WTVR TV Tower
General information
Type	Steel lattice television tower
Location	Richmond, Virginia
Coordinates	37°33′59″N 77°28′34″W / 37.56639°N 77.47611°W / 37.56639; -77.47611
Completed	1953
Height	257 m (843 ft)

The WTVR TV Tower is an 843-foot-tall (257 m) free-standing lattice tower in Richmond, Virginia.^[1] It broadcasts WTVR-FM and has been in operation since 1953.

History

Upon completion in 1953, the tower became the tallest in the United States^[2] and the second tallest lattice tower in the world after the Eiffel Tower and only surpassed in height by five buildings; the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, 70 Pine Street, 40 Wall Street & the GE Building.^[3] It was a substantive increase from previous tallest towers of any type built in the United States, the NSS Annapolis. It remains to this day the tallest man made structure in Virginia.^[4]

The tower is currently only used by WTVR-FM. Even though WTVR-TV and WTVR-FM still share the same WTVR call letters they are no longer affiliated with each other and are under different ownership. WTVR-TV no longer broadcasts from this tower. WTVR-TV shares a transmitter with PBS member stations WCVE-TV and WCVW. WTVR-TV stopped transmitting from this tower during the analog to digital conversion in 2009.^[5] The tower is still called the WTVR-TV tower because of its history, despite no longer broadcasting from this tower. On November 1, 2017, iHeartMedia announced that WTVR-FM, along with all of their sister stations in Richmond and Chattanooga, would be sold to Entercom due to that company's merger with CBS Radio.^[6] The sale was completed on December 19, 2017.^[7] The tower is considered part of the Richmond skyline and can be seen for several miles around. WTVR-TV's West Broad studios is located directly next to the tower. The station used a graphical version of the tower in its news opens for several years in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Stations

Radio

Currently only WTVR-FM transmits from WTVR Tower.^[8]