Utah radio reached new heights with mountaintop broadcasting

Utah television entered a new age 57 years ago when mountaintop TV broadcasting became a reality, making its reach across Utah and even into portions of four surrounding states.

Later, FM radio began and many local stations were located on the peak, too.

KSL's TV transmitter/outpost on Farnsworth Peak started operating in 1952 and was able to reach 80 percent of the homes in Utah from the 9,054-foot summit in the Oquirrh Mountains. At the time, it was the nation's highest TV transmitter.

Today, Ch. 5 and most other Salt Lake TV stations, plus now 15 FM radio stations and some other companies, rely on the facility that has become invaluable — even in the age of satellite TV.

The beginnings of the Farnsworth transmitter were in 1946 when a KSL crew began scouring the western side of the Salt Lake Valley — from the Bingham Mine area to the peaks — conducting surveys and using temporary transmitters to test coverage potential.

Vincent E. Clayton, KSL's chief engineer at the time and later a Bonneville International vice president in charge of engineering, said the station knew, in theory, that a high mountaintop on the west side of the valley would be the optimal place. He said the peak was chosen because it had the best chance for access by a potential roadway.

KSL initially couldn't invite the other stations to share the mountaintop because of labor problems — not all the stations had unions at the time.

Cut Miller, a surveyor who was later killed in a plane crash, found the site. Samuel Leslie "Les" Price, KSL field engineer and later chief engineer who died in 1994, also assisted with site selection and construction.

The first step was to make a road to the peak. This was done with very limited funding, so little, in fact, that Clayton and his engineers doubled as road builders starting about 1949.

"I had never worked with dynamite before, but I soon learned," Clayton said years ago. He retired from KSL in 1980.

The KSL crew used rented and purchased equipment to construct a road with a 25 percent to 30 percent grade that led to the peak from the west side but came in from the north end (compared to today's southern access). The early road was so steep that only the best of four-wheel drive vehicles could climb to the top.

Alternate forms of transportation were soon explored. After a mine shaft was ruled out, a tramway was considered.

In 1952, KSL purchased an abandoned tramway from a mining company in Ketchum, Idaho, for $50,000 and decided to install it on the west slope, to come up from the Tooele side. Another $300,000 and four years of work and it was ready to use. Paulsen Construction of Salt Lake City built the tramway by utilizing seven towers to climb to the peak.