KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — You may drive by it every day and not even notice the tall mast nestled between Knox County and Blaine.
The WBIR Tower, for a brief moment in history, laid claim to a worldwide feat.
“People my age grew up with the Guinness Book of World Records," said Knoxville historian Jack Neely. "I was really surprised as a teenager looking through this and saying, gosh, the tallest structure in the world was here in Knoxville, WBIR tower.”
From September to December of 1963, WBIR’s broadcast tower was indeed considered the tallest structure on planet Earth.
The metal monument stood 1,751 feet tall, the height of more than six and a half Sunspheres.
“They were trying to reach a broad Appalachian area, and to do that you have to get as high as you can," Neely said.
According to a September 1983 PM Magazine news story, a rival television station purchased land on Sharp’s Ridge out from under WBIR, forcing them to move their new tower deep into East Knoxville.
Aside from a few newspaper ads and articles, there was little fanfare for the tower upon its completion.
“Very, very often people don't realize the significance of something when it's happening. It's only in retrospect that you start thinking about it and noticing things like that,” Neely said.
In 1980, WBIR put a new tower on Sharp’s Ridge, and the original tower was sold to the radio station WIMZ.
Today, the tower is still in the top 150 tallest structures in the world, and the tallest structure in Tennessee.