Johanna Ericson
Reporter
A couple of weeks ago, a rare event happened in Columbus, Mississippi when it was hit with a week-long ice storm that shut down almost everything in the city. One major thing that was affected due to the ice storm was Mississippi University for Women’s very own WMUW Radio Station. Thanks to the ice that was on the antenna, the station was only able to function at low power. Normally, WMUW is able to reach listeners all the way out in the Ukraine. Unfortunately, because of the damage from the ice the signal could only reach local Columbus listeners.
Eric Harlan, an instructor at Mississippi University for Women and head of the radio station, was thankfully able to get everything fixed up. Harlan explained how radials, the four circle looking things on the tower, are coated with Teflon, which resembles a non-stick spray that you would put into pots and pans. The second night of the ice storm, the combination of freezing rain and freezing fog overwhelmed the Teflon’s ability to shed water.
“Now, ice is very resistant to AM signals,” said Harlan. “It blocks them in, so the signal we were sending up the tower couldn’t escape. In a sense, it was locked in. Since it had nowhere to go, it reflected back down the tower and into the transmitter, like how a mirror reflects light.”
To adjust the power, the first thing that needed to be done was take the knob labeled “RF Adjust” and turn it all the way down. Harlan tried to repair the station himself but while attempting to get back onto the air at full power, Harlan suffered a shock to his left hand and arm.
“It sounded like Frankenstein’s lab when I walked in'', Harlan said. “So, as I reached for the knob, my hand passed the air intake in front of the transmitter and my hand got close enough to the overloaded transformers that my body had less resistance than the antenna. When my hand passed the open intake, a large, white electrical spark jumped from the overloaded transformers and the overloaded amplifiers, to my left hand.”
He suffered five 3rd degree burns on his left hand and two more on his left arm. Eventually the station was able to get back up to full power.
“Once the ice melted off the radials, I just brought her back up to full power, which lasted for about 36 hours until our preamplifier started acting wonky,” Harlan said. “I also had to replace one of the cooling fans in the transmitter, so the bad amplifier took us off the air a second time. So, I had to go back into the transmitter and bypass that amplifier, and now we’re back on at full power.”
According to Harlan, the radio station has gone out several times through the years, however this is the first ice related outage since he has been with the radio station.
Although many may believe that radio is a “dying industry”, it still holds up an importance to this day.
“Well radio is immediate, we’re always here. We get you information, entertainment, and weather reports.” Harlan said. “Let me tell you, you won’t get that in podcast or streaming service. I always think there will be a place for radio. It may not be the same from when I was a DJ, but we still have our place. You turn us on, there we are. You don’t have to Google search us, we don’t eat up all your data for the month, we’re just there.”