Reg, G4FGQ wrote:
"The direct strike is just as likely to be on the dwelling and its
occcupants as the ordinary radio antennas."

True, unless the antennas are much taller than the dwelling. That was
the case of the radio stations. Occupants were safe, protected by the
tall radio towers. Just as the towertop rod protects the beacon. the
tower protects the nearby structures under it (within its "cone of
protection"). Agreed that people are more important than radios. I don`t
want to cede people or radios.

Here on the Gulfcoast of the U.S.A., the climate is semitropical and
thunderstorms are abundant. Radio towers are struck by lightning
repeatedly by nearly every passing thunderstorm and these are frequent.

Where I`ve worked, buildings on the station`s property were never
struck, nor was a serious electric surge ever transmitted into any
building other than one of the "dog houses" at the towers where it is
expected.and prepared for the stroke.

The buildings on radio station properties are protected by big lightning
rods, the towers, just as Benjamin Franklin predicted in 1735.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI