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Alaska & Hawaii TV on 11/22/63

R

Rob Jason

Guest
Hope I'm not repeating a thread...But in the days before satellite, when network programming was shipped via air to Alaska and Hawaii, what did stations in those states do the day JFK was assassinated?

They couldn't have carried the breaking news coverage, which was all live. Was any of that carried on a delay? Did they go non-commercial, like the mainland, for those 3.5 days? Did they suspend regular programming? Anyone know?
 
Rob Jason said:
Hope I'm not repeating a thread...But in the days before satellite, when network programming was shipped via air to Alaska and Hawaii, what did stations in those states do the day JFK was assassinated?

They couldn't have carried the breaking news coverage, which was all live. Was any of that carried on a delay? Did they go non-commercial, like the mainland, for those 3.5 days? Did they suspend regular programming? Anyone know?
Click to expand...

Maybe they carried some coverage via phone lines/underwater cable.
 
...interesting question. All Hawaii would have had available to it would be radio. I'm wondering if Alaska would have had some arrangement with the CBC to feed live news bulletins to KINY/8 Juneau, which could then have fed to Anchorage. I know that when President Reagan was shot, CBC carried CBS that afternoon; I assume, since they had a live link to CBS New York for The Ed Sullivan Show (which would play a part in the Jackie Mason "finger" incident in '64), CBS was also seen in Canada through CBC when President Kennedy was assassinated...
 
In one of those books about Gilligan's Island ( the pilot was filmed in Hawaii the same day Kennedy was shot ) I believe it was Bob Denver who mentioned that the cast had first heard the news from a radio that somebody had brought on the set but later that evening they were watching the events on a TV at their hotel. I would like to say that from what i recall reading Bob Denver, Jim Backus and Alan Hale had seen Oswald getting shot on TV in Hawaii..but was it taped or live..they didn't say.
 
Ultimajock said:
...interesting question. All Hawaii would have had available to it would be radio. I'm wondering if Alaska would have had some arrangement with the CBC to feed live news bulletins to KINY/8 Juneau, which could then have fed to Anchorage.
Click to expand...

Given the isolation of Juneau from the rest of Alaska, did Juneau have any network connection at the time. For that matter, did any Alaska city have a network connection?
 
There is a reference to this somewhere on the Net (maybe on the board) that said that Hawaii TV stations had to make do with rip-and-read wire copy until some filmed or taped footage could be flown over. In the case of either the 49th or 50th state, network radio stations would have a live link via phone lines, I would assume, so it's possible some stations may have carried a co-owned or associated radio station's audio while running stills of wirephotos and such.

Of course, the Gilligan's cast wouldn't have seen Ruby shoot Oswald live, but I'm sure they had film or tape of it by the next day. Given the nature of the situation, they may have flown some footage over on an accelerated schedule.
 
Stanislav said:
There is a reference to this somewhere on the Net (maybe on the board) that said that Hawaii TV stations had to make do with rip-and-read wire copy until some filmed or taped footage could be flown over. In the case of either the 49th or 50th state, network radio stations would have a live link via phone lines, I would assume, so it's possible some stations may have carried a co-owned or associated radio station's audio while running stills of wirephotos and such.

Of course, the Gilligan's cast wouldn't have seen Ruby shoot Oswald live, but I'm sure they had film or tape of it by the next day. Given the nature of the situation, they may have flown some footage over on an accelerated schedule.
Click to expand...

When I went to Hawaii the first time in the early 70s all the network shows were a week late on videotape.
I'm guessing that they could've had a live radio feed via a phone line at best during the Kennedy shooting.
 
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