6ABC helicopter crash comes 40 years after death of Action News weatherman Jim O'Brien
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Long before sophisticated radar and 3D images defined local TV weather broadcasts, Jim O'Brien delivered the forecast with cloud magnets and a smile.
And that's all viewers needed.
Through the sheer power of personality, the 6ABC Action News weatherman connected with millions of viewers in the Delaware Valley.
And even 40 years after his death in a skydiving accident on Sept. 25, 1983, O'Brien is still fondly remembered.
Wednesday's news that two 6ABC journalists — pilot Monroe W. Smith, 67, of Glenside, Pennsylvania and Christopher W. Dougherty, 45, of Oreland, Pennsylvania — were killed in a helicopter crash in South Jersey also had the community recalling O'Brien.
6ABC helicopter crash: Channel 6 Action News helicopter crash in Burlington County kills pilot, photographer
O'Brien, a Texas native who began his broadcasting career as a radio DJ, and later worked in Philadelphia as the host of "Dialing for Dollars," joined Action News in 1976, where he anchored broadcasts and co-hosted the station's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
But he was best known for those low-tech, high-energy weather segments.
Meteorologist Cecily Tynan, who joined Action News in 1995, praised O'Brien today in a Facebook post marking the 35 anniversary of his death in 2018: "35 years ago, the 6abc Action News family and the entire Philadelphia area lost a legend. I wish I had the opportunity to work with Jim O'Brien. He was one in a million."
In a tribute that 6ABC aired in 2013, 30 years after O'Brien's death, now-retired anchor Jim Gardner talked about having to broadcast the tragic news.
"What we tried to do as best we could was to tell what happened, and to unavoidably convey our feelings," Gardner said. "And it was unavoidable, because most of us were crying."
O'Brien's daughter — actress Peri Gilpin, best known for playing Roz on "Frazier" — also talked about her dad in the 2013 tribute.
"I know that everything he did, he did it with gusto. You know? And I know that Philadelphia was so close to his heart," she said.
Post by 6abcCecilyTynan.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Jim O'Brien recalled as region mourns loss of 6ABC pilot, photographer
