"I felt she's spoke in a lot of absolutes," Vahle said. Vahle offers support and friendship, but as someone with such a similar background, and a two-year head start, Vahle's also been able to talk back to Tur, who was becoming a very public face of the transgender community. It's very, very rough, and you need people out there who understand. "When you go through something like this," Tur said, "it's like going to war. The two had a tense dinner together, actually their first face-to-face meeting, and have since become close. Vahle, meanwhile, had transitioned to female two years earlier and recalls reading an article about Tur's transition and thinking, "You've got to be f-king kidding me!" "I said, 'Why? Dirk Vahle is an a-hole.' She said, 'Because Dirk is now Dana.'" "Desiree told me I should get in touch with Dirk Vahle," Tur recalled. Helicopter pilot Desiree Horton is a mutual friend. But how did they get over 20 years of bad blood? This woman: until about a year ago, when they met through a mutual friend and discovered they had one other thing in common.Įach is transgender: Dirk Vahle is now Dana Vahle, and Bob Tur is now Zoey Tur (she has been telling her story on Off-Ramp). Tur and Vahle, the best in their field, hated each other. The video from their choppers filled millions of TV screens across America. Tur, flying for CBS, was first on the scene for O.J.'s slow speed chase on June 17, 1994. Simpson case 20 years later, one story has never been told, until now: how the rivalry between TV news helicopter pilots Bob Tur and Dirk Vahle became friendship. Staff writer Mel Bracht can be reached by e-mail at or by calling 475-4106.As Angelenos recall the O.J. That was the larger part of the population base." The viewer, who was not being affected by these storms, wanted to watch the damage. "The difference was, we didn't cover the damage in Oklahoma City. KWTV general manager David Griffin said, "We decided to stay with covering the tornado warnings, which were going off in Mulhall and other areas. by devoting more coverage to damage than KWTV did. KWTV's coverage, headed by longtime meteorologist Gary England, led in the early evening, but KFOR took the lead at 7:15 p.m. The combined ratings of the three stations showed that more than 70 percent of the market's televisions were tuned to the tornado coverage. KOCO-5, which doesn't have a helicopter, was a distant third at 8.2. KWTV-9 finished at 24.8, topping at 34.2 at 7 p.m. For prime-time, the station earned a 38.3 rating (percentage of TV homes in the market), reaching as high as 42.8 at 8 p.m. The video supplied from Chopper 4 helped KFOR compile record ratings that night. I don't know if we're coming out of this one.' We ended up making it back at 12:30 that night." "At one point, I told my cameraman, 'You better pray to who you love. He said a miscommunication with the KFOR news desk put him too close to a tornado near the Texas border last summer. Gardner has experienced some close calls, however. He credits meteorologist Mike Morgan and his staff for watching the radar and steering him in the right direction. On May 3, he said he flew as close as a half-mile to the tornado while at an altitude of 2,000 to 2,500 feet.Īlthough Chopper 4 has a top speed of 120 mph, the helicopter could quickly get sucked into the tornado if it gets too close. Tracking tornadoes requires Gardner to keep the helicopter out of the storm's path but still get close enough for good video. 'Do you get me? Do you see me?' 'Yeah, Leroy, I've got you covered there.'" "He (Tatom) always kind of cracks me up, because he'll always call me. In comparison to Oklahoma City, Gardner only has to keep tabs of KWTV-9 helicopter pilot Leroy Tatom when covering a news story. Gardner said 35 helicopters were in the area during the riots, and 7 to 13 helicopters cover most news stories. "It's very competitive, with a lot more helicopters." "It's totally different from out here," Gardner said. Gardner flew charters and for movies before serving as the morning pilot for a Los Angeles TV station for five years. Gardner, 43, a native of Wynnewood, became a helicopter pilot after he moved to Los Angeles in the early '80s with his first wife, who was a singer. "When they actually see it on TV, it takes on a whole different significance to them." "When people look at the radar screen, it's just another tornado," he said. Gardner said the helicopter video of the damage played a big role in viewers taking quick action to avoid the tornado. "The next day, when I landed at places, people were shaking my hand and talking to me," he said.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |