Blaw-Knox tower

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This 808-foot-tall Blaw-Knox tower is the tallest in the United States, and belongs to WSM. It is located in the Nashville, Tennessee suburb of Brentwood.

WBT's transmitter just south of Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.

Lakihegy Tower, a 314 metre tall Blaw-Knox Tower at Budapest-Lakihegy

The Blaw-Knox company was a manufacturer of steel structures and construction equipment based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company is today best known for its radio towers, most of which were constructed during the 1930s in the United States. Although Blaw-Knox built many kinds of towers, the term Blaw-Knox tower (or radiator) usually refers to the company's unusual "diamond cantilever" design, which is held upright by guy wires attached only at the vertical center of the mast, where its cross-section is widest.

Many Blaw-Knox towers, of both conventional (uniform cross-section) and diamond design, remain in use in the United States. Few of the diamond towers were built, and several remain; all transmit AM radio signals:

WSM, Nashville, Tennessee: 808 ft (246 m); originally 874 ft (267 m); tower located in Brentwood, Tennessee.
WLW, Cincinnati, Ohio: 747 ft (227 m); originally 831 ft (253 m); tower located in Mason, Ohio.
WBT, Charlotte, North Carolina: three towers, 428 ft (130 m) each (one original, two reproductions from the original plans after the originals were destroyed in a hurricane)
WFEA, Manchester, New Hampshire: 400 ft (121 m)
WBNS, Columbus, Ohio: 380 ft (116 m)

Several additional such towers are in use at stations in California but are less well-known. One of these Blaw-Knox diamond shaped radio towers was used by KTKR in Taft, California for almost 40 years. KTKR operated on 1310 Khz with a daytime power of 1,000 watts. It was owned by the Mann Broadcasting Company until sold to the Farm Workers Union, along with KBDS-FM 103.9. However the land where the KTKR tower was located was later sold off to make way for a new shopping center and the historic 380 foot tower was removed.

The following Blaw-Knox diamond-cantilever towers remain standing in Europe:

Lisnagarvey Mast (constructed: 1936) at Lisnagarvey, Northern Ireland
Lakihegy Tower (constructed: 1933, height: 314 metres) at Budapest-Lakihegy, Hungary (The tallest Blaw-Knox tower ever built)
Vakarel Transmitter (constructed: 1937, height: 215 metres) at Vakarel, Bulgaria
Stara Zagora Transmitter at Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Riga LVRTC Transmitter at Riga, Latvia

[edit] Blaw-Knox Towers in Culture

The design of Kamzik TV Tower may have been inspired by Blaw-Knox Towers. In comics and animated cartoons guyed radio masts are often drawn as Blaw-Knox Towers.^{[citation needed]}