With all this activity around The Fat Chick on TV, I thought I’d check out some transmission possibilities.  I’ve already done a transmission satellite, so I thought I’d look at some television transmission towers.  And let me tell you, this week’s entry is a doozy.  Located in Pirita just outside Tallinn City in Estonia, this free-standing tower (complete with observation deck) was used to provide better telecommunication services for the regatta event at the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics.  So essentially, this HUGE tower was built so that the world could get a better look at a boat race.

The  tower has an interesting past, and features bullet holes from the Soviet Coup attempt of 1991 and was apparently held for a time by a handful of radio operators who protected the free radio station by jamming matchboxes into the elevators to force the Soviet troops to climb the over 1000 steps in the tower.

Here’s the stats…

Time to completion: 5 years

Height, including antenna spire: 1030.2 ft.

Foundation: includes reinforced concrete rings over 50 cm thick

Total Weight: Over 20,000 tons.

Conclusion: the Tallinn TV Tower weighs more than me.

In other TV news, the Fox 11 LA news segment will be rebroadcast at 5PM tonight and Julianne and I will also be appearing on Dr. Drew’s new show on HLN this week.  Stay tuned!