First it was copper wiring and plumbing, now people taking the radio towers. You ever stop to think maybe if someone had a bit more hope for having enough to live on stupid shit like this would stop?

Dun runn oft

Haven't looked up the station's license to see how much power they could have been pushing, but if I were the "authorities", I'd definely be checking local hospitals for records of anyone coming in with mild to severe [RF] burns. With [low frequency] AM stations, the tower itself is basically the other half of the antenna electrically... probably lit them up like a Christmas tree.

I saw this story yesterday and I just cannot fathom HOW. It’s kind of amazing.

So from reading the article, it seems that it wasn't just the tower taken, but also the transmitter. Which makes a little more sense; you don't want to be the thing that detaches an AM broadcast antenna from its feed line while it's on the air. They often transmit with kilowatts or megawatts of power, and often the tower structure itself IS the antenna, or half of it.

I'd be curious if there was a political motivation. This happening in Alabama, was someone scheduled to say some things that aren't extremely racist or something?

The article states that the missing property has a value of ~$200,000, but I imagine that's in the form of an intact radio transmitter and tower; as scrap metal it's probably worth a small fraction of that, and what scrapyard is going to accept a broadcast tower without any questions?

Also:

While the tower remains MIA, WJLX remains off the air. The radio station asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow it to keep broadcasting its FM station even though its AM station is off the air, but the FCC denied the request on Thursday, the station said, since the FCC doesn't allow FM translators to run without the AM station also being on air. The FM station is now only available online.

What? Why?

The Geerlings did a piece on this story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZSxb8QIIa4

This is the best summary I could come up with:

As first reported by Memphis' Action News 5, Jasper, Alabama, radio station WJLX 101.5 FM/1240 AM, sent a bush hog crew to maintain the area around the tower on February 2.

The radio station manager has told outlets that he's hopeful that community tips and surveillance footage from the poultry plant near the tower's former location may eventually help police find the tower-taker(s).

Federal law says one who "willfully or maliciously injures or destroys any of the works, property, or material of any radio, telegraph, telephone or cable, line, station, or system, or other means of communication, operated or controlled by the United States" can face up to 10 years of imprisonment and fines.

Tinsley told the news station that she has reached out to people to identify media outlets that might be willing to help WJLX get new equipment.

It was eventually revealed that two NSCDC officials "were approached by a scrap metal dealer to provide him security cover to transport the items," per Media Trust-owned Daily Trust.

If WJLX's case is anything like the Nigerian heist, someone likely knows more than they're letting on, and the financial burden to the media outlet could be hard to resolve quickly.

The original article contains 712 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

What are the chances this is politically motivated? What kind of radio station was it? Right wing talk radio?

After reading a bit deeper about this station and this antenna in particular, i have to wonder if this isn't an attempt at insurance fraud, and why I say that is that this station has been trying to repair that radio tower over the years and have had an issue with the tower going dark repeatedly, maybe they figured they could make more money off the insurance claim, or enough to replace it, and through all of the fundraising and exposure it looks like that's just what's going to happen.

Abducted.