page_title: Sutro Tower
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sutro Tower / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Sutro Tower with one antenna segment removed (for modification for spectrum repacking) in January 2020
context_page_description: Sutro Tower is a 977 ft three-pronged TV and radio antenna tower in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro near Clarendon Heights, it is a prominent feature of the city skyline and a landmark for city residents and visitors. The tower was the tallest structure in San Francisco from the time of its completion in 1973 until it was surpassed by the Salesforce Tower in 2017.
  The tower is named after the family of Adolph Sutro, a businessman and former mayor of San Francisco. His grandson, Adolph Gilbert Sutro, built a mansion, La Avanzada, on their property in the highest peaks of San Francisco. In 1948, the mansion and property was sold to the American Broadcasting Company, where it became the original home of their San Francisco operation as KGO Television. KGO then formed a consortium with KTVU, KRON, and KPIX, the three other major San Francisco television broadcasters at the time, to build and maintain the tower. It stands 297.8 m above ground and 552 m above sea level. It is the second tallest structure in the city by ground-to-tip height, though its mountain location overlooks the city's downtown skyscrapers.
context_section_description: Before the construction of Sutro Tower in 1973, television reception in San Francisco was spotty because the many hills of the city blocked the line-of-sight television signal. The great height of the new tower helped to resolve that problem. Transmitters had been scattered throughout the Bay Area, including at San Bruno Mountain, Mt. Allison, Monument Peak, and Mt. Diablo. By having all the main Bay Area television station transmitters in one location, reception was improved by allowing a receiving antenna pointed in a single direction to receive all those stations rather than a subset.
  Local residents opposed the tower even before it was completed, including criticism of the aesthetic effect the tower would have on the rest of San Francisco. San Francisco writer Herb Caen once wrote, "I keep waiting for it to stalk down the hill and attack the Golden Gate Bridge."
  When first built, the long legs of the tower were illuminated at night with long tubes of white light that looked like long fluorescent tubes. However, public outcry resulted in the lights being removed soon after they were turned on. Despite the initial revulsion of some residents, Sutro Tower is now recognized by many as a Bay Area icon.  A local entertainment guide, SF Station, uses it as a logo, as does the collaborative art game SFZero.
  Beginning in 2019, one of the three upper antenna assemblies was temporarily removed for the installation of new antennas for the FCC spectrum repacking. On May 1st, 2020, antenna installation for the repacking was completed. Additionally, "To accommodate some final project cleanup work, some stations will broadcast from their auxiliary antennas intermittently between mid-July and mid-August."
caption: The tower in 2020 during antenna modifications
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