Traffic services

[BigB68]

So with all the recent talk & changes with the traffic services
here (specifically Metro and Traffic.com) what do both services
retain as affiliates as far as radio and TV? I assume WBAP and
KRLD are now combined again within Metro, or is 'BAP operating
their own deal out of their studios? What all does Total Traffic
have or retain?

Anybody willing to do an affiliate list for all three of them?

Just curious what the landscape is now, since I've been out
of the radio/TV business for about 5 yrs. now....


Muchos Gracias!

Blaine Brooks

 

[MikeShannon914]

Hey BB! From what I know, here's the breakdown post-July 1, 2009:

Metro: All Citadel stations (WBAP, KSCS and KPMZ; KSPN is still not taking traffic, far as I know, except possibly during pre-local Cowboys games--but that may have ended with the demise of the Traffic Chopper as we know it all CBS stations except KTVT-TV; all Salem stations; all Service Broadcasting stations; and a few odds-and-ends [KAAM, KXAS-TV, KEOM, the Mortenson stations, etc.) Metro, via Metrosource, farms out PT news anchors to KRLD and WBAP.

Traffic.com: WFAA-TV, KTVT-TV, KERA-FM (and likely KKXT,) KLAK, and the Cumulus stations (KTCK and KLIF-AM/FM, but not including KPLX--which I'd guess still uses the Traffic.com product but has the jock read them.) I believe they still have the Radio One stations, but, same as KPLX, they use their own reporter or jock. Far as I know, Traffic.com doesn't supply any news people (ala Metrosource.) They might still farm out one PT news anchor to KLIF-AM, but none to WBAP.

Total Traffic: Clear Channel stations only.


Fun stuff:

As of July 1, 2009, there are no more choppers in the air that are dedicated only to traffic.

WBAP no longer has any traffic people on their payroll.

Metro runs ONE 4-seater plane to service all of those stations...so yes, you have WBAP and KRLD riding shotgun. And I won't tell you where Laura does her reports from. Metro apparently promised to put a second plane in the air as part of "stealing" the Citadel contract...but we're all still waiting to see that happen (Maybe Tyler should sue for breach of contract? Void out this Metro disaster and get things back to normal with Traffic.com? Hmmm? Hmmm?) Nah, Metro WILL come through---just a few more trips to the Airplane Junkyard for parts and they'll have one pretty much ready and pretty much ok to fly. (And, if there's any doubt, the FAA will inspect it every 1,000,000 hours.)

Tarrant reporter Monty Cook and Collin/Denton reporter Michael Scott ride side-by-side in the same plane. That would be the same story for KRLD's Tarrant and Collin reporters...so let's blow that illusion right out of the water (like anyone's surprised.) Scott also got jerked around by having his time compromised with The Dorsey Gang by having to do WBAP reports (that's how you justify salary demands---pile more work on someone.) Hell, ALL the Traffic.com folks who gravitated to Metro got jerked around, with pay cuts of 10% up to 50%. (But I guess that's what you get when you go from a well-funded, secure company to one that's worth pennies and has been "pink sheeted" by the SEC. But hey, we all gotta eat, right?)

Metro apparently still plans to shutter all but 18 of their national offices, and create "regional traffic hubs" instead. So, you'll have reporters in Dallas doing traffic in KC, Houston, SA, etc (and I believe they're doing some of those cities already.) I have a friend-of-a-friend in Houston who's doing EIGHT different stations' traffic reports himself every day. Where is the love?

Metro = The Ramen Noodles of Broadcasting

And Jane Dornacker is still dead.

 

[traffic chief]

Metro is currently flying 3 fixed wings in Dallas

 

[BigB68]

Thanks Mike! Great info.

 

[BigB68]

WBAP no longer has any traffic people on their payroll.
And I won't tell you where Laura does her reports from.

If I know Laura like I know Laura, she's probably broadcasting
out of the Castle Hills "palace"...because she refused to fly after
the changeover Holy crap....are we talking four people are
up there in ONE C172? Dang.... four in a helo were crowded
enough....I speak from experience....


Blaine Brooks

 

[MikeShannon914]

Metro is currently flying 3 fixed wings in Dallas

Without spilling any trade secrets, when did the other two planes get airborne, and are they all used for traffic? Were they inherited from one of the shuttered Metro offices? Which one does Laura ride in? Which one will Chip Wagoner be riding in? Expiring minds want to know.

Holy crap....are we talking four people are up there in ONE C172? Dang.... four in a helo were crowded enough....I speak from experience....

I'm not a "plane" person, but I'd guess that there's no way 172's could be used. There's just not enough room for the equipment AND the gaggle of reporters. (Monty never carried more than himself and the pilot all those years...no room to speak of in the back.) But even Kia makes a mini-van...I'd guess that the current plane(s?) are larger but on equal parity with the 172. Yeah, I'm with ya on the chopper...especially when you put one of us in the backseat next to big boy Justin Frazell in 110 degree heat, with his spit cup at a rolling boil in his lap. PHEW!! (And Michael Scott covering up his notes so Justin couldn't peek at them from the rear. Now THAT was funny!)

 

[BigB68]

I'd guess that there's no way 172's could be used. There's just not enough room for the equipment AND the gaggle of reporters. (Monty never carried more than himself and the pilot all those years...no room to speak of in the back.) Yeah, I'm with ya on the chopper...especially when you put one of us in the backseat next to big boy Justin Frazell in 110 degree heat, with his spit cup at a rolling boil in his lap. PHEW!! (And Michael Scott covering up his notes so Justin couldn't peek at them from the rear. Now THAT was funny!)

Ah, the stories we could tell...but we'll leave those for another day ;D

172's COULD be used, but of course, one of those folks would obviously have to be the pilot. And you are entirely right about the equipment aspect. I flew with three of us in the plane in Tampa (including the pilot). Adding another person would have been asking us to literally keep from killing each other. As you know I filled in for Monty (as well as Dick Siegel) over the years. The pilot and myself were PLENTY. It kept it nice and comfortable. You also know I filled in for Laura numerous times as well in the chopper. Four in the chopper was very cramped. And with a big boy like me even more so. Yeah, Justin and the perpeptual smell of Skoal and Copenhagen every afternoon was a force to contend with. I was very relieved when they put him in the studio, and I had the back seat all to myself. Just me, Scott, and Ken (the pilot at the time). That was a fun, relaxing ride. Oh, and yes....I remember those 100+ degree days....god awful..... even with all the craziness, I had a hell of a great time, and many good memories covering all kinds of traffic and news stories. It's such a damn shame we no longer have the traffic choppers. All in the name of the almighty penny pincher. Very sad. As goofy as it sounds, there were numerous commuters who loved seeing the Fox 4 and Zebra ship flying over their heads during morning and afternoon drive.


Blaine Brooks

 

[oldmanradio]

Metro is currently flying 3 fixed wings in Dallas

One or two wings on each plane?

 

[MikeShannon914]

One or two wings on each plane?

Actually, Metro's definition of a "fixed wing" is a wing that's been repaired a few times. Yeah, sure, loose duct tape sometimes gets sucked up into the motor, maybe the wing looks like it's actually flapping around sometimes, who knows.

Then again, to take it literally, I guess it could have been two broken wings on one plane, then one broken one on another. If they've each been repaired, then, indeed, that would constitute THREE fixed wings! I GET IT NOW!!!

(Hey, is that Ben Laurie out on the tarmac, walking back to the terminal with a propeller in his hand?)

 

[idiggraves]

One or two wings on each plane?

Actually, Metro's definition of a "fixed wing" is a wing that's been repaired a few times. Yeah, sure, loose duct tape sometimes gets sucked up into the motor, maybe the wing looks like it's actually flapping around sometimes, who knows.

Then again, to take it literally, I guess it could have been two broken wings on one plane, then one broken one on another. If they've each been repaired, then, indeed, that would constitute THREE fixed wings! I GET IT NOW!!!

(Hey, is that Ben Laurie out on the tarmac, walking back to the terminal with a propeller in his hand?)

I can always count on you for an honest outlook and a good laugh, Mike.

 

[Big Jay]

"And Jane Dornacker is still dead."

Jay Sorensen here.

What a needless sentence to write. So you know Mike, I was at the dials of the 66 WNBC control room board as Joey Reynolds’ sidekick on that fateful day. When we heard Jane was over the Hudson River in New York City and screamed, "Hit the water, hit the water", we knew something terrible had happened. I was even running tape at the time, (still have the reel) preparing to tape a bit to be played later in the afternoon/evening broadcast. I said to Joey off the air quickly..."Just say that we don't know what happened there, but we'll check on it." He did and I think we went to a spot break.

Many people scrambled behind the scenes and literally ran to the river (about a mile away) to find out what was happening. They KNEW she was still underwater even at the end of our show some two 1/2 hours later, as the copter went down to about 30 feet of pitch black water, and she was not able to be extracted from her seatbelt right away. She was dead at the scene. Again...we didn't know! I didn't find out she WAS dead until I got home and my phone was ringing off the hook to tell me that our dear comrade had in fact drowned. It took the police and fire department divers and crew a long time to get her out...and the pictures of the chopper being lifted from the murky cold river still haunts me to this day. I will NEVER get into a chopper because of that awful day's events.

Imagine having to do a SHOW the next day when someone YOU respect and work with DIES so tragically! We somehow pulled it off, but it was the toughest FOUR hours of MY 40-year broadcast career. Joey Reynolds (the master entertainer and communicator that he is) somehow mustered the will and strength to do a solemn but lightly done tribute to Jane. The tone was perfect for the situation. I'm sure someone has tapes of that. I think the master recording of that show was stolen from the tape machine without my knowledge either by an engineer or management. That doesn't matter. My point IS simple.

Mike, I don't know you from a whole in the wall...and while your posting about the traffic situation in the Metroplex is fun reading for MOST of the readers of the DFW board, (me included—although I don’t know WHY I care after our not-so-pleasant time at KLIF for Hilarie and I) YOUR last line was just SO unnecessary.

We loved Jane. She was a free spirit...a talented musician (as a member of the San Francisco band The TUBES at one time) plus a decent stand-up comic, who played RIGHT into the hands of all of the hosts (especially Joey) on WNBC. She indeed was one of the people that the slogan at the time was referring to: "There's Only One Place For People Like Us---66 WNNNBC."

I think a heartfelt REAL apology to her memory is in order here. I was her personal friend (and that may be skewing my reaction, but so be it..)

Also, I may have been the last staff member to see her alive...as we had both cashed our pay checks at a bank below the then RCA Building at 30 Rock in Manhattan. We exchanged pleasantries, and she left for the airport where that dreaded helicopter with the bad parts was stationed, and I went back to the office and studios to put the show together for that day.

So while your off-hand comment may have amused some, there are many others, especially people who KNEW her like I did (and MANY who were fans of hers and WNBC) find it tedious at best and quite shameful at the very worst. CONTEXT is key here and it was just plain unnecessary to make YOUR points.

I also remember the words spoken by Howard Stern in the days following the crash (he had left the station about a year prior as many remember) blaming NBC Management for letting her get BACK into the air after she had already BEEN in one crash in the Meadowlands/swamp area in New Jersey. Luckily that time, the water was only a couple of feet deep and both pilot and Jane survived. She wasn't so lucky the second time. The PILOT DID survive, but suffered some brain damage from being underwater for so long. I believe he’s doing ok now, 23 years later. And IT WAS JANE who (on her own) decided to go back up in the chopper to do what she loved doing...interacting with Joey and I and the rest of the staff, and doing the traffic. It was her JOB. HER decision. We found out later after the investigation by the authorities that the company used bad parts in the transmission of the chopper’s engine and I believe they were fined and punished for their actions...and went out of business due to the incident.

Mike, be a tad more thoughtful about what you write. It ain't all $&its and giggles.

BE BIG!
Jay Sorensen

(Former co-host of The Jay and Hilarie Show on 570 KLIF)
(Current swing DJ on 101.1 WCBS-FM in New York City)

 

[realthang]

Mike,
I don't have a story as tragic as Jay's, but I'm guessing from your comments that you have hung up your headphones for good.

Regardless of how talented you may (or may not) be, there is absolutely no one that I know in their right mind who would hire such an openly bitter person with a toxic attitude like yours.

 

[MikeShannon914]

First, of course, I apologize for the comment about Ms. Dornacker. Really, it was just to highlight one of Metro's tragedies, not to make light of Ms. Dornacker's passing. I am truly sorry. Now if there's still conjecture about who was at fault, who owned the chopper, who was ultimately responsible for maintaining it, etc, and/or if I'm pointing the finger the wrong direction, I apologize for that as well. Normally when an "incident" involving any of Metro's ships is brought up on this board, there's someone ready to fire away a "not their fault" post, absolving Metro of any carelessness. Me, if the Metro name is associated with a given aircraft that fails, they are responsible for some of the blame. At Traffic.com, we had one designated person (Monty Cook) who worked directly with the owner and pilots and maintenance crew at Zebra Air to confirm that all maintenance had been done regularly, that there were no pending issues to worry about, and that all was good to go, daily. John McCarty and Monty handled that together before John's passing. And we never had any hard landings, crashes, or just general "weirdness" that can sometimes happen in the air. Sure, as with anything mechanical, there's no guarantee, and sure, things DO happen. But if Monty was ok with putting the mother of his children in the air daily, as well as himself and everyone else who flew for T.com, that was good enough for me. As long as Monty and John did what they were doing, and as long as Ken Montgomery was flying the ship, I felt safe everytime I flew. I never worried about a thing. My hat's also off to Jamie, owner of Zebra Air, who was/is as conscientious about the safety and maintenance of his aircraft as anyone could be.

As for Metro? I wouldn't want my worst enemy on any of their aircraft. Their record speaks for itself without me having to rehash it all.

Mike, I don't have a story as tragic as Jay's, but I'm guessing from your comments that you have hung up your headphones for good.Regardless of how talented you may (or may not) be, there is absolutely no one that I know in their right mind who would hire such an openly bitter person with a toxic attitude like yours.

Thanks for the love. I still do my weekly radio show, and I'm still job hunting...and that's no one's fault but my own. I really don't know what I want to do. I do have a couple of offers in radio kind of sitting there, and it would be against my better judgment to even go back again. Nah, I'm not all that talented; I caught a VERY lucky break that turned into six years on the air doing traffic. I have NO intention of going to work for Metro; during a short fit of insanity, I reached out to Metro right before the Traffic.com layoff, but after hearing how they mistreated a good buddy of mine during an interview a few days earlier, I gave up on even trying. What they pulled on him should be taken to court.

I've got a nine-year long history on this board, and one thing has NEVER changed: I call it like I see it. And it's all opinion. I'm sorry if you don't agree, but I'm not here to gather troops or to try to overthrow the industry. All I usually do is point out the corporate inconsistencies and incongruencies and smoke-and-mirrors that some folks otherwise eat up and believe every word of. People know me for what and who I am, and they know after this long that I don't hold back much. And I have enough friends and confidants and such, that I know I must be doing something right. Sorry that you don't "get" what I do. I don't care if I never work in radio again. I had my flash-in-the-pan moment and my 15 mins of fame, and it was wonderful! Wouldn't trade it for a thing.

And, from reading back over your short list of Radio-Info posts, you're obviously part of Metro, or WERE part of Metro (Perhaps Office Max? Who was so pissed about some Metro comment I made on here several years ago that he called up John McCarty and chewed out JOHN over it! John, in his usual flair, told Office Max where to stick it. A week later was the annual traffic reporters' luncheon in Irving, and Ofc Max was nowhere to be found...I wanted to give my personal regards to him in person, and he didn't even show.) What newspaper is he running now? Sheesh, that's one industry that makes RADIO look stable and full of positive growth.

And it's probably a good time for my annual reminder:

"Postings on Radio-Info.com are the opinions of the people who post them. Views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of Radio-Info.com or its parent in3 media, inc. In fact many of the views expressed here are just plain wrong. But they are opinions and this site allows us all to discuss those opinions. Any reliance on information posted is done so at the user's own risk."

 

[idiggraves]

I stand behind my original post on this topic.


And RIP Miss Jane.

 

[MikeShannon914]

Thanks to those who truly "get" me!!

And for Jay Sorensen...forgot to mention that I did a segment on a recent "Hi-Fi Club" show to talk about Jane Dornacker, and it was before my off-base comment on that earlier post. The 23rd anniversary of her passing just came up a couple of weeks back, and that's why she was even on my mind. AND...I used my better judgment and decided not to play the audio from the pre-crash...it's just too morbid and in bad taste, and as I explained on the show, "I don't want this to turn into an audio version of 'Faces of Death.'" I also talked about her connection to The Tubes, and some other anecdotes I found on Wikipedia.

But I have to tell you, that was the first initiation I got when I started doing traffic 6 years back...someone told me to look up the soundbite and listen. That was a speechless moment for me, and I hate that the recording is the "legacy" that folks outside NYC will probably ever know her for. Very sad.

 

[dakareedog]

As of July 1, 2009, there are no more choppers in the air that are dedicated only to traffic.

WBAP no longer has any traffic people on their payroll.

Mike,

Just this past week CH. 1 has started flying a chopper dedicated to traffic and/or breaking news daily betwen 5:30am and 7am. I'll bet Chip is chomping at the bit to get up there.

 

[dakareedog]

Should have been a quote and I hate this keyboard-should be KTVT-Ch. 11.

 

[oldmanradio]

Thanks to those who truly "get" me!!

And for Jay Sorensen...forgot to mention that I did a segment on a recent "Hi-Fi Club" show to talk about Jane Dornacker, and it was before my off-base comment on that earlier post. The 23rd anniversary of her passing just came up a couple of weeks back, and that's why she was even on my mind. AND...I used my better judgment and decided not to play the audio from the pre-crash...it's just too morbid and in bad taste, and as I explained on the show, "I don't want this to turn into an audio version of 'Faces of Death.'" I also talked about her connection to The Tubes, and some other anecdotes I found on Wikipedia.

But I have to tell you, that was the first initiation I got when I started doing traffic 6 years back...someone told me to look up the soundbite and listen. That was a speechless moment for me, and I hate that the recording is the "legacy" that folks outside NYC will probably ever know her for. Very sad.

The comment about Jane Donacker was "off base".