No Network coverage of Challenger launch 1/28/86

[Jul]

It is true that the 3 big broadcast networks did not air the launch of the space shuttle challenger live on 1/28/86, why? and did they all break into programming after the explosion. What network shows did they break into when they announced the news?

 

[clichemoth]

That is not true. ABC definitely did, for I was home sick that day and got to watch. One of the teachers at my school(knowing that there are a few other natives of Cullman, AL on these boards, I'm sure they also remember Ms. Collins) got pretty far along in the selection process, so the kids who were in school probably watched, too. Maybe it didn't run in every market. Huntsville is a space-happy town.

I also remember my mother griping because the soaps got preempted. I'm thinking the special coverage ran all the way to the regular 5 pm local newscasts.

 

[Braves2005]

The Price Is Right was pre-empted for the Challenger launch/tragedy in 1986. They pre-empted every soap opera and game show that was on all 3 networks at that time. It extended its coverage into the afternoon as well pre-empting some of the shows that was going to air during the afternoon in reruns.

Also, it was common place for the networks at that time during the 1980's to show every space shuttle launch, pre-empting mostly The Price Is Right and other shows that aired 10:00 AM Central Time.

 

[ercjncpr]

I was also home that day and our local NBC O&O (KNBC Los Angeles) was the only local station to carry the launch/explosion as it happened. The rest were on the air within 15 mins of the event

 

[RadioFanBoy]

I remember watching it on The Discovery Channel. They weren't 24 hours yet, but they carried the NASA TV feed without commentary and just graphics durning their "off" hours. The plan was to carry the launch, the "class lesson in space", and the landing.

 

[bhayes1016]

IIRC, CBS was to premiere a sitcom that night which starred Flip Wilson, in what was to be his triumphant return to TV. The premiere was bumped and the series only lasted a few episodes.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Actually, the events of the Challenger were much like Apollo 13. The launches had become routine and taken for granted so television coverage was optional.

In the world of radio, WLW Cincinnati made it a policy to carry the Space Shuttle launch from that point on. I'm not sure if the policy continues today.

 

[genius]

The suttle launched was broadcast on the big three--otherwise so many won't have seen it. It was the 9/11 of the late 80s in a way. The media centered around the idea of "Teacher in Space" plan and Christa McAuliffe was the star. In the end, fate intervened and McAuliffe became the subject of some real awful jokes.

I hear this June NASA is finally putting a teacher in space...Barbara Morgan is her name. As long as she isn't the second coming of Lisa Nowak it's still a go.

 

[clichemoth]

IIRC, CBS was to premiere a sitcom that night which starred Flip Wilson, in what was to be his triumphant return to TV. The premiere was bumped and the series only lasted a few episodes.

Nope. You're thinking of Charlie and Company, which premiered and was cancelled before the Challenger disaster and ran opposite Cosby. The show's primary place in history now is that it was Jaleel White's first regular TV gig.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I was attending college classes that day and was not watching TV.
My schedule wrapped up early and I got in the car to drive home.
WTAE-AM in Pittsburgh had JIP'ed the network coverage. I tuned in
in the middle of some NASA official's press conference....he was not
saying specifically what had happened, but from the tone of the thing
I could tell it had been tragic. When I arrived home my brother told
me what had happened. The news director for WTAE later spoke to our
journalism class....he said that he had a switch on his desk that would
allow him to interrupt programming and JIP breaking news coverage at
any time. The station is now robo-ESPN off the bird....I doubt we would
get any similar coverage today.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I thought that I had read that the launch was carried by the West coast feeds for the morning shows like Today, but for the East coast it might not have been on until after the explosion.

 

[Braves2005]

I thought that I had read that the launch was carried by the West coast feeds for the morning shows like Today, but for the East coast it might not have been on until after the explosion.

Central Time zones, IIRC, started the coverage of the Challenger launch at 10 AM exactly getting ready for the liftoff and talking about Christa McAuliffe and the other astronauts on board and how Christa was the first teacher to be in space.

I also remember that they did carry $25,000 Pyramid and Press Your Luck on CBS beforehand. I don't remember if any of the other networks broke in before 10 AM to talk about the launch or not.

 

[ixnay]

I was in Dover, Delaware at the moment the Challenger tragedy happened. In fact I recall eating an early lunch somewhere in Dover at the time of the launch and explosion. Not until I got to a Sears store in a mall about half an hour after the explosion did I find out about Challenger - and then it was from the tail end of an ABC radio bulletin emanating (sp) from a demonstrator car radio that I happened to be walking past. When I got home I followed the aftermath by hopsotching among the big 3 (we didn't have cable at the time).

Someone mentioned 9/11 on this thread. My father, was fishing in Fenwick Island, DE while that whole thing unfolded. He didn't find out about it until he went somewhere for lunch and saw the footage on CNN in the restaurant. Me, I was working in an office elsewhere in the First State as 9/11 unfolded. In fact I was commenting to my supervisor on the beautiful God-given weather we had, and about a minute later someone who had her walkman on at her desk relayed the news of the north tower being hit. After the south tower was hit, someone brought in a boom box and we heard the rest of the tragedy unfold. At lunchtime our department and other departments in that building were sent home because schools were letting out in reaction to the attack and the kids had to be picked up.

Two years ago, I was driving to the barbershop when I heard on the car radio that contact with Columbia had not been restored prior to reentry. I forget if the barbershop had FNC, CNN or MSNBC on but I watched that tragedy unfold while I was getting my hair cut.

ixnay

 

[Ultimajock]

The suttle launched was broadcast on the big three--otherwise so many won't have seen it. It was the 9/11 of the late 80s in a way. The media centered around the idea of "Teacher in Space" plan and Christa McAuliffe was the star. In the end, fate intervened and McAuliffe became the subject of some real awful jokes.

...one of those jokes cost legendary Los Angeles disc jockey "Emperor" Bob Hudson his last morning drive gig at KRLA, as I recall. He lived for another ten years or so but only got one more short gig, two years later...

 

[Stanislav]

Contrary to some recollections, I am pretty confident that none of the broadcast networks carried the actual launch live, at least not in the Eastern and Central time zones -- only CNN did. (It is possible that it was carried live on the West Coast since the launch would have taken place during the PST broadcast of "Today" and GMA.) There may well have been some individual stations that pre-empted their normal programming and carried it via CNN, particularly in markets with ties to the space program or to that specific flight (I'm sure WMUR-TV in New Hampshire was covering it live because of Christa McAuliffe). Those who saw it in school or elsewhere probably were watching CNN (if their school was cabled) or one of these local opt-out stations. It is true that KNBC in L.A. covered it -- that is the source of the clip often repeated in tributes with the audio of the KNBC guy (NOT NBC's Tom Brokaw, though they had similar timbre voices) exclaiming, "My god....there's been an explosion." Of course, the broadcast networks cut in very shortly after the accident. Though, as I related once before on this board, CBS was a little slow coming up -- I was in Jacksonville at the time, and the local CBS affiliate (WJXT) had to use CNN coverage of the tragedy for a while until CBS went live with the story.

Of course, many probably THINK they saw it live in retrospect because only minutes later everyone was showing tape of the launch and accident, and with the short delay and live look of tape, the memories are a bit off. (Kind of like how everyone who was around when Ruby shot Oswald SAY they saw it happen live, but actually only NBC caught it live -- CBS showed tape of it a few minutes later and ABC had to make do with film footage.)

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Contrary to some recollections, I am pretty confident that none of the broadcast networks carried the actual launch live, at least not in the Eastern and Central time zones -- only CNN did. (It is possible that it was carried live on the West Coast since the launch would have taken place during the PST broadcast of "Today" and GMA.) There may well have been some individual stations that pre-empted their normal programming and carried it via CNN, particularly in markets with ties to the space program or to that specific flight (I'm sure WMUR-TV in New Hampshire was covering it live because of Christa McAuliffe). Those who saw it in school or elsewhere probably were watching CNN (if their school was cabled) or one of these local opt-out stations. It is true that KNBC in L.A. covered it -- that is the source of the clip often repeated in tributes with the audio of the KNBC guy (NOT NBC's Tom Brokaw, though they had similar timbre voices) exclaiming, "My god....there's been an explosion." Of course, the broadcast networks cut in very shortly after the accident. Though, as I related once before on this board, CBS was a little slow coming up -- I was in Jacksonville at the time, and the local CBS affiliate (WJXT) had to use CNN coverage of the tragedy for a while until CBS went live with the story.

Of course, many probably THINK they saw it live in retrospect because only minutes later everyone was showing tape of the launch and accident, and with the short delay and live look of tape, the memories are a bit off. (Kind of like how everyone who was around when Ruby shot Oswald SAY they saw it happen live, but actually only NBC caught it live -- CBS showed tape of it a few minutes later and ABC had to make do with film footage.)

Agreed. I was home sick the day of the explosion. CBS cut in with a special report about mid-way through the Second "showcase showdown" (big wheel) portion of The Price Is Right, which would have put it about 10:45am CT (I'm just guessing going on the typical time the "showdown" portion airs) with video of the launch and explosion.

Additionally according to Marc Gunther's "The House That Roone Built," CNN was the only network covering the launch live when the shuttle exploded at 11:39am (page 236-237)

 

[Jul]

If anyone that recorded on videotape the broadcast network coverage of this event (CBS, ABC, NBC) especially when they first broke into programming to tell the viewers what happened, please post it on you tube. I'm very curious to see it myself.

 

[fybush]

For those too young to remember the mid-80s...

Shuttle launches had become quite routine by 1986, with 24 of them under NASA's belt. By the time of Challenger, with a scheduled late-morning launch, the networks weren't carrying mandatory coverage, at least on the East Coast. Because the launch fell during West Coast network morning news time, all three networks were on the air with refeeds of Today, GMA and whatever CBS was doing by then, and they offered optional coverage to ET/CT stations that were interested in carrying the launch. (Boston, for interest, counted Christa McAuliffe as a local, since its stations covered New Hampshire, so no doubt those stations were taking the network coverage.)

In Rochester, the only coverage available was NASA TV and CNN on cable. I was in high school that day, but one of my friends just happened to be home sick and just happened to be rolling tape on NASA TV. Wish I knew where that tape ended up. I was at a restaurant around the corner from the school when the accident happened, and heard about it when the beautiful-music station they played there interrupted for news, which they NEVER did. By the time I ran back to the school and got to the TV in the back hallway of the library, all three networks had pulled whatever was on that day and were in full-network breaking news mode. I don't think I ever made it back to class that afternoon.

 

[genius]

Thanks for clearing up the story of the big three for me--I was living in Culpeper VA at the time and I only found out when I went home for lunch that day. Mrs. genius had been out shopping that morning with our then year and a half old twins, so she didn't know about it either until she came to the house for lunch(which was around 12ish). I was late getting back to work and by the time I got back someone had hooked up a TV in the office and everyone was watching. And since the news kept playing images of children watching the launch and celebrating just before the explosion in their classrooms, I thought the big three had covered it. My bad I guess not, although some local stations may have picked it up...the teacher in space thing had some big hype going into it.

...one of those jokes cost legendary Los Angeles disc jockey "Emperor" Bob Hudson his last morning drive gig at KRLA, as I recall. He lived for another ten years or so but only got one more short gig, two years later...

I enjoy black humor, but with the Challenger tragedy to this day I still find it bizarre and tragic itself people tried to apply humor to the situation as a way to "heal". Some of those jokes were just stupid too(What color were Christa McAuliffe's eyes? ) I'm glad people have moved the past that stage, especially in light of the terrorist attacks within the last 15 years, but at the time I don't think a lot of people knew how to handle it.

 

[Stanislav]

I was in high school that day, but one of my friends just happened to be home sick and just happened to be rolling tape on NASA TV. Wish I knew where that tape ended up.

I went to bed the night before the launch (actually the wee hours of the morn -- I worked late in those days) assuming that they would scrub because of the freezing weather. (Contrary to what many have read, NASA did know of the potential for problems in cold weather, and there had been a previous launch that they considered delaying because of conditions that were not even as severe as 1/28/86.) So imagine my shock when I happened to wake up and turn on the tube probably seconds after the accident, just as WJXT broke the story with their clearly stunned (I swear his eyes were wet) Noon anchor announcing that "The Space Shuttle has exploded." Anyway, I was so shocked, then angry (I couldn't fathom WHY they launched on the morning of a hard freeze) that it never dawned on me to roll a VCR tape. (I spent the afternoon talking about it on the phone with friends and banging out angry tirades against NASA on a local BBS.) Years later at a thrift store, I found a home-taped copy of a couple hours of the CBS coverage, but from later in the afternoon (although it did catch the press conference and Regan's speech).