Tammy Rose is stepping away from daily helicopter reporting for ABC13 KTRK Houston after more than 30 years in television news.
Rose announced that her final day covering Houston from the air will be October 2, 2026. However, she is making it clear that she is not retiring from journalism.
In a social media post, Rose said her workload has doubled over the past year as viewers have increasingly sent her tips and asked her to investigate stories important to them. That has led her to rethink how she wants to tell stories. Rose says she wants the freedom to go beyond the traditional 30-second television news story and spend more time investigating the stories that matter to her audience.
“To make that possible, I have made the difficult decision to retire from daily helicopter reporting,” Rose wrote.
She will continue flying part-time on assignments around the country through the company she works with, Helicopters Incorporated, meaning aerial reporting will still be part of her career.
Rose also plans to continue her work through Tammy Rose Reports, where she focuses on true crime, aviation and investigative stories. She says she will travel to find stories, reporting both from the air and on the ground.
She is also working on her fourth book. Rose previously wrote When Two Worlds Collide During WWII and says she wants to give her next stories the time they deserve.
Rose has been the helicopter reporter for ABC13 since 2009, providing live breaking news and traffic reports from the sky over Houston.
Her aerial reporting career goes back even further. Before coming to Houston, she worked as a ground and helicopter reporter at KPNX-TV 12 in Phoenix from 2005 to 2009. She previously covered breaking news from the air for WISN-TV 12 in Milwaukee, including tornadoes, severe weather, major traffic incidents, fires, and other developing stories.
Her television career also includes stops at WMTV NBC 15 in Madison, Wisconsin, KXXV 25 in Waco, and KGBT 4 in the Rio Grande Valley, where she worked as a weather anchor and reporter.
Rose began her television career after studying broadcast journalism at Northern Arizona University.
“I hope you’ll turn the page with me and join me for this next chapter,” Rose wrote.
(Thanks, Shad!)
