Museum Acquires WBAP JFK Assassination Coverage

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

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The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza and Cumulus Media's WBAP-AM/Dallas, announce the donation of 21 original recordings of the events and coverage on WBAP Radio leading up to, including and following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 to the Museum's collections. These original "day-of" recordings are key materials documenting how the historic news event was reported to local audiences in 1963.

"The Museum is committed to preserving not only artifacts and documentation about the assassination itself, but also about the cultural legacy of that pivotal event in history," said The Sixth Floor Museum Executive Director Nicola Longford. "We are especially excited for this generous donation because it shows the vivid local perspective of this tragic day."

The WBAP 820 AM JFK Assassination Coverage Collection donation was spearheaded by longtime WBAP Operations Manager Tyler Cox, in the interest of preserving history. The recordings will be officially transferred to the Museum on Monday, November 21 at 10:30am.

"The preservation of these original recordings has long been a goal of ours at WBAP," Cox said. "The Sixth Floor Museum is the logical place for this audio glimpse of life in Dallas/Fort Worth on this fateful day to be preserved, and we're pleased to make this donation to the Museum."

WBAP's coverage on November 22, 1963, began with reporting from the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, including a full broadcast of the president's remarks from the hotel's parking lot. It then followed President Kennedy's entire morning in Fort Worth, including his remarks at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast, demonstrating the excitement and fanfare of the president's visit to Texas.

In Dallas, WBAP's coverage began with the president's arrival at Love Field and led up to a breathless report from WBAP reporter Bob Welch, who, as he raced behind the presidential caravan to Parkland Memorial Hospital, provided the most immediate coverage following the assassination that is known to exist.

"It's not known for sure, but it's believed that President Kennedy has been shot," he reported.

Wow an aircheck of history sent to a museum nearest to where JFK was Killed.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

Makes sense, since, WBAP did do coverage of that dark day in Dallas city history.

Plus, the museum is in the building at the exact floor Oswald fired the fatal shots with the murder weapon. So of course they would aquire it from WBAP or Cumulus broadcast.

it was either them or the Smithsonian museum that would aquire the audio from that dark time in American history.

 

[LibertyNT]

http://news.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n33567



Wow an aircheck of history sent to a museum nearest to where JFK was Killed.

Do they have the KLIF and KXOL coverage?

 

[DrAkbar]

Wonder how the frequency sharing agreement with WFAA was handled that day? The two stations used to flip flop between 5~Seventy and 8~Twenty until Amon Carter bought out Belo's interest and secured the 50kw blowtorch for his Cowtown station. Glad to hear the tapes are safeguarded for posterity.

 

[gr8oldies]

A lot of WBAP's coverage from that day is in YouTube, and you can hear references to 5-7-0 WBAP and 820 WBAP. ABC network news was always n 570 and NBC always on 820, no matter which station was where. https://youtu.be/WilB4tL0Kq0 I'm glad the originals will be in a safe place.

Wonder how the frequency sharing agreement with WFAA was handled that day? The two stations used to flip flop between 5~Seventy and 8~Twenty until Amon Carter bought out Belo's interest and secured the 50kw blowtorch for his Cowtown station. Glad to hear the tapes are safeguarded for posterity.

 

[gr8oldies]

As near as I can tell, it was handled as scheduled. No matter which of the two stations was on which frequency, 820 was always NBC and 570 was always ABC. When on 570, WBAP when to ABC coverage, while on 820, NBC coverage.