Poor Mountain

Mountain in Virginia, United States
The Poor Mountain Natural Area Preserve has been established to protect this population. Twelve O'clock Knob is located adjacent to Poor Mountain in Roanoke County directly south of Salem, Virginia. The north slope of the ridgeline formed by Poor Mountain and Twelve O'clock Knob marks the southwestern boundary of the Roanoke Valley. Fort Lewis Mountain is located directly across the valley from Poor Mountain.

Poor Mountain is the location of several broadcasting antennas for radio and television stations in the Roanoke, Virginia Lynchburg, Virginia Designated Market Area (DMA). On the apex of the mountain in what's referred to as an "antenna farm" are the broadcasting antennas on towers for radio stations WVTF(FM) 89.1, licensed to the Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc.; WXL60 (VHF FM) 162.475 MHz (NOAA Weather Radio), licensed to NOAA, National Weather Service; W220BD 91.9, licensed to Family Radio; and three radio stations licensed to Mel Wheeler, Incorporated, WXLK(FM) 92.3; WSLC FM 94.9; and WSLQ(FM) 99.1. Digital television stations located in the antenna farm are WBRA TV 3 (PSIP Channel 15), WDBJ 18 (PSIP Channel 7), WSLS TV 30 (PSIP Channel 10), WFXR 17 (PSIP Channel 27), WPXR TV 36 (PSIP Channel 38), and WEDD LD 26. All of these stations are licensed to Roanoke. Other telecommunication antennas and towers for local, county, state and national public service, are also located on Poor Mountain, and their flashing Federal Aviation Administration tower lights can be seen from dozens of miles away, especially at night. The antennas for the other primary digital TV stations in the Roanoke DMA, WSET TV 13 (PSIP Channel 13) and WWCW 20 (PSIP Channel 21) are located on towers on Thaxton Mountain, halfway between Lynchburg and Roanoke. Prior to the 2009 digital TV transition, WSET could not locate on Poor Mountain because of an inability to provide analog "city grade" coverage of Lynchburg from that site, in addition to short spacing concerns with WOWK TV in Huntington, West Virginia. The Poor Mountain broadcast antenna farm is a good example of radio and TV stations, co locating their broadcast towers near each other on the highest point near their Federal Communications Commission (FCC) city of license.

The mountain is under consideration for the placement of a wind farm. Reportedly, Invenergy Wind LLC dropped the idea of putting wind turbines on Poor Mountain and neighboring Bent Mountain, as a study concluded that the potential energy would overload the existing electricity transmission lines found in the immediate area, however they have not and are still trying to pass the project through state and local government venues. They already have the land leased for up to 54 of the 443 foot tall wind turbines.