This tall antenna mast on top of the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel was built in 1976. At the time, it was the tallest building in downtown Atlanta, so it was a natural broadcasting site.
With changes in broadcasting in the US over the past decades, and taller buildings being built in Atlanta, this antenna tower has lost some of its desirability, but still hosts a few FM radio stations and a couple of low power TV stations, while also serving as a backup transmitter for tenants (such as WPCH-LP TV) who moved their primary broadcasting transmitter to newer more modern facilities at North Druid Hills.
From the excellent Fybush blog: (
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The Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel rises 723 feet above ground, with the antenna mast on the roof adding another 113 feet for a total of 840 feet to the top. When it was completed in 1976, it was briefly the world's tallest hotel; it remained Atlanta's tallest building until 1987, and that made it a prime location for broadcasters.
At various times in its history, the mast on the Westin was used by FM stations WZGC (92.9) and WSTR (94.1) and by a UHF station, WVEU (Channel 69, now WUPA), which signed on from the Westin in 1981 as a subscription-TV operation.
With the coming of digital TV and the construction of taller buildings near the Westin, those stations moved away in later years. (We saw WSTR's current facility in last week's installment and we'll see WZGC's later in this week's; WUPA, unable to locate its DTV antenna on this tower, ended up moving to the same tower off I-20 where the new Cumulus aux transmitters are also located.)
With the big signals gone, the Westin became home to some smaller ones. The former WHMA-FM (100.5) in Anniston, Alabama, 90 miles west of Atlanta, had long been trying to move into the big city, and after several thwarted attempts it eventually ended up here, eventually upgrading to its present C2 facility. After WUPA's analog signal departed, 100.5 (now WNNX) installed a new four-bay ERI antenna on the former TV antenna at the top of the mast; the old 92.9/94.1 FM bays that were side-mounted on the mast are gone now, but you can see them in the photo from 2004 above left, and you can see the current look of the rooftop in the 2007 photo above right.
(We don't have any pretty pictures of the Westin from ground level from our 2009 trip; the hotel was - and is, even now - undergoing exterior renovations after a 2008 tornado damaged many of its windows, and the upper floors of the hotel were a patchwork of plywood and glass.)
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And having seen the lower roof, we get to climb up the ladder to the small upper roof level where the mast sits. (There's plenty of other non-broadcast RF up here, too, plus two low-power TV stations."
From Wikipedia: (
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The Westin Peachtree Plaza
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Broadcasting
Several local broadcasters have transmitted from an antenna mast atop the building, beginning when it became Atlanta's tallest, but declining since others have been built around it.
The original antenna once carried the signal of WUPA TV 69 from the time it first went on-air as WVEU, but that station moved because the Westin tower lacked space for an antenna to send the station's digital television signal. Two LPTV stations currently transmit from the top: analog WTBS-LP 26, and digital-only WTHC-LD 42.1. As of 2009, WTBS-LP is moving to the Bank of America Plaza, from the same antenna as co-owned WANN-LP/WANN-CD, and possibly future digital WTBS-LD 30.
The main FM antenna (the four large elements seen at the top of the mast in both outdoor pictures on this page) recently belonged to WZGC FM 92.9 ("Dave FM"), while a smaller antenna still carries backup signals for that station and previously for WVEE FM 103.3 ("V-103"), both owned by CBS Radio. WWWQ FM 100.5 ("Q100", now WNNX FM "Rock 100.5") first used the same antenna when it moved to Atlanta, before it upgraded and relocated within the city, but it has since switched back. WSTR FM 94.1 ("Star 94") also shared the main FM antenna with 92.9 when it was originally installed, with the power from both stations' transmitters being combined into a single antenna through a diplexer. Both WSTR and WZGC still list this as their allotment location.
There is also an XM Satellite Radio repeater."
Also from Wikipedia: (
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List of Atlanta Broadcast Stations by location
Buildings
Westin Peachtree Plaza Hote
The tallest in Atlanta when it was built, it has always held multiple stations. 33°45'34?N 84°23'19?W
Original main transmitter for what is now WUPA-TV 69, until lack of space for its digital TV forced it to move
Original main transmitter and current allotment and backup for WZGC FM 92.9
Original location and still the allotment for WSTR FM 94.1
WNNX FM 100.5 College Park, original/current location, previously WWWQ
WTHC-LD 42 (42.1) digital, original and current
XM Satellite Radio repeater"