watch this. For that Cellular install the physical install is, when I learned it over 20 yrs ago, is the R56 standard. well that's what it was called at Moto. Don't know if that is an industry designation.

[@51nw]

i love all your videos. tons of useful information and ideas for us high power radio guys. keep it up :)

[@ischmidt]

I love all these tower videos. Your dad is really good at explaining all this stuff without falling into jargon like most people would. I still have a Panasonic CRT HDTV. The picture quality is far better than LCD at 1080i, although plasma matches it and OLED beats it. Interestingly it doesn't have 720P, and that was a thing on several of the very early HDTVs. Not a big deal for DirecTV since the receiver can just upscale 720P channels (most Fox affiliates) to 1080 but kind of a pain for OTA or consoles.

[@ddr874]

Always enjoy these videos. Imagine the pressurized ridged coax in a moving platform and salt water environment. Also, cooling of the RCA 2041 transmitter tube was accomplished using two heat exchangers. Salt water from the fire main, cooling a closed fresh water loop, cooling a closed distilled water loop!!! :)

[@alch3myau]

Wooo go EEVBlog!

[@UDX-3030]

Another great video. As a kid going to college I worked at the local school FM station in the engineering dept so I spent a lot of time around the studio and the transmitter on top of a 20 story dorm building. It was a great time, just not real profitable 😂. Thanks for the visit into the workings of a new school transmission system. Well done and please continue. 👍

[@trevordance5181]

The oldest television transmitting station in the world is the Alexandra Palace television station in London where a tower was constructed to transmit BBC television to London and the surrounding areas in 1936. This was the first proper high definition (for the time) television service in the world. It is still used for tv today, albeit as only a local relay, the main transmitter site for the London area now being at Crystal Palace.

[@KE4ZNR]

Great look at that site! I recognized the stack of Uniden SDS-200 scanners as I was a beta tester for Uniden when they were being brought to market!

[@MendotaTech]

Love this! One thing about the bandpass filters. TV Stations are alotted 6 MHz of space. In that space, you are allotted some space as part of the "guard band", which I hear may be even more restricted in the future. But in short, there are more stringent requirements for TV... where FM allows you a total of 200 kHz of bandwidth, and in the area of other stations you may have spacing by at least the next frequency up and the next frequency down... TV stations have very little guard band spacing from the next channel number up and the next channel number down... So the bandpass filter literally chops any signals that fall outside that 6 MHz space. On a monthly basis, I used to run proofs that would determine the state of the signal such as out of band emissions, error rate before the Reed-Solomon filter, error rate after the Reed-Solomon filter, upper sideband levels, lower sideband levels, eye-chart data, etc.

[@rob1248996]

Love your channel. My only gripe is that real radio/tv transmitters should have (large) glowing vacuum tubes to be taken seriously.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Ha, they were neat, the only problem is they sucked down so much power compared to modern gear, newer transmitters paid for themselves in a very short time of operation!

[@sharkey086]

I don't know much about how all this stuff works but it's super interesting to see what all goes into it!

[@TheBrotherDAN]

Interesting. What a good video for those who wants to know about over-the-air television and radio broadcasting and might want to venture in broadcast ownership.

[@Mitchvr32]

Thanks Jeff, another Great video. I'm sure Dave @EEVblog would be happy to see the reference to his content in the video too.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

I'll try to add a card in the video at the timestamp, though I find that only about 0.001% of clicks come from cards. People usually look in the description if they're interested enough. Sadly, cards seem to be more of a distraction than a useful feature most of the time :(

[@larrywebber2971]

Great video by both of you and a chance to see how broadcasting hardware and systems have evolved over th eyears.

[@RookieLock]

As a radio amateur, this is totally amazing to me ! I thought we used some big coax.. That is huge!! You mentioned you were studying for you ham license ? Are you planning on doing a video once you've passed your test? That would be awesome ! Anyway, best of luck Jeff ! Thanks for taking us along for this amazing tour..

[@tomcostello5058]

Too cool thank you!

[@henryD9363]

Love your videos. Like all the microwave plumbing. Got to add I'm quite a bit older than your dad! Had an old friend who was a ham, unfortunately passed away, who would go nuts visiting your transmitter station! So much fun!

[@campkohler9131]

Unfortunately, just as you get old enough to have collected enough knowledge to understand all this stuff, you die. It’s just not fair, I tell you!

[@Robbie06261995]

Love the shoutout to Tower Tee! And I can see the house my grandma lived in at 2:37!

[@frederickbowman4494]

GREAT VIDEO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@AA0Z]

If I squint hard enough in the opening drone shot, I think I can see my house! I can easily see CH 5's tower from my front yard.

[@Dis-Emboweled]

14:15 "its a big one" 😂 Thats a freaking understatement! That's a V-12 diesel! 🤣

[@Jpk516]

That is hilarious! I never thought I’d see a video about this transmitter, I played golf there for close to a decade until they closed the back 9 that crossed next to it. Neat video!

[@GeoffSeeley]

@10:17 back in the day I worked at a satellite earth station in Canada when some guys from NGK Tokyo were on site doing the first HDTV signal transmission tests. They had a metal crate with the biggest 16:9 CRT TV I ever seen (took 4 guys to lift it!) and I'll never forget when I saw an HD image (1080i) of a Japanese gold fish pond on it. It was like looking out a window! This was many years before HDTV hit the consumer market.

[@Crosbie85]

The type of stuff that will hopefully be viewed in the future by people researching the past. Thank you

[@Cemental]

Thanks!

[@211212112]

I can confirm a 36 inch model of that TV weighs more than I want to ever carry again. I sold it for $20 on the condition that I didn't have to load it. I told her to bring two decently strong men. After the two men loaded it up they said there was no way I had carried it myself. I offered to demonstrate, but it would cost them.

[@XMguy]

I got KSDK from Tropospheric 12-14-21 at 2:06 am. In McMinnville, TN

[@jimturpin]

Regarding the microwave dish pointing up the tower, generally that was for a transmitter going out, and there was a 45 degree reflector that bounced the signal to remote tower site and usually the receive part of that same system was a dish that was mounted up on the tower that faced the remote tower. Using that arrangement with a reflector cut down on the sidelobes and made for a tighter beam of energy as it cut across the countryside. The FCC banned them years ago to minimize interference with satellites when they passed over. I remember in the early 90's when Sony was making the rounds and showed up at the educational TV headquarters to demonstrate their HDTV stuff. The 1080p HDTV had a tube like the one in your video, and they had an HDTV video tape player that went along with it. I just remember how impressive it all was and I couldn't wait for HDTV to sweep the country. The TV cost $15,000 and the tape player was $35,000 according to the sales guys and was studio quality stuff obviously.

[@CraigMullins1]

so cool

[@Superduty_59]

Interesting! I used to service a lot of generators at tower sites. I work for Caterpillar now and it's interesting to see your 3412 Cat generator with Asco ATS.

[@WhoFlungPoo2024]

This is beyond fascinating! I literally could sit and watch these tours for hours. In 1965, I had just graduated from high school and just prior to enlisting in the Navy, I worked a few months for KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs as a camera operator. On occasion, I'd accompany the chief engineer (the late Charlie Upton) to the top of Cheyenne Mountain, where our transmitter was located. I'm clueless on its model number but it was a big RCA behemoth that, when it was off the air, a person could literally walk inside. I recall the two final tubes for the visual section were enclosed by covers that could be moved up to allow access to the cavities. When the unit was on during broadcast hours (this was in the days when stations signed on around sunrise and went off the air around midnight), you could barely converse because of the forced air cooling. Seeing how technology has reduced a transmitter's footprint is, for me, mind-boggling. Please post more of these informative narratives! (Perhaps a studio/control room tour, if that's even possible as, I assume, your Dad also oversees studio maintenance?)

[@Lizlodude]

I still just can't get over how these stations have coaxial cables that are 4"-8" copper pipes. Crazy.

[@BradBo1140]

So much tech! Thanks. Are those copper tubes holding smaller wires? Amazing! That place is magic.

[@mudmucks]

Go and look at the earlier video :)

[@BattlestarCanada]

Fun to see Nautel in the wild!

[@rdottwordottwo2286]

I assumed micro was phase out when fiber was introduced. Very nice video. Bring back memories.

[@GeerlingEngineering]

Still in use quite a bit! For some types of communication, microwave is still faster (since fiber can't be run perfectly direct point to point, especially in cities).

[@marcusdamberger]

@@GeerlingEngineering The other aspect is the running costs of fiber go up over time, since your leasing data bandwidth. In that the provider will up the costs on each renewal of the lease agreement. The costs will be fixed for a 5 year lease, but then when it's time to renew that lease, it will go up like everything else. With microwave it's a one time capital cost that you own, the only fees are the FCC license renewal that's cheap and electricity that your going to pay for no matter what. The benefit of fiber is you can change the amount of bandwidth pretty easily, and on microwave it's fixed depending on the link distance and how much redundancy you need in the link. Generally if you need more bandwidth, you would have to put in another link on a another microwave frequency/channel. Often microwave frequencies are crowded for broadcasters in one particular area, like a mountain top or common tower site/area everyone has decided to use. So that viewers only have to point their antennas in one direction. (You often see TV towers grouped together.) So microwave channels quickly get used up depending on location.

[@ryans6280]

Progressing my future ❌ Videos like this ✅

[@heypalthatsnotscience3469]

I used to work there. I spent many long nights at that tower and helped install one of the transmitters!

[@michaelferguson9711]

I had an RCA 38 inch 1080p HDTV widescreen with DirectTV built in. Weighed a ton. Bought about the time digital came online in STL. Beautiful picture.

[@stevendegiorgio3143]

I like these videos.Ive been inside 2 Vortacs which is aircraft navigation aids.I think there soo cool.I a private pilot.These control rooms look simular.

[@Noname_2014]

Yes more radio stuff 👍

[@JH-uh5tl]

Do you think you guys could do a video on the differences between wave guides and coax?

[@bobblum5973]

That would be good, even a "short" video. Coax and waveguides are so similar in _what_ they do, yet so different in _how_ they do it! I understand the theory behind them, but my practical experience is just with coax.

[@mwolrich]

Love seeing the 6 Uniden SDS200 scanners being used at 9:58 they are controllable via an Ethernet port, and theres some great software for controlling them, called “ProScan”, which I believe is running on that PC in the cabinet with them.. even the audio can be listened to over the Ethernet connection. looks like these are being managed by the micro USB port (lower right corner, under LAN port) ✅