ABC TV JFK BULLETINS

[Steve Eberhart]

You tube has the last of 4 bulletins by Ed Silverman, the first one on the air at ABC TV on November 22, 1963 announcing the events of the JFK assasination, before they got on camera.

Ed tells me he is not aware of any recording of his first 3 bulletins which were also voice over slide done from the emergency announce booth down the hall from the ABC TV newsroom at the time.

The ABC TV log apparently indicates the first TV bulletins by the network was at 1:40 EST. They went on camera at 2:00 EST. There were 4 total VO bulletins done by Silverman between 1:40 and 2:00. Again, the last of those 4 is part of the tapes on youtube of ABC's coverage.

Does ANYONE have or know of anyone who has a copy of the first 3 reports by Silverman?
Much like the infamous Don Pardo NBC voice over bulletins, I am hoping someone somewhere may have it on tape.

I am doing research into the first hour of media coverage of this event for a project and am looking for those first 3 ABC TV bulletins done by Ed Silverman.

Please contact me if you have any information at [email protected]

THANK YOU!

 

[pqgeorge]

The first JFK announcements on 11/22/63 were during the rerun of "Father Knows Best" at 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM (EDT). Many stations normally delayed (on tape) the "Father Knows Best" reruns to a different times. Chances are, one of those stations who delayed FKB probably might still have that tape in storage. If I was running an ABC affiliate at the time, I would have saved that FKB recording for posterity. I believe there are two bulletins on that YouTube recording. They returned to FKB with commercials just before the end of FKB. Then all of the stations joined the network at 2:00 PM. Watching that episode of "Father Knows Best" kind of made me feel that our innocence (like "Bud's") was about to come to an end. Sure enough, it did. If you watch it, you'll see what I mean. 50 years later, it still has a feeling of sadness.

http://youtu.be/Y36DbAmUKw4

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

The You Tube footage of the early ABC News bulletins breaking into the "Father Knows Best" rerun probably came from a tape which had been recorded by an affiliate for delayed broadcast.

Hopefully, someone will find a full tape of the show which had been taped off the network feed for delayed-broadcast purposes and will post it on You Tube.

Additionally, ABC News would love to excerpt that episode and the first bulletin for either a feature report or a retrospective on that weekend that they will undoubtedly broadcast this coming November for the 50th anniversary of the assassination.

Even if only audio of the first bulletin is available, ABC could "re-create" that bulletin by using the "Father Knows Best" episode rerun that day, edit-in video of the "ABC News Bulletin" slide (which is on footage from a short time later that does exist) and the audio of the first bulletin at the point where the show was interrupted. Using vintage network logs will help determine where to make the edits..

 

[pqgeorge]

The You Tube footage of the early ABC News bulletins breaking into the "Father Knows Best" rerun probably came from a tape which had been recorded by an affiliate for delayed broadcast.

Hopefully, someone will find a full tape of the show which had been taped off the network feed for delayed-broadcast purposes and will post it on You Tube.

Additionally, ABC News would love to excerpt that episode and the first bulletin for either a feature report or a retrospective on that weekend that they will undoubtedly broadcast this coming November for the 50th anniversary of the assassination.

Even if only audio of the first bulletin is available, ABC could "re-create" that bulletin by using the "Father Knows Best" episode rerun that day, edit-in video of the "ABC News Bulletin" slide (which is on footage from a short time later that does exist) and the audio of the first bulletin at the point where the show was interrupted. Using vintage network logs will help determine where to make the edits..

It definitely sounded like it was recorded off an affiliate for later broadcast (5 kHz audio). That was the standard for TV telco lines. If it were recorded at WABC-TV (Channel 7), it would have been 15 kHz audio as WABC-TV is the Flagship of the American Broadcasting Company.

 

[newsbot]

Peter is right; that AT&T Long Lines audio is a dead giveaway.

 

[newsbot]

Peter is right; that AT&T Long Lines audio is a dead giveaway.

Poor choice of words in this instance; alas, I was called away from the computer and in the interim the editing window passed. Another possibility was that the affiliate was carrying the Father Knows Best rerun live and rolled tape after the first bulletin.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Ed (Silverman, who did ABC's first bulletin of the Kennedy assassination) tells me he is not aware of any recording of his first 3 bulletins which were also voice over slide done from the emergency announce booth down the hall from the ABC TV newsroom at the time.

Which, if my memory serves me correct, makes Silverman the only network TV anchor on-duty on November 22nd, 1963 who is still alive.

Hopefully, his memories of the weekend will be included on any ABC News special the network may broadcast this Fall to observe the 50th anniversary of the assassination.

 

[[email protected]]

Lost first NBC TV Don Pardo bulletins (President John F. Kennedy assassination)

Incredibly, I, alone, am responsible for saving a valued icon broadcast moment related to NBC TV broadcast history (November 22, 1963) when I audio recorded, off the air, the first two complete NBC television news bulletins, voiced by Don Pardo, and the first 3 minutes & 53 seconds of "lost" NBC TV broadcasting (commencing at 1:53pm EST).

I only wish I had a second television set and second reel to reel 1/4" tape recorder patched into ABC television, and those Ed Silverman bulletins would have been preserved as well. It is interesting to note that as of the 50th anniversary of the JFK Presidential Assassination, both television announcers, Don Pardo (NBC), and Ed Silverman (ABC) are still alive. Most all other anchors and journalists who covered this media event are deceased.

It must me realized, that the odds of ANYONE being home on a weekday afternoon (most adults would be working away from their home...most adolescents would be in school...all others while perhaps viewing television at that time, RERUNS of Father Knows Best, and Bachelor Father, would not have a tape recorder immediately available...to be able to press record BEFORE any bulletin would commence...much less have the presence of mind to record television in the first place.

I was in the right place at the right moment with motivation to record television bulletins and much, much more (see my archive, website, ARCHIVAL TELEVISION AUDIO, INC.), with the means to save broadcast history.

The initial "lost" NBC TV broadcast moments I audio recorded were donated to the John F. Kennedy Library, The Library of Congress, Paley Center for Media, and to Don Pardo in 1998. All of the related "lost" footage that I recorded (a few moments have been omitted to prove I am the original taper) was donated a number of years ago to the David Von Pein's incredible website channel and is currently accessible on its youtube link.

Phil Gries
Archival Television Audio, Inc.

You tube has the last of 4 bulletins by Ed Silverman, the first one on the air at ABC TV on November 22, 1963 announcing the events of the JFK assasination, before they got on camera.

Ed tells me he is not aware of any recording of his first 3 bulletins which were also voice over slide done from the emergency announce booth down the hall from the ABC TV newsroom at the time.

The ABC TV log apparently indicates the first TV bulletins by the network was at 1:40 EST. They went on camera at 2:00 EST. There were 4 total VO bulletins done by Silverman between 1:40 and 2:00. Again, the last of those 4 is part of the tapes on youtube of ABC's coverage.

Does ANYONE have or know of anyone who has a copy of the first 3 reports by Silverman?
Much like the infamous Don Pardo NBC voice over bulletins, I am hoping someone somewhere may have it on tape.

I am doing research into the first hour of media coverage of this event for a project and am looking for those first 3 ABC TV bulletins done by Ed Silverman.

Please contact me if you have any information at [email protected]

THANK YOU!

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I audio recorded, off the air, the first two complete NBC television news bulletins, voiced by Don Pardo, and the first 3 minutes & 53 seconds of "lost" NBC TV broadcasting (commencing at 1:53pm EST).

I believe that the 1:53-1:56 P.M. EST portion of NBC's coverage was likely audio with a "Special Report" slide filling the screen.

I think NBC only began videotaping their coverage once the cameras in their news studio had finished warming-up.

By the way, initial coverage on ABC and CBS also consisted of "Bulletin" slides with audio of off-camera announcers and newsmen.

Back then, TV studio cameras were filled with tubes and needed about 15-20 minutes to warm-up.

It was as a result of the JFK assassination that the networks installed "flash studios" with cameras that could go on in seconds so anchors could be seen as well as heard.

Had such studios been in use fifty years ago, we would have seen Pardo, Cronkite, and Silverman on-camera giving the initial bulletins. And the networks might not have gone back to regular programming at all, only pausing for five-or-ten-second station identifications so Pardo could have handed-off to Chet Huntley, Frank McGee, and Bill Ryan in the news studio while Cronkite and Silverman could go to their regular news studios.

 

[strato]

I so much agree
Bud striking out with an older girl and being comforted by Dad
then the horror of the news

Reminds me of a Dallas radio aircheck when the shooting took place
they were playing the song "I have a Boyfriend" by Vicki Forrest when the bulletin came
I will never be able to listen to that song again without thinking of the shooting

The first JFK announcements on 11/22/63 were during the rerun of "Father Knows Best" at 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM (EDT). Many stations normally delayed (on tape) the "Father Knows Best" reruns to a different times. Chances are, one of those stations who delayed FKB probably might still have that tape in storage. If I was running an ABC affiliate at the time, I would have saved that FKB recording for posterity. I believe there are two bulletins on that YouTube recording. They returned to FKB with commercials just before the end of FKB. Then all of the stations joined the network at 2:00 PM. Watching that episode of "Father Knows Best" kind of made me feel that our innocence (like "Bud's") was about to come to an end. Sure enough, it did. If you watch it, you'll see what I mean. 50 years later, it still has a feeling of sadness.

http://youtu.be/Y36DbAmUKw4

 

[Ultimajock]

Reminds me of a Dallas radio aircheck when the shooting took place
they were playing the song "I have a Boyfriend" by Vicki Forrest when the bulletin came
I will never be able to listen to that song again without thinking of the shooting

...the recording of "I Have a Boyfriend" that KLIF played that day was by The Chiffons; to the best of my knowledge, Ms. Forrest never had a U.S. hit, so she would never have been heard over KLIF during its Top 40 days. Even more ominous was the last record KLIF played in its entirety before switching to wall-to-wall coverage of the assassination: Gene McDaniels' "The Point of No Return"...

...as for the source of the surviving ABC-TV videotape, I'm convinced it was the network's then-affiliate in Phoenix, KTVK/3. While I believe KTVK was running Father Knows Best live, it had the necessary videotaping facilities to record an entire day's ABC schedule for time-shifting to maintain the schedule pattern on both KTVK and Tucson's KGUN/9 in those months when Arizona would remain on Mountain Standard Time and the rest of the region observed Mountain Daylight Time. That KTVK was passing along the live network schedule is suggested by the fact that only the last of the Silverman voice bulletins appears to have surfaced; otherwise, if the entire program was being recorded for delayed broadcast, the first Silverman bulletins would likely be on the source tape. As the switch back to Standard Time would have occurred a few weeks earlier, I'm guessing that KTVK would have had the tape necessary to record it that wasn't then in use, and it took until about 11:50 Mountain Time for KTVK management to either direct or okeh the technicians on duty to start recording...

 

[strato]

YOU TUBE of Vicki Forrest singing "I have a boyfriend"

...the recording of "I Have a Boyfriend" that KLIF played that day was by The Chiffons; to the best of my knowledge, Ms. Forrest never had a U.S. hit, so she would never have been heard over KLIF during its Top 40 days. Even more ominous was the last record KLIF played in its entirety before switching to wall-to-wall coverage of the assassination: Gene McDaniels' "The Point of No Return"...

...as for the source of the surviving ABC-TV videotape, I'm convinced it was the network's then-affiliate in Phoenix, KTVK/3. While I believe KTVK was running Father Knows Best live, it had the necessary videotaping facilities to record an entire day's ABC schedule for time-shifting to maintain the schedule pattern on both KTVK and Tucson's KGUN/9 in those months when Arizona would remain on Mountain Standard Time and the rest of the region observed Mountain Daylight Time. That KTVK was passing along the live network schedule is suggested by the fact that only the last of the Silverman voice bulletins appears to have surfaced; otherwise, if the entire program was being recorded for delayed broadcast, the first Silverman bulletins would likely be on the source tape. As the switch back to Standard Time would have occurred a few weeks earlier, I'm guessing that KTVK would have had the tape necessary to record it that wasn't then in use, and it took until about 11:50 Mountain Time for KTVK management to either direct or okeh the technicians on duty to start recording...

 

[strato]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRoPSQ_u3Ys

YOU TUBE of Vicki Forrest singing "I have a boyfriend"

 

[oldiesfan6479]

...as for the source of the surviving ABC-TV videotape, I'm convinced it was the network's then-affiliate in Phoenix, KTVK/3. While I believe KTVK was running Father Knows Best live, it had the necessary videotaping facilities to record an entire day's ABC schedule for time-shifting to maintain the schedule pattern on both KTVK and Tucson's KGUN/9 in those months when Arizona would remain on Mountain Standard Time and the rest of the region observed Mountain Daylight Time.

Don't think it was from KTVK, as old program listings confirm both KTVK Phoenix and KGUN-TV Tucson aired FNB live at 11:30 AM MT (1:30 PM ET). And since DST ended the end of October, the whole country was on standard time.

Back in 1963, KTVK apparently did not have sufficient VTR facilities for delaying the network, since, while they aired prime time "in pattern" on a zero-DB, the shows were run from 16mm film at KTVK. Saturday was the only day that they took network prime "live" starting at 5:30 PM MT. In the summer, KTVK got the one-hour delayed feed from ABC (for areas on standard time)...which was designed for EST/CST stations and really didn't help MST areas (you still got prime starting at 5:30).

As for summer in the Mountain Time Zone in 1963, practically all areas were on MST (no MDT). The only exception I am aware of is Los Alamos County, NM, due to the federal government's nuke lab there.