How Long Does it Take Part 1

This is a completely unedited video of about 17 minutes. If you object to the minute details of climbing a mere 100 feet and changing two lamps please let me know. Part 2 will be the climb from the mid tier of lights to the top and will be unedited as well. I just want to see how not editing will be received by the viewers.

[@Fireship1]

I really liked the unedited footage John. Gives us a real word view of what it actually takes just to get in place to start doing the job at hand. That broken lamp socket wasn't making that bulb change easy. At least you didn't have to climb back down to get a new socket or additional tools.

[@dougtaylor7724]

The first two minutes of audio sound like me getting up in the morning after a cold front blows in. Thanks for posting the video.

[@jefflittle4013]

I'm watching this video while looking up at the broken lamp in my ceiling fan light...life can be so ironic in how it lets you know that your problems are so trivial as compared to the challenges other expierience.

[@jhettish]

Well, fix your lamp. :-) Or not. Thanks for the comment. John

[@crazygamertv761]

John Hettish funny ( - :

[@spiritwolf522]

I wish I had your non-fear of heighths! I get about 10 feet up my 35 foot ham radio tower and I get shaky! Love your videos John. Always enjoy watching them. Take care! 73 de W8WLF, Brian in Ohio.

[@craigroberts6439]

I have a spanner tool for similar situations. Oh and I’ve also found cussing a lot really shows these inanimate objects who the Boss is.

[@qrplife]

My wife says you should bring a potato to extract those broken bulb bases 🤔

[@infinitecanadian]

Or a ball of duct tape.

[@SteveHolsten]

John, you've earned each one of those grunts & groans with all of your hard work! Looking forward to Part 2.

[@jhettish]

Thanks Steve

[@HansVanEijsden]

Thanks for posting it unedited. It gives me a way better understanding of time. Keep up the good work, would love to see part 2.

[@jhettish]

I don't plan to edit part 2 either so it should be along very soon. Maybe by next weekend. John

[@biffburley1]

John thanks for the video. I’m not sure how I missed this but I’m glad to see I’m not the only one to use the rubber handle of the pliers to extricate the bulb base.

[@jhettish]

I tend to use Pyrex glass lamps. They dont usually break but if we didn't do the last "re-lamp" there's no tellng what we'll find. I had often throught of getting some 1 x 1 wood piece and cut it off to about 7 inches. To get the lamp base out the 1 x 1 could be jammed into the remaining base and it would be easy to remove the damaged base. As I mention I had always thought of doing that but I never did. The wood or the insulated pliers (or cuttes) are a good idea. You usually have your guy on the ground who'se been trained to operate a red light controller and thus how to turn off the power to it or to otherwise test it. I've used screw drivers, needle nose pliers, knives, wood chisels and a variety of othe tools to retrieve the old base but have also, on occasion, heard the loud POP when encountering a hot socket. I don't remember ever being shocked when work with this type of stuff. I took my "temporary job" as a two-way radio tech in 1972. It was only temporary until I could graduate from night law school. I made it through the first semester when I was present full custody of my 3 year old daughter and my 5 year old son. That kicked Law School in teh butt. I went on t work for one two-way company for 6 hears and then a Motorola shop for 4 years. Things got crazy in both shops fo in late 1982 I started a "temporary" proprietor business (two-way radio maintenance) so a business partnar and I could start a corporation. Now that corporation is a little over 39years old and I'm the "surviving founder". Add up all the time (so far) That's February 1972 to Januaru 2033 and you get 51 years of a temporary job. :-) John Hettish (now that I'm 77 I haven't climbed anything for at least 2 weeks) Jnuary 30 I'll be 78. Man I'm old.

[@TheSaltblock]

Love the 100% tie off. Nice work "young" man

[@MVVblog]

I like this unedited video, very much so, keep up the good work :-)

[@Keith_1]

Excellent video.looking forward to part 2

[@jhettish]

Thanks Keith. John

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Hi Pappy Youknowwhat! I go for the full unedited run. I like the details! And filing a slope on your Channel-locks to act as an E Z Out might be a help. I was just as queezy on this as I was on the first one because I haven't watched one in a while but obviously all is well. Thanks Bunches!

[@leeronzheimer1895]

I used to put up 160 foot towers with a gin pole for elmers and other older hams back in the 70’s and 80’s in northeast Illinois, ow that I am an older ham I am perfecting a.tip over system and crank up systems for my ham station in ORLANDO FLORIDA. WB9OKM 73... good video.

[@billmoran3812]

I've always used a pair of electricians pliers or short needle nose pliers against the inside of the base to twist it out.

[@jhettish]

I have also. However that particular day I didn't think I was going ot encounter a broken lamp since it had been such a long time so I didn't think about the tool I 'might' need. I'll be thinking about it from here on out. Of course that's like having a serviceable spare tire is the best way to insure that you won't have any more flat tires. John

[@badbluegto]

john enjoy your videos very much im a auto mechanic and we use a product on light bulb sockets and electrical connector called dielectrical grease permetex makes it it works great for us maybe it would help

[@jhettish]

Thanks Mike, We use the same stuff to create greater conductivity on grounding connections. I'm sure that would work with the occasional stuck lamp socket. The problem is that it happens so infrequently. I've had to do what I did in the video possibly 50 times in 45 years. It just rarely happens and when it does we weren't the ones to installed the lamp in the first place. I'm going to have to try something like that though. I do use anti-seize on some mechanical jobs. I appreciate the comment. John

[@dronevideosbyn9qip493]

Removing that old bulb remnants reminds me of being at the dentist. L O L

[@jhettish]

I'm sure you've been there before Len. I was talking with someone who knows you, the corporate Engineer from Midwest Communications. That was my first broken OBS light in years. John

[@jhettish]

I forgot to mention that I was being asked to post more videos and I have lots of raw video that I haven't published. The three part video "How long does it take" came from an experiment which included a lot of unedited video and what I consider boring stuff. It's a simple 45 minute climb up and back down a tower changing lamps but it's all unedited. Unedited video rarely provides a story line and I like there to be a definable story line. I don't have as many people as I had when you came to Tennessee in 2003. In fact I'm two men short and with two trainees I'd still be under-maned. I come home tired and don't find time to do much editing. John

[@actthree34]

John, Your videos, like many others on You Tube, are a form of storytelling. You take us where we have never been and that's why many of us are interested. Whether you edit or not should be up to you are the storyteller. You'll know when you should edit to make the story more compelling. 73s. Bill

[@jhettish]

My current plan for Part 2 is no, or very limited editing. It may be a bit shorter than this one was. John

[@Lcapone]

Hi John! Great job! Sometime one things can "bear out the brain" and 5 minute work turns into 30 minute work. very familiar))

[@jhettish]

Definitely. What I like about the job is that we're still required to work things out on the fly. Much of what we do is specified by professional Engineers but we do a good amount of engineering ourselves. Translated to Russian by Google: Определенно. Что мне нравится в работе, так это то, что мы все еще должны работать на лету. Многое из того, что мы делаем, указано профессиональными инженерами, но мы делаем очень много инженерных разработок.

[@robertmitchum2972]

As you say, it doesn't happen very often. But when it does, it can be a real pain in the posterior region. What I've done for older lamps and sockets is rub a little bit of Vaseline on the base of the bulb. I've never had a stuck bulb again. It also helps getting the bulb back in on those old corroded, overheated sockets.

[@jhettish]

Good idea. John

[@E-Wad]

You can usually get the broken one out with the new lamp.

[@steelem422]

With all the modern technology and it all comes down to one guy with a screw driver and pliers nice!

[@jhettish]

Often it does. You are quite right.

[@StevePietras]

Good job! Pack a multi-tool next time for those stuck sockets. It is rare to see the higher quality bulbs get stuck like that.

[@dennisqwertyuiop]

Thanks for sharing the climb, I am 71 , and My limit was 100 ft towers no more when I was a Motorola tech,,,, Be safe

[@jhettish]

Most MSSs or techs working as Motorola employees were not allowed to climb. I climbed when working for an MSS and we had a great reputation for keeping community repeaters working well. In the 70s a tech would hook up a watt meter, see a bunch of reflected power and Motorola would sell the customer a new run of coax and a new antenna. We had a lot of perfectly good antennas and coax when I was employed by the Nashville MSS. Most of the reflected power was caused by water in the connectors, simple enough to fix.

[@dennisqwertyuiop]

Not a Motorola employe , a Motorola service center

[@jhettish]

Most radio shops in this area used Worker's Comp or Liability insurance as the reason or possibly excuse why they didn't climb. When I went into business I learned there were ways to climb and keep the WC insurance premiums reasonable. I convinced the MSS I was working for at the time (78 to 82) that we could make more money if we climbed instead of letting Motorola call someone else to do it. We got a lot of Work Orders while I was working for Communications Service Company in Nashville.

[@mikemeyer7032]

i find carrying my leatherman saves me 8/10 times in these situations.

[@jhettish]

I'm syre it does I'll have to get one some day.

[@abrahammoreno8481]

Great videos, I am a tower structural engineer, I like watching all the different types of tower’s designs 🗼

[@jhettish]

Thanks for the comment. It's quite interesting to me also. I've sat waiting for someone else to do something and have been able to imagine the stress vectors in some of the old ATT towers. John

[@abrahammoreno8481]

John Hettish me too, when making a design it helps me to imagine the tower’s deflection under diferent types of loads. By the way, thanks for posting all these videos, i have taken a few ideas for my structural drawings. I would love to learn how to climb towers, but it looks scary..

[@jhettish]

It hasn't been scary to me for many years now. I don't really consider any more dangerous than anything else. It could be that most of the people dying from falls or other injuries probably have less than a couple of years experience. In the cell upgrades the companies executing these modifications have to expand suddenly and have an incentive to hire as many potential tower workers as possible. There is a web site called "Wireless Estimator". It's owner, Craig Lekitus has kept death statistics since 2003 and agrees with me that 90% or more of the deaths involve cell antenna and line workers. Sudden expansion of employees in a potentially dangerous business brings out those dangers. By the way, when a cell buildout is finished most of the recently hired workers are laid off. By the time the next upgrade is begun the previous workers have gotten new jobs and the cycle starts all over again. Here's a link to a great video concerning Cell Tower Deaths. www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/cell-tower-deaths

[@larryfried7742]

Holy Moly What a PITA that bulb gave you. You know it's strange that the same exact sounds of those channel locks against the ceramic socket are the same exact sounds that were coming out of my mouth when the oral surgeon pulled a wisdom tooth! :-) I'm kidding but it's true! Sometimes the routine simplest jobs turn out to be the hardest, But, I don't need to tell you that. Really like your videos. Working at heights like you do is not an easy job. You need a clear head and excellent situational awareness, I would think?

[@miloxp]

great vid like it unedited

[@jhettish]

Glad you liked it. I might find more time to get videos uploaded if I can upload some unedited. I still want there to be a story line to my videos not just a mess of shaky camera shots.

[@Penfold8]

Would a little squirt of dialectric grease help with preventing the sockets of the old bulbs getting stuck in the socket?

[@keithcope8113]

Do you feel much sway when climbing this small a tower? And do you wear a special type of boot seems like your feet would get sore standing that long onthose small bars like the videos thanks

[@jhettish]

There is no sway with a guyed tower unless the guys need to be tensioned. Some self supporting towers sway, especially in strong winds but it's easy to know what's normal and what might not be so normal. It's a "seat of the pants" type of thing. Boots are necessary even though some people climb in sports shoes. An arch where the entire or part of the body weight can make for a sore foot the next day. John

[@EastAngliaUK]

did you have lots work after the hurricanes hit or are you in another part?

[@royamberg9177]

Good to see your doing good. Always a glitch in a service call.

[@jhettish]

Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, even if the glitch hasn't happened in years. When you least expect it...............expect it. John

[@jhettish]

Another guy just posted a comment. He's just finished some OSHA classes for his entry into the wind turbine business. His name is James Sloan and his comment is above. Glad you're hanging in there too. John

[@Penfold8]

needle nose pliers have worked well for me when I am removing a crusy bulb that is stubborn, but that has just been Christmas light sockets ;-}

[@jhettish]

I've used a lot of things myself. The problem is remembering to bring a "special tool" with you. I *am* going to create the tool I've been thinking about for a long time before this climb. John

[@Frank-ue6eg]

Thank you for your prescient remarks, John. The hype coming from the big three tower companies suggests the wireless revolution will bring huge revenues to the industry and the in-process 5G revolution is supposedly proving that out. We'll see. Profit levels are still strong and they are definitely deploying loads of capital to expand their fleet of towers and other telecom facilities.

[@johnteague136]

Nice job, John....needle nose next time.. 😊😎

[@drdegutrez8458]

The next time you relamp this tower you should use led bulbs because they last longer.

[@jhettish]

There are no approved screw in LED lamps, only complete conversions to an approved LED system. The last time I changed lamps on this tower was 5 and a half years ago. An LED conversion would cost around $10,000.

[@1RadioShowHost]

John, The lack of wind noise enabled us to hear your thoughts while working. The unedited video is fine by me. One question. Have you ever been at the top of a 220' tower when a deer used a guy wire to scratch it's back? Only happened once to me, and that was enough.

[@jhettish]

I've never experienced an animal, cow, horse or deer scratching their backs on guy wires. However I have been the man on the tower while a ground crew was changing guy wires. Each pull on the comealong causes the tower to vibrate and shake. It didn't bother me though. On one job in Nashville I was asked to join a crew that needed another person. We were changing wire on a 400 foot tall tower. The 21 year old crew leader said, "Mr Hettish, you can have any job you want on the crew." It was June and the temperature was about 93 degrees on the ground. The site was completely barricaded by tall trees all around. I was looking at the tops of the trees and noticed they were dancing in the wind. I told the young man, "I'll go up the tower". He was dumbfounded. He couldn't figure out why I wanted to go up the tower. Simply the ground crew was sweltering in the heat and it was relatively cool at 200 feet. I was to attach the guy wires to the tower from 200 feet down, maybe four guy levels. I was comfortable and I didn't have to participate in rolling up the old guy wire. I just had to withstand the strokes and shaking when the comelong was use to pre-tension the various wires. :-) John

[@steadfast666]

needs no edidting - impressive work from you - great respect

[@shanemarcotte2062]

Have you ever encountered a wasp nest on a tower or in a light fixture or what not? Mad respect for you sir, by the way!

[@jhettish]

Years ago I was working on a strobe light on a self supporting tower. I'd fixed everything on the ground but it was evident I needed to climb the tower. I got on the ladder, hooked up the safety grab to the cable and started up the tower. At about 100 feet I encountered a hornet nest. I was doing ok until one landed on my arm and I swatted it. That was all it took to get about 10 of his friends out of the nest. I got eight stings. I climbed down to see if I was going to react. I usually don't and on that day the stings were only sore but I had no adverse reaction. I knew I needed to climb to the top and fix the strobe since the tower was about 300 miles from home and I didn't want to make another trip. Instead of climbing the ladder I got on the back side of this self supporting cell tower and climbed to about 110 feet using my "monkey brain" and then crossed over to the ladder. I then continued the climb to the top and finished the job. On the way back down I crossed over to the back side of the tower about 20 feet above the nest and finished my descent to the ground. I've had at least one other situation similar but not as bad. Wasps and hornets only sting when they're defending a nest. In early to late fall they swarm around towers but do not sting. John

[@dronevideosbyn9qip493]

Hard to tell which guy, knon so many over the years, I've lost count. Between public Radio and big corp. guys, most of them are hams and that is how I probably knew them best. One hint I'll pass along is smear a little silicone grease on the OB gasket. Next time we don't have to give the glass a big bump to get it off and break the bulb in the process.

[@alphasxsignal]

They should just have the lamp on a track on the side of the tower and it could run up and down by cable.

[@jhettish]

There are a lot of things tower manufacturers could do. They could have built in motorized method of raising and lowering antennas, lights or many other little accessories but everything added to a tower costs more money and represents more expense to the people who own the tower. Things like I just described briefly would require maintenance. Secondarily, a simple slide on the side of the tower that contained electrical connections would have to be extremely weatherproof or basically foolproof. Tower owners don't like to spend money on maintenance, which is a sad truth. They erect a tower for some purpose and pretty much leave it alone until they are compelled to inspect by an insurance company or if something breaks (malfunctions). The simplest way to own a tower and maintain a lighting system is for everything to be quite weatherproof and as simple as possible. When something breaks call a company with a good reputation and have them fix the problem.

[@asel51]

Have you ever used dielectric grease on the base of the lamps to help prevent them sticking over the years? Not that you’d want to get grease on your hands while climbing.

[@jhettish]

Hi there and thanks for the comment. I've never used it on beacon or obs lamps, never had to. Humidity is high here in Tennessee but probably much worse near the various oceans. My lamp replacement usually has to do with simply worn out filaments. I always use the "Long Life" lamps and they generally last for three to four years. I learned early in the tower business that I didn't need to replace lamps, busy work, and I started getting away from GE and on to Duromax lamps. Duromax is still in the lighting business but they quit creating incandescent lamps about 20 years ago. They allow a company in Mexico and in Canada to create lamps based on the Duromax patent. Oddly enough, the DuroMex seem to have less failure than the DuroCanada lamps. Just my observation but getting back to your original question I've never had the need to use dielectric grease anywhere but with one exception. I use dielectric grease on grounding attachments. John

[@jaa93997]

Why not spray some dielectric contact cleaner on them sockets?

[@geebee7529]

Silly question, but why not LED bulbs? Would last way way longer, saving you probably multiple trips back up to replace as opposed to incandescent.

[@jhettish]

Not so silly. There is no Federal Aviation Agency approved, simple, screw in, replacement for the 116 watt "traffic" lamp which is clear-glass incandescent. Several companies have tried to make one but they found the demand was not all that great. Tower lamps are sold by the thousands. Home lamps and office lamps are sold by the millions. The main reason LED lamps cost more is that they contain a small power supply converting AC voltages to the the DC voltage required by the LED. Often there are several Light Emitting Diodes (LED) on a circuit used to produce an equivalent light to various sizes of incandescent lamps. a 100 watt LED household lamp produces an equivalent brightness to a 100 watt lamp but only uses a fraction of electrical power. A 100 watt incandescent lamp draws about 1.3 amps. I don't have an exact figure but I think a 100 watt household lamp draws less than one tenth of an amp consuming almost nothing in comparison to the incandescent lamp. John

[@crazygamertv761]

To bad that you didn't remove that light base the day before ( Friday the 13th)

[@ljmike1204]

why are ther no LED bulbs on that tower ?

[@jhettish]

It's an old tower, possibly 40 years or so. LED conversions are not cheap so some owners just keep replacing the system with inexpensive parts.

[@GeoffreyFeldmanMA]

Yep, made it this far. On to the next.

[@crazygamertv761]

I like you not editing much better

[@sabrinapeterson9887]

Glad to see a veteran tower climber tie off 100% so many dont

[@jhettish]

Hello Pete. It seems I've met a Pete Peterson at sometime in my past but I'm sure there's quite a few of you. Last week I was on towers and a water tank at least four times. Climbing is not my chief function in the company. I pretty much do everything. Friday we found wasps in some elliptical wave guide, quite unexpected. This coming week I have a guy coming from a manufacturer to help me track down an IT problem on a P25 radio system. it seems the "fun" never ends. :-) John

[@sabrinapeterson9887]

John Hettish ive claimed for budager company out of last Cruz Nm and for area wide commnacations out of medina tn dont think iv met you but I watch your videos lot of respect for someone your age and still with it

[@jhettish]

Thanks, I appreciate the thought. I tell young people (nearly everyone) that no one knows how they're going to feel at 30, 40, 50 and more until they get there. I'm just lucky that I can still do this sort of thing.

[@sabrinapeterson9887]

My first climb i was 19 and it was just shy of 400ft on a mci tower being twore down

[@sabrinapeterson9887]

Stay safe and God bless

[@brandon5540]

Did this man say hes climbing i his 70s?

[@jma5177]

Você tem 72 anos???

[@RoboticNerd]

480p? Nooooooooooooooooo! Lol

[@ErikPAPATIE]

This is am tower im see one insulators

[@jhettish]

There are a lot more insulators than the one I point out in the video. They keep the skirt wires off of the tower, maintaining a certain spacing between wire and tower. John

[@ErikPAPATIE]

John Hettish ha ok but this tower is death is not used .and for what is here again is not used

[@Frank-ue6eg]

Why aren't all of those towers equipped with a halyard from day one, with a ground based winch. If this can be accomplished and has been established on any sailboat for centuries it is illogical why there is no halyard system on these towers.

[@Frank-ue6eg]

It's as if they purposely create work to increase the expenses and reduce the dividend amount they can pay to us shareholders.

[@jhettish]

No Halyards. As for winches they are installed in some places, usually old cable TV towers. By old I mean 25 to 40 years old. The towers rarely require anyone to change or fix an antenna. The motors and winches themselves re usually badly disused and rusty. Usually towers stand month after month and do not require the kind of work we do with winches. If you're considering riding the winch line that requires some very expensive inspection and rebuilding of key components to be replaced over a schedule of maintenance. Otherwise OSHA (www.osha.gov) would consider riding the line to be dangerous due to ignoring maintenance required by their regulations. Winches and the motors that drive them are more expensive than the tower itself. Special people are available to climb and do the work and it's much less expensive than permanent winches (maintenance) or replacement of flexible halyards due to environmental deterioration. Portable winches owned by tower companies are much less expensive. Money, just another reality of everything we do. John BTW: I've owned a lot of sailboats and miss the opportunity but working, keeping a company viable, has kept me from wet fun, including SCUBA diving. On sail boats we're not considered "doing a job for money" and are therefore exempt from OSHA but I have ridden the bosun's chair to make the rare trip up the rigging.

[@Frank-ue6eg]

Thanks for the feedback and info. You clearly have a wealth of experience and would therefore know if and how to make the work flow most efficiently. Since you are a contractor servicing these facilities, you presumably have an incentive to do anything possible to make the process as efficient as possible so you can serve more customer orders more quickly at a lower cost. There is value in that. Therefore, it's probably safe to assume that "if you ain't doin it, it's just not feasible.." Maybe - I don't know, but it seems to me that a single halyard or a series of halyards mounted on the a tower would encourage more frequent inspection and maintenance at a lower overall cost, thus overall safety. What I envision is a man lift comprised of a permanent woven steel rope system hooked up to a single pulley or series of pullies aloft. All this would require is twice the amount of cable currently used for those permanent safety cables. There need not be dedicated winches for the towers. Those would be "attached" to the contractor as part of his/her equipment inventory. This would get the technician up to the work site relatively fast and effortlessly. If something is forgotten or too heavy/bulky to bring with the tech on the way up, there is no problem - the halyard is just brought back down to load and raise the item(s) needed. I understand that even just the single pully and the additional wire introduce additional burden in terms of inspection and maintenance costs. Even the truck mounted winch is going to have regulatory strings attached. However, these are common items and not complex machinery or components. American Tower, Crown Castle and SBA Communications are the big three in towers globally - I'm guessing they control 70% of the market in terms of owning or operating the towers. The stock prices of all three have run up enormously and are now sporting valuations that I would not have dreamed of just a few years ago. Their dividends have doubled in the past 6-7 years but their market prices have tripled - so the current yield isn't so great. There's been a lot of growth in terms of broadcast tower facilities but it seems to me the "technology" of the underlying structure really hasn't changed much. It seems to me that as more and more of these towers are "multi-tenant' there is a big opportunity to improve their operating and maintenance efficiencies. If I'm a tenant on one of those towers, I'd want to know that I can access my gear to fix it or change it out quickly and cheaply.

[@jhettish]

I'm having trouble with Outlook when trying to reply to your comments. I may not be as detailed this time. It's a pain to type about 500 words, even if a fast typist, only to watch them disappear suddenly and not be made to come back by the life preserver known as the "undo" button. There I turned off the touch pad and will rely on the wireless trackball. You may or may not know that 70% of all TV watchers get their programming by cable. Years ago a bad TV transmitting antenna system meant the viewers were all jumping off the couch or easy chair to change channels, leaving a dead TV station with no income. As cable, or subscription TV, became more popular the antenna system was less necessary but still required by the TV station's FCC license. TV antenna reception is experiencing a revival with all the old TV situation comedies being rerun so that the "antenna" viewers, many of whom are retirees (old like me) and miss the old shows. Also antenna reception does not require a monthly bill in the mail here in the US. In other countries a "reception license" has been and still is required if you buy a radio or TV but not the US (yet). Viewers in some of these countries get a recurring "license" bill in the mail. In the US you buy or rent a TV, hook up the antenna and watch for free. Being a licensee of a TV station is quite expensive and there are many rules to follow, like keeping the "on the air" transmitting equipment running 24 hours a day even though a catastrophic failure of expensive transmitting and the all important antenna system must be kept running by the licensee. If the antenna system is being modified by FCC requirement the licensee is still responsible as the FCC license requires to keep the programming flowing to the customers including the 25% using outside reception antennas. The licensee needs to find a temporary antenna and feed line in order to keep things running or face FCC fines and angry viewers. The big question has always been, " How do we get the viewers to pay us for our time and expense?" The only answer for years has been, "Advertising revenue", which is hit and miss, especially in the highly competitive TV business with it's expensive equipment. If the "cable feed" to the local or regional cable TV service fails the FCC is on both providers, cable or RF, to get things going again but the TV station still has it's on-the-air equipment which includes the antenna and the tower it's mounted on, to keep the station on the air. Cable or Satellite TV provides a more stable viewing experience and a plethora of TV channels to choose from. It allows the provider the opportunity to use satellites or land based cable to provide what the viewers and FCC are demanding but that too is expensive. However the cable and Satellite providers have the ability to charge it's viewers on a regular basis and the viewers are willing to pay. The over the air TV providers have no ability to charge the viewing public other than advertising income yet they are required to keep the ability to transmit TV programming over the air and do not have the ability to charge the viewer for the service. The only exception is the TV licensees can choose non-profit status and can beg for membership money. I will present more on this later but probably only you and I are actually reading what we're typing. :-) John

[@jhettish]

A quick reply would be something not yet discussed. Most of the towers and antenna system were erected years ago and still are running today. The broadcaster is making far less income than years ago when there was not as many viewing or listening choices as we have today. Advertisers have very little confidence in radio advertising income so they choose TV. Satellite systems are making headway and the large Automobile manufacturers are talking about limiting radios all together within a few years. FM and AM radio depending on mobile (free) radio listened to by drivers and passengers but rarely listened to when the mobile folks have gone into the office or home. It's a big competitive entertainment world and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) controls it all. Now onto to a more detailed description.