WATERLOO - If a radio tower falls in Iowa, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a noise? In the case of the KHKE tower that collapsed just south of Waterloo, it will not be making any kind of noise for a long time.

KHKE (89.5 FM) was one of several area stations to lose its broadcast capabilities on Saturday as a result of the weekend's ice storm. Most stations lost their signal because of power outages on the grids where their transmitters are located, but the University of Northern Iowa-owned KHKE found itself in a far worse situation.

"There was over an inch of ice on the tower, and coupled with 30- to 40-mph winds, it just toppled," said KHKE and KUNI General Manager Wayne Jarvis.

The tower once stood 400 feet tall, but when the top two guidewires snapped, the upper half of the tower came crashing to the ground. According to Jarvis, the 32-year-old tower should have survived for another 20 or 30 years before it needed to be replaced, but the circumstances on Saturday were so extreme that it simply could not burden the load.

"Ice is just one of the biggest issues that you can have with a radio or TV tower," said Jarvis. "It is rare that a tower will collapse without wind, but when you couple wind with ice, these are the kinds of things that can happen."

Jarvis said that KHKE's sister station, KUNI (90.5 FM), also went off the air twice on Saturday, but regained its signal once power was restored to its transmitter. While KHKE will be off the air for the foreseeable future, Jarvis said that there was a possibility to rig a setup directly on the top of UNI's Communication Arts Center, although its broadcast range would be dramatically reduced from what the tower provided.

Other local stations that lost their transmissions on Saturday included KXEL (1540 AM) and its affiliates KFMW (Rock 108 FM) and KOKZ (Cool 105.7 FM). The loss of KXEL was especially disheartening for local sports fans who hoped to hear Gary Rima call Saturday's Northern Iowa-Illinois State men's basketball game. The Panthers' flagship station was still able to broadcast the game over the Internet and to its affiliate stations, but residents who were without power were left with no options.

"It was very frustrating to not be able to have the game heard locally," said KXEL Operations Manager Dennis Lowe," but eventually we had to put that aside because we still had a job to do as the flagship station."

KXEL General Manager Tim Mathews explained that the transmitters for his company's stations were in "some pretty remote locations," and he had "no idea" when they would regain their ability to transmit signals.

"This is just one of those 'act of God' situations, and there's not really anything you can do about it," said Mathews. "We're sure that the power companies are doing everything they can to get the power back on."

When asked why stations do not have back-up generators, Mathews said that in his 40 years of radio experience - including 15 at KXEL - he had never seen a situation like Saturday.

"Look at all the weather we've had over the past five or 10 years with summer tornadoes and winter blizzards, and this has never happened before," said Mathews. "This was just a freak (occurrence)."

Mathews said that one of the Radio Group's stations, KWLO (Star 1330 AM), actually has a backup generator and remained on the air for most of the weekend. The other stations do not have them because they cost "thousands and thousands of dollars," but Mathews said that after Saturday, they would reconsider adding them to the other stations.

Like many other stations, KCVM (Mix 96 FM) lost power on Saturday, but some quick thinking got the station back on the air by Sunday afternoon. Station manager Jim Coloff explained that after the Hudson-based transmitter lost power from its grid, he was able to acquire a back-up generator from a friend. Then a group of engineers helped him to rig the power supply to the transmitter and get the station back on the air.

KCVM's sister station, KCNZ (1650 The Fan) was not as fortunate as it suffered a fate more in line with that of UNI's KHKE. Coloff said the tower had sustained damage, meaning that simply adding a power source would not get the station back on the air. Unlike KHKE, however, Coloff said that the antenna was repairable and would be back on the air soon.

Of course, when there is no signal, radio stations cannot run advertisements, and the various station managers had mild concerns about losing their most important revenue streams. Coloff said that he was confident the station's advertisers would not mind having their ads from the weekend moved around, but that the exception was with sporting events where "you can't move or re-do the ads later." Jarvis said that underwriters from KHKE might be content with transferring some of their sponsorship to KUNI until KHKE gets back on the air.

For the time being, the situation is still out of the hands of the local stations. They are left waiting for the power to come back to their transmitters, just as many area residents are waiting for power to come back to their homes.

"We really haven't been able to do anything," said Coloff. "We just hope that we don't get weather like this again for a long time."

Contact Drew Andersen at (319) 291-1418 or drew.andersen@wcfcourier.com.