Coincidentally WAND was utilizing a similar antenna as WJJY did with its new transmitter location near Argenta, Illinois.  Even though it wasn’t quite as large or heavy as the original antenna used by WJJY-TV, because of the frequency difference between UHF channel 14 and 17, along with the difference in power, didn’t require such an antenna, it was still, quite heavy and larger than most other antennas being used on top of similar towers of the era.  It was on that Saturday before Easter that the 11-hundred foot steel tower of WAND crashed to the ground.  It was reported that one WAND official had gotten a phone call shortly before 2 PM from a woman who said, “Oh my God, your tower just went down!”  The damage broke communication between at least one person, an engineer at the transmitter site, and the station.  When the tower fell, it evidently took the phone lines with it.  Debris was said to have fallen through the roof of the transmitter building, but the engineer on duty wasn’t injured nor did the transmitter receive any damage. 

The cause obviously was the buildup of ice on the tower and antenna, but certainly, the additional weight of the experimental antenna contributed to its own demise as well.  The scenario was very similar to the WJJY-TV failure of the next day when it was reported that two guy wires snapped and allowed the tower to buckle near the top and fall, taking out the other guy wires and pulling the rest of the tower down with it.

This was a trying time for several central Illinois TV broadcasters as well.  WCIA, Channel 3 was off the air from Friday afternoon to around 10 PM on Saturday due to a power outage at the transmitter site.  WICD was on the air but had lost its microwave feed from WICS.  At that time, WICD did not have the ability to receive the NBC network from coax, and satellite reception was still quite a few years in the future.  WICD solved its problem of not receiving the network by quickly installing an antenna at the studio to receive the off-air signal of WTWO-TV, Channel 2 from Terre Haute, Indiana, and rebroadcasting the network signal.  It’s interesting to note, though, that WTWO was suffering from a related problem of not receiving the network signal because of downed phone lines.  The Terre Haute station was receiving an over-the-air signal from the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis and was rebroadcasting that to its viewers in the Terre Haute area.  I remember a description of the WICD tower that said that the tower wasn’t straight up and down because of the ice load and had a rather “S” configuration under the ice load.

The additional weight of the ice was putting a great deal of stress on the guy wires.  I was at WDAN/WDNL in Danville at the time, and even though the Danville area didn’t get the full brunt of the ice storm, there was some ice build-up on the 385-foot tower of WDAN and WDNL which was the former WDAN-TV and WICD tower pre-1967.  I remember seeing a bit of a sway, along with hearing some really strange noises coming from the newly formed ice sculpture.

No doubt about it, WAND was in deep trouble with no way to return to the air quickly, but the station did have one ace in the hole that none of its competitors had.  That unique advantage was in the form of its former tower and antenna which stood at its studio’s back door.  The original WTVP tower could play a part in being a way to get WAND back on the air....and soon. The station had two alternatives to get back on the air, and only one way to solve its major problem and that was to rebuild the tower.  The alternatives they were faced with to get a signal on the air as quickly as possible were, to build a temporary tower at the Argenta site which would be considerably shorter than 11-hundred feet, and limit its coverage area at least until a new tower could be built.  The second alternative was to use the existing original 600-foot tower and antenna behind the studio.  It would be a taxing two weeks before WAND would return to the airwaves.

In an April 1st story in the Urbana Courier, Dick Westbrook, WAND News Director reported that the station would be returning to the air by April 3rd broadcasting from its original tower.  He described what had been occurring during the last two weeks.  First, a plan was undertaken to broadcast from a temporary antenna placed at the 250-feet level of the existing tower.  Engineers were unsure how far the station would reach, and at that time, a decision would be made to perhaps utilize the station’s former antenna at the top of the tower later.  There was also a plan to purchase a used UHF antenna from Channel 17 in Philadelphia in case the old antenna was unusable. Westbrook said by mid-April, if the old antenna was still operational, it would allow WAND to broadcast once again to the entire area.  This was a bit of an overstatement since the original antenna would not be able to handle any major power increases over what it was using before 1966. 

The total damage from the ice storm of Easter weekend 1978 was reported at 1.5-million dollars!  LIN Broadcasting had insurance enough to handle a loss of 1.2 million dollars.  It was also reported that the construction on a new tower would take another six to eight months to build, assuming it would be rebuilt at the site near Argenta.  There was also a consideration of another unspecified tower site.

By April 13th, WAND was once again broadcasting from its original tower and antenna located on Southside Drive on Decatur’s southwest side.  It seems that the original antenna abandoned in 1966, was still operational again in 1978.  During the cleanup and construction of facilities to contain a temporary transmitter at the studio location, plans were being made by LIN Broadcasting to create an even more powerful WAND to broadcast from an even taller tower!  T.J. Vaughn, Vice-President of Operations, stated that the company was “considering a substantial increase in the size of the tower and an increase in the power.”  Plans being considered included a 2-thousand foot tower and an increase of power to 3-million watts.  Obviously, talk of 2-thousand foot towers upsets the FAA which would need to approve of such a structure.  Ultimately, the FAA wouldn’t approve of such an obstruction to the flight paths of local aircraft, and the tower height of 13-hundred feet was all the governmental body was going to approve.  If there was going to be an increase in the coverage area of WAND, that increase was going to have to come from a power increase.

With WAND being on low power, once again, WAND lost many, many households of viewing.  One way to increases the number of households able to view the station was to move the translator which was serving no purpose in Danville.  The translator in Danville wasn’t able to receive WAND with a constant off-air signal for broadcast anyway.  I remember watching WAND from the translator at the time, and the signal would drop in and out at random making viewing near impossible.  Moving the translator would take W-68-AA to Champaign-Urbana.  Once again, T. J. Vaughn made the announcement that WAND would return to the Twin Cities by way of the “translator.”  This time, though, viewers in Champaign-Urbana would receive WAND, not on channel 70 as it did before 1966, but would be watching on channel 68.  The translator found a new home on the new 21-story University Inn located near the heart of the Twin Cities.  This would allow the station to re-broadcast WAND and ABC to the viewers of Champaign-Urbana within a ten-mile radius.  The equipment was delivered on May 24th and by May 29th W-68-AA went on the air from Champaign-Urbana. 

It didn’t take long for the complaints to come rolling into the management of WAND.  It seems the signal for W-68-AA was not reaching all points equally around Champaign-Urbana.  The complaints seemed to be coming from viewers from the east and west of the transmitter/antenna.  Larry Katt, WAND General Sales Manager, stated that work was being done to rectify the situation and that a better signal was promised to the viewers of the area.  I assume that the problem was eventually solved.