A Raccoon Knocked Our West Texas Radio Station Off the Air – Here’s What Happened

Being a Director of Content in West Texas can be challenging at times, especially when you have five radio stations that you are responsible for.

It's a mix of days and weeks where everything feels routine, followed by periods of unexpected chaos.

Enter this week's regularly scheduled chaos.  This week's chaos may not have been extreme, but it certainly threw my week for a loop.

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The Radio Station Got Knocked Off the Air

My evenings are oftentimes rather peaceful.  However, on the night of November 3rd, I began to get multiple emails and warnings that one of my radio stations was knocked off the air.

I had a quick chat with my engineer and asked him what I could do to assist.  Needless to say, I went to bed that evening thinking it would be taken care of.

In the morning, I discovered we were still having issues, and a trip to the actual radio tower was going to be needed to make things right.

An Injured Raccoon Steals the Show

I was on the phone with the station engineer when I rounded the corner and saw a wild animal staring at me.  I admit, I was caught completely off guard, and it startled me.

At first, I noticed the raccoon's heavy breathing and that it was not moving; it was just looking at me.

I did not know what was wrong with it other than that it was in serious trouble.

I gave him some food and water and assumed he would not last much longer.

Piecing Together What Happened

To make a long story short, we had massive power and electrical issues at our tower. However, we eventually got the radio station back online.

It was not concluded until later that the raccoon must have been climbing on one of the power poles, got electrocuted, and fell to the ground.

This explains the animal's injuries, which had no obvious external cause.  It also explains why he was not moving.

Returning to the Scene

After several hours trying to make up for a few lost hours earlier that morning, I was asked to return to the tower to flip a switch.

This gave me an ample opportunity to see if the animal was still alive.

Once I found myself back at the tower, the animal was gone.  This was a great relief, since he was likely able to move on his own.

At least that is what I had told myself and tried putting the notion of a coyote or a large bird swooping him up out of my head.

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Hopefully, the little guy survived his ordeal.

However, this will be one story that I will never forget about the raccoon who single-handedly took down a West Texas radio station.