Chopper down!!!

[obihave]

A source from inside the ''braintrust'' at Meredith tells me that they have sold their chopper? News to me!
Anyway, as of now I guess they have no helicopter for news. I haven't seen it up and I haven't seen them promo it either.

So I called around to my ''moles'' at other stations and there is word that KPHO will try and pool with another station for chopper coverage.
Care to take a guess at which station they might partner with?

 

[MW_FM_DT_DXer]

So I called around to my ''moles'' at other stations and there is word that KPHO will try and pool with another station for chopper coverage.
Care to take a guess at which station they might partner with?

Gee, could it be ABC 15?

 

[3fan4eva]

Wait I was just at the hanger and All 5 stations have helicopters. Ten was using a temporary thou.

 

[fenix]

I saw 5's chopper flying yesterday. I don't know what the situation is with their chopper but with what they are paying in anchor salaries and what it costs to fly a chopper, I wouldn't be surprised if they are looking for a deal. It wouldn't surprise me if two stations in the market look to start to share common resources. With the ratings decline in general and now with te LPM's, it is going to get interesting to see what happens in the Phoenix market.

It could be that one of the five stations doing local english news will fold up shop. It could be that two stations start sharing resources like a helicopter and news conference video. It would make sense financially to have a deal where stations pool things like County Attorneys press conferences or even the weekly press briefings of the Governor. Both stations could submit questions and the station covering it could then ask all of the questions.

As far as a chopper is involved, this gets more tricky because who makes the decision to launch on a story and then who pays for the usage. It might be that channel 5 would just pay channel 10 $300,000 to have access to all video from the air. They don't need to pay for hangar space, a pilot and photographer, gas, insurance and the helicopter and maintenance. I'm guessing that a station that flies almost a hundred hours a month at roughly $700/ hour would save over a half a million dollars a year doing this. This is just for discussion and I am not saying this because I've heard anything, it just makes sense that stations would look into all avenues to save money and protect revenue.

 

[Teddyo]

Wait I was just at the hanger and All 5 stations have helicopters. Ten was using a temporary thou.

I may be wrong about this, but I thought that the chopper that 15 uses since the crash last year is only leased by them. That they don't own it. They may have had some significant insurance problems after what happened last year.

On the otherhand, I understand that the 3TV chopper is owned by KTVK. Is that right?

 

[Derek]

Wait I was just at the hanger and All 5 stations have helicopters. Ten was using a temporary thou.

I may be wrong about this, but I thought that the chopper that 15 uses since the crash last year is only leased by them. That they don't own it. They may have had some significant insurance problems after what happened last year.

15's chopper has a CBS Eyewitness News "8" logo on it.

 

[dhett]

15's chopper has a CBS Eyewitness News "8" logo on it.

From KLAS 8 Las Vegas, likely.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

5's chopper was hovering (or hoovering as Lisa Douglas would say)
over the 'Tuke late Friday afternoon for a house fire story that was
their Jive At Five lead.

A second TV chopper was also there but I couldn't get a make on it.