WNBC-TV announced Thursday that William Steckman, one of its transmitter engineers assigned to the World Trade Center’s north tower, is missing and presumed dead following the collapse of the building. The NBC-owned station said that it last heard from Steckman after the first plane struck the building when he phoned the station from the 104th floor to say that he was powering down the transmitter. All New York television stations had maintained transmitters on the WTC tower. A CBS source said that the New York affiliate lost two engineers who were stationed on the 110th floor. WPIX also reportedly had assigned an engineer to the site. Engineers from WNYW (Ch. 5) WBIS (Ch. 31), and WJNU (Ch. 47) were also believed to have been on duty.
Of all of the stations, only CBS-owned WCBS-TV maintained a backup transmitter (at the Empire State Building). If not for that backup, some 1.7 million New Yorkers who do not have access to cable would have been left without TV coverage of the disaster in their city. WNBC-TV and WABC-TV said Thursday that they plan to install temporary transmitters in Alpine, NJ.
