was an observation and radio tower

Radio masts and towers

Radio masts and towers are, typically, tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. They are among the tallest man-made structures...

 built beside the headquarters of Asahi Broadcasting Corporation

Asahi Broadcasting Corporation

is a regional radio and television broadcaster headquartered in Osaka, Japan, serving in the Kansai region.-Offices:*Headquarters: 1-30, Fukushima Itchome, Fukushima-ku, Osaka-shi, Japan...

 (ABC) in Kita-ku

Kita-ku, Osaka

is one of 24 wards of Osaka, Japan.-Economy:West Japan Railway Company has its headquarters in Kita-ku. Nihon Bussan has its headquarters in Kita-ku. Dentsu and Yomiuri Shimbun have branch offices in Kita-ku. Mazda has an office in the Umeda Sky Building Tower East. Air France has an office on the...

, Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.
Besides functioning as a radio and television tower, it also relays radio communication for the taxi companies.

Form

The tower is 160 meters (525 feet) high.
Built in 1966, it was constructed with metal tubing in a quadratic lattice structure and has been designed to handle vibrations and a wind velocity of up to 90 meters per second.
102 meters up, there is a two story observation deck.
Below this, the tower is painted in white and above it in red and white.

Function

The tower cost a total of 400 million yen and construction was finished in 1966.
It has an elevator that can carry 30 persons up to the observation deck, which in turn, can accommodate 270 persons.
4000 visitors attended the inauguration.
In 1979, the "Sky Studio" was installed on the second floor of the observation deck, broadcasting a morning show with weather, traffic conditions, etc.
The observation deck was closed to the public in 1997 after heightened security measures due to, among other things, the mail bomb incident of 1994.
In 2008, the tower was scheduled to be removed, because of the moving headquarters of ABC to Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Japan. It was finally demolished in 2009.

In popular culture

• The tower was featured in this Asahi Broadcasting Corporation sign-on sequence used from 1967-1989.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7zIn3sIQ2w
• It was also featured in this sign-on and sign-off sequence form 1992.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHt42woIVh4

External links