December 12–19, 1996

hit and run|on media

Apocalypse Now

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's... just another damn news helicopter.

If you haven't noticed the increase in helicopter traffic lately, then surely you've seen the commercials: Channel 10's quick shots of the craft in action against the Philly skyline, or Fox 29's Independence Day-inspired animated shadow blanketing the city.

The chopper wars have begun.

Those nauseatingly shaky overhead shots of traffic snarls and sunsets have gone the way of the adhesive weather map (no offense, Dave Roberts). In yet another effort to steal viewers from Channel 6's top-rated Action News, two local stations have added multimillion-dollar helicopters with fancy cameras to their news-gathering arsenals.

Fox 29's newly leased 1996 A-Star 350 B, from Texas-based American Eurocopter, landed in town Wednesday. Station general manager Roger LaMay traces the decision back to last April, when Chopper 6 blew the competition away with dramatic shots of kids stuck in a tree during a flood.

"That day we said, We've got to find a way to get this," LaMay recalls. He declined to discuss costs, but a trade magazine recently put the lease at about $500,000 a year.

The shots that sold LaMay came from a Gyro Cam, an externally mounted, internally controlled video camera that provides steady shots from surprising distances.

"I never cared about having a helicopter before, because you could always rent the time if you needed it," says LaMay. "But the Gyro Cam technology has really changed the whole dynamic." (O.J. Simpson's televised Bronco ride was the camera's unofficial national debut.)

But while Fox may have the newest chopper in town, the folks at Channel 10 claim to have the best — the '96 A-Star 350 BA. "In TV news gathering, it's a war machine," brags manager of news and engineering operations Jim Barger. He means that in a competitive sense, of course. "When it comes to chopper wars in Philadelphia, we're going to win. We have ours in the air more than anybody, hands down."

Channel 10 news director Steve Doerr says this new expense — which he also declined to reveal — won't mean fewer crews on the roads; the Air Force supports the ground troops, he explains, it doesn't replace them.

Nor will it mean even more dramatic footage and less basic community and government news, he adds.

"It means we can cover stories like fires and accidents in a more concise way," says Doerr. A catastrophe in New Jersey, for example, might tie up a reporter and crew half the day. But with a top speed of about 178 mph, the chopper can get in and out in under an hour.

Fox 29 news director John Mussoni promises the helicopter won't change the station's approach to news: "We're not going to put the thing up just to go hunting for fires and accidents. On the other hand, when there's a big story breaking, the helicopter is the fastest way to get to it."

Calls to the news departments of Channel 6, which led the Gyro Cam craze, and Channel 3's Eyewitness News, now the city's only network-affiliated news operation without air support, were not returned.

— Frank Lewis