The Lavender Radio Tower: A Retrospective

Today’s update is a little more sombre, dear readers.
Anyone from Kanto is more than familiar with the complex history of Lavender Town. A remote settlement, cradled in the far reaches of easternmost mountain passes before the land gives way to the endless ocean. Once known for it’s enduring nobility despite the almost inhospitable surrounding geography it is now known for tragedy after tragedy. They say lightning doesn’t strike twice, Lavender Town proves them wrong.
To catch you non-Kanto readers up here’s a brief history of the Pokémon Tower

1996:
The tranquil town is overrun by thugs and thieves working under the banner of Team Rocket, a regional collection of gangsters and mobsters that were united under the charismatic Pokémon League endorsed Gym Leader Giovanni. These reprobates proceed to storm the tower, disturb the graves of the Pokémon laid to rest and commit wanton acts of violence and exploitation. Cubone and Marowak are the primary targets of this conflict, their valuable skulls were to be stolen and sold on the Black Market. In the confusion and violence several Pokémon are badly injured beyond recovery.
Renowned advocate of Pokémon rights Mr Fuji attempts to quell the violence and enters the town of his own volition. He is immediately apprehended by Team Rocket and interrogated on the locations of Cubone nesting grounds. Kanto native trainer Red storms the tower, cuts through the hostage situation, calms the raging spirits of the departed and rescues Mr. Fuji, narrowly averting disaster.

1997:
The Pokemon Tower is closed to the public for renovations.
The Indigo League approves the tower being converted into a broadcast relay and signal repeater tower with the aim of providing a free, regionwide network of stable wireless connectivity for devices like the Pokedex, the Pokegear and the Fame Checker.
Amidst public outcry around the defiling and desecration of the graves present in the tower the Indigo League announces that all transportable graves will be moved to a secure location in the crypts beneath The House of Memories in Lavender Town, those unable to be moved will remain open to visitation for free and to any member of the public at any time.
Renovation begins on the Lavender Radio Tower
Plans are accidentally leaked for the updated Radio Tower. The designers didn’t correctly budget for time and had to cut many of the features which were meant to be included in the original tower but Radio Tower enthusiasts continue to theorise to this day what the original Radio Tower would have been like.

1999:
The new Radio Tower is finished and opened to the general public. Reactions are mixed but tours are steady and frequent until the revitalised Team Rocket takeover of the Goldenrod Radio Tower which leads to increased security measures across Johto and Kanto as a whole. Visitation is restricted and eventually halted entirely. There is a small public outcry but ultimately people agree that the safety of the staff and ultimately the region supersedes the mourners.
After the collapse of the Team Rocket revivalist faction tensions are higher than ever before and the Director of the Radio Tower continues to refuse access to grieving trainers.

2000:
During a freak blizzard rolling into Kanto from the east the Radio Tower loses power. In those three hours fourteen people vanish amidst the blackout.
Search and rescue operations are mounted in the Tower, the old crypts under the tower and the House of Memories and in the surrounding mountains and wider harbour area. The missing fourteen are not seen again for another year.

2001:
The fourteen vanished Radio Tower employees return one morning. They are all sat around a table in the Tower canteen chatting to one another like nothing had changed. None of them remember any details about the preceding year nor can they answer any questions about where they have been.
Shortly afterward their return the Tower suffers several severe electronic malfunctions. Communications frequently drop, areas of Kanto become isolated from radio signals for no discernible reason before signal strength is suddenly restored with no explanation for what caused the outage.
Intermittent signal confusion happens more and more frequently, reports start coming in from people as far away as Olivine hearing voices coming from their phones, their Pokegear, their Pokedex, their PC’s. Sometimes they are clearly the mixed signals or crossed wires, the kind that lets you listen in on somebody else’s calls, sometimes they are indistinct mumblings and murmurings. Radio Tower employees cannot or will not answer questions relating to these issues.

2002:
Thirteen of the fourteen missing staff move away from Lavender Town, on the same day to separate locations. They refuse press interviews and cite invasions of privacy and rumours as their reasons for leaving. The remaining staff member isolates herself in her own home on the outskirts of Lavender and is not seen in public again nor does she speak to any visitors.
After communication issues become so widespread that they can no longer be fixed or recovered from the Pokémon League steps in and decides to shut down the Radio Tower and return to the previous system of each town using localised networks for communication with only hardpoint lines running across the region connecting towns. The Tower is closed to the public for the final time and nobody has been inside since.

And so, that’s the official story. So if you’re ever out in the sticks and wonder why your phone drops connection at the worst possible time or why you usually need a hardpoint PC to store your Pokémon when out and about in Kanto, that’s your answer. The current ramshackle localised WiFi network we have in place used to be the envy of the world, then it was obsolete, now it’s all we’ve got. In the space of less than twenty years.

Rumours persist of UrbEx enthusiasts heading into the Tower for some ghastly thrills. Apparently the attached photos are from brave explorers who ventured deep inside the Tower!

If you want some additional spooks head on over to ‘chutube and see the videos claiming to show voiced coming from detached and even broken radio devices in the Lavender region, although be warned there are rumblings of them being faked. Why don’t you have a look, dear reader, and tell me if they’re real?

But that’s the end of our story for now, until next time where we’ll cover the Evolution of Pallet Town in the next Kicker’s Kanto Chronicle!