Originally posted Tuesday, January 14, 2020 by RODNEY HO@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Jason Durden, long-time traffic reporter and helicopter denizen who appeared on Channel 2 Action News, has been released from his duties by Total Traffic, he announced Monday on social media.
He wasn’t a WSB employee, having joined a third-party company Metro Traffic in 2008 and assigned to the WSB-TV NewsChopper 2. Metro was eventually bought out by another company in 2011 and became Total Traffic.
Suzanne Nadell, news director, said other photographers will continue to fly from the chopper.
Durden had just celebrated his 12th anniversary on January 8.
“I had a long run on both WSB radio and TV and am grateful for the opportunities they gave me,” Durden wrote today to me. “I do plan on staying in Atlanta whether in broadcasting or not. I think opportunities are greater these days in the ever-widening media landscape and am looking forward to my next step.”
He began his career in 1987 working for Metro Traffic, which provided traffic reports to different radio stations. He was assigned to B98.5 in 1996 and was hired by WSB Radio in 2001 to work with that station and the news/talk station with the now late traffic legend Capt. Herb Emory.
Durden was laid off in 2007 and hired back by Metro (which became Total Traffic under what is now IHeartMedia in 2011) in 2008 to fly in the NewsChopper 2.
He opened up about depression and anxiety in 2018 in a series of Tweets, which WSB-TV re-posted online at the time.
The other three local TV stations share a chopper.
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