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The Much Storied "KGO JET COPTER 810" NO LONGER as of Friday!

L

lostinspace

Have a look upwards as the big jet engine of Jet Copter 810 goes roaring by on these last days of April '10.
Word has it "The Big Red Bird" will sing it's Swan Song and head for the barn once and for all this Friday.
Long known as a much coveted image piece for the monolithic 810am, it was also the source for some the Bay Area's
most intense and dramatic live reporting by some of the Bay Area's Best. Besides the legendary traffic coverage for which it's flights were so respected over some thirty years, it also yielded via star reporters- Stan Burford - Lynn Derling - Gary Hansen - Rich Davis - Katy O'Shea -and a handful of qualified others, "on the scene play-by-play" for all things newsworthy over which an aircraft could hover. Fires, police chases, bank robberies, festivals, demonstrations, Bay to Breakers, oil spills, whale watching, sports events, and a host of public interest events were all included on the daily slate. There will never be another.
 
lostinspace said:
Have a look upwards as the big jet engine of Jet Copter 810 goes roaring by on these last days of April '10.
Word has it "The Big Red Bird" will sing it's Swan Song and head for the barn once and for all this Friday.
Long known as a much coveted image piece for the monolithic 810am, it was also the source for some the Bay Area's
most intense and dramatic live reporting by some of the Bay Area's Best. Besides the legendary traffic coverage for which it's flights were so respected over some thirty years, it also yielded via star reporters- Stan Burford - Lynn Derling - Gary - Hansen - Katie O'Shea -and a handful of qualified others, "on the scene play-by-play" for all things newsworthy over which an aircraft could hover. Fires, police chases, bank robberies, festivals, demonstrations, Bay to Breakers, oil spills, whale watching, sports events, and a host of public interest events were all included on the daily slate. Will there ever be another.?
Click to expand...
 
lostinspace said:
Have a look upwards as the big jet engine of Jet Copter 810 goes roaring by on these last days of April '10.
Click to expand...

Why? Budget cuts? Retirement? Replacement? Truth be told I'm happy to see/hear it go because I live near the Bay Bridge and got sick and tired of being buzzed by it all the time. Instead of having the low chop-chop-chop sounds, it had the most annoying whine.
 
Sherdon "Lu" Hurley's version of the Hurley Bird was owned by his own Commodore Aviation, which had a heli-pad near Fisherman's Wharf, if I remember correctly. He's still the listed owner of Commodore Heliport:

http://www.airport-data.com/airport/CA30/
 
BossRadioDJ said:
Sherdon "Lu" Hurley's version of the Hurley Bird was owned by his own Commodore Aviation, which had a heli-pad near Fisherman's Wharf, if I remember correctly. He's still the listed owner of Commodore Heliport:

http://www.airport-data.com/airport/CA30/
Click to expand...

I remember seeing it parked in Sausalito, near the houseboats, for a few years in the late 70s. I have a story that is hopefully entertaining:

In the late 80s, I listened frequently to Terry McGovern's morning show on K-101 during my long commute. It's no secret that other radio stations rented seats on the KGO copter. K-101 (or maybe Metro Traffic) had just hired Michel Lyn Meyers to report from the "K-101 Traffic Copter." It was her first day, and she sounded scared during her traffic reports, and was also air-sick. Meyers conceded this to McGovern, who kept teasing her about it, and asking her for updates on her nausea with every report.

Sensing some "synergy," I tuned over to KGO and waited for the traffic report. Sure enough, an cleary angry Katy Leaver reported that there was a newby on board who was about to "blow chunks" all over her back.
 
Just to correct and clear up some details, the correct spellings of the KGO personalities whose names have been mangled in the recounting of memories here are/were Lin Durling, Michaelynn,and Katie Leaver.

Also, KGO did not "rent" space to any other stations or reporters; the helicopter was and is (until today, anyway) provided to KGO by Metro Traffic as part of their contract. Except for Hurley, Burford, Leaver and Durling, all have been Metro employees (including Meyers, O'Shea, Hansen and Davis, among many many others.)

The bright red KGO Jetcopter was based at Commodore Seaplanes in Sausalito through the first part of the last decade. In the late 90s it crashed and burned at the heliport alongside 101 after taking off on it's own after pilot and reporters disembarked mid-shift for a hot refueling operation/bathroom break.

In the mid-90's, KGO (Metro) had "an air force larger than many foreign countries," with four fixed-wing aircraft and the helicopter up for morning and afternoon drive. KCBS (Shadow Traffic) had another five aircraft airborne. Today, Metro and Shadow are merged, providing homogenous reports to all stations with a total of three aircraft and a couple of guys driving around in their cars (and gosh, it's really informative and riveting radio). The grounding of N810AM is all about $$ -- no one can afford the $1000/hour operating cost in this economy.
 
jussomeguy said:
Just to correct and clear up some details, the correct spellings of the KGO personalities whose names have been mangled in the recounting of memories here are/were Lin Durling, Michaelynn,and Katie Leaver.

Also, KGO did not "rent" space to any other stations or reporters; the helicopter was and is (until today, anyway) provided to KGO by Metro Traffic as part of their contract. Except for Hurley, Burford, Leaver and Durling, all have been Metro employees (including Meyers, O'Shea, Hansen and Davis, among many many others.)

The bright red KGO Jetcopter was based at Commodore Seaplanes in Sausalito through the first part of the last decade. In the late 90s it crashed and burned at the heliport alongside 101 after taking off on it's own after pilot and reporters disembarked mid-shift for a hot refueling operation/bathroom break.

In the mid-90's, KGO (Metro) had "an air force larger than many foreign countries," with four fixed-wing aircraft and the helicopter up for morning and afternoon drive. KCBS (Shadow Traffic) had another five aircraft airborne. Today, Metro and Shadow are merged, providing homogenous reports to all stations with a total of three aircraft and a couple of guys driving around in their cars (and gosh, it's really informative and riveting radio). The grounding of N810AM is all about $$ -- no one can afford the $1000/hour operating cost in this economy.
Click to expand...
 
jussomeguy said:
Just to correct and clear up some details, the correct spellings of the KGO personalities whose names have been mangled in the recounting of memories here are/were Lin Durling, Michaelynn,and Katie Leaver.

Also, KGO did not "rent" space to any other stations or reporters; the helicopter was and is (until today, anyway) provided to KGO by Metro Traffic as part of their contract. Except for Hurley, Burford, Leaver and Durling, all have been Metro employees (including Meyers, O'Shea, Hansen and Davis, among many many others.)

The bright red KGO Jetcopter was based at Commodore Seaplanes in Sausalito through the first part of the last decade. In the late 90s it crashed and burned at the heliport alongside 101 after taking off on it's own after pilot and reporters disembarked mid-shift for a hot refueling operation/bathroom break.

In the mid-90's, KGO (Metro) had "an air force larger than many foreign countries," with four fixed-wing aircraft and the helicopter up for morning and afternoon drive. KCBS (Shadow Traffic) had another five aircraft airborne. Today, Metro and Shadow are merged, providing homogenous reports to all stations with a total of three aircraft and a couple of guys driving around in their cars (and gosh, it's really informative and riveting radio). The grounding of N810AM is all about $$ -- no one can afford the $1000/hour operating cost in this economy.
Click to expand...

Okay, since we're going to pick nits here, jussomeguy, a few points:

1. I just assumed KGO owned the copter because their traffic reporting and air "force" predated any memory I have of Metro Traffic. So pardon me. I'm not sure who owned the copter in 1988.

2. If Ms. Leaver's first name is spelled K-a-t-i-e, you'd better tell KGO. Here's a program listing for Saturday March 20th (still posted) on the KGO website:

5:35a.m.: KGO's Weekend Anchor, Katy Leaver talks about the tropical beaches, great food, and adventures during her recent girlfriends getaway to Costa Rica. http://www.kgoradio.com/Sectional.asp?id=32112

3. Sorry I mis-spelled Michaelynn's name but, well...I really don't care very much. People have been misspelling my name for 58 years. That's what happens when your parents give you an unusual first name.
 
Getting rid of airborne traffic reports is not new. It's been happening all over the country. KFBK did it a few years back and KFI-KOST had their reporter's wings get clipped at the end of 2007. Mike Nolan now does reports out of his house at a substantially reduced pay rate. It's all about money. Planes and helicopters cost a lot and most of these companies are in so much debt they can't afford it anymore. Pretty sad isn't it?
 
Lost In Space: Are you sure you got this from someone who really knows? The schedule shows nothing unusual.
 
calguy said:
Getting rid of airborne traffic reports is not new. It's been happening all over the country. KFBK did it a few years back and KFI-KOST had their reporter's wings get clipped at the end of 2007. Mike Nolan now does reports out of his house at a substantially reduced pay rate. It's all about money. Planes and helicopters cost a lot and most of these companies are in so much debt they can't afford it anymore. Pretty sad isn't it?
Click to expand...

Wow as Local radio stations are getting rid of Newscopters. Now these helicopters maybe converted to become TV Helicopters transmitting in HD
 
At least back in 1990, the KGO Jetcopter was owned by Commodore Helicopters and was available for charter flights in between it's morning and evening drive time duties.

I was working for KCBS then, and we had to do a full directional proof after replacing all 4 of the KCBS towers. This meant taking measurements on multiple radials starting at the antennas and working outwards to a distance of about 10 miles. Usually the close-in measurements were done on foot, but the area around the KCBS array is either marshland or open bay. So Hammett and Edison came up with the idea of flying the field strength meter in a helicopter and using an automated data collection system instead.

We showed up in Sausalito with our equipment and lashed it to the Jetcopter. Bob Smith had removed the antenna cover from the FIM-41 and fashioned a mounting bracket that let the antenna be raised above the landing skids for takeoff and landing, then hang below them for unobstructed readings once we were airborne. He rode in the front with a laptop recorder to log the data, I rode in the back with the FIM-41 on my lap and my arm hanging out the passenger window holding onto a tiller to keep the FIM's antenna oriented towards the array as the helicopter yawed back and forth.

We went 10 miles out from the array and flew towards it on each radial, collecting the same data that we would have gotten from the ground.

We did this for about two weeks. Somewhere along the way, the KCBS news director heard that we were using the KGO copter and asked if we could put the KCBS calls on it instead. I told him I didn't think that was a good idea - since we were only about 200 ft. off of the ground, let KGO take the heat from the people we were buzzing. Sure enough, they did get several nasty calls.

Every day we returned to Sausalito and removed our gear from the copter so it could be used for it's regular traffic duties. Then we reinstalled everything the next day and repeated the process.

Another one of the KCBS engineers asked for permission to go up in the copter, so on the last day Dave went ahead while I stayed on the ground. They finished the job a couple of hours early, so Commodore accepted a booking for a sightseeing tour before the copter was needed for the evening traffic reports. We removed our gear from the copter for the last time, the sightseeing passengers got on board and it took off. A couple of minutes later the engine stalled and the copter landed on it's pontoons in the middle of Richardson Bay. No one was injured, but they had to wait for a while until Commodore was able to get out there with a boat to take them to shore. The cause of the engine failure was a plugged fuel filter and it was out of service for several days.
 
Listen for the two new clues (as of Mon. May 3rd on KGO Traffic) that clearly confirmed the "rumor".

1. Traffic anchor Stan Burford tosses now to "Air 1" (instead of "Overhead in the KGO Jet Copter.....)

And:

2. Although not done consistanly, listeners may now notice that there is no longer the famous lock out.....
"Reporter Name- KGO Jet Copter 810"
This and other radio-rumor sources makes it a good bet that the deed is done!

PS - The window for correcting a post on this site closes rapidly. In which case I submit the following corrections:

-some "of" the Bay Area's most intense. And of course, that would be "Lin Durling" and Katie O'Shea
 
Wow!

The end of an era! When I was doing the Five O'clock Shadow on channel 7 I started doing fill in talk on KGO radio. And when the Shadow gig ended in '88 I did a lot of different fill in stuff on the station, biz news, talk and traffic reporting from the big red hurley bird. I flew for 8 years for KGO and Metro from the chopper.
It was a great gig "wow they're paying me for this". I was in the chopper when the big one hit in '89, we were up for ten hours, refueling twice in the east bay. I could write volumes on that day alone.

When I made a decision to move to Vegas in '95, one thing I missed was the flying but other things lured me here.

My kudos to Stan Burford, Mr. Traffic! He was a great friend and is a super guy.

Yeah, the days of the big bucks for choppers are gone. It's kind of like in the movie, Pirate Radio where the jock says "these are the best days of our lives, no matter what happens in the future, things will never be as good as this"


Jerry Gordon KNUU Las Vegas
 
JEREMIAH said:
Wow!

The end of an era!<snip> It was a great gig "wow they're paying me for this".
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Jerry, I second every word of your post. I flew in the "Jet Copter" for most of the '90s and for me, it was the coolest job in the world - I marveled every day that it was me in that seat.!

Bob Gowa
 
bobgowa said:
Jerry, I second every word of your post. I flew in the "Jet Copter" for most of the '90s and for me, it was the coolest job in the world - I marveled every day that it was me in that seat.!

Bob Gowa
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about how far back this goes. It's like 48 years or something that KGO has had a helicopter in the air.

I'm surprised that it's cheaper to fly a plane than a helicopter. Also, is there a difference (besides the whine) between a conventional helicopter and the jet copter? Couldn't they revert to a cheaper chopper?
 
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