KNSJ 89.1 FM — East County's community-supported radio station and home of the East County Magazine radio show — suffered a catastrophic blow in February when the tower it rented atop Monument Peak in Descanso collapsed under severe ice and wind from the winter storms.

"The tower where KNSJ rented space since beginning broadcasting on July 4th, 2013, is now a crumpled pile of steel and cabling," the station announced. The American Tower Company-owned structure, which sat at 6,200 feet of elevation, also hosted cell phone transfer stations for AT&T and T-Mobile. KNSJ was the only broadcast station on the tower.

The station is still streaming online at knsj.org and has a phone app in development, but restoring the FM broadcast signal is a daunting challenge. Radio engineer Chris Durso, formerly with KPBS, speculated that rebuilding could take more than a year — if the tower is rebuilt at all — adding that the American Tower Company may choose not to reconstruct it.

That timeline poses a serious regulatory risk. Federal Communications Commission rules allow a full-power radio station to remain silent for only a limited period before its license is put at risk.

The station's volunteers confirmed that falling ice from newer installations above the KNSJ antenna had been damaging equipment for years. "For the last six years, our antenna has been brutalized by falling ice from the new installations above us," the station said, noting it had been developing a strategy to address the problem when the storm struck.

KNSJ had recently received a seed money grant from the Prebys Foundation to expand its role in independent journalism and media. Station operators are now seeking an alternative site and launching a fundraising campaign to rebuild. Monument Peak — with a direct line of sight to the Pacific Ocean and coverage from Tijuana to Highway 52 — was considered an ideal location when KNSJ first launched.

Listeners can continue streaming the station at knsj.org or sign up to be notified when a new phone app launches at news.knsj.org/sign-up-to-be-notified.

Source: East County Magazine