When the World Trade Center was destroyed, so was New York’s main broadcast antenna. (In fact, six broadcast techs died in the collapse.) Ever since, people have been looking for a new place to build a mast.
The NYDailyNews reports today that Univision is close to a deal to occupy a new antenna atop 4 Times Square, the Conde Nast building, at Broadway and 42nd Street. It would reach 1,142 feet above street level and be the first new antenna in midtown since the Empire State’s antenna went up in 1938. (Yes, the antenna was added several years after the building was finished; before that, it was a dirigible mooring dock. Watch the end of 1933’s King Kong if you think I’m kidding.)
Other broadcasters want to put a 2,000-foot tower on Governor’s Island, perfectly situated in New York Harbor, but the city is saying No. The group is instead looking at a site in Bayonne, N.J. And the 1,776-foot spire in the plans for the new Trade Center won’t be built for another decade, in all probability.
