• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Question relating to NBC Radio Network on 22 November 1963 (JFK)

Ultimajock said:
on that extended clip on YouTube, you can hear the Glenn Miller record "In The Mood" faintly underneath the very first WBAP Radio bulletin; the post-War Glenn Miller Orchestra was scheduled to perform in the DFW Metroplex that night, and WBAP was helping to promote that concert. I think on either the WBAP or WFAA aircheck, or both, it's later announced (prior to the official word that JFK had died) that the Miller Orchestra concert had been cancelled for that night...
Click to expand...

I believe the Glenn Miller Orchestra reunited in 1956. I think there is a version contiguous to 1956 out there on the road today. I doubt if there are any original members playing (could be I suppose) but I think they still use the same music charts and bandstand stuff from the pre-1944 years.

Joe
 
joeybabe25 said:
Ultimajock said:
on that extended clip on YouTube, you can hear the Glenn Miller record "In The Mood" faintly underneath the very first WBAP Radio bulletin; the post-War Glenn Miller Orchestra was scheduled to perform in the DFW Metroplex that night, and WBAP was helping to promote that concert. I think on either the WBAP or WFAA aircheck, or both, it's later announced (prior to the official word that JFK had died) that the Miller Orchestra concert had been cancelled for that night...
Click to expand...

I believe the Glenn Miller Orchestra reunited in 1956. I think there is a version contiguous to 1956 out there on the road today. I doubt if there are any original members playing (could be I suppose) but I think they still use the same music charts and bandstand stuff from the pre-1944 years.
Click to expand...
...it's a cinch that there are no members of the original Glenn Miller swing orchestras still playing with the post-War version; I think the last surviving member of the civilian band is Ray Anthony, who's led his own bands for decades now and may in fact be at least semi-retired by this time. But the current-day Glenn Miller Orchestra indeed uses the same chart catalogue and bandstand design as the original Moonlight Serenaders, Miller's second (and successful) pre-War orchestra...
 
Does anyone know when ABC Radio concluded their broadcasting on the night of 22nd November 1963? Am researching the coverage of the Assassination and would love to know. Thanks in advance for any help.
 
I can only tell you what I remember that from night. WLS in Chicago continued with ABC programming that entire weekend. I don't believe they had any local programs.
 
As I recall, all of the radio (and television) networks had continuous coverage until after JFK was laid to rest.
 
Not so. NBC Radio and TV signed off at 1 AM on November 22. NBC Radio also discontinued on the overnight coverage signing on at 7:30 AM on November 23, 8:00 AM on November 24 and 7:00 AM on November 25.
 
CBS-TV's delay was due to the old I/O cameras needing time to warm up. After that day, CBS-TV created a "flash studio" with cameras always on.

NBC-TV junked their local programming after about 10 minutes, then someone thought about rolling tape and feeding it to the network. The NBC-TV network was down at that time of the day. Local stations who joined it did so only by seeing something on the network line.

As to overnight radio, I can only report on Atlanta's WSB went to Catholic masses and somber music; I don't recall hearing the network coverage. Would be interested to hear it. Link, anyone?
 
Last edited:
Don Gardiner

Don Gardiner of the ABC News Radio Network seemed to have done a better job than his television colleagues. Anyone agree or disagree?
 
I certainly would rate Gardiner's anchoring superior to that of his ABC-TV counterpart, Ron Cochran whose uneasy performance is why as the weekend went on, ABC basically had Howard K. Smith (who was on a flight returning from Egypt when the shooting took place) and Edward P. Morgan do the bulk of the TV anchoring the rest of the weekend. Morgan Beatty who did NBC Radio's coverage I felt did a good job too. Allan Jackson on CBS Radio, by contrast, chose to censor one of the early wire reports after the shooting where Clint Hill had been quoted as saying "He's dead" as JFK was wheeled into the hospital. Jackson alone among anchors purposefully left that comment out.
 
willcall1985 said:
Don Gardiner of the ABC News Radio Network
Click to expand...

Absolutely! Got on the air fast and then was able to utilize all the ABC team. Even had their VP for Operations come into the booth to announce the net woud be open "TFN." Did sow down when Quuincey Howe came on to analyze.
 
epaddon said:
Allan Jackson on CBS Radio
Click to expand...

Jackson was, no doubt, under some pressure from producers and directors at that point, to be cautious. That wire report was "unconfirmed," and CBS strictly adhered to the "two-source" rule. Dan Rather got burned by it a little later in the day when he ,istook an editor's voice on the phone for that of another report on JFK being dead. As much as I dislike Rather, he actually could have wriggled his way out of the pressure by citing his two sources: 1. Eddie Barker the local reporter at the Trade Mart and 2. the doctor to whom he spoke (though anonymously) at Parkland Hospital. Characteristically, Rather couldn't think fast enough to cite the two as his defense.
 
It's too bad so little of Mutual's coverage is extant (only about a half hour's worth over the course of the entire day) that we can't properly assess their coverage of the assassination. It remains the one significant grail among JFK radio coverage.

NBC's radio coverage for the weekend is almost entirely intact with a couple missing segments from the archival copy accounted for in the separate WLW-Cincinnati recordings of 11/22 and 11/23. All that's missing from 11/22 is a half hour from 12:13 to 12:44 AM approximately before coverage wound up at 1:00 AM.
 
Guess NBC learned its lesson about re-cycling tape. When they started to assemble an obit for TV on JFK that afternoon, they discovered someone had re-used their coverage of the inauguration. Understand a good number of the early TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON were also erased for the same purpose. I understand Carson threatened all kinds of legal retribution.

What was airing at 12:13 AM? Might they have offered a local break and someone forgot to keep tape rolling? What about when coverage resumes at 12:44? Rejoining from local cutaway?
 
Not sure what the deal was. I think, but am not 100% sure that the archival NBC feed that is in circulation was being done by WTIC-Hartford and they were one local station that did break away from the network for a stretch before the network signoff to do some local coverage for a bit. I need to cross-check my files there but in terms of the network feed that I have we're just looking at a gap of maybe a missing reel or tape.
 
ABC, CBS or NBC?

Out of the three television networks, who would people consider did the best overall job of covering the tragedy?
 
Without a doubt had to be CBS-TV. They had the most staff working, and even though they were about half an hour later in getting on the air fully than NBC (and despite Cronkite getting a little "wiggy") they did a credible job. NBC-TV also had a lot of technical glitches which, I know were not their fault, but it kind of marred the overall product. Also their not having a lot of archival footage at NBC hurt them. What say others?
 
Ultimajock said:
...Fred Bernard. He also did the 7-to-9 AM disc jockey shift that morning as well...





...although Jackson pointedly avoided quoting Clint Hill's claim "He's dead!" in his earlier readings of the UPI and AP bulletins; everyone else (NBC-TV and Radio, Cronkite on CBS-TV, ABC-TV and Radio, and Mutual) included that bit early on...
Click to expand...

Here is a link to the WCCO radio coverage from CBS Radio News coverage of the event. Allan Jackson's edit comes at about the 2:30 minute mark. The couple audio comes from a great website with many air checks of Minneapolis/St. Paul Radio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKonJj5E7uc&index=1&list=PL0O5WNzrZqIPhgrlQXBmFIQtrdtAbxddF
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom