Rowlands flies to Channel 9 for more prominent role

Johnny Rowlands, Kansas City's best-known eye in the sky, is changing choppers. After nine years of reporting traffic for WDAF, Channel 4, Rowlands winged his way Thursday to KMBC, Channel 9. He will become the lead pilot of its NewsChopper 9 helicopter and the station's morning traffic reporter beginning Sept. 30. "This was a match made in heaven," Rowlands said Thursday. "It was serendipity." Indeed, timing was the key to KMBC's surprise talent raid on WDAF, its main rival in morning news. Rowlands, who pioneered the use of aircraft in reporting area traffic conditions in 1983, was nearing the end of his contract with Channel 4 and had not begun negotiations on a new one when the station's general manager, Stan Knott, left in July to take a position at another Fox-owned station in Florida. Hearing that Rowlands was available, Channel 9 general manager C. Wayne Godsey contacted Rowlands' boss, Ellen Kelley, the general manager at Metro Networks, which provides traffic updates to area radio and TV stations. With Kelley acting as intermediary, Godsey wooed Rowlands aggressively. Rowlands was told he would have a more prominent role in Channel 9's morning newscast than he had at Channel 4. Though the SkyFox chopper appears in the opening credits for WDAF's morning newscast, KMBC intends to feature Rowlands himself in the opening. "Johnny's going to be a part of the team, and we're going to treat him that way on and off the air," Godsey said Thursday. Adding Rowlands to his roster made Godsey seem a little like Joe Torre, the New York Yankees skipper, adding another superstar to his lineup. KMBC's newscasts are already rated No. 1 in all time periods. The station also got a shot in the arm in afternoons as the syndicated "Dr. Phil" show opened strongly this week, lifting ratings for Channel 9's news at 5 and 6 p.m. Rowlands will remain an employee of Metro Networks, a subsidiary of Westwood One, which purchased Rowlands' helicopter business in 1997. He'll continue to file traffic updates for radio stations KMBZ-AM (980) and KUDL-FM (98.1). Taunia Hottman, Channel 9's current traffic reporter, will be reassigned by Metro Networks. Though Rowlands and Cheryl Kerns McDonald, WDAF's new general manager, offered differing accounts of their negotiations, they agreed on this: Channel 4 never made a formal offer to Metro Networks for extending Rowlands' contract. "He elected not to renew his contract with Fox 4," McDonald said Thursday. "I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to work out a renewal with him." To hear it from Rowlands, WDAF never had a chance. In addition to featuring Rowlands more prominently, Godsey, who is himself an instrument-rated pilot, offered Rowlands greater responsibility in managing NewsChopper 9, which is also used to cover breaking news. "Everybody likes to feel like they belong," Rowlands said. "This is going to be a much different environment for me to be in." This is Rowlands' second tour of duty with KMBC. In 1988, after five years of covering traffic for KMBZ, he founded Airborne Traffic Net with Channel 9 and three radio stations as his charter subscribers. Rowlands used fixed-wing aircraft until 1993, when he switched to Channel 4 and a helicopter. Kelley said she was pleased to have extended her agreement with Channel 9, which, unlike Channel 4, is a Metro Networks affiliate. The new contract, including Rowlands' services, runs through March 2006. - To reach Aaron Barnhart, call (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. @ART CAPTION:"This was a match made in heaven," Johnny Rowlands said Thursday of his move to KMBC, Channel 9. "It was serendipity." @ART:Photo @ART CREDIT:AARON BARNHART/The Kansas City Star