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JFK assassination omnibus thread

Some folks at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, Illinois had planned on showing a recording of NBC's programming about the assassination to visitors of the museum tomorrow (the anniversary of the assassination) from 12:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. (Central times) without charging them for admission.
 
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bpatrick said:
As I think I mentioned earlier, the Cowboys were in Cleveland to play the Browns on Nov. 24, and the PA announcer ended up identifying the Dallas team simply as the Cowboys; the mention of the word "Dallas" caused the Cleveland fans to boo.

Side note: I think the Cowboys really became "America's team" in the era when Roger Staubach was quarterback. It used to be almost a joke at CBS (when it had the NFC) that if stuck for a nationally-televised game on Sunday, "When in doubt. give 'em Dallas." (The Cowboys didn't hurt "60 Minutes" in Dallas, either; during the fall the Cowboys and "60 Minutes" would rank 1-2 in the local ratings, before "60 Minutes hit No. 1 nationally; "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley" were next, and most of the local top 10 in the late '70s consisted of ABC shows--Dallas/Ft. Worth viewers' preferences did, and I guess still do, pretty much reflect the national top 10.)

The local churches had a standing rule: if the Cowboys had a home game at 12 N (CT), the services had to end early so people could get to the stadium (or home) to watch the game; I never recall Ch. 4 blacking out a Cowboys game.

Ch. 4, now a Fox o&o, still has the Cowboys; I suppose CBS o&o KTVT/11 has the Houston Texans.
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KTVT actually goes out of the way to avoid airing the Texans.
 
To continue along the lines of what B.D. Sullivan posted (too long to quote here), the CBS evening news (whatever it was called at the time) had planned to do a light segment on some up-and-coming British group named the Beatles, on the evening of November 22nd. It had aired that morning on whatever passed for a CBS morning show at the time.

As it was, that segment did not air on the evening news on November 22nd, but instead aired on the evening of December 10th. That evening, a 15-year-old girl watching the news in Washington, DC, saw that segment and called her local radio station (WWDC) and asked the dj something to the effect of "why can't we have that music here?" Since djs could apparently be more responsive to their listeners back then, the dj actually tracked down a British 45 of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" from a flight attendant, and played it on his show. He made copies of it for his dj friends in St. Louis and Chicago, helping to break Beatlemania there as well.

This is about the only connection that I have ever been able to make, connecting the assassination of JFK with the arrival of the Beatles.
 
(All times below apply to the Central time zone)

As of this writing, C-SPAN is broadcasting a recording of NBC's programming about the assassination from November 22nd, 1963 (they had planned on broadcasting the recording for one hour and 53 minutes starting at 9:06 a.m., according to their official World Wide Web site). They may broadcast the same recording again later today starting at 7:00 p.m., according to their official World Wide Web site.

(Update for 11:36 a.m.: C-SPAN stopped broadcasting the recording at 11:09 a.m. It was actually broadcast for two hours and one minute, according to their World Wide Web site).

firepoint525 said:
To continue along the lines of what B.D. Sullivan posted (too long to quote here), the CBS evening news (whatever it was called at the time) had planned to do a light segment on some up-and-coming British group named the Beatles, on the evening of November 22nd. It had aired that morning on whatever passed for a CBS morning show at the time.
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The evening news program was indeed called "The CBS Evening News" in 1963 and the morning news program was called "The CBS Morning News" back then also.
 
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I recall that on the 25th anniversary of the assassination, November 22, 1988, A&E (I think it was), started airing CBS footage at 12:30 p.m. central time, allowing me to relive, in real time, coverage of the assassination as it had happened exactly 25 years earlier. That was about as close as I ever came to actually "being there" for the actual event, as I was born a week after the assassination. So, yes, it sort of feels like it has followed me all of my life. I was born in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, and on the eve of the Beatles landing here.
 
firepoint525 said:
I recall that on the 25th anniversary of the assassination, November 22, 1988, A&E (I think it was), started airing CBS footage at 12:30 p.m. central time, allowing me to relive, in real time, coverage of the assassination as it had happened exactly 25 years earlier. That was about as close as I ever came to actually "being there" for the actual event, as I was born a week after the assassination. So, yes, it sort of feels like it has followed me all of my life. I was born in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, and on the eve of the Beatles landing here.
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Actually, it was NBC coverage.
 
firepoint525 said:
So here I was, focusing on what network was carrying the coverage, not on which network's coverage that that network was carrying.
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It was fascinating coverage to watch, though, and A&E deserved major props for giving us the "As It Happened" coverage in such depth, allowing us to understand the coverage in context rather than the isolated snippets we'd gotten so often in the past.

As an aside, in my interview of Marc Ryan, he told me that when A&E reran that coverage it was the first time his father, NBC newsman Bill Ryan, had ever seen the footage. He was, of course, in that footage when it was originally shown, and had never seen a replay.
 
I have a tape that has the "Four Days in November" CBS special, which was taped in 1988 on the 25th anniversary, with Dan Rather hosting. It's very cool footage since they showed loads of clips of Walter Cronkite and his excellent CBS coverage that day. RIP Walter and RIP to JFK!

-crainbeb
 
Does anyone know of any TV or radio stations that did their own coverage of the assassination weekend? I know from "Broadcasting" magazine that CBS offered the TV feed to any independent station that wanted it (WGN was one that took it up).
 
(all times below apply to the Central time zone)

C-SPAN3 was set to broadcast a recording of NBC's programming about the funeral of John Fitzgerald Kennedy from November 25th, 1963, tomorrow from 5:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. and again from 11:01 p.m. until 5:01 a.m. the next day. C-SPAN2 would broadcast the same programming later that day from 7:30 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. the next day.
 
nomadcowatbk said:
KTVT actually goes out of the way to avoid airing the Texans.
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They had aired them fairly regularly the last couple years before they remembered they were a pro football team playing in Houston and went back to performing as such.

When the Texans are bad, KTVT will air the "A" game or a game featuring an NFC East team.
 
Firepoint noted: said:
I recall that on the 25th anniversary of the assassination, November 22, 1988, A&E (I think it was), started airing NBC footage at 12:30 p.m. central time, allowing me to relive, in real time, coverage of the assassination as it had happened exactly 25 years earlier.
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The presentation actually began at 12:55 P.M. CST (1:55 EST), and began with a brief, minute-long introduction by NBC newsman Edwin Newman (who anchored NBC Radio's coverage in those early hours and also did a couple of essays on NBC-TV that evening).

At 12:56 CST, A&E began rebroadcasting the NBC footage starting at the point where the studio cameras had finished warming-up and viewers were able to see, as well as hear, Chet Huntley, Frank McGee, and Bill Ryan. It began with Ryan saying "Thank You, Frank" to McGee; I suspect McGee had mentioned that the cameras had finished warming up and that henceforth, the there anchors would be shown on-camera.

A&E carried the footage in real-time until 5:30 CST (6:30 EST), shortly after new President Lyndon Johnson, the casket carrying the late President John Kennedy, and others had arrived at Andrews Air Base. From 5:30 to 7 CST (6:30 to 8 EST), A&E rebroadcast excerpts of NBC's coverage from 5:30 P.M. to 12 Midnight CST (6:30 P.M. to 1 A.M. EST).
 
firepoint525 said:
I recall that on the 25th anniversary of the assassination, November 22, 1988, A&E (I think it was), started airing CBS footage at 12:30 p.m. central time, allowing me to relive, in real time, coverage of the assassination as it had happened exactly 25 years earlier. That was about as close as I ever came to actually "being there" for the actual event, as I was born a week after the assassination. So, yes, it sort of feels like it has followed me all of my life. I was born in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, and on the eve of the Beatles landing here.
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BD Sullivan said:
Actually, it was NBC coverage.
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...A&E was co-owned by ABC, Hearst and NBC at the time (the channel being a merger of ABC/Hearst's ARTS and NBC's The Entertainment Channel). NBC has since sold its stake in the operation to ABC and Hearst...
 
Mitchell H said:
As an aside, in my interview of Marc Ryan, he told me that when A&E reran that coverage it was the first time his father, NBC newsman Bill Ryan, had ever seen the footage. He was, of course, in that footage when it was originally shown, and had never seen a replay.
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...Bill Ryan was the local news anchor on WNBC-TV/4 New York at the time of the assassination. He later anchored some of NBC Radio's coverage of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination. Did Marc Ryan explain to you, by any chance, why his father's profile on the TV network didn't increase after JFK? I believe he did a vastly better job than Huntley, McGee, Merrill Muller or Martin Agronsky in those early hours after the assassination, and certainly he'd have merited more face time on NBC as a result...
 
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