Rural Residents Fight Radio Towers Broadcasting Company Wants To Move Towers Off South Hill

A plan to move some radio towers from the South Hill is making waves in a rural community 10 miles south of Spokane.

Citadel Broadcasting Co. wants to broadcast its signals from the agricultural area, but residents have formed a non-profit organization to stop the move.

The company, which owns KGA-AM and KJRB-AM, hopes to move its towers to an 80-acre site near the intersection of Highway 195 and Stutler Road.

“We’re right next to it,” resident Bev Martin said. “We’re panicking. We’ve lived here 30 years. To have this happen is just disastrous.”

The area is zoned for general agricultural use, but that use includes towers - even radio towers. Citadel needs only a building permit to erect towers on the site. That permit is now pending before the Building and Safety Division of the county Public Works Department.

Residents have sent more than 40 letters opposing the towers, said Tom Davis, cocompliance coordinator for the division.

Some of the towers haven’t exactly received fan mail at their current site. The two KGA radio towers have given the station a public-relations black eye for years.

They’ve caused interference on telephones and televisions in some southeast Spokane neighborhoods. And they’ve worried Mullan Road Elementary School parents, who fear the transmission of electromagnetic waves might increase their children’s cancer risk.

Residents near the rural site say they don’t want the interference on their appliances any more than South Hill residents do. They’ve formed a non-profit organization called Paradise Alliance to fight the towers.

“I’m bummed,” said Karen Winter, who lives about 1,050 feet southwest of the proposed site. “I don’t want them at all. I’m really praying this is not going to happen. I know this is kind of our David and Goliath thing.”

Tom Roberts and his wife moved to Stutler Road for the peace and quiet. He said he worried about noise interference if the towers are moved there.

Last week, Roberts stood next to the proposed site and looked at the cedar and pine trees that would surround the towers.

“That land’s all for sale,” said Roberts, pointing to land adjoining Citadel’s property. “We’d actually like to buy it and put a school on it.”

Several residents say the outrage of parents at Mullan Road Elementary is the only reason that Citadel is moving the towers.

On Citadel’s building permit application filed last Aug. 25, the company said it wanted to move its towers as soon as possible because of the school.

“We would like to be on (the) new site and away from Mullan School as quickly into the school year as we can,” the application states.

Bill Gott, chief engineer for Citadel’s Spokane stations, said the towers were not unsafe. Research has not proved that electromagnetic waves from radio towers cause any health risks.

“I was trying to take advantage of some of the past controversy,” Gott said of the reference to Mullan School in the application. “I was hoping to get this moved last year. That probably was an unfortunate thing to say. People took it somehow that the station had to move because of the school.”

The company actually wants to move its stations south for business reasons, Gott said. Listeners in the Valley and in Couer d’Alene have complained for years of poor reception, especially at night.

The move south should improve reception, and actually reduce the amount of towers the two stations need from six to five, Gott said.

Gott said he hopes that the county will decide favorably on Citadel’s building permit. The delay has cost Citadel an extra $42,000 so far, he said. The move was originally budgeted between $350,000 and $400,000.

The county building division will decide on the permit as soon as Citadel finishes responding to county questions.

Some are from residents. State agencies also have reviewed the building plans because the site includes wetlands.

Whether the application is approved or rejected, the building division’s decision will probably be appealed to the county commissioners, Davis said.

Citadel is set on moving the towers to the Stutler Road area, Gott said. The company will provide technical help if the residents have problems with radio interference, he said.

The towers won’t hurt the rural area, Gott said.

“The towers really haven’t slowed construction on the South Hill in the slightest,” said Gott, pointing to a picture from 1949 showing logging across the street from the KJRB towers. “Given time, the same thing will probably happen in 40 years at the new site. We’re starting that cycle again.”

That cycle isn’t necessarily a good thing, Martin said.

“Our house wouldn’t be worth a plugged nickel because nobody would buy it,” she said. “We’ve lived out here for so long. Nothing was here. Our life has just turned upside down. I can’t even believe it’s happening.”