• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

JFK assassination omnibus thread

I

installLSC

Several hours of live coverage originally broadcast on ABC, CBS, and NBC, both TV and radio, from November 22nd, 1963 can be found on You Tube.
 
 
The same old footage with the same old audio is becoming a bore. However, a couple of docs in recent years have stood out. I really liked the "24 hours before" doc, can't recall the name. But it offers a lot of new never seen before clips from the day before and the morning of. There is also a doc that has no narration, uses just nat sound throughout. I'm surprised that one has not been played much on this 50th. Sorry, I don't have the exact titles on hand, but they both are quite good. Perhaps someone can offer the exact titles.

Point above about ABC is a good one. It should be noted that CBS and NBC had much more established news departments in 1963, though NBC kind of fumbled their way through it compared with Walter and CBS. ABC was still the underdog, and their coverage definitely shows it.
 
I'm under the impression, and memory seems to confirm me, that nearly all of ABC's coverage from Dallas was fed from WFAA and that only one network correspondent, Bill Lord, was in Dallas for the third-place network. As for CBS, Dan Rather had, several days prior to JFK's arrival in Dallas, told CBS to lay on extra coverage there; he expected some kind of disturbance, although not what happened. He had backup from Nelson Benton and Lew Wood in Dallas. And of course, CBS had nearly all the big names in news at the time, and many besides Cronkite and Rather were visible that weekend: Harry Reasoner, Charles Collingwood, Robert Pierpoint, and a young Roger Mudd.

ABC may have shown evidence of its third-place position, but Howard K. Smith and Edward P. Morgan impressed their bosses enough that they anchored ABC's 1964 political coverage. It would be another five years after that before Smith became co-anchor of ABC's evening newscast (he was still out of favor with some affiliates over his "Political Obituary of Richard Nixon" in 1962); Morgan never became an anchor, largely because he was a poor ad-libber. Also, Ron Cochran was ABC's anchor in 1963 largely because nobody else would take on the task of going against Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley (just as Douglas Edwards became CBS's first television anchor in 1948 because the radio-trained Edward R. Murrow and his "boys" didn't think television could do justice to news coverage).
 
Bpatrick, I think you're right about ABC's Dallas coverage. It was, IMHO, some of the best coverage of the entire period. Imagine an interview with Abraham Zapruder before the world heard of his name! And I'm glad you mention the Smith-Morgan participation, because it so often gets overlooked.

Two interesting things about Cronkite and his place in history: although he has come to be the "face" of television coverage of the assassination, in fact it was NBC's coverage, anchored by Huntley and Brinkley, that dominated the ratings - attracting more viewers than CBS and ABC combined (although, let's be honest, ABC doesn't contribute much on that score). According to Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum here in Dallas, one of the reasons for Cronkite's ubiquity (aside from the very good work he, and CBS, did with their coverage) was that CBS smartly licensed out both the audio and video of their coverage together, making it possible for the dramatic moments to be used as clips on so many shows and documentaries over the years. If anything, NBC's coverage (in which Frank McGee visibly winces at the moment when Robert MacNeil gives him the official announcement of JFK's death) is as dramatic, but it has never caught on in the same way.

The second point about Cronkite is that, although we think of his dominance of television news as inevitable, less than a year later he was replaced by Robert Trout and Roger Mudd for CBS' coverage of the 1964 Democratic Convention, so thoroughly had the network been trounced by NBC. This is not to denigrate Cronkite (although I was always a Huntley/Brinkley man myself); it speaks to his resilience and talent that he eventually rose to be the undisputed face of TV news.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't include a link to my recent interview with Marc Ryan, author of "Three Shots Were Fired," a book looking at TV's coverage of the assassination - and, incidentally, son of NBC's Bill Ryan. http://www.itsabouttv.com/2013/11/interview-marc-ryan-author-of-three.html. Yes, it's a shameless plug for my blog, but I wouldn't share it if I didn't think our readers might not find it interesting and an addition to our discussion on the thread.
 
I'm quoting George Watson, ABC's Washington bureau chief, as quoted in Leonard Goldenson's autobiography "Beating The Odds":

"(Edward P.) Morgan was lunching at the Brazilian embassy. When the report came from Dallas that shots had been fired near the motorcade...that was the extent of the first bulletin...I called the embassy. Ed immediately drove to the White House. Senator Hubert Humphrey was at the lunch as well, and Morgan brought him along. At the White House, McGeorge Bundy, Kennedy's national security adviser, said the President was dead.

Ed thought he had a great scoop, awful news that it was. No competitive journalist, so far as we knew, knew or had reported that Kennedy had been killed. Ed came tearing back to the bureau. There was a great uproar of engineers trying to figure out how to get ABC Washington into the ABC television network. The television and radio studios were not connected, so it was one or the other. We could have got him on radio much faster than on television.

By the time the technical wherewithal to put Ed on the air was established, Kennedy's death had been confirmed from Dallas. So Morgan and ABC News lost the scoop. I think if Ed had had the ability to get on the air from the White House lawn, as we have today, the news that Kennedy was dead would have come first on ABC News."
 
A friend of mine, Alliance, Ohio Radio newscaster Geoff Mears, acquired an aircheck of ABC Radio Network affiliate WHBC-AM 1480 in Canton, Ohio from November 22, 1963. The clip is 40-45 minutes long and consists of a local talk show, with area commercials..The aircheck switches to the Network at 24:58 and stays with ABC for the rest of the aircheck..

http://youtu.be/JWiPQuxO1is
 
Another reason the NBC coverage has been relegated to the "other coverage" bin is that CBS (until 2009) could always trot out Cronkite to talk about that weekend, whereas both Frank McGee and Chet Huntley died in 1974.

A future NBC correspondent, John (then known as Bud) Dancy, was the person who gave people watching the NBC affiliate in Cleveland the first word. "The Mike Douglas Show" was still broadcast out of KYW (now WKYC) studios, and Douglas was in the midst of interviewing Robert L. Weaver, an FHA official. Out of the corner of his eye, Douglas could see Dancy walking quickly down the steps of the bleachers holding the audience, and knowing something serious was going on. Dancy then told both the in-studio and TV audience the news.

Nobody in Cleveland could talk about how they were watching "As the World Turns" when they heard the news. The local affiliate, WJW, regularly taped the show and put it on the following morning. Instead, WJW had on a rerun of "Hawaiian Eye."

Finally, that night's episode of Jack Paar had quite a range of guests: Liberace and Cassius Clay. The episode was taped, since Liberace was actually in Pittsburgh when news of the assassination broke. He then ended up almost dying that weekend, since he had cleaned his costumes and used a cleaning solvent with the toxic carbon tetrachloride as its' base, then took a nap in the unventilated hotel room.

He was awakened by an aide who told him of the assassination, and was later rushed to the hospital suffering from kidney failure after inhaling the deadly fumes. Supposedly, he would have just died in his sleep had he not been awakened with the news.
 
Apparently one of the first local broadcasters to break the JFK story on air was the late Ted Cassidy, who was then mid-day DJ and newscaster at WFAA in Dallas. The 6' 9" Cassidy later became nationally known as "Lurch" on the Addams Family TV series, and his sub-woofer bass voice was heard as various superheroes, supervillains, and supermonsters in numerous Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
 
When I moved to Dallas in 1976, I almost immediately gravitated to WFAA for local news because I remember the job they did for ABC that weekend in November 1963. If anything, WFAA's local newscasts were even better by the time I got to Dallas, thanks to news director Marty Haag (R.I.P.), but from what I hear, there's been a decline in quality in recent years.

Besides Abraham Zapruder, Ch. 8 also had the couple that got hit by something (perhaps a piece of JFK's head) in Dealey Plaza.

Re Cronkite vs. Huntley-Brinkley, NBC already dominated the evening news when Cronkite took over from Douglas Edwards in 1962 (Cronkite replaced Edwards because NBC was on top), and would continue to dominate until about 1966 or '67 (somebody correct me on this one); as the news turned grimmer and grimmer, the more lighthearted approach of Chet and David seemed out of place. People wanted reassurance that the world wasn't going you-know-where in a handbasket and they turned increasingly to Uncle Walter.
As for his being replaced at the 1964 Democratic convention by Robert Trout and Roger Mudd, Cronkite took it like a pro but probably knew CBS didn't have a prayer of catching NBC with that duo. Needless to say, he was back in the anchor chair on election night, 1964, and never again--until Dan Rather took over in 1981--did Cronkite have to step aside for anyone.

And yes, Ted Cassidy did cover the story for WFAA radio. Less than a year later, the whole country would know him as Lurch.
 
Last edited:
bpatrick said:
Re Cronkite vs. Huntley-Brinkley, NBC already dominated the evening news when Cronkite took over from Douglas Edwards in 1962 (Cronkite replaced Edwards because NBC was on top), and would continue to dominate until about 1966 or '67 (somebody correct me on this one)
Click to expand...

I think the turning point was April 1967 when the AFTRA strike split up Huntley (who stayed) and Brinkley (who stayed off the air), and brought about the immortal words: "The CBS Evening News with Arnold Zenker," due to Cronkie also staying out.
 
BD Sullivan said:
Another reason the NBC coverage has been relegated to the "other coverage" bin is that CBS (until 2009) could always trot out Cronkite to talk about that weekend, whereas both Frank McGee and Chet Huntley died in 1974.
Click to expand...

A month apart that late winter/spring, IIRC - first McGee, then Huntley.

ixnay
 
As I think I mentioned earlier, the Cowboys were in Cleveland to play the Browns on Nov. 24, and the PA announcer ended up identifying the Dallas team simply as the Cowboys; the mention of the word "Dallas" caused the Cleveland fans to boo.

Side note: I think the Cowboys really became "America's team" in the era when Roger Staubach was quarterback. It used to be almost a joke at CBS (when it had the NFC) that if stuck for a nationally-televised game on Sunday, "When in doubt. give 'em Dallas." (The Cowboys didn't hurt "60 Minutes" in Dallas, either; during the fall the Cowboys and "60 Minutes" would rank 1-2 in the local ratings, before "60 Minutes hit No. 1 nationally; "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley" were next, and most of the local top 10 in the late '70s consisted of ABC shows--Dallas/Ft. Worth viewers' preferences did, and I guess still do, pretty much reflect the national top 10.)

The local churches had a standing rule: if the Cowboys had a home game at 12 N (CT), the services had to end early so people could get to the stadium (or home) to watch the game; I never recall Ch. 4 blacking out a Cowboys game.

Ch. 4, now a Fox o&o, still has the Cowboys; I suppose CBS o&o KTVT/11 has the Houston Texans.
 
Last edited:
This shouldn't come as a surprise, but after the funeral on Monday, about 50-65 percent of the national spot advertisers asked that their commercials be cancelled completely or that they be given make goods, basically dumping all the expense on the networks. The networks were able to get that percentage down to only 20 percent, basically by shaming the companies by talking about the backlash they'd receive from such a low-class move.

Even with that, the networks lost the 2013 equivalent of $25-30 million in advertising (though ABC didn't lose quite as much)

Here's a list of network shows that had to quickly make edits or delay episodes because of the assassination:

*"The Defenders" episode that was supposed to air that weekend, "Claire Chevel Died in Boston," was postponed until 1/4/64, and had a "President Kennedy" reference taken out.

*The 11/27 "Espionage" episode, "A Camel to Ride," dealt with the armed revolt against the leader of an Arab country, and was postponed for three weeks. My guess is NBC felt they could show it more quickly, since it was getting killed going up against both The Beverly Hillbillies and Ben Casey.

*The 11/29 "Route 66" episode, "I'm Here to Kill a King," dealt with a Tod Stiles lookalike attempting to assassinate an Arab leader, and was postponed until March (or not shown until syndication, according to some accounts)

*The 12/1 "Twentieth Century" episode had a show on the plot to kill Hitler postponed.

*The 12/4 Dick Van Dyke Show episode, "Turtles, Ties and Toreadors," had the final line re-dubbed. A turtle had a drawing of the Petrie family on it, and Van Dyke's original line was, "We look just like the Kennedy's." It was changed to, "As long as that turtle lives, we'll be immortal."

*The 12/7 Defenders episode was originally titled, "The Gentle Assassin," but was changed to "Climate of Evil"

One show that had only been filmed one week before was immediately thrown out before even being scheduled: an episode of "The Joey Bishop Show" prominently featured Vaughn Meader doing a JFK impression.

The pilot film for Gilligan's Island was being filmed in Hawaii at the time of the assassination. If you look at the first season that opens with the theme song, and the boat leaving shore, you can see far in the distance a flag at half staff.

Finally, the death of Karyn Kupcinet within a week after the assassination has always been part of the conspiracy theories, because she supposedly got a phone call saying that JFK would be killed an hour or so before he died. Kupcinet had filmed a guest appearance on Perry Mason a week or two before her death, and that episode, "The Case of the Capering Camera" was shown on 1/16/64.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom