House Mountain

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House Mountain
View from the northwest, looking to the east-southeast. The tower between the two peaks is not on top of the mountain itself, but rather, about 50 feet (15 m) down the north slope, on the western end.
Elevation	2064 ft ( 629 m)
Location	Tennessee, USA
Range	Ridge-and-valley Appalachians
Coordinates	36°06′42″N, 83°46′00″W
Topo map	USGS John Sevier

House Mountain is a mountain near Blaine, Tennessee. It is located at 36°06′42″N, 83°46′00″W^[1], about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Knoxville, Tennessee and is the highest point in Knox County. With its 2,064-foot (629 m) peak, it was designated the House Mountain State Natural Area in 1987. The mountain is known for huge sandstone boulders and a wide variety of bird and plant life. House Mountain rises from a large plain in eastern Knox County, about 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of the southern terminus of Clinch Mountain. The Unaka Range, which includes the Great Smoky Mountains to the southwest, and the Bald Mountains to the northeast, is visible across the southern horizon from the southern slope on clear days the Cumberland, Powell, and Clinch mountains are visible across the northern horizon.

[edit] Broadcasting History

Located about a half mile east of House Mountain on much lower Zachary Ridge (behind House Mountain in the picture), is a 1,751-foot (534 m) tall broadcasting tower, formerly owned and used by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, Knoxville, Tennessee. Old-time broadcast engineers say that the reason the tall tower was built, was because the former owners of WBIR were unable to purchase private property atop House Mountain to build a new, much shorter tower for their antenna, at a time back in the early 1960's when the station owners wanted to greatly expand that station's broadcast coverage area. WBIR had long wanted to move from its original 800-foot (240 m) tower on Sharp's Ridge in downtown Knoxville, and if a new WBIR tower had been built atop House Mountain 15 miles (24 km) away, the tower would have only needed to be about 600 to 700 feet (210 m) tall to reach the 1,800 feet (550 m) allowable tower height the FCC had already approved for the station.

As it turns out, there was a very good reason why WBIR-TV could not build a tower on House Mountain.

John Reece, the late former TV program director at WATE-TV, Channel 6, Knoxville, remembered all too well the tense situation, which he relayed in an interview to Calvin Sneed for that station's "PM Magazine" program in 1983.

Anticipating a WBIR House Mountain tower and its huge broadcasting coverage area from there, Mr. Reece said, the then-owners of WATE, quickly went in and purchased the only property for sale on the mountaintop that could be used as a tower base. The WATE owners then convinced their new neighbors, the adjoining private property owners there, to NOT sell their mountaintop property up there to anybody else, for aesthetic reasons. That move prevented any land purchase atop House Mountain by the station's main competitor WBIR. The action forced WBIR to spend millions more dollars to build a taller tower for its broadcasting antenna in the surrounding valley below. The resulting 1,751-foot (534 m) tower, now owned by South Central Communications and used by its WIMZ-FM 103.5, was and still is, the tallest man-made structure in the state of Tennessee. After WBIR was forced to build the tall tower, Mr. Reece said WATE then sold its newly acquired House Mountain mountaintop property to a private owner.

Eventually, WBIR-TV left the tall tower, to move to a shorter tower (1,504 ft) on Sharp's Ridge in downtown Knoxville, built right next to its original 800-foot (240 m) tower. Ironically, WATE-TV is now on an adjacent tower on Sharp's Ridge, and 20 feet (6.1 m) higher (1.525 ft) than WBIR-TV's.