FORKS — Engineers were assessing damage to the AM and FM radio stations Friday after lightning struck the tower Wednesday, says the station manager.
Tina Matchett said that the station — which is owned by First Broadcasting Capital Partners LLC, an investment company based in Dallas — would remain silent for an undetermined amount of time.
“We’re not on the air,” she said.
“We don’t know how long it’s going to be” before the station returns to broadcasting, she said.
“Everything’s still being assessed,” she added.
The tower, which transmits KBDB-FM 96.7 and KBIS-AM 1490, was struck while a lightning storm hit the West End on Wednesday.
The same storm put about 3,700 Clallam County Public Utility District customers in the dark after lightning hit a transformer.
The outage stretched from Beaver to Forks to Oil City, said Mike Howe, PUD spokesman.
The electrical power outage was blamed for a fire that destroyed a home owned by Barry Thomas at 1246 Moriarty Road near LaPush.
Clallam County Fire District No. 6 Chief Jeff Baysinger said that a wood-burning furnace overheated after the outage stopped the electrically controlled circulation for the furnace.
The fire began as a chimney fire and burned the house to the ground, Baysinger said.