First, of course, I apologize for the comment about Ms. Dornacker. Really, it was just to highlight one of Metro's tragedies, not to make light of Ms. Dornacker's passing. I am truly sorry. Now if there's still conjecture about who was at fault, who owned the chopper, who was ultimately responsible for maintaining it, etc, and/or if I'm pointing the finger the wrong direction, I apologize for that as well. Normally when an "incident" involving any of Metro's ships is brought up on this board, there's someone ready to fire away a "not their fault" post, absolving Metro of any carelessness. Me, if the Metro name is associated with a given aircraft that fails, they are responsible for some of the blame. At Traffic.com, we had one designated person (Monty Cook) who worked directly with the owner and pilots and maintenance crew at Zebra Air to confirm that all maintenance had been done regularly, that there were no pending issues to worry about, and that all was good to go, daily. John McCarty and Monty handled that together before John's passing. And we never had any hard landings, crashes, or just general "weirdness" that can sometimes happen in the air. Sure, as with anything mechanical, there's no guarantee, and sure, things DO happen. But if Monty was ok with putting the mother of his children in the air daily, as well as himself and everyone else who flew for T.com, that was good enough for me. As long as Monty and John did what they were doing, and as long as Ken Montgomery was flying the ship, I felt safe everytime I flew. I never worried about a thing. My hat's also off to Jamie, owner of Zebra Air, who was/is as conscientious about the safety and maintenance of his aircraft as anyone could be.
As for Metro? I wouldn't want my worst enemy on any of their aircraft. Their record speaks for itself without me having to rehash it all.
Mike, I don't have a story as tragic as Jay's, but I'm guessing from your comments that you have hung up your headphones for good. Regardless of how talented you may (or may not) be, there is absolutely no one that I know in their right mind who would hire such an openly bitter person with a toxic attitude like yours.
Thanks for the love. I still do my weekly radio show, and I'm still job hunting...and that's no one's fault but my own. I really don't know what I want to do. I do have a couple of offers in radio kind of sitting there, and it would be against my better judgment to even go back again. Nah, I'm not all that talented; I caught a VERY lucky break that turned into six years on the air doing traffic. I have NO intention of going to work for Metro; during a short fit of insanity, I reached out to Metro right before the Traffic.com layoff, but after hearing how they mistreated a good buddy of mine during an interview a few days earlier, I gave up on even trying. What they pulled on him should be taken to court.
I've got a nine-year long history on this board, and one thing has NEVER changed: I call it like I see it. And it's all opinion. I'm sorry if you don't agree, but I'm not here to gather troops or to try to overthrow the industry. All I usually do is point out the corporate inconsistencies and incongruencies and smoke-and-mirrors that some folks otherwise eat up and believe every word of. People know me for what and who I am, and they know after this long that I don't hold back much. And I have enough friends and confidants and such, that I know I must be doing something right. Sorry that you don't "get" what I do. I don't care if I never work in radio again. I had my flash-in-the-pan moment and my 15 mins of fame, and it was wonderful! Wouldn't trade it for a thing.
And, from reading back over your short list of Radio-Info posts, you're obviously part of Metro, or WERE part of Metro (Perhaps Office Max? Who was so pissed about some Metro comment I made on here several years ago that he called up John McCarty and chewed out JOHN over it! John, in his usual flair, told Office Max where to stick it. A week later was the annual traffic reporters' luncheon in Irving, and Ofc Max was nowhere to be found...I wanted to give my personal regards to him in person, and he didn't even show.) What newspaper is he running now? Sheesh, that's one industry that makes RADIO look stable and full of positive growth.
And it's probably a good time for my annual reminder:
"Postings on Radio-Info.com are the opinions of the people who post them. Views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of Radio-Info.com or its parent in3 media, inc. In fact many of the views expressed here are just plain wrong. But they are opinions and this site allows us all to discuss those opinions. Any reliance on information posted is done so at the user's own risk."
