WAVY, Nexstar’s NBC affiliate in Portsmouth, Va., is in the fortunate position of having its own news helicopter on the premises as well as a drone. But deciding when to use either is a fine art. “So we see what fits best, the drone or the helicopter, and some days, we have them both out,” said Jeff Myers, WAVY’s news operations manager and chief photographer.
At a time when TV stations are moving away from using expensive helicopters for news coverage, WAVY is doubling down on its.
WAVY is Nexstar’s NBC affiliate licensed to Portsmouth, Va., serving the entire Portsmouth/Norfolk/Newport News/Virginia Beach area.
“Nexstar has made a big investment and a big upgrade in Chopper 10,” said, Mark Kurtz, WAVY’s news director.
“Our helicopter just recently did an equipment upgrade that has an HD camera on the nose of it and it also has some smaller cameras, one up in the cockpit, one back in the cabin and one on the tail wing,” said Jeff Myers, WAVY’s news operations manager and chief photographer.
“So we have got essentially four cameras on our helicopter right now. We can switch between the cameras which can record and can also do live feeds right from the helicopter.”
Chopper 10 lives at the station, and the pilot, Scott Abbott, has an office in the hangar where the chopper sits when not flying. Abbott is Chopper 10’s new pilot, and knows the Hampton Roads skies well, having piloted for the Virginia Police Department for 17 years prior to working for WAVY.
According to Kurtz, WAVY is the only station in the market with its own helicopter and pilot on the premises ready to go.
That comes with an expensive price tag.
According to a 2017 article in the Indianapolis Business Journal, “it costs $400,000 to $750,000 to buy a helicopter suitable for TV news coverage and another $50,000 to $100,000 to outfit it with high-definition broadcast equipment. It costs $400 to $500 an hour to fly it and another $125,000 or so a year for a pilot.”
“They are expensive,” said Kurtz, “so we try to be real smart about how we use it in the day-to-day news gatherings.”
“Given the fact that WAVY is such a strong television station, we were very happy that they [Nexstar] saw the value of it,” said Myers.
If you take a look at a map of Norfolk, you’ll instantly see and better understand why WAVY feels it needs its own helicopter.
“A lot of water, a lot of U.S. Navy ships, a lot of bridges,” said Myers. Plus, two commercial airports to navigate around.
https://www.facebook.com/wavytv10/videos/534506547069720/
WAVY does have a drone, but “there’s a lot of spaces the drone simply cannot fly,” said Kurtz.
Myers said the helicopter is the main go-to tool for breaking news, with the drone acting as a supplement for low-level flying.
“The drone is perfectly capable of getting those shots if it is not in Navy air space. So we see what fits best, the drone or the helicopter, and some days, we have them both out.”
Kurtz said Myers leads the discussion on the use of the chopper and drone in the morning meetings.
“Some stories work much better for a drone than maybe a chopper. If there has been a big house fire and it is after the fact and we can fly in that space, the drone will probably get better pictures than maybe a chopper.”
https://www.facebook.com/WAVYChopper10/videos/331592047612777/
Myers said the drone has its own advantages beyond cost.
“Thirty or forty feet is really a nice height for a drone, like if there is tornado damage, hurricane damage, roads torn up, you fly a drone over that and just follow the damage. It really gives you a great perspective.”
https://www.facebook.com/WAVYChopper10/videos/517957138727902/
The perspectives that WAVY’s news chopper and drone get are used in the station’s newscasts, web site and on its social media platforms.
“It’s very common for a newscast to at least have four or five different things from Chopper 10, and from the drone,” said Kurtz.
“We really do try to get our value out of it, on both television and the digital space. All that stuff then lives on our website and get amazing clicks. People want to see it.”
https://www.facebook.com/WAVYChopper10/videos/2294889347423707/
NOTE: Here are some other recent Market Share columns about TV station news helicopters.
Marketing Local TV News Choppers, Part 1
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