This one may be harder to write than my farewell to 95.5 WSB from last September. It certainly is a bigger deal. The famed WSB Skycopter took its last flight on December 30th, ending nearly 65 years of airborne coverage. As Rodney Ho explained in his column on the changes with both the traffic helicopter and Veronica Harrell’s departure from the 95.5 WSB Traffic Team, economics unsurprisingly piloted the decision.
Total Traffic, the company with whom WSB parent company Cox Media Group held an agreement for WSB’s seat in that helicopter, determined they could not make the arrangement profitable any longer. The contract finished in 2024.
No helicopter in Atlanta, a city with some of the worst traffic in the U.S., is dedicated to traffic reporting.
Channel 2 Action News still flies Newschopper 2. The other three major local TV news operations share another helicopter. Those four stations also had an alliance to use the video feed from the WSB Skycopter in AM and PM drive.
WSB Radio launched a news helicopter for news coverage in the 1960s and that eventually segued to being used for traffic.
The south’s oldest radio station’s original helicopter arrangement was with the Atlanta Police Department, employing their personnel and aircraft. But the Skycopter eventually became more exclusive, as Atlanta traffic became worse and spread to the suburbs.
Captain Herb Emory rose to fame in Atlanta radio in the 1980s, as many radio stations deployed aircraft.
When I met Emory in 2004, he took me in the Skycopter on that first day. I was shocked to learn that he was not simultaneously piloting that helicopter. The traffic reports were too frequent and the need to pay attention to incoming traffic information was too demanding. A pilot needed to give their full attention to the aircraft.
Emory’s death afforded both myself and Smilin’ Mark McKay a chance to lead WSB traffic for the next decade-plus, McKay in the mornings and me in the afternoons. We had each filled in for Emory for years prior. Flying in his seat and helping lead his team was a tremendous honor for both of us.
Alas, this has changed. McKay remains to lead the team and will now lead morning traffic from the 95.5 WSB 24-Hour Traffic Center. Alex Williams will lead afternoon traffic from the same room. And while this pivot mirrors what many other markets and stations have done, trust that WSB’s coverage will still be head and shoulders above the competition.
The same ways that team covered traffic the other 20 hours per day will apply in drive time. A team of experts is combing over cameras, Google Maps traffic data, and GDOT information, along with constant phone calls and dispatches on police and fire scanners. They do that around the clock. They are the only Atlanta media entity that still does 24/7.
But the loss of the Skycopter still stings and is indicative of the changes happening broadcast media-wide. New York City’s Tom Kaminsky flew in 880 WCBS’ traffic helicopter for 36 years, before that station ceased last August. Now, no radio station flies over New York.
“The changes are happening everywhere,” Kaminsky told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And he – and I – understood this and had been expecting it, at some point. And while we have seen technology improve vastly in the last 20 years, we both agree about the need for a live reporter to actually see a breaking traffic situation.
“You lose the visual perspective,” Kaminsky explained. “We all use the electronic gathering. It is very good as a tip source. That icon doesn’t tell the story. That is where we came in and filled the gap.” He continued, “You take the helicopter away and the word picture goes away.”
Things, particularly media, are speeding toward streamlining and automation, Kaminsky said. But “at some point, people are going to come to the realization that they need real, actual information.”
A nearly 65-year irreplaceable “employee” has “retired.” The WSB Skycopter provided incredible service for millions of people and it will be missed in the Atlanta skies.
Doug Turnbull has covered Atlanta traffic for over 20 years and written “Gridlock Guy” since 2017. Doug also co-hosts the “Five to Go Podcast,” a weekly deep dive on stories in motorsports. Contact him at fireballturnbull@gmail.com.
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