Radio Tower — “Radio tower” by Herkie is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

This week, the Today Show ran a short segment about the theft at WJLX in the Walker County town.

@todayshow
Thieves in Alabama stole a 200-foot radio tower, forcing a small radio station off the air. So far, no arrests have been made. #TodayShow
♬ original sound – TODAY Show

Along with the tower, which was first discovered lost on February 2nd, the building was also vandalized.

Below is the Facebook post on that date by General Manager and station owner Brett Elmore:

“This is going to get out eventually, so I might as well make it public before it does. I have heard of thieves in this area stealing anything, but this one takes the cake,” Station owner and GM Brett Elmore wrote in a posting. “This morning, my bush hog crew went down to a tower site we have behind MarJac to do an early cleanup of the property before we did some more work down there. When he arrived, he called and notified me that not only was my building vandalized, but my TWO HUNDRED FOOT TOWER WAS GONE! They stole every piece of equipment out of the building, cut the guy wires to the tower and SOMEHOW managed to down a 200′ tower and take it from the property. Jasper Police is investigating and hopefully they will find who did it. It is a FEDERAL crime to tamper with a federally licensed facility. If you have any information, please call the Jasper Police Department at 205-221-2121.”

The story has gone viral, appearing on NBC News, USA Today and New York Post.