You may have driven by this historic site many times. Erected by the “Father of FM Radio, Edwin Armstrong” transmitted from here so that reception would not be distorted by static. Annoying static was common on AM signals. Armstrong was a perfectionist, and his discovery of how to transmit fm changed the way we hear audio signals.

The Alpine Tower is a 400-foot, three-armed tower located in Alpine, N.J., overlooking the Hudson River north of New York City. It was built by Edwin Howard Armstrong in 1937 for his work on modern FM radio, and it became the site of the world’s first FM broadcast station, W2XMN. The tower currently serves as an antenna for Fairleigh Dickinson University’s educational FM station WFDU and supports other RF services. Additionally, it was used as a temporary transmitter site for some New York TV stations after the terror attacks in 2001.  Many radio and tv stations had towers on the Trade Center buildings and had to scramble to rebuild temporary antennas elsewhere. This tower was a handy alternative,…some also went atop the Empire State Building. The base of the tower houses the Armstrong Field Laboratory, which serves as a museum of FM radio technology (currently closed for renovation work).