Ron Thompson is the Director of Engineering for Classical California. His job is to ensure that our radio signal travels reliably from our station in Downtown Los Angeles to the mountaintop tower sites that beam our programming out to Southern California.
The Eaton Fire in early January 2025 caused massive destruction to areas of Altadena, Pasadena, and the Angeles National Forest, including the area where our main tower site is located. So we asked Ron to tell us what happened and how it’s affecting our listeners.
Q: Where is the affected KUSC tower site, and what exactly is a "tower site"?
KUSC's 91.5 FM over-the-air signal originates from KUSC's radio tower on a mountaintop next to Mount Wilson in the Angeles National Forest. The specific location is known as the Mount Harvard tower site. This FM broadcast tower site includes a radio tower, an antenna, and radio transmitter equipment housed in a building shared with other radio and TV broadcasters.
Mount Harvard is situated on a mountain peak in extremely rugged terrain within the Angeles National Forest. It's approximately 5,500 feet above sea level and happens to be at the ridge line of Eaton Canyon.
Q: What happened there during the Eaton Fire?
The Eaton wildfire worked its way up through the canyon from near Altadena to the top of the canyon, partially melting KUSC's radio transmission lines. These lines connect the radio transmitter to the KUSC radio antenna, which is located at the top of a 110-foot-tall tower. The lines were not completely severed, but for safety purposes, we need to operate at much lower power than usual until they can be replaced with new ones.
Q: What's the situation right now?
We’ve set up an emergency antenna and transmitter in the Hollywood Hills at a location generously provided by another Los Angeles-area non-commercial broadcaster. If anything happens at Mount Harvard (such as rain causing a mudslide and leading to a power loss), we can switch to broadcasting from this backup site. However, it won’t have the same coverage range as Mount Harvard, meaning some listeners won’t have a clear signal. We’ll also broadcast from this backup site when we need to “turn off” Mount Harvard for repairs.
Until repairs are completed, we’ll continue operating at low power. For many of our listeners in Los Angeles and Orange County, this means the signal will be harder to receive during our recovery phase. Listeners will notice more noise and static than usual. This will be especially true for South Orange County, the western San Fernando Valley, and the Westside. Downtown Los Angeles and other areas with dense building clusters may also experience more difficult reception at times.
Q: How long will the repairs take?
It will likely take several weeks to plan and initiate a full repair project. This involves selecting and hiring a qualified tower rigging company, procuring repair supplies, and arranging freight logistics to transport everything to the mountaintop via treacherous mountain and dirt roads. Transmission lines of this size and quantity are typically shipped from out of state. Weather, mud, and rockslides could cause road closures, so we will need to work around those challenges as they arise.
The good news is that KUSC’s mountaintop equipment escaped the worst-case damage. Our radio tower, antenna, and radio transmitters themselves were not damaged. The outbuilding at Mount Harvard survived, and no Classical California personnel were hurt. The only damage was to the outdoor radio transmission cabling. However, this cabling is over 200 feet long and extremely heavy, so repairs will not be quick or easy.
Q: Anything else you want listeners to know about this situation?
In addition to thanking the first responders who worked so hard to protect all the broadcast equipment on those mountaintops, I want to thank our listeners for their patience and support.
We’re committed to keeping the music playing, and rest assured that full repairs will be carried out as soon as possible! In the meantime, you can always listen via our website and mobile app.
