Sun 19 Dec 2004
Helicopter photo showing the collapse, with most of the tower falling inside the fence.
The Capital Gold Dial Guide reports:
Los Angeles - It’s not often we report on west coast news, but then again it’s not often when a Class 1A clear channel station gets knocked off the air either. The 700-foot tower for 50,000 watt KFI AM 640 tumbled to the ground after being struck by a small single engine plane. The two people aboard the plane were killed on impact. KFI returned to the air about an hour later with 5kw, using their backup tower at the same location. No damages or injuries on the ground were reported.
From The War Stories Section of The Broadcast Archive:
La Mirada (Los Angeles), CA December 19, 2004
On 12/19/04, a small private plane rammed into the KFI tower, apparently about ten feet below the top.
Just over seven months since the tower was refurbished, it was a total loss.
These photos are courtesy of Brian Hamm, who works in the complex where the tower was located.
Alerted because the studio was unable to get back on the air after an interruption, The engineer arrived in La Mirada to discover, to his horror, the 750 foot tower was on the ground. Service was restored with a shorter (200 foot) auxiliary tower.