PORTLAND, Maine — MPBN fans in southern Maine will soon be able to hear their favorite radio programs over the air at full strength again.
WMEA, which serves the area, has been mostly off the air since Monday morning, when a transmission line overheated and burned out. Major repairs were completed Wednesday evening, but a temporary switch to reduced power was necessary Thursday to finish up some related work, says MPBN Chief Technology Officer Gil Maxwell.
Maxwell says the line that burned out had been in service for about three decades.
"This stuff's been up there for years and years and years, with a lot of power on it," he says. "And all of a sudden, for whatever reason, one spot starts to get weak, and once that happens, then it just cascades from that. It'll start burning a little bit and then burn some more and burn some more, and all of a sudden you have — this."
Maxwell says the heavy rain Monday and Tuesday delayed the line repair.
"If you open them up and they get wet, you're done," he says, adding that the line was opened up Tuesday during a lull in the rain. "We didn't know how extensive it was but we saw where the problem was, which made us feel better, but then it started raining again, so we had to close things up."
The line that burned out is located on Winn Mountain. A tower company from Vermont was brought in to help with repairs.
While repairs were underway, MPBN was able to send its signal out on a low-power antenna, allowing some listeners to tune in. Everyone in the listening area should have a full-strength signal by later this afternoon.
MPBN's signals on its other over-the-air radio stations in Bangor, Waterville, Calais, Camden, Presque Isle and Fort Kent were not affected. There's no estimate yet on the cost of the repairs, Maxwell says.
Tom Porter contributed to this story.