Gary Deutschmann wrote:
"Turns out what was happening was weather conditions and the charge in
the air was just right to cause what was called St. Elmo`s fire---."

From my time in broadcast stations, I can testify these conditions
repeat.

In my experience, the radio towers took all the lightning strikes in the
area.

Charge buildup was a separate phenomenon.from lightning. This happened
in the wind ahead of an approaching thunderstorm. The insulated guy
segments would charge from the static in the air, announcing the
approaching storm with loud reports when conditions were right. Peering
out at the antennas disclosed flashes across the guy insulators
producing the reports. There were many towers with many insulators which
produced barrage fire. Noisy!

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI