Stop the noise from local tv news helicopters

Dec. 31st

Everyone's bothered by local news helicopter noise. Today (originally written 12/5/02), there was apparently a million dollar drug bust (believe it or not) in our area of west Sherman Oaks ... and this evening after 10 PM the news helicopter from KCBS 2 was hovering over our homes near the 101 and 405 freeways.

The craft was not due to go on the air until 11PM ... meaning they were planning on sitting over a residential community (ours) until they went live on the air ... waiting for over an hour!

I called the news desk and explained that they had lots of alternatives to avoid keeping us awake and asked that they move the chopper until they needed to go live, or shoot to tape and get the heck out of town quickly ... or fly much higher and quieter ... keep moving rather than sit still ... all alternatives.

After getting much grief about their needing to keep us awake so they can do their jobs ... telling me that it goes on all over LA, that they are not the only ones ... for the most part this time they were) and that the LAPD does the same thing ...

I informed them that they were making a huge mistake in their evaluation of the situation. They know that the LAPD air support helicopters do not hover but keep moving and that they do their jobs for our public safety and not to info-tain us with shots that they can get on the ground without needing to hover for over an hour.

I told them that our Homeowners Association is 3500 members strong and that doing what they are doing is forcing us to consider boycotting the local news broadcasts, and contacting our government officials to complain.

Well, the chopper at least moved away until 11 PM when they (one other local 11 PM broadcast helicopter showed up) came back with a vengeance until they could tell us what they could have told us from the studio, that a drug bust happened in our community, showing us boxes piled up in a driveway.

BOXES PILED UP IN A DRIVEWAY!

All that could have been put on tape and they could have been gone in less than 3 minutes without having to fly under 2000 feet where we would not have even known they were there!

The point is, our local news media staffs do not care about our community, they think it is their right to keep residents awake just to show BOXES PILED UP IN A DRIVE WAY!

The real crime here is that our Council persons have done nothing to solve this problem that is going on all over this city every night. Our Mayor does nothing, and our City Attorney does nothing ... and we are supporting these news stations by watching these programs.

So here is what you can do:

When a helicopter from the media disturbs your community don't wait around ...

Call and complain:

Be sure to verify which news stations helicopter is making the noise, and tell them that they can do better, they have the technology to fly higher, put it on tape, fly quieter ... and leave us alone.

The following numbers are the news desks at our local TV Stations ... tell them you are no longer going to watch their news programs unless they stop destroying our quality of life unnecessarily.

Call the news assignment desk at KCBS-2 if it is their helicopter:
.... 323 / 460-3316

Call KNBC-4 if it is their helicopter:
.... 818 / 840-4444 ask for the news desk

Call and ask for the news desk at KTLA-5 if it is their helicopter:
.... Morning News: 323 / 460-5500
.... News@Ten: 323 / 460-5500

Call the news assignment desk at KABC-7 if it is their helicopter:
.... 877 / 777-3697

Call the news assignment desk at KCAL-9 if it is their helicopter:
.... 323 / 960-3899

Call the news assignment desk at KTTV-11 (FOX) if it is their helicopter:
.... 310 / 584-2369

Then call or email your local City Council Person, City Attorney and the Mayors new offices in your community and tell them it is time to reign in these unnecessary assaults on our communities.

Inaction will surely allow these situations to continue.

Below are email addresses to many of our communities leader who up to now have refused to lead.

Pass this information along to others, no matter where you live in Southern California ... if you make the calls, they may say they don't care, but they do care if you don't watch, their advertisers don't want the negative impact on views like you.

News can be gathered in many ways ... just not from a hovering news chopper at 600 feet above our homes before 7 AM in the morning or after 10 PM in the evening!

Thank you,

Wayne Williams
Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assocation
Airport Noise Committee Chairman

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If after reading the items above, you may wish to email your comments to:
(These email addresses may be cut and pasted directly into your emails)

"Ruth Galanter" <galanter@council.lacity.org>
"Ruth Galanter" <tdaley@council.lacity.org>
"Jack Weiss" <weiss@council.lacity.org>
"Wendy Greuel" <greuel@council.lacity.org>
"Alex Padilla" <apadilla@c07.ci.la.ca.us>
"Dennis Zine" <thenry@council.lacity.org>
"Hal Bernson" <bernson@c12.ci.la.ca.us>
"Rocky Delgadillo - City Attorney" <rdelgadillo@atty.lacity.org>

Also cc:

"BOAC-Ted Stein-Pres." <laxboac@airports.ci.la.ca.us>
"Phil Depoian-Asst. Exec. Dir." <pdepoian@lawa.org>
"Michael Digirolamo-LAWA" <mdigirolamo@airports.ci.la.ca.us>
"Roger Johnson-Dpty. Exec. Dir." <rogjohnson@lawa.org>
"Lydia Kennard-Exec. Dir." <lkennard@lawa.org>
"Eileen Levine-BOAC" <elevine857@aol.com>
"VNY Administration" <VanNuysAdmin@airports.ci.la.ca.us>
"James Hahn - Mayor" <jhahn@mayor.lacity.org>
"Jennifer Stein - Hahn Valley Deputy" <jstein@mayor.lacity.org>
"Felipe Fuentes - Dpty. Mayor" <ffuentes@mayor.lacity.org>
"Con Howe - LA City Planning Director" <chowe@planning.lacity.org>
"Marc Woersching-LA Plan. Dept." <mwoersch@planning.ci.la.ca.us>

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The VNY Noise Complaint number is: 800 / 560-0010
email: <VanNuysAdmin@airports.ci.la.ca.us>