NORTH JACKSON, Ohio – Chris Smith and Frankie Newman of FordCom Wireless powered through two days, heat and humidity and several tests of their skills to earn first place at the fourth annual Tough Tower competition.
The tower climbers from the East Palestine company bested seven other teams from companies across the country in the contest, which started Thursday and finished Friday at Tri-County Tower.
Competitors moved through several stations, demonstrating skills from roof and tower rescue to measuring and cutting precision and weatherseal expertise.
The roof rescue exercise, staged Thursday, was the contest’s most challenging, Smith and Newman agreed.
“It was the requirements and following the directions on how they wanted to do the rescue and things of that sort,” Smith explained.
The biggest obstacle Friday was nerves, but he relied on perseverance and pushed through.
Each exercise was timed with Friday’s finals, which included four challenges, limited to an hour.
“That time goes super quick,” Newman said. “You wouldn’t believe how fast it goes.”
The Tough Tower competition is presented by the Tough Tower Foundation. Mark Muzzano, founder and director of strategy at STG Family of Companies in Columbiana, is foundation president. He and Chris Thomas, owner and CEO of Tri-County Tower, started Tough Tower.
“It is the best of the best of folks who climb in the tower world,” Muzzano said of participants. “These are the men and some women who go out and keep all the infrastructure running for us. … It takes a ton of diversified skill to build towers and maintain towers.”
The organizers decided to create an industry event about what those companies and employees do. Judges, all volunteers from the industry, evaluate contestants’ safety procedures as well as their performance.
Muzzano said the National Association of Tower Erectors, the industry’s governing body, supports the Tough Tower, and organizers would like to stage similar contests across the country.
But it’s about more than competition. It’s about the mental wellness of people who work in the construction industry, he said. Suicide rates are high.
“We’re building the EAP program – employee assistance program – to put out education to have suicide awareness lines,” Muzzano said.
Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, attended Friday’s event, talking to organizers and competitors and kicking off one of the contest legs.
“Most people don’t really think about when they turn their mobile phone on or TV on, how it works, but it’s the hard work of crews like you that get it done,” Carr told the crowd.
U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-6th, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, also attended the event, awarding winners their prizes.
“But the work that he’s been doing in Congress is really delivering significant results, not just for Ohio and for the district, but for the country,” Carr said of Rulli. “They passed really key legislation to free up more spectrum, which are the airways that you all use. If they hadn’t passed that bill, we wouldn’t be able to get you guys up there putting new radios and new antennas on. That’s really important work.”
Muzzano pointed to the National Association of Tower Erectors’ support of the Tough Tower for bringing Carr to Friday’s event.
“He’s incredible,” Muzzano said. “He’s climbed a tower in every single state of the nation. He’s all about the workers.
And for a government official, yeah, it’s genuine. You don’t go climb a tower and not care.”
Although it’s a challenging contest, the Tough Tower is a friendly competition. After the finals, FordCom’s Smith and Newman and the team that finished as runner-up shook hands, congratulating and complementing each other.
The team of Matthew Hardenbrook and Jeff Sayer of Sargent Electric from Pittsburgh was the runner-up. All Telecom and Joy Telecom from Tacoma, Wash., finished third and fourth, respectively.
This marked Smith and Newman’s second appearance in Tough Tower. Last year, they placed third.
For Newman, his boss, the FordCom owner, got him into the industry. He said he’s kind of a thrill seeker, and he likes the work.
“You work with great people and, honestly, when you’re out, 30 minutes goes quick,” Newman said. “When you’re out on-site, that day flies.”
Smith is a fourth-generation tower climber. As a child, he would travel with his mother during the summer to visit his father on the job.
“I dropped out of high school and started climbing,” he said.
If they return next year, Smith and Newman will continue to work together and make sure they’re following steps as outlined in event directions. Doing things your own way means point deductions, they said.
Following those steps has practical implications too, Smith pointed out.
“If the manufacturer specifies you have to do this step, this step and this step, and you do the first step, skip the second, then you do the third – now you’re going against that manufacturer’s guidelines,” he said.
That could void the warranty or worse.
“There’s steps and precautions for everything,” Smith continued. “If we don’t follow it, I mean, it could put somebody’s life on the line.”
Pictured at top: FordCom Wireless tower climbers Chris Smith, on the ground, and Frankie Newman, on the tower, compete Friday in the Tough Tower competition at Tri-C Tower in North Jackson.