Podrazik and Castleman also wrote Watching TV, which I bought at a used book store and had for a while before donating my copy to the semiannual used book sale at my local public library, and two great Beatles discographies, All Together Now and The Beatles Again?!.And closer to the topic, why did NBC tell WFAA to switch from color to B&W on 11/22/63? Jealousy from affiliates that totally lacked color capability? ixnaybpatrick said:
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More Questions Re: JFK Assassination Coverage 11/22/63
- Thread starter Stanislav
- Start date
I don't know that any "jealousy" was involved. I always figured that NBC probably thought the switching back and forth from color to B&W may have looked odd, and might even caused some color TV owners to think something was wrong with their sets. NBC was still doing all their news coverage in B&W (I think it was a couple years later when they started doing news in color), so they probably just asked WBAP to either switch cameras or drop the colorburst in their signal for the sake of consistency.ixnay said:
...Gumbel introduced Rather literally as the first collapse was being shown live (and it took Rather five minutes to report that the collapse had taken place). I have the DVD/book that CBS News put out about 9/11, WHAT WE SAW, and from what's on that DVD Gumbel did such a horrible job that CBS should have pulled him off the story and went to WCBS-TV's local coverage. I happened to have my Dish Network receiver (in my bedroom) up and tuned to WPIX-TV New York when the first plane hit (I'd fallen asleep during the previous overnight's "Odd Couple" rerun) and when I awoke and saw the DN "technical difficulties" screen, I switched over to KTLA Los Angeles, where the coverage was being anchored in L.A. by Emmett Miller and Gayle Anderson. After about fifteen minutes, Anderson left and Carlos Amezcua took her seat. As soon as I saw what the hell was going on, I put a blank tape in the VCR and hit the "record" button. Amezcua, Miller and Anderson were able to figure out in a Los Angeles TV studio what Gumbel couldn't from a few dozen blocks away...Stanislav said:On 9/11, the networks were in the middle of their morning shows. ABC's GMA duo Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer covered the initial attacks on the WTC, but Peter Jennings got on the air pretty quickly, certainly within the first hour. (He was on before the first tower collapse and before the Pentagon attack). I don't recall when Dan Rather got on the air, but I'm sure CBS would much rather have Rather (no pun intended) cover such a huge story than Bryant Gumbel.
An earlier post read: Which reminds me.....if memory serves, the reason WFAA (and, by extension, ABC) missed out on live or taped coverage of Ruby shooting Oswald was that they had chosen to stage their mobile unit at the County Jail -- i.e. at the OTHER end of the aborted transfer -- while KRLD and WBAP were at Dallas Police HQ. Can anyone confirm or deny that? In fact the reason that ABC had no live camera at the city jail was that the ABC network asked WFAA to broadcast a church service that morning from Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, which is what they were doing at the moment Oswald was shot. And while on the subject of Ruby and Oswald.....I know that Tom Pettit was the NBC reporter on scene for that incident. Who was the KRLD/CBS reporter? (I have a feeling it was Eddie Barker -- was that his name? -- the KRLD guy who had been reporting from the Trade Mart the day of the assassination.) I've seen the CBS footage of the shooting, and he is the guy who kept misstating Oswald's name as "Lee HAROLD Oswald." The reporter's name was Bob Huffauker.
ixnay said:
WFAA was and is an ABC affiliate; WBAP (KXAS) was and is the NBC affiliate (actually now jointly owned by NBC and Lin Broadcasting) in the Metroplex. Only CBS has changed affiliates since 1963; KRLD (KDFW) became a Fox o&o in 1994, with
CBS moving to KTVT, which is now a CBS o&o.
Regarding network alert technology: I believe in August of 1963, CBS Radio had just finished installing the "NetAlert" system, which used sub-audible tones to trigger a signaling and/or program override system.
Stations had the option to just take the signal alarm and act on their own, or allow CBS' signal to override their program line and auto-insert the network feed. Several recordings from CBS Radio affiliates on November 22nd, 1963 have the network "we interrupt this station for a CBS NetAlert message" audio because the station was in override mode (it was, of course, switchable to either or both modes).
Many co-located CBS Radio and TV stations got the first word of the events in Dallas this way, such as WHAS-TV and then co-owned WHAS-AM here in Louisville, which were both then CBS affiliates.
Stations had the option to just take the signal alarm and act on their own, or allow CBS' signal to override their program line and auto-insert the network feed. Several recordings from CBS Radio affiliates on November 22nd, 1963 have the network "we interrupt this station for a CBS NetAlert message" audio because the station was in override mode (it was, of course, switchable to either or both modes).
Many co-located CBS Radio and TV stations got the first word of the events in Dallas this way, such as WHAS-TV and then co-owned WHAS-AM here in Louisville, which were both then CBS affiliates.
...to perhaps explain ixnay's confusion, WFAA and WBAP were radio affiliates of both NBC and ABC, depending on which frequency -- 570 kHz (ABC) or 820 kHz (NBC) -- either station used at the time, due to their antiquated frequency sharing allocation...bpatrick said:
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danderson4411
Guest
i know its a old thread but during the earthquake in 94 i thought that KNBC's Chuck Henry and Colleen Williams did a better job than the network anchors who were all in New York! it was not funny! it was one of the few times the local anchors did a better job and the network anchors were left to shame the one exception was Ted Koppel on ABC
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