Weather mutes Las Vegas classical music station

Spencer Patterson

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.

Southern Nevada classical music radio station KCNV 89.7-FM has been off the air since Sunday morning, the result of weather damage to broadcast equipment on Mount Potosi.

According to the station's Web site, www.classical897.org, "A large chunk of ice fell from the top of the broadcast tower and damaged one of our two antenna bays."

The Web site goes on to report that a rock slide in the same area has blocked a road leading to the equipment and delayed repairs. The site provides a photo of the blocked-off road up the mountain.

The station was knocked off the air about 3 a.m. on Sunday, Warren Brown, director of engineering for KCNV, said today.

"We got about halfway up and we encountered the boulder slide," Brown said. "The department of transportation went up (Tuesday) to try to clear the rocks, and apparently one of the rocks fell on their front-end loader. So now there's also a broken front-end loader up there along with those boulders."

Brown said workers planned to go to the site today to see if they could clear the road. Blasting may be required, he said.

"It's frustrating because that's the only way up there," Brown said. "We're fielding lots of angry calls, but it's out of our hands."