WATCH: WNPV Radio towers fall, as landmark to local skyline is lost

A fixture of the local skyline is now gone, but not forgotten.

“I’ve always read in all the trades how this is supposed to happen, a tower coming down. But I’ve never actually seen it in person,” said former WNPV Radio general manager Phil Hunt, seconds before the long-running radio station’s towers were lowered last week.

“When we actually turned the radio station off, back on April 30th of 2020, that was sort of the end of an era of serving the community. It was tough that day, and it’s as tough today,” he said.

Located just north of North Penn High School on Snyder Road, WNPV Radio filled local airwaves with news, sports, tunes and more from 1960 to 2020, when the station went off the air for the final time. Later that summer, the school district bought the 13-acre property, and in the five years since have discussed ways to incorporate it into the campus of the high school. Plans for renovations that started last month call for the radio site to ultimately be converted into athletic fields, after first being used as a staging area for the multi-phase construction slated to run into the early 2030s.

Back in April, the district’s construction team announced that four of the five radio towers that had belonged to the radio station would need to be removed, with one radio and one cellphone tower and the former radio station building remaining. In a video posted by the district’s student-run NPTV channel Thursday, Hunt watched as the towers were toppled.

“I’ve had a relationship with these towers for the better part of 50 years. We got permission to be on at night, so we had to erect three additional towers to do that, which is why the compound here has five radio towers,” he said.

A few seconds, and a few noisy crashes later: “That certainly didn’t take long. I was here when that tower went up,” Hunt said.

    Former WNPV Radio general manager Phil Hunt speaks about the pending removal of the former WNPV radio towers adjacent to North Penn High School on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Screenshot of NPTV video)
  

Online comments on the district’s video drew dozens of recollections of passing by the towers, listening to the station, and comments from proud parents whose students staff the station now. While only one tower is left now, the call sign itself is alive and well: NPTV students went back on the air in 2022 in a student-run version of the station that broadcasts on WNPV 98.5 FM and 1440 AM, the same frequency that had been used by the station.

“That was part of the concept when we put this whole thing together, was to get the license to be operated by the students in some fashion, so that there could be an educational component to the radio station,” Hunt said.

And yes, he’s a listener.

“I listened online to the state baseball championship game from State College the other week, and was proud to hear the call letters being associated with another fantastic North Penn sporting event. I’m very glad that one radio tower is remaining, and that the school district will continue to broadcast on WNPV,” he said.

Video of the towers being toppled was shown to the school board’s facilities and operations committee on Monday night, and Director of Facilities and Operations Bill Slawter reported that contractors did the work in two days and encountered no problems.

“It happened very quickly — in the blink of an eye, it was over,” he said.

Board President Cathy McMurtrie said she thought the video of the towers toppling was “awesome,” and asked how the removal was accomplished.

    The former WNPV Radio towers adjacent to North Penn High School were seen from above before toppling to the ground on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Photo courtesy of North Penn School District)
  

“They removed the guide cables, and allowed it to be freed up, and then they positioned at about the midpoint, like you would see where it would buckle, and took some of the bolts out of that, and then when they cut the last guide line it started to wiggle, and then – it would fall down,” Slawter said, imitating the tower’s fall with his hands.

“It’s a beautiful thing. It is kind of sad, but progress,” McMurtrie added.

One change order related to the radio tower work was discussed by the committee, and voted ahead for full board approval later this month, which Slawter said would reduce the contractor’s costs by roughly $3,300 due to unused allowances in the original $53,000 contract: “They were able to complete their scope of work in two days, which was very impressive.”

And committee student liaison Kaden Williams said he thought it was “really, really cool” to see the renovation work start, and the towers down.

“I was kind of like, ‘Whoa,’ when I saw the radio tower fall. Just to know that’s something that used to be there at our high school — it was pretty cool to see and watch it happen, so I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen with the renovation,” he said.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on July 7 and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on July 28; 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