Mount Lee Transmitter Complex (Los Angeles, California)

USA / California / Burbank / Los Angeles, California / Mount Lee Drive
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Named for Don Lee, an L.A. Cadillac dealer in the 1920s. His son Tommy bought the mountain top from Mack Sennett, who had this site leveled in 1925 for his proposed mansion. The 1929 stock market crash and the rise of "talkies" forced Sennett to abandon his plans for the 20-acre site in 1933.

Construction of one of America's first television stations, W6XAO-TV, was completed in 1939. It was later known as KTSL, Channel 2 until it was bought out in the early 1950's and became KNXT, (later KCBS). An FM transmitter was added in 1940, the first FM radio west of the Mississippi, initially an "amateur" station with the call letters K45LA. This later became a commercial station known as KHJ (FM-101.1).

The U.S. Army took control of the facility on 7 December 1941, and occupied it for the duration of the war. The three television broadcast stations that were located here after the war moved to Mount Wilson and all TV broadcast signals from Mount Lee ended in 1951.

There have been no commercial stations on Mount Lee for many years. The many antenna arrays festooning the mast are used by various government agencies and public safety and/or relief agencies, such as the Red Cross.

underthehollywoodsign.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/mack-sen...
www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/what-flattened-the-top-of-mt...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Lee
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°8'5"N   118°19'12"W

Comments

  • The original TV studio/transmitter building was demolished sometime in the 1990s.
This article was last modified 6 years ago