Murfreesboro, TN - The storm that twisted through Middle Tennessee, finding its way into Rutherford County where it struck Eagleville, Christiana and eventually Murfreesboro, also hit the WGNS airwaves, literally.

After silencing the station for a short spell, engineers quickly went in and turned off all equipment so that a back-up transmitter for AM 1450 could be installed. After the secondary transmitter was in place, the power went back on and the signal was restored.

The quick work by the local broadcasters has provided a temporary fix for the station to remain on the airwaves.

For now, WGNS will continue broadcasting on their back-up system, which is a much older transmitter, until officials work to solve the bigger problem... which includes the tedious work of building a brand new transmitter.

WGNS, the Good Neighbor Station, has been on the air since 1947 and storms causing short-lived silences are merely speed-bumps in the road of radio.

The transmitter site is in the middle of Murfree Springs Wetland, an area hit with a double whammy of lightning and flash flooding. In fact, this was the first time in the stations history that water rose as quick as it did at the wetlands site. Over 6-inches of rain fell within a few hours, bringing all area waterways up. The local Stones River went from around 3-feet of water in some areas to a depth of 20-feet.

Town Creek, which flows out of the Murfree Spring Wetland--goes underground--and resurfaces next to Cannonsburgh Village in Murfreesboro. Heavy rains in downtown Murfreesboro led to water bubbling out of the storm drains on South Church Street at Broad Street (see above photo). 

Again, the short-lived silence during the weather related issues led to a complete power shut down, giving engineers enough time to pull the plug on a damaged transmitter – and then re-install a back-up transmitter at the same site. After the back-up transmitter was installed, the power went back ON for AM 1450 and its two translators, FM 100.5 and FM 101.9.