60th anniversary of Kennedy assassination

[seatownmedia]

November 22nd, 1963. I have already seen some cable channels doing previews of this. Should be a milestone TV event as we get closer to the date. And perhaps one of the last milestone events as the population ages out. What is so interesnting is that this was one of the first big TV events that anyone born before 1958 remembers. I am sure it will decline in interest as most who remember it will eventually die off. But I still find it an intrigueing event for television. The start of what would become a much heavier live presence in the medium. TV history was made with this event.

 

[fybush]

At this point, anyone with any living memory of the day is at least 70 and more likely 75+.

It doesn't mean there won't be a few specials here and there, but I doubt we'll see as much as we did on earlier anniversaries. I still have some of the "As It Happened" rebroadcasts of all the NBC coverage on VHS from what must have been the 25th or 30th anniversaries.

 

[Greg Goodfellow]

I am in my upper 60s, and definitely remember some of the coverage during that time.

 

[davideduardo]

At this point, anyone with any living memory of the day is at least 70 and more likely 75+.

Yes, I am in the "plus" group. I was on the board at WCUY in Cleveland and got the ABC news alert. I was alone at the station, and made the decision to cut to the network. My boss arrived soon after, and I ran down the block to a record store to borrow some classical music to play between reports.

My earliest radio memories were the Cuban missile crisis, where I listened to Radio Swan supporting the invasion, Alan Shepard's space shot in '61 and convincing my teacher in 1957 to let us hear the coverage of the first Sputnik.

 

[TheBigA]

It's interesting from the point of view of broadcast history because the medium of television was so new at the time. The networks, radio and TV, were mainly in live mode from the shooting on Friday, to the memorial on Saturday, to the Oswald shooting Sunday morning, and the funeral on Monday. All of that footage, both audio & video, has been documented and archived. There is barely a moment that hasn't been studied. But every time an anniversary happens, it's worth revisiting for all of the great work that broadcasters did that weekend. Not just for people who were alive at the time, but for the millions more who weren't.

 

[seatownmedia]

I guess that was my point. This event changed everything with TV news. As the 60's moved on, cameras were turned on everywhere at any somewhat significant event. I guess we can credit Lee Harvey Oswald for this in a sad way. I had just turned 4 years old, so I don't pretend to remember much of it. But I do recall a period somewhere around this time when my parents were watching TV and being quite upset. By the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy deaths in '68, I definitely knew what was happening.

 

[Mark Roberts]

At this point, anyone with any living memory of the day is at least 70 and more likely 75+.

It doesn't mean there won't be a few specials here and there, but I doubt we'll see as much as we did on earlier anniversaries. I still have some of the "As It Happened" rebroadcasts of all the NBC coverage on VHS from what must have been the 25th or 30th anniversaries.

Scott, don't make me any older than I already am! I remember being ushered into the school library to watch the TV and the NBC coverage on our local station (KOMU). I also remember all the adults in my life being as upset as I had ever seen them.

Probably more relevant to any coverage there would be in November is the general fragmentation of outlets. Personally, I hope someone runs the NBC coverage as it happened. A&E did this in 1993, as I recall. It definitely retriggered some memories.

 

[davideduardo]

The memories of electronic media coverage of the Kennedy assassination suggest a subject of "What is your first memory of hearing a news event on radio? What was your age, where were you, what was the news event, and what station on radio or network on TV did you hear it on.

I am placing this on the "National" board

 

[tvnut]

At this point, anyone with any living memory of the day is at least 70 and more likely 75+.

It doesn't mean there won't be a few specials here and there, but I doubt we'll see as much as we did on earlier anniversaries. I still have some of the "As It Happened" rebroadcasts of all the NBC coverage on VHS from what must have been the 25th or 30th anniversaries.

Not yet near 70. I was in second grade, home from school for lunch hour – you could do that when you lived next door – when WGN-TV broke into "Bozo's Circus" with the first bulletin. Told my mom, who was paying the oil man (we had an oil-fired furnace then), then ran back to school and started telling older kids, some of whom didn't believe me until another kid did the same thing. My entrance into the news business, where I remain. Every classroom had an old TV for televised lessons from the local NET station so we watched either CBS or NBC until the death was confirmed. (I've seen all three networks' coverage since and can guarantee we weren't watching ABC.) Then the teacher wanted us to do schoolwork. Good luck with that.

 

[ercjncpr]

At this point, anyone with any living memory of the day is at least 70 and more likely 75+.

It doesn't mean there won't be a few specials here and there, but I doubt we'll see as much as we did on earlier anniversaries. I still have some of the "As It Happened" rebroadcasts of all the NBC coverage on VHS from what must have been the 25th or 30th anniversaries.

I will be 67 in August and was 7 years old at the time but have several strong memories of that weekend

 

[anotherguyTN]

President Kennedy's assassination for me as well. I was in the second grade and the school brought everyone in the gym to watch the news.

 

[seatownmedia]

Yes, agreed about the remembering of this. I was exactly 4 years old and 4 months when the Kennedy assasination took place. How could anyone that age understatnd what was happening? But within a few years it became real to my young self. As I may have posted earlier, the Robert Kennedy and MLK killings were more memorable, about 5 years later. But even then at almost 10 years old I really didn't understand it.. It wasn't until Viet Nam and Watergate that I began to understand the corruption and violence that had surrounded my childhood. But somehow I survived and am now a "senior" citizen, whatever that means. Don't feel like that definition quite yet!

 

[KeithE4]

At this point, anyone with any living memory of the day is at least 70 and more likely 75+.

I'm 67 and remember it quite well.

It doesn't mean there won't be a few specials here and there, but I doubt we'll see as much as we did on earlier anniversaries. I still have some of the "As It Happened" rebroadcasts of all the NBC coverage on VHS from what must have been the 25th or 30th anniversaries.

But it was too long ago for 75% (or more) of the TV audience of 2023. You might as well be talking about FDR's death at the end of World War II: Ancient history. I can see the surviving tapes of live coverage that still exist being on YouTube, but beyond that I don't see a lot of coverage other than mentions on November 22 newscasts.

 

[Cordelia Chase]

Not that this is a contest, but us "younger" folks on this board have our own landmark tragedies to commemorate: I remember being quite upset about the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, the Gulf War and, of course, 9/11. As the years progress, we will have our turn to lament diminishing coverage of events that, while etched into our brains, don't hit quite so hard for our kids.

Sadly the cycle will continue as future generations experience their own tragedies...

 

[secondchoice]

I saw an interview of Walter Cronkite and he said there were no cameras on when the first reports came in. Being tube based it took a few minutes to get them warmed up. He did "radio" until the cameras were ready. After that he said CBS news always had a camera warmed up at all times.

Of course the solid state ic chip cameras now should be ready in a New York Minute unless the is some Microsoft software is somewhere in the chain doing an update.

I do remember my teacher crying. I never saw an adult cry before then.

 

[JeeperOne]

November 22nd, 1963. I have already seen some cable channels doing previews of this. Should be a milestone TV event as we get closer to the date. And perhaps one of the last milestone events as the population ages out. What is so interesnting is that this was one of the first big TV events that anyone born before 1958 remembers. I am sure it will decline in interest as most who remember it will eventually die off. But I still find it an intrigueing event for television. The start of what would become a much heavier live presence in the medium. TV history was made with this event.

Better add another 8 ro 10 years as I don't think ANYONE has any REAL memory of the JFK Assassination unless they were born in or before 1950

I use ny own life experience as an example. I was born in 1966. While I remember Nixon's resignation, I have NO memory of Watergate itself. All I knew is that it was a bunch of politicians holding hearings every day like what you see now. I had NO idea what it was about (Nor did I care because I was just an 8 year old kid)

The first such memory I had went as fast as it came. That was the assassination attempt of President Reagan in 1981. I was about 14 years old then & heard some buzz about it as school was letting out for the day. I was on the school bus & one of the school attendants came out to tell the driver something. Thinking nothing of it, I shrugged it off as that - Nothing

Then a soft buzz was going around the bus that Reagan had possibly been shot (Something both ABC & CNN (Perhaps wisely) went to GREAT LENGTHS to try to avoid reporting as fact even though things weren't adding up)

When I got home, my Dad (A Disabled veteran unable to work) had ABC (KUSA 9) on the TV & for the rest of that night, we all sat & watched Frank Reynolds & Ted Koppel report the story

My next memorable event was the Challenger disaster (Which I've already gone into elsewhere)

 

[JeeperOne]

I guess that was my point. This event changed everything with TV news. As the 60's moved on, cameras were turned on everywhere at any somewhat significant event. I guess we can credit Lee Harvey Oswald for this in a sad way. I had just turned 4 years old, so I don't pretend to remember much of it. But I do recall a period somewhere around this time when my parents were watching TV and being quite upset. By the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy deaths in '68, I definitely knew what was happening.

Although I have no memory of ANYTHING before Watergate (And VERY LITTLE of that), it was once said ABC never really left the air. The credits were rolling & the music was playing as they were GOING OFF the air but they both stopped, what happened next surprised EVERYBODY

Howard K. Smith coming back on camera to break the news

And the rest as they say is history

 

[JeeperOne]

Probably more relevant to any coverage there would be in November is the general fragmentation of outlets. Personally, I hope someone runs the NBC coverage as it happened. A&E did this in 1993, as I recall. It definitely retriggered some memories.

KBDI 12 (PBS) also did this for 6+ hours UNINTERRUPTED one night as part of the Pledge drive there were doing & offered it as a Donation prize. Although I didn't get NBC's coverage of the JFK Assassination as I should've (Yes I kick myself as David Von Pein probably has ALL of it on his YouTube channel), I DID however get ABC's coverage of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing (Another event I don't have any real memory of when it happened) the very next near as it was the 20th (??) Anniversary of THAT event (I wasn't about to make THE SAME MISTAKE twice lol)

 

[JeeperOne]

The memories of electronic media coverage of the Kennedy assassination suggest a subject of "What is your first memory of hearing a news event on radio? What was your age, where were you, what was the news event, and what station on radio or network on TV did you hear it on.

I am placing this on the "National" board

Well, NBC's Bill Ryan (After remembering where he was & all that when he first got wind of FDR's Death) DID say that it would be something you remember for as long as you live

And just what of us WITH memories are doing with those of us with vague to NO memory of it are doing?? lol

 

[JeeperOne]

I'm 67 and remember it quite well.

But it was too long ago for 75% (or more) of the TV audience of 2023. You might as well be talking about FDR's death at the end of World War II: Ancient history. I can see the surviving tapes of live coverage that still exist being on YouTube, but beyond that I don't see a lot of coverage other than mentions on November 22 newscasts.

And I can't see either network using their Smart TV apps either unless they add a special section for Breaking News & other events like their affiliates & O&O's have on their Smart TV apps so those are out as well