Antenna Plans Shorting Out At (Freedom Tower) 1 WTC

Freedom Tower, the building known as One World Trade Center, was planned with a patriotic height 1,776-foot height, with the help of a spire with a broadcast antenna inside. But now the Observer reports on "signal trouble": "According to multiple people familiar with discussions, the Metropolitan Television Alliance, a consortium of local television stations, last month informed the Port Authority that it would not be proceeding with a deal for its members to broadcast from an antenna atop the 102-story tower at the World Trade Center site." The MTVA were asked, back in 2003, to pay $20 million to build the antenna and pay $10 million/year rent, but given the economy—and the facts that their signals are fine now and that there are other available, already-built antennas around town—MTVA has been rethinking things. The Port Authority, though, tells the Observer that the spire to hit 1,776-feet "continues to be part of the design."

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By Jen Chung in News on April 8, 2009 9:48 AM

Comments [rss]

UWS

Please stop referring to 1WTC as the freedom tower. Its so lame.

Brooklynbobby

Just get the goddamned thing built already. Enough with the hole in the ground. Pathetic!!!

doppelganger

just cut the spire and put a 1776 sq.ft. starbucks on ground level to satisfy the freedom fighters.

Peter

TV broadcast antennas are sort of obsolete in this day of cable and satellite.

Quidnam

That's what cable and satellite companies want you to think.

I say paying for TV service of any kind is obsolete in this day of over-the-air HDTV and internet video on demand.

Landor

That a building's entire design is predicated on a number is both bizarre and lacking in imagination. For lack of a better term, I call it histrionic architecture.

Trilby16

I want the old towers back. Not saying I'd ever agree to work in them but I want them back!

tmz is evil

I can't for the life of me understand why people would want the towers back. It's been over 7 years since they were destroyed. I'm sorry, but if you're still pining for them after all these years because you "miss the skyline", that's just really sad.

Politburo

Do you also support wars you would never agree to fight in?

widefive

I find the obsession with the 1776 height rather tacky. It stinks of freedom fries...

A memorial on the ground to remember the victims would be fine. Just let the building be a building.