ABC TV INITIAL COVERAGE OF JFK ASSASINATION (NOT WFAA)

[Steve Eberhart]

I have seen the ABC affiliate WFAA Dallas coverage of the assasination many times, but this is the first time I've ever seen the actual ABC TV Network coverage that was being sent out nationwide to other cities...some did include WFAA's coverage but the first two segments are amazing in how showing how unprepared for something like this they were! Can anyone recognize the first man on camera before he hands it off to Ron Cochran? (Ron was the lead anchor on the evening news at the time)

Notice how the guy is standing in a studio holding his mic while stage hands are assembling lighting and a backdrop ... would love to hear the story on what the heck was going on. I can only guess that this was the only studio with a hot camera and they went there and threw it on the air. (in those days it took about 15 minutes for a camera to warm up and be able to broadcast)
here is the first link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDQrp3sllHo


pretty wild...

and the second:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEh4xr6NIIU&NR=1

 

[Horns]

Thanks Steve. Crazy how long it took them to come back to coverage after the first bulletin. And to go back to regular programming and commercials.

 

[newsmark]

Those are great links... and will link you to some related links.

Back in '88, for the 25th anniversary, A&E ran NBC's coverage minute-by-minute, even starting a few minutes late because no one at NBC had thought to roll a tape for the first few minutes.

As far as being ready, I understand Walter Cronkite had to read over a slide for quite a while while they waited for the camera to warm up.

I found another related clip with Don Pardo reading the first bulletin on NBC, presumably over a slide. (Someone had made an audio recording, and someone put it on YouTube with an NBC slide.)

It's fascinating to see how this played out on the air. They were just figuring out how to do it as they went along. look at the 9-11 coverage on YouTube to see the contrast.

 

[thunderradio]

Walter did indeed read over a card that said in Black and White "CBS BULLETIN" in various tones of white to gray into a fade. He interupted " As The World Turns" twice, finally it was just acard , no voice for 90 seconds then he spoke again, silence for another 20, then he comes on the screen.

 

[newsmark]

Thanks, Thunder. I don't know you, so I gotta ask... were you watching?

I was "in progress" at the time, not born 'til July '64, so I missed it all. It's fascinating to me to watch how this developed on the air.

One interesting thing from the A&E coverage I mentioned: NBC's coverage was all in black and white until they switched to WBAP-TV. The first couple of reports from Channel 5 were in color.

 

[stevezodiac]

Steve, thank you for this. ABC was actually having a harder time getting it all together than WFAA.
In part 3, it's interesting to note that Eddie Barker of KRLD (CBS) was doing local pool coverage, and was the first to announce (on ABC)that JFK had died.

 

[Steve Eberhart]

Bill Lord, one of the ABC reporters in Dallas that day told me last week that the first man on camera for ABC TV was Don Gardner and the crude broadcast was initially coming out of the basement of studio's at ABC TV headquarters. The normal News Desk set and studio was a few streets away and unmanned at the time so this is all they could get on the air in short order.
Interesting nonetheless.
It amazes me that the networks were so caught unprepared for this even back then, but like many things, who'd a thunk it?!

 

[stevezodiac]

Bill Lord, one of the ABC reporters in Dallas that day told me last week that the first man on camera for ABC TV was Don Gardner and the crude broadcast was initially coming out of the basement of studio's at ABC TV headquarters. The normal News Desk set and studio was a few streets away and unmanned at the time so this is all they could get on the air in short order.
Interesting nonetheless.
It amazes me that the networks were so caught unprepared for this even back then, but like many things, who'd a thunk it?!

Bill Lord should write a book (or a blog) about those days.

The way the networks and the stations scrambled to get on the air with the technology of the day, really fascinates me. It looks like it took ABC about 40 minutes or so, to get WFAA hooked in to the network, I'm guessing reversing the circuits or making a new circuit? Also, is the ABC footage from tape or Kinescope?

It's a shame too, that there are no videotapes (yet found ) of KRLD-TV, WBAP-TV, or even KTVT.

 

[newsmark]

The way the networks and the stations scrambled to get on the air with the technology of the day, really fascinates me. It looks like it took ABC about 40 minutes or so, to get WFAA hooked in to the network, I'm guessing reversing the circuits or making a new circuit?

It might depend on how many circuits AT&T and Western Union had outbound from Dallas. There might have been only 1 or 2 lines, meaning the first two networks to make the call got the lines. Since there were no satellites back then, capacity was really limited.

 

[ChuckTiller]

What became of ABC anchor, Ron Cochran? He was replaced by a very young Peter Jennings just a few years later. Where did his career take him after his stint at a very young ABC News?

 

[Gary Mack]

All surviving original Dallas-Fort Worth video tapes of Kennedy assassination coverage are secure at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Three of the four commercial stations (WFAA, KRLD/KDFW and KTVT) donated them back in the 90s. All 60+ hours have been remastered directly to DigiBeta tape and they will be further backed up and archived. The donations include hours of news film and the original KRLD and WFAA radio tapes. WBAP/KXAS still owns its tapes, though they, too, are in storage at the Museum.

A four-hour History Channel special this coming Sunday and Monday includes many clips from those tapes, which were upconverted to HD from first generation copies of the Museum's preservation masters.

GM

 

[bpatrick]

What became of ABC anchor, Ron Cochran? He was replaced by a very young Peter Jennings just a few years later. Where did his career take him after his stint at a very young ABC News?

He started a production company, Ron Cochran Enterprises, and also worked as co-anchor at KGO
San Francisco with Roger Grimsby before Grimsby went to WABC. He died in 1994 of a heart attack, age 81.

 

[stevezodiac]

All surviving original Dallas-Fort Worth video tapes of Kennedy assassination coverage are secure at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Three of the four commercial stations (WFAA, KRLD/KDFW and KTVT) donated them back in the 90s. All 60+ hours have been remastered directly to DigiBeta tape and they will be further backed up and archived. The donations include hours of news film and the original KRLD and WFAA radio tapes. WBAP/KXAS still owns its tapes, though they, too, are in storage at the Museum.

GM

That's great news, Mr. Mack. I didn't realize there was any saved tapes from KRLD, except for the CBS cutaways to Dallas we've all seen. Do the KTVT clips include Dave Naugle or just footage from the remotes? I haven't been the museum in 8 or 9 years. Are these clips being shown? Thanks.

 

[Gary Mack]

All surviving original Dallas-Fort Worth video tapes of Kennedy assassination coverage are secure at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Three of the four commercial stations (WFAA, KRLD/KDFW and KTVT) donated them back in the 90s. All 60+ hours have been remastered directly to DigiBeta tape and they will be further backed up and archived. The donations include hours of news film and the original KRLD and WFAA radio tapes. WBAP/KXAS still owns its tapes, though they, too, are in storage at the Museum.

GM

That's great news, Mr. Mack. I didn't realize there was any saved tapes from KRLD, except for the CBS cutaways to Dallas we've all seen. Do the KTVT clips include Dave Naugle or just footage from the remotes? I haven't been the museum in 8 or 9 years. Are these clips being shown? Thanks.

Former KTVT news director Dave Naugle does not appear on the tapes, but one of the films includes a long interview he conducted with Oswald's mother, Marguerite, in her east Fort Worth home. The KTVT tapes include JFK speaking in Fort Worth that morning, Governor Connally's press secretary at Parkland Hospital updating his condition that afternoon, and some of the NBC coverage of the Oswald shooting and Kennedy burial. Many of the Museum's videos and films appear in a two-part History Channel special airing this Sunday and Monday.

GM

 

[stevezodiac]

I hope that anyone interested in this (evolving) thread, had the chance to watch the aforementioned special on History Channel HD. It looked great, especially in HD.

It was well edited also. It included lots of set-up and behind the scene footage. In one instance, there's 30 or 40 seconds of tape rolling as they dolly the KRLD camera (in a sparsely populated area) of the police building, from one room, to the outside, and back into the building, passing by people just walking in to the building until the camera gets to it's spot. It was genius to include that footage, that usually would wind up on the cutting room floor.

Thanks for the tip Mr. Mack.

 

[Gary Mack]

Folks wanting to see more 2" tape from WFAA, KTVT, KRLD (KDFW) and WBAP (KXAS) Kennedy assassination coverage should watch National Geographic Channel's upcoming The Lost JFK Tapes: The Assassination. More than 95% of the two hour special comes from The Sixth Floor Musuem's collection, supplemented with a few home movies and some network coverage. The show airs Monday, 11/23, 8-10pm CST.

GM

 

[bpatrick]

I watched that and am giving extra credit to any of my
students who watched it. There's extensive footage from
WFAA, and I noticed that whenever there was a lull in Ch. 8's
coverage (for example, no in-studio interviews), Jay Watson
would send it back to ABC; the special shows him doing that
at least once, because he says something like "let's go back
to the network" and we see Ron Cochran.

Don Gardiner, by the way, was first on the air (on ABC Radio)
with the report that shots had been fired at JFK's motorcade;
he reported this at 1:36 PM (ET), some four minutes before
Cronkite broke into "As The World Turns."

 

[ka3zci]

I have a small collection of radio coverage of the JFK assassination and was planning to purchase some from Old Time Radio on MP3. Unfortunately, the owner is no longer able to offer those recordings. Are there any sources that offer a good collection of radio-TV coverage? Where else can I find what is available to the public?

 

[Steve Eberhart]

Gary also has a copy of the KLIF coverage from that day which I donated to the Museum several years ago.
Not the "Fateful Hours", but the entire unedited KLIF aircheck from 11:30 a.m. till well into the evening.

 

[Steve Eberhart]

Correction:
The initial coverage from ABC TV was first a voice over slide done by Ed Silverman at 1:42 p.m. Eastern Time, then by voice over reports from Don GODDARD (not Gardiner--Don Gardiner was on ABC RADIO, small point but significant)....
ABC TV went on air on camera with Don Goddard at 1pm...
Ron Cochran was the prime evening news anchor and was away from the building at lunch and was called in quickly and took over anchoring, literally live on the air, he basically walked into the shot and took the mic and began anchoring in a make-shift studio while set workers, not so quietly and discretely, assembled a backdrop and desk setup around him...