NORTH PENN SCHOOL DISTRICT

North Penn plans to take down WNPV radio towers

School board members voted ahead a contract this week that could lead to the removal of several radio towers on the former WNPV Radio property on Snyder Road, just north of the high school.

Aerial photo showing the former WNPV Radio antennas and cell tower adjacent to North Penn High School. (Credit: North Penn School District)

School board members voted ahead a contract this week that could lead to the removal of several radio towers on the former WNPV Radio property on Snyder Road, just north of the high school.

  • Schools

The skyline near North Penn High School in Towamencin could change as soon as this summer.

School board members voted ahead a contract this week that could lead to the removal of several radio towers on the former WNPV Radio property on Snyder Road, just north of the high school.

“The one tower needs to remain operational, it’s functional right now. So we’re taking down four out of the five, and there will be a second project where we remove and replace the fifth tower, and that tower will remain in service,” said district Director of Facilities and Operations Bill Slawter.

WNPV Radio, a local news station found on the dial at 1440 AM and 98.5 FM, covered local news from the site from October 1960 until April 2020, when the station went off-air for the final time citing the poor economy and reduced support from local businesses. That summer, the district bought the 13-acre property that contained five 165-foot-tall radio antennae, one cell tower, and a brick building that contained WNPV’s studios for $2.3 million and said they had plans to integrate it into the high school campus as major renovations were planned. District officials initially said the site could be used as the location for a district healthcare center, before that facility opened at Penndale Middle School in Lansdale in 2023, and the radio callsign went back on the air in 2022 as a student-run station broadcasting from inside the high school.

Since that sale, the WNPV parcel has been included in several versions of the renovation plans, and district officials have said the site will likely be converted into athletic fields to minimize the impact on surrounding neighbors. During the facilities and operations committee meeting on Jan. 27, Slawter gave an update, saying the moving of the fifth tower would take place during the field renovation phase, and the four other towers would likely be removed earlier. Project construction manager Jamie Lynch added more detail during his rundown of the entire renovation project.

“The AM radio site: we have a bid package prepared for the demolition of the select towers. We’re requesting permission to advertise. The next step is to complete the design of the new AM tower, which gets relocated on the site,” he said.

    A speed limit sign and North Penn School District security warnings stand next to a driveway running alongside cell towers on the former WNPV radio adjacent to North Penn High School in Towamencin, as seen in April 2022.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter 
 
 

“That opens the site up for those (athletic) fields. As you know, the radio tower site will become the major construction staging area, for construction at the school, and that’s why we’re trying to take down those towers: to make way for a stone area where trailers, and equipment, and Conex boxes would be, during construction,” Lynch said.

    Project construction manager Jamie Lynch, inset, speaks about the former WNPV Radio site during the school board’s facilities and operations committee meeting on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (Screenshot of NPTV video)
 
 

As he spoke, Lynch showed several photos of the snow-covered radio property, showing the locations of each antennae labeled “to be removed.”

“The fence, and the guy wires, and the structures that are standing out there around those towers would be removed. This is a very short project, we feel: this would probably be a late spring work item, shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks to take these towers down,” Lynch said.

The facilities and operations committee unanimously voted to direct staff to prepare and advertise bid specifications for the radio tower demolition, and the full board could authorize the same when they next meet on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com



author

Dan Sokil | The Reporter

Dan Sokil has been a staff writer for The Reporter since 2008, covering Lansdale and North Wales boroughs; Hatfield, Montgomery, Towamencin and Upper Gwynedd Townships; and North Penn School District.



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