News Media Helicopters

[DanKC8PAE]

Does anyone in the group know what frequencies the news media helicopters use for air to air and air to ground communications in the Cincinnati and Dayton area? I also would be interested in any that are in use in the Columbus area. So far the only thing I can find is the media feed frequencies.

 

[northernsummit]

They probably use cellular at their elevation. Best you can probably do is track and plot their adsb beacons.

 

[n0esc]

There might not be any. There is a line in this article from 2020 about WCPO opting to not renew their contract for Chopper 9 in favor of their drone that says they were the only permanent news helicopter in the region.

Cincinnati station won’t renew chopper contract

WCPO, the ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, Ohio, is grounding its news helicopter. Branded on air ... Read More

www.newscaststudio.com

Because there aren't any stationed owned helis and they likely will settle for whatever they can charter, there probably aren't any assigned radio frequencies if the station itself doesn't maintain a license and use HTs.

N90CL is now flying out of St Louis MO as SkyFox https://twitter.com/SkyFOXSTL

 

[rcid1971]

I don’t think they have them.
WCPO didn’t renew their lease in 2020.
Most stations use consumer drones.

The two Cleveland helicopters use iMessage, DMR and VHF.

Does WBNS even still have one in Columbus?

 

[n0esc]

I don’t think they have them.
WCPO didn’t renew their lease in 2020.
Most stations use consumer drones.

The two Cleveland helicopters use iMessage, DMR and VHF.

Does WBNS even still have one in Columbus?

From a quick search, it doesn't look like it. N10EW was Chopper 10, is now registered to what I assume is a crop dusting leasing company in WI. N10EW (1998 BELL 407 owned by CHEMAIR HELICOPTERS INC) Aircraft Registration - FlightAware

 

[wa8pyr]

Does WBNS even still have one in Columbus?

All the stations in Columbus use drones now. Lots cheaper and less liability.

 

[W8HDU]

There might not be any. There is a line in this article from 2020 about WCPO opting to not renew their contract for Chopper 9 in favor of their drone that says they were the only permanent news helicopter in the region.

Some are going to leasing for events and coverage they know could be scheduled. Owning one right now is a nightmare due to insurance. And local lease premiums have skyrocketed. It's just not financially prudent until they can recover costs.

 

[dcr_inc]

123.025 is the common air to air heli freq

 

[trentbob]

I'd like to contribute to this thread for what it's worth. I'm in Philadelphia. Our networks have their own frequencies for news desk between helicopter. Irrelevant here.

Arguably, as stated, 123.025 is the standard helicopter Unicom in the country and in Philadelphia we consider it a collision avoidance system. Any Chopper entering airspace between Trenton and Delaware announces their existence and intentions. News Choppers never talk on this frequency other than to announce they are there. It's police helicopters, commercial transportation, medivac and news Choppers.

I don't know how well this is known but in my city we always have at least three Choppers orbiting a major event which happens all the time. The Choppers need to talk to each other and coordinate, while orbiting and know each other well and are very experienced Pilots who share everything they have with each other. You'll find more real news on those frequencies than anywhere else.

No matter what city you're in, try 135.8750 as news helo air to air news Chopper frequency 1 and 135.975 as frequency 2.

Hope that helps.

 

[blindowl1234]

RR still shows Ch 9 & 19 frequencies but I don't think they use them

 

[radioscan]

No local news/media outlets use helicopters anymore. At one time, WHIO Ch. 7 Dayton had Chopper 7 and WCPO Ch. 9
Cincinnati had Chopper 9, but they got rid of them years ago as the technology changed. As was stated earlier most use drones now.
700 AM WLW also stopped using a traffic copter quite awhile back. So, there are no more traffic copters either.

The only helicopters to listen to are the medical copters and law enforcement. Butler County Sheriff has a helicopter, they rarely use.
I also have not heard Hamilton County Sheriff use their helicopter in a long, long time, if they still have one.

 

[blindowl1234]

Yeah a certain person at WLW sort of got in trouble long ago. Shooting groundhogs I think from the helicopter lol. You can pickup Aircare on the scanner/SDR

 

[W8HDU]

Yeah a certain person at WLW sort of got in trouble long ago. Shooting groundhogs I think from the helicopter lol. You can pickup Aircare on the scanner/SDR

I trust that was not John Phillips.

 

[W8WCA]

I miss the Yellow Thunder one here in Columbus!
Like others I keep 123.025 in any thing I am scanning. CPD and others use it often

 

[trentbob]

I am surprised to hear about the drones and lack of use of news helicopters. We have three Network news helicopters in Philadelphia, problem is is that the TV stations cover a very large area including all the suburbs of Philadelphia including New Jersey and the Jersey seashore. Sometimes they will go to Delaware and sometimes they will go North to Trenton or west to Pottstown, these are great distances.

To use drones they would have to send a crew in a vehicle to these locations or are drones capable of flying long long distances? If a crew had to go by car to some of these locations it would take them an hour or an hour and a half driving and the spot news will be over, the helicopters can get there in anywhere between 5 minutes and at tops 45 minutes.

What's the range of a drone that would have to be remotely controlled I assume with a camera on it so the operator knows where it's going when it has to travel a long distance. Just curious.

 

[W8HDU]

One thing to consider is the average big market has pulled away from markets 40 and higher due to monetary reasons. We're market 180 and we've not rolled a live van in over a year. Most of the field video is iP Cams or phones. Because the cost of the assets, most stations look at how much labor at the station are needed to execute the event.

 

[blindowl1234]

I am surprised to hear about the drones and lack of use of news helicopters. We have three Network news helicopters in Philadelphia, problem is is that the TV stations cover a very large area including all the suburbs of Philadelphia including New Jersey and the Jersey seashore. Sometimes they will go to Delaware and sometimes they will go North to Trenton or west to Pottstown, these are great distances.

To use drones they would have to send a crew in a vehicle to these locations or are drones capable of flying long long distances? If a crew had to go by car to some of these locations it would take them an hour or an hour and a half driving and the spot news will be over, the helicopters can get there in anywhere between 5 minutes and at tops 45 minutes.

What's the range of a drone that would have to be remotely controlled I assume with a camera on it so the operator knows where it's going when it has to travel a long distance. Just curious.

Here in Cincy area not sure how many drones they use if any. I'm guessing its 25 miles around greater Cincy and N. Kentucky. Whenever I watch the news in the morning, I don't see anything that looks like drone footage. Traffic cams are in several places, so for traffic reports you see those on the news. The city limits of Cincy itself aren't as big as one would think, so sending a news crew there would take only 15-20 minutes via car. From where the stations are N. Kentucky is 5 minutes down I-75

 

[phask]

One thing to consider is the average big market has pulled away from markets 40 and higher due to monetary reasons. We're market 180 and we've not rolled a live van in over a year. Most of the field video is iP Cams or phones. Because the cost of the assets, most stations look at how much labor at the station are needed to execute the event.

Columbus seems to be just the opposite. They have live feeds for the stupidest reasons. In front of the courthouse for an event that happened hours ago, outside the police impound lot (nice chain link fence), and of course the salt barn.

 

[blindowl1234]

Columbus seems to be just the opposite. They have live feeds for the stupidest reasons. In front of the courthouse for an event that happened hours ago, outside the police impound lot (nice chain link fence), and of course the salt barn.

Oh yeah they're great for a video of the salt barn here too lol

 

[trentbob]

Here in Cincy area not sure how many drones they use if any. I'm guessing its 25 miles around greater Cincy and N. Kentucky. Whenever I watch the news in the morning, I don't see anything that looks like drone footage. Traffic cams are in several places, so for traffic reports you see those on the news. The city limits of Cincy itself aren't as big as one would think, so sending a news crew there would take only 15-20 minutes via car. From where the stations are N. Kentucky is 5 minutes down I-75

Yeah it sounds like the geography is a lot smaller. The four Networks, ABC, NBC and CBS along with fox do share helicopters but it's not unusual for them to be in Reading Pennsylvania and then get an assignment to go to the far south end of New Jersey for wildfires or something or some shore event then fuel up.. after that they're going to a murder shooting scene in Center City Philadelphia which happens several times if not much more, every day.

Philadelphia rivals Chicago with violent crime and murder, police often restrict the Choppers to a certain perimeter and definitely don't allow drones anywhere near the airspace of their police helicopters.

I guess it has to do with size and geography, the four network stations cover a very wide area they broadcast too.

Thanks for the reply.