If you're in the Washington, D.C. area and exit the Tenleytown Metro station there, it's hard to miss the broadcasting towers clustered in the area. The reason is that it's one of the highest points in the District of Columbia—almost 400 feet above sea level.
David Rotenstein, in Tenleytown's Cold War radio history: Western Union tower does an excellent job describing the history of the location of "some of the region's most significant and contested radio architecture and engineering structures."
Recently Tenleytown Heritage Trail signs were installed in the neighborhood featuring the neighborhood's radio history resources.
And battles over tower sites are nothing new.
Rotenstein writes, "With the proliferation of towers and antennas came complaints that towers adversely affect scenic and cultural resources while also reducing property values and interfering with existing radio and later television reception."
He cites a tower complaint appearing in a 1944 issue of the Washington Post, when NBC proposed building a 250-foot tower in a suburb of Washington, Fairfax County.
Anyone who works at one of the many TV and radio stations in the area will find the history and pictures fascinating, as will anyone with an interest in the history of broadcasting and communications.
