Pocono News Section

WYOU and WBRE Back On the Air

WYOU and WBRE Back On the Air - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 05:30AM EST

Reported by: PAHomePage.com
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007 @05:30am EST

WYOU and WBRE took a hit from the weekend storm as well, with tower troubles thanks to the collapse of a WNEP-TV tower. As of now both WBRE and WYOU are fully back on the air with both digital and analog signals.

It's been about 18 years since a scene like this one has occurred on Penobscot Mountain. A television tower tumbles to the ground, creating problems for your local television stations.

Lou Abitabilo, General Manager for WBRE/WYOU said, “The storm caused damage to WNEP-TV's tower, and it also affected part of WVIA's tower. The WNEP tower collapsed causing that tower to hit a power line which caused the WYOU tower to lose its power."

The WNEP tower that fell caused power interruptions to both WYOU and WBRE-TV stations and created a difficult task for engineers who have been feverishly working to get our off air signal back up and running.

"All the crews who were up there assessing the damage needed to be aware of falling ice from the structures. It’s very hazardous even to get access to the mountain and it was further complicated by the ice and the snow that had fallen Saturday night into Sunday morning," said Abitabilo.

Since Sunday, cable providers have been using signals from KYW out of Philadelphia and our sister station, WTAJ from Altoona in order to bring you CBS programming. However, off air customers, digital subscribers, and some cable customers have not been able to see WYOU since Sunday morning.

"It's a very rare occurrence. They are usually built very strong and last quite a long time, so this for sure is a rarity,” he said.

WYOU plans to re-air the survivor season finale at a later date and time this week. We'll let you know as soon as that programming information is available.