High Island, New York

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High Island is a small private island, part of The Pelham Islands group in the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is next to City Island between City Island Harbor and Pelham Bay in Long Island Sound. It is an island at most times, but is connected to City Island by a sandbar that emerges at very low tide. It is also connected to City Island by a small private bridge.

130 years ago, High Island was known as Spectacle Island. More recently, it was privately owned with summer rental cottages and a lifesaving station until the late 1950s, when it was purchased to use for radio transmission towers.

As of 2006, the entire island and two transmitters are owned by CBS Radio, a division of CBS Corporation. It houses the transmitters and antenna towers for WCBS-AM (880 kHz.) and WFAN (660 kHz.; previously known as WNBC), both of which are owned by CBS. The island is currently uninhabited, but is attended 24 hours a day by personnel manning the transmission equipment. Previous to being on High Island, this equipment was located on nearby Columbia Island.

The taller of the towers is 549 feet (167 meters). WCBS and WFAN have applied to raise the other tower to the same height, but the local community of City Island is opposed to any such improvements. The case is in litigation. The proximity of these two AM radio stations causes interference on telephones, stereos and televisions on nearby City Island.

On August 27, 1967, a small private airplane crashed into the radio tower, destroying the antenna and taking WCBS and WNBC off the air. Both stations were able to borrow nearby transmission facilities for about a week, until an emergency tower could be erected on High Island. The permanent replacement was built with a second (shorter) tower as an emergency backup.

High Island is only a transmitter island. It does not have any studios or any other RF broadcast facilities, other than the two AM radio stations. WCBS-AM broadcasts from Manhattan, and WFAN broadcasts from Astoria, Queens.