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Tulsa's 107.5 FM Is Back On The Air!

The fingerstock on the side of this shelf is mostly burned off. When the coax burned, the power from the transmitter had nowhere to go but back into the transmitter. The transmitter shut down, but not fast enough to prevent this from happening.

UPDATE (August 16 at 10:12 p.m.): As some of you may have noticed, 107.5 FM is now fully operational! We want to give a big thanks to our technicians and engineers for their hard work in the heat and wind to fix the tower after the catastrophic event. And a big thank you goes to you, our listeners, for your patience during this process. We're looking at more than $50,000 in unexpected costs due to the lightning strike to the tower. If you wish to donate specifically for this cause, you can do so here. We're excited to bring back KOSU programming to Tulsa, northeastern Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas!

A burned portion of the cabling on the 107.5 FM tower in Ketchum.

UPDATE (August 14 at 12:17 p.m.): Our technicians fired up the tower today to find our transmitter was also damaged in what we now believe was a lightning strike. We are overnighting parts to fix the damaged transmitter, so it will probably be another few days before it is repaired. We're now looking at over $45,000 in repair costs for the 107.5 FM tower. You can donate specifically to that expensehere. Thanks to all of our listeners for being so patient during this process.
UPDATE (August 11 at 4:46 p.m.): Our technicians have run into some unforeseen problems with the tower and are taking it down to inspect it piece-by-piece. This will most likely add several more days to our timeframe. If you wish to donate to this $27,000+ expense, please do sohere. Thanks.
UPDATE (August 9 at 8:44 p.m.): High winds prevented our technicians from finishing the repairs and installation today. There's still a good amount of soot covering the top part of the tower that needs to be cleaned before the signal is live again. Work will start again on Monday. Cost estimates for this are currently hovering around $27,000. If you wish to donate specifically for this expense, please do so here.Thank you for being patient!
UPDATE (August 6 at 4:53 p.m.): Our technicians are hard at work in the 100-degree temperatures, repairing and replacing the cabling and damaged sections of the tower. They're also troubleshooting some destroyed connectors along the way. We're now looking at upwards of $27,000 in costs and a revised on-air timeline of early next week. Again, we have set up a special donation page for listeners wishing to specifically support these expenses here. Thank you for being patient!
UPDATE (July 31 at 4:02 p.m.): We have learned that our shipment should arrive on Tuesday. At that time, the technicians will begin installing the new cable, as well as taking down and rebuilding the tower. We're hoping to be back on-air at 107.5 FM by the following weekend. Thank you again for your patience.
UPDATE (July 27 at 4:18 p.m.): Our 107.5 FM tower has suffered a catastrophic electrical fire. The coax cables that run to (and up) the tower have been destroyed. This special size of coax cable is not readily available and will take 4 to 5 days to ship, followed by several days of installation and repair. We're looking at two weeks at the earliest before we're back on-air at 107.5 FM and early estimates are that this will cost KOSU upwards of $20,000 in total. We have set up a special donation page for listeners wishing to specifically support this expensehere. Thank you again for your patience.
UPDATE (July 24 at 2:10 p.m.): Our engineers are ordering the parts necessary to repair the tower. We don't yet have an estimated time for the signal to be back live. When we do, we will update this post. Thank you for your patience.

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties in the Tulsa, northeast Oklahoma, and surrounding listening area. If you tune in to 107.5 FM or 107.3 FM, then you will probably notice radio silence.

Our engineers are on the scene with specialized technicians, working to get the issue resolved and programming back on the air.

This is an evolving situation, so we will keep you posted on all that transpires. In the meantime, you can listen to our streaming service here on kosu.org or on iTunes Radio.

Thank you for being patient and for your support of KOSU.

The KOSU news team curates news of interest to Oklahomans from various sources around the world. Our hope is inform, educate, and entertain.
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