Vision 23 only exists in a TV promo. Yep WLTV’s news helicopter is not real. Well, it’s real in meat space but it doesn’t fly for any one particular television station. N10TV , the former news chopper for Tampa’s WTSP, actually moonlights as the back up helicopter for when Sky10, Skyforce, and WFTL’s Yellow Bird are in maintenance.
What WLTV calls Vision 23 is really SKY10 which the station shares with WFOR, WPLG, WTVJ, and WSCV. That is five television stations sharing one helicopter, the most of any market in the US. Kudos to whoever is in charge of the pool.
From what insiders tell us, WLTV still had to pay a good chunk of money to be in the SKY10 helicopter pool so to offset some of the cost they sold advertising space to a local car dealer. The shot the promo using N10TV as the fictional Vision 23 wearing the car dealer’s logos and a mention in the promo. To be fair, the other stations also refer to the helicopter as if it’s their own.
So that makes WSVN the only station in our area (other than WPTV in West Palm) that flies its own helicopter, and that is probably not changing soon.
WFTL hasn’t had a “yellow bird” in years. They can’t even afford to pay their staff let alone operate a helicopter.
Isn’t that chopper flying for metro traffic?