D
Dave
Guest
Anybody have any memories of L.A. radio (or TV) coverage of the JFK assassination?
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...at http://radio4all.net/index.php/program/37506 you can download an mp3 of my Echoes of a Century program made up of bulletins from that first hour's radio and TV across the country; one of the clips I included was KNX interrupting a broadcast of Arthur Godfrey Time for their first bulletin, about 20 seconds before CBS' first bulletin...
Dave said:
I was only 7. I remember KMPC playing very somber music, speaking in low tones, not playing commercials and doing more news than usual for about a week.
On TV, 2, 4 and 7 went all-network. Since everything centered around Dallas and Washington, we watched NBC. I have no idea how indies (then 5, 9, 11 and 13) covered the news that weekend or what else they may have aired.
michael hagerty said:
I was 11, and in school when the assassination happened. They made the announcement over the school's public address system, and canceled school for the rest of the day.
I don't recall watching 5, 9, 11 or 13, but I'd guess that KTLA and KTTV didn't run news coverage outside of their regular news hours - the indies didn't have access to network produced film and video like they do these days. KHJ-TV and KCOP had almost no news departments at all in those days - just a few minutes a day with some talking head reading copy into the camera. I imagine that weekend was no different than the others.
I don't think the radio was ever turned on in our house during that weekend. Most Americans were glued to the TV. My parents were CBS (Cronkite watchers), so we watched CBS (KNXT 2) all weekend. I do recall feeling a little cheated because NBC viewers saw the assassination of Oswald by Jack Ruby live. CBS was not covering the Dallas PD at that moment.
I would assume radio network coverage was all about the assassination 24/7, and the music stations played somber funereal music without DJs all weekend - regardless of their format, with news programming at the regular intervals, as required by the FCC in those days.
Well, I was 11 in Jersey--and-I can tell you lots about both
radio-and-TV that weekend.
First of all while I have heard rumors
of some Southern stations continuing
the rock-and-roll, the only place
I even heard 1 rock record was on a
Canadian station.
WMCA-and-WINS kept their usual DJS, but programming
was quite different.
NBC-Radio Network was on 7-AM til 11PM Eastern.
WOR was lots of talk/news, some quiet music.
ABC-Radio was on 6-AM til 2-AM.
WCBS was choir music, along with Network
WHN ran some Mutual, but toned down their
beautiful music even more, still played jingles.
Soul stations like WWRL went gospil.
ON TV our channel 5 WNEW ran ABC-TV
all weekend, even when WABC-TV was in local.
Indies 9-and-11 jumped around among the
Networks, while our new educational 13 WNDT
jumped around among 2, 4, and 7--and said so.
While we all know the NFL played that Sunday, WNEW ran a replay
of the Giants game commercial free
later that week.
radio-and-TV that weekend.
First of all while I have heard rumors
of some Southern stations continuing
the rock-and-roll, the only place
I even heard 1 rock record was on a
Canadian station.
WMCA-and-WINS kept their usual DJS, but programming
was quite different.
NBC-Radio Network was on 7-AM til 11PM Eastern.
WOR was lots of talk/news, some quiet music.
ABC-Radio was on 6-AM til 2-AM.
WCBS was choir music, along with Network
WHN ran some Mutual, but toned down their
beautiful music even more, still played jingles.
Soul stations like WWRL went gospil.
ON TV our channel 5 WNEW ran ABC-TV
all weekend, even when WABC-TV was in local.
Indies 9-and-11 jumped around among the
Networks, while our new educational 13 WNDT
jumped around among 2, 4, and 7--and said so.
While we all know the NFL played that Sunday, WNEW ran a replay
of the Giants game commercial free
later that week.
Lkeller said:
Llew: I'd be astonished if that were true. KTLA probably found a way to go all-news with local reaction. KTTV had just been bought by Metromedia, which had a sister station in D.C. They probably arranged a phone line video feed.
KHJ had WOR on the East Coast...they could have done the same thing. If KCOP couldn't do news, they probably put up a slide and played music, like many cable stations did on 9/11.
It would have been unthinkable to just air Lloyd Thaxton as if nothing had happened.
Four and a half years later, network stations and indies alike went wall-to-wall on the RFK asassination, which was a local story too.
I was 13 at the time and living in San Bernardino. I remember that both Channel 13 and SB's Channel 18, then known as KCHU-TV, hooked up with ABC for live coverage during that weekend. I'm guessing that other independents hooked up with a network for their live coverage.
During the funeral procession, I can remember flipping through all the channels and seeing virtually the same picture on all seven VHF stations.
I find it somewhat amazing that all these years later, those of us who were alive when this happened can still talk about it like it happened last month. We all can remember where we were when we heard the news, and events related to our lives that weekend.
It was perhaps the most astonishing event in the history of the media. It's been said that electronic news came of age that weekend.
During the funeral procession, I can remember flipping through all the channels and seeing virtually the same picture on all seven VHF stations.
I find it somewhat amazing that all these years later, those of us who were alive when this happened can still talk about it like it happened last month. We all can remember where we were when we heard the news, and events related to our lives that weekend.
It was perhaps the most astonishing event in the history of the media. It's been said that electronic news came of age that weekend.
michael hagerty said:
Michael - I didn't say LA indies ran regular programming (Lloyd Thaxton, etc.) - I said that they normally didn't have access to national news feeds - even KTTV (Metromedia or not) ran very little film or tape during newscasts that wasn't locally produced. Only KTTV and KTLA had news departments of any size. I recall that even a couple of years later, their national and international news coverage - like of the Vietnam War, for instance - would be days-old silent footage (no sound) of the fighting, with George Putnam or Alex Dreier providing the narration in studio - no reporters. KHJ-TV and KCOP had announcers that read news headlines on camera, but that was about it. I don't recall that they had field reporters for even local stories.
So I guess I assumed that the indies just ran somber public service stuff, or funereal music all weekend.
But Chime (above) said that the indies in NY/NJ were able to plug into the Big 3 networks for that very sad weekend, so that's probably what happened in LA. Like I said, my parents were CBS people, so if our TV dial ever left KNXT 2 that weekend, it was only briefly, and I don't remember it.
According to KTLA's Stan Chambers' book "News At Ten," Mr. Chambers was on the air at KTLA and was the one to announce the shocking death of President Kennedy. Mr. Chambers goes on to say shortly after the announcement KTLA feed into "various network feeds."
I wonder if somebody somewhere has footage of that?
I wonder if somebody somewhere has footage of that?
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