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The 1749-ft tower WTVM-WRBL TV Mast is located near Cusseta GA, some 20-25 miles SE of Columbus, GA.
THIS VERY TOWER was originally located in Columbus, GA behind the WRBL-TV studios on 13th Avenue. The foundation is still there. It was not originally 1749 feet but more like 1200. The extra 549 feet was added when the tower was moved down to Cusseta.
WRBL originally went on the air with a logo created by their artist ("Red" something) and a character named Wee ReBeL (who looked an awful lot like the comic-strip character Henry, but wearing a "Rebel" hat).
Along the same line, WDAK TV {pre-WTVM} used the "Big Johnny Reb" logo {also WDAK AM-540's Signature}, long after it wasn't politically correct.
The video signals from both WTVM and WRBL were transmitted to the Cusseta tower via microwave dishes on short towers. The studio dishes could make a straight line to the receiving dishes on the Cusseta tower. Winds could blow these dishes out of line and often did, creating snowy blank screens until workmen climbed up the tower and re-aligned the dishes properly.
When the 1749-ft tower was completed, WDAK-TV became WTVM and changed channel numbers, from 28 to 9. WRBL-TV also changed channel numbers, from 4 to 3. The channel changes affected WTVY in Dothan AL, which changed from 9 to 4. The new WTVM-WRBL tower could now send a clear signal 70-80 miles away.
The WRBL-WTVM TV tower stood alone as the world's tallest structure for 16 months. In September of 1963 construction on the WBIR-TV tower in Knoxville, Tennessee -- also 1749 feet tall -- was completed.
Three months later in December 1963, the 2063-foot tall TV tower for KTHI (original callsign, now it's KVLY) in Blanchard, North Dakota (close to Fargo ND) became the world's tallest structure. Today, the KVLY TV Tower has regained the "World's Tallest" banner after the 1991 fall of the 2117.3-ft Warsaw (Plonck) Tower (world's tallest from 1974 to 1991).
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