- Vandals took a torch and toppled four
197-foot radio towers that are part of a seven-tower cluster in Black Canyon
City, authorities said Wednesday.
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- The damage has been preliminary estimated
at "millions of dollars," said Susan Quayle, a spokeswoman for
the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office.
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- Knocked off the air was KMIA-AM (710),
a Spanish station in Phoenix. It broadcasts ESPN Deportes, a sports-talk
format that was launched last month. advertisement
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- Tom Duran, the station manager, said
there was no immediate indication when the station will be back on the
air
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- It could take "several weeks,"
he said.
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- "It's disheartening to know that
somebody would do damage like this to a federally licensed facility,"
Duran said.
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- He said he's unable to say whether the
damage may be linked to recent immigration unrest throughout the nation.
He said the FBI will be asked to investigate.
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- The station is owned by Entravision Communications
Corp., a Santa Monica, Calif. firm that operates a string of Spanish stations
throughout California and the Southwest, including KLNZ-FM (103.5) in the
Valley, also known as Radio Tri-Color.
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- Quayle, the sheriff's spokeswoman, said
the vandalism occurred late Tuesday at the Krazy Horse Ranch Polo Club,
which is west of Interstate 17 in the community 30 miles north of Phoenix,
Quayle said.
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- Investigators have determined that somebody
used a torch to cut the steel support rods to four of the towers, causing
them to crash to the ground, she said.
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- The ranch manager heard the towers crash,
but there were no injures to people or horses at the ranch, Quayle said.
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- The towers, which went up in the late
1990s, became the focus of a contentious lawsuit involving Black Canyon
City residents opposed to the cluster.
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- The opponents won a key ruling in late
2000 when the Arizona Court of Appeal validated a referendum seeking to
put the issue before Yavapai County voters.
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- They were defeated in their bid to have
the towers torn down when voters approved the cluster in November 2002.
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