An Ohio Valley 100,000-Watt FM Signal Is Severed in Broad Daylight
7th June 2026
Kirtner, 75, has seen a lot in his time as a broadcast owner in the tri-state area of Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio along the Ohio River.
One of his AM station’s copper radials once fell victim to a copper thief cutting its wires.
But an FM transmission line being snapped and cleared in broad daylight? He couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.
The alleged perpetrator — Paul Crisp of Catlettsburg, according to WSAZ(TV)’s reporting — had severed the main transmission line leading up to the broadcast tower of 93.7 WDGG(FM), a 100,000-watt country-formatted FM station licensed to Ashland, Ky., which goes by the moniker “The Dawg.”
Kirtner isn’t sure how the suspect is still alive.