Another Question Regarding 11/22/63 News Coverage

[azumanga]

You know, I have always regretted that of the hundreds of books that were penned about that historic event, no one ever wrote a good, comprehensive history of how TV covered the tragedy.

The only one that came close was an issue of TV Guide from January 1964, which had an extensive article on how television handled the assassination that day.

Now I wonder how CBS handled the three soaps which aired before ATWT:
Love Of Life, Search For Tomorrow, and Guiding Light? In 1963, those shows
aired on the West Coast at (respectively) 11 AM, 11:30 AM, and 11:45 AM,
after all commercial programming had been suspended on November 22.

Good question, and one I never thought of. I suppose the options would have been:

(2) Pick up on 11/26 with the next scheduled episode, but allow the West Coast affiliates to show the taped 11/22 episodes at their discretion during non-network hours. That would be confusing, though, as schedules would not have been updated in time and many viewers wouldn't know the "missed" shows were being rebroadcast.

Considering that all three networks were at full tilt with the assassination coverage until long after Kennedy was buried, would any affiliate even have time to catch up on pre-empted programming?

 

[bhayes1016]

You know, I have always regretted that of the hundreds of books that were penned about that historic event, no one ever wrote a good, comprehensive history of how TV covered the tragedy. It was, after all, a major nexus or turning point for the medium, and brought Americans together in a manner that had never happened before. Such a book would have included behind the scenes accounts of the chaos of getting on the air with the first bulletins; the struggle to gather information, set up remote links, and make sense of it all as it was happening; personal accounts of how individual anchors and reporters were affected by the events, etc. Such a book may not have had a huge mass-market appeal, but would have been a perfect fit for one of those academic publishing houses like McFarland, etc. (And make a great required read for all broadcast journalism or production students...)

Sounds like this is what you're looking for...

http://www.amazon.com/When-News-Went-Live-Dallas/dp/1589791398/ref=sr_1_5/102-5535390-1871300?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180661684&sr=1-5

Before November 22, 1963, people depended on the morning or afternoon newspaper for their news. But once Kennedy was shot, America turned to television for up-to-the-minute reports—most of which were supplied that fatal weekend by Huffaker, Mercer, Phenix and Wise of Dallas's KRLD, a CBS affiliate. [EDIT]

And, for you wrestling fans, yes, it's THAT Bill Mercer. He was a news/sportscaster as well as a 'rassling announcer.


[EDIT-post truncated because originating material is copyprotected by Publishers Weekly. Unauthorized use of copyrighted content is in violation of Radio-Info's TOS.]

 

[ixnay]

Especially at 30 Rock. I read back in the '80s where the 1:00p ET hour was local NBC stations' property in 1963. Partly as a result, NBC didn't interrupt with the JFK coverage until 1:56p ET (12:56p CT) - 26 minutes after the shooting - due to inability or slowness to "get the network up". Technology was THAT primitive in 1963?

NBC actually did start broadcasting around 1:45 (and Don Pardo had already done a couple of audio bulletins over WNBC-TV before the whole network joined coverage), but it was another 11 minutes until they were ready to roll tape, so the coverage we have preserved starts at about 1:56.

The delay was partly technology (the era's cameras, lights, and VTRs DID all need some time to warm up and be adjusted/calibrated) combined with the fact that NBC wasn't programming at the time -- I imagine a lot of technical folks who wouldn't normally have been needed until the afternoon soaps began were probably out to lunch.

CBS, by contrast, was up and running, and taping the in-progress live broadcast of ATWT for time-zone delay, so even though the first bulletins were audio only (it would be about 15-20 minutes before the camera in the newsroom warmed up) they were both able to get something out on the air faster, and record it for posterity as well.

Being "out to lunch" at NBC might have had a bit to do with the American psyche of 1963. By 1963 it had been 62 years since the last presidential assassination. I imagine Americans by '63 had a belief that assassinations only happened in banana republics. That feeling was no doubt reinforced by JFK's standing up to Mr. K over Cuba, and his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech just the summer before he went to Dallas (and the increased security around presidents). "The leader of the free world bumped off? No way!" As I think I've said before on R-I regarding JFK, I should've been there.

ixnay

 

[ixnay]

Dan Rather phoned in an unconfirmed report that JFK was dead that
got on CBS radio; Rather has said it was the longest
wait of his life, since what if the report hadn't been
true? It was, of course, and Rather scored a "beat"
on everyone else.

Rather talked about that "beat" in his 1977 memoir The Camera Never Blinks. CBS radio even went so far as to play the SSB as soon as Rather's scoop made it to air. He admitted in TCNB[/b] that if his scoop were wrong, he'd be looking for work elsewhere.

ixnay

 

[searadiofreak]

Wow, this thread has become a treasure-trove of the media events of that fateful day. These comments, at the least, should become part of the record, and at best, included in the official history. Because, like it or not, in 25-35 years, there will be few who remember it first-hand. From a media standpoint, a fascinating subject. What better representation of how media has developed over the years?

 

[bpatrick]

God forbid! : Never mind that the leader of the free world had just been murdered in cold blood! (Hell hath no fury like a pissed-off soaps fan...)

I wonder just how many people were callous enough to call CBS
that day, complaining about ATWT being cut off in the middle of
the show. Soap fans still complain when a presidential news conference
or other breaking story pre-empts their "shows," but I wonder if it's
as common as it once was. After all, quite a few (say, in the millions)
of soap fans abandoned their shows to watch the O.J. Simpson trial
and never went back to their favorite soaps.

 

[Stanislav]

I wonder just how many people were callous enough to call CBS
that day, complaining about ATWT being cut off in the middle of
the show.

I'm sure there were a few -- hell, there were people calling to compain about 9/11 coverage pre-empting their shows.

Which makes me think of one of the more humorous moments from 11/22/63. Walter Cronkite had just been relieved for a break after about 4 hours on the air. He wandered off and, hearing one of the phones ringing and realizing that there was no one else nearby to answer, he picked it up. The woman on the other end, unaware of who had answered, proceeded to complain about that damn Walter Cronkite and his "crocodile tears" -- after all ,everyone knows he hated the Kennedys, etc., etc. Cronkite listened to her rant, then very slowly and calmy replied, "Madam, this is Walter Cronkite. And you are a goddamned idiot!!"

 

[johnnya2k6]

I want to know how CBC and CTV in Canada broke away from their programming for the Kennedy assassination.

And what about the Australian channels (Seven, Nine, ABC-TV), since it was November 23 there?

Jonathan Allen

 

[ixnay]

Dan Rather phoned in an unconfirmed report that JFK was dead that
got on CBS radio; Rather has said it was the longest
wait of his life, since what if the report hadn't been
true? It was, of course, and Rather scored a "beat"
on everyone else.

Rather talked about that "beat" in his 1977 memoir The Camera Never Blinks. CBS radio even went so far as to play the SSB as soon as Rather's scoop made it to air. He admitted in TCNB that if his scoop were wrong, he'd be looking for work elsewhere.

ixnay

Reformatted by yours truly (sorry, I was tired that night, as I am every weeknight after a hour+ commute home from a job that requires me to be on my feet all day).

ixnay

 

[Stanislav]

Dan Rather phoned in an unconfirmed report that JFK was dead that
got on CBS radio; Rather has said it was the longest
wait of his life, since what if the report hadn't been
true? It was, of course, and Rather scored a "beat"
on everyone else.

I read the book many years ago, so refresh my memory -- wasn't the situation that Rather was carrying on two conversations at once -- one on the phone to CBS, and the other either on another phone or with someone physically next to him, and that basically when CBS asked if JFK was confirmed dead, Rather was in the process of responding to something the other party said, saying "yes" and CBS thought he was answering their question and put it on the air?

 

[ercjncpr]

Dan Rather phoned in an unconfirmed report that JFK was dead that
got on CBS radio; Rather has said it was the longest
wait of his life, since what if the report hadn't been
true? It was, of course, and Rather scored a "beat"
on everyone else.

Rather talked about that "beat" in his 1977 memoir The Camera Never Blinks. CBS radio even went so far as to play the SSB as soon as Rather's scoop made it to air. He admitted in TCNB[/b] that if his scoop were wrong, he'd be looking for work elsewhere.

ixnay

according to the actual recording I have of CBS Radio's coverage, the SSB was played after Alan Jackson read the official White House confirmation of the president's death.

 

[Ultimajock]

...for whatever it's worth, a couple of years ago I did a program in my "Echoes of a CEntury" series for WLSU La Crosse incorporating a lot of both radio and television audio from that first hour of coverage; it's archived in mp3 at http://www.radio4all.net/pub/archive2/07.01.07/[email protected]/1610-1-20051116-echoesjfkassassination.mp3...

 

[LKidd]

I don't know if this had been brought up before, but at the time NBC's affiliate in the Dallas-Fort Worth market was based in Fort Worth where ABC and CBS both had stations in Dallas itself. If you saw the 1988 replay of the NBC coverage that was aired on many PBS stations, you will recall some of the difficulties of switching to Fort Worth in the early minutes of the coverage (also, some of of the feeds from WBAP were in color while the rest of the coverage was black and white)

 

[searadiofreak]

Dan Rather phoned in an unconfirmed report that JFK was dead that
got on CBS radio; Rather has said it was the longest
wait of his life, since what if the report hadn't been
true? It was, of course, and Rather scored a "beat"
on everyone else.

I read the book many years ago, so refresh my memory -- wasn't the situation that Rather was carrying on two conversations at once -- one on the phone to CBS, and the other either on another phone or with someone physically next to him, and that basically when CBS asked if JFK was confirmed dead, Rather was in the process of responding to something the other party said, saying "yes" and CBS thought he was answering their question and put it on the air?

I think this episode was on NBC with Frank Reynolds repeating a conversation over the phone confirming the injuries were fatal, because for whatever reason, they couldn't get the "source" on the line, or preferred not to. The "As It Happened" video is truely amazing as how primitive the technology was in '63. This is a great video, and from what I understand, hard to come by these days. I feel fortunate to have recorded it off A&E years ago.

 

[Ultimajock]

...NBC's correspondent in Dallas that day was Robert MacNeil. Frank Reynolds worked for ABC, not NBC, and was not the correspondent for ABC in Dallas...

 

[bpatrick]

I'm not even sure Reynolds had left WBBM in Chicago
in 1963. But I do have reason to believe Rather was
trying to carry on two telephone conversations, one
with CBS in New York; the other with Eddie Barker of
KRLD (KDFW)/4, the CBS affiliate in Dallas at the time.

 

[BobbyNBC10]

I think this episode was on NBC with Frank Reynolds repeating a conversation over the phone confirming the injuries were fatal, because for whatever reason, they couldn't get the "source" on the line, or preferred not to. The "As It Happened" video is truely amazing as how primitive the technology was in '63. This is a great video, and from what I understand, hard to come by these days. I feel fortunate to have recorded it off A&E years ago.

The NBC reporter was Frank McGee ,not Frank Reynolds who was still with WBBM-TV Chicago then,before he moved to ABC News in 1965.

 

[Ultimajock]

I think this episode was on NBC with Frank Reynolds repeating a conversation over the phone confirming the injuries were fatal, because for whatever reason, they couldn't get the "source" on the line, or preferred not to. The "As It Happened" video is truely amazing as how primitive the technology was in '63. This is a great video, and from what I understand, hard to come by these days. I feel fortunate to have recorded it off A&E years ago.

The NBC reporter was Frank McGee ,not Frank Reynolds who was still with WBBM-TV Chicago then,before he moved to ABC News in 1965.

...I'm under the impression that Reynolds had moved to ABC's Chicago station, then WBKB/7, by mid-'63 and joined the national news division two years later...

 

[searadiofreak]

I think this episode was on NBC with Frank Reynolds repeating a conversation over the phone confirming the injuries were fatal, because for whatever reason, they couldn't get the "source" on the line, or preferred not to. The "As It Happened" video is truely amazing as how primitive the technology was in '63. This is a great video, and from what I understand, hard to come by these days. I feel fortunate to have recorded it off A&E years ago.

The NBC reporter was Frank McGee ,not Frank Reynolds who was still with WBBM-TV Chicago then,before he moved to ABC News in 1965.

Yes, of course, I stand corrected. Same first name, looked alike, but Frank McGee was the NBC reporter, Reynolds ABC.
As I recall, McGee could hear the correspondent in Dallas, but they couldn't get him on the air. So McGee slowly repeated everything he was being told over the phone with pauses in between. A different TV world to be sure!

 

[Stanislav]

As I recall, McGee could hear the correspondent in Dallas, but they couldn't get him on the air. So McGee slowly repeated everything he was being told over the phone with pauses in between. A different TV world to be sure!

Well, the technology to put phone audio on the air certainly existed, but for some reason they couldn't get it together until partway through MacNeil's report about the Kilduff announcement. That led to the weird situation where, once the audio was finally up, McGee was unware of this for quite some time, and kept repeating MacNeil's sentences even though they were audible to the broadcast audience.