Retro: Dallas/Ft. Worth Friday, November 22, 1963

[bpatrick]

With all the various postings about TV coverage of
JFK's assassination, no one has posted what was
scheduled on the Dallas/Ft. Worth stations that day.
Here are the schedules, from The Dallas Morning News:

KRLD (KDFW) Ch. 4 (CBS)

6:28 School
7 AM News, Markets, Garden
7:30 Officer Friendly
8 AM Captain Kangaroo
9 AM Kennedy Breakfast (he would have been
in Ft. Worth at this point)
9:30 I Love Lucy
10 AM Real McCoys
10:30 Pete And Gladys
11 AM Love Of Life
11:25 News (presumably CBS, since Channel 4
had a local newscast at noon)
11:30 Search For Tomorrow
11:45 Guiding Light
12 N News, Weather
12:15 Fashions In Faces
12:30 As The World Turns
1 PM Kennedy Address (the one he had been
scheduled to make at the Trade Mart--
by now, all three networks were on the
air with assassination coverage, so what
follows are the pre-empted programs)
2 PM To Tell The Truth
2:25 CBS News
2:30 Edge Of Night
3 PM Secret Storm
3:30 Leave It To Beaver
4 PM December Bride
4:30 Our Miss Brooks
5 PM Lone Ranger
5:30 CBS News
6 PM News, Weather
6:30 The Great Adventure (historical docudramas
narrated by Van Heflin, later by Russell Johnson,
the Professor on "Gilligan's Island")
7:30 Route 66
8:30 Twilight Zone
9 PM Alfred Hitchcock
10 PM News, Weather, Sportsreel
10:30 Steve Allen (syndicated)
12 M News, Sign Off

WBAP (KXAS) Ch. 5 (NBC)

6:55 Milestone
7 AM Today
9 AM Kennedy Breakfast
9:30 Word For Word (color)
10 AM Concentration
10:30 Missing Links
11 AM Your First Impression (color)
11:30 Truth Or Consequences
12 N News (local and in color)
12:30 Dateline (color)
(From here on, these programs are pre-empted)
1 PM People Will Talk (color)
1:25 NBC News
1:30 The Doctors
2 PM Loretta Young
2:30 You Don't Say! (color)
3 PM Match Game
3:25 NBC News
3:30 Make Room For Daddy
4 PM Mickey Mouse Club
4:30 Action 5
5:30 Huntley-Brinkley Report
6 PM News, Weather, Sports (color)
6:30 International Showtime
7:30 Bob Hope Chrysler Theater (color)
8:30 Harry's Girls
9 PM Jack Paar (color)
10 PM Texas News, Weather, News, Sports (color)
10:30 Tonight Show (color)
12 M News; Film
12:15 Milestone

WFAA Ch. 8 (ABC)

6:10 En France
7 AM Mr. Peppermint
8:15 King And Odie
8:30 Johnny Midnight
9 AM Kennedy Breakfast
9:30 Life Of Riley
10 AM Price Is Right
10:30 Seven Keys
11 AM Kennedy's Arrival (at Love Field)
11:30 Father Knows Best
12 N General Hospital (this is not a delay--
GH moved to 3 ET/2 CT on December 30)
12:30 Julie Benell (this show is interrupted by a
local reporter announcing that JFK has been
shot--programs that follow are pre-empted)
1 PM Kennedy's Speech (the Trade Mart speech he
never gave)
1:30 Day In Court
1:55 ABC News
2 PM Queen For A Day
2:30 Who Do You Trust?
3 PM Trailmaster
4 PM Movie: "The Black Sheep"
5:45 ABC News (Ron Cochran)
6 PM News
6:30 77 Sunset Strip
7:30 Movie: "Duel In The Sun" (usually,
Ch. 8 stayed with the ABC lineup of
"Burke's Law," "The Farmer's Daughter,"
"The Fight Of The Week," and "Make
That Spare")
10 PM News, Weather, Sports
10:30 Murphy Martin
10:40 Movie: "The Helen Morgan Story"
12:15 Movie (title not given)

KTVT Ch. 11 (Ind.)

8 AM Reveille
8:30 Romper Room
9 AM Kennedy Breakfast
9:30 Ed Allen (exercises)
10 AM Movie: "Ringside Maisie"
11:30 Girl Talk
12 N News, Weather
12:15 Farm Show
12:30 Cartoons
(I have no idea if Ch. 11 pre-empted the
rest of its schedule for assassination coverage.)
1 PM My Little Margie
1:30 Movie: "Down Three Dark Streets"
3 PM Jim Bowie
3:30 Popeye
4 PM Funny Company
4:30 Superman (Ch. 11 was showing this at the
same time some 15 years later.)
5 PM Three Stooges
5:45 News, Weather
6 PM Supercar
6:30 Cheyenne
7:30 Movie: "Hercules Unchained"
9 PM Movie: "Jeanne Eagels"
11 PM Movie: "Cass Timberlane"

KERA Ch. 13 (NET)

9 AM Flight Six
9:15 Friendly Giant
9:30 Spanish IIB
9:45 Home Room II
10 AM Spanish IIB
10:15 Science Lab II
10:30 What's New
11 AM Counseling Family Living
11:30 Spanish IB
11:45 Home Room II
12 N Art Of Seeing
12:30 PTA Panorama
(Again, I don't know how Ch. 13 handled
programming after 1 PM.)
1 PM Spanish IIIB
1:15 Spanish IIB
1:30 Adventures In Learning
1:45 Sing Hi, Sing Lo
2 PM New Biology
2:30 Science Lab II
2:45 Spanish IIB
3 PM Spanish IIIB
3:15 Symphony USA: Detroit Symphony
4:30 Japanese Brush Painting
5 PM What's New
5:30 Sing Hi, Sing Lo
5:45 Friendly Giant
6 PM Next Door North
6:30 What's New
7 PM Americans At Work
7:15 Industry On Parade
7:30 Lyrics And Legends
8 PM Focus On Behavior
8:30 At Issue
9 PM Big Picture
9:30 New Biology
10 PM Sign Off

 

[BRNout]

This one is truly fascinating, thanks!! Yes, I wonder whether channels 11 and 13 would have picked up someone else's programming (if that were even possible back then) or if they just signed off out of respect. It would be very interesting to learn how each channel handled the tragedy - just as TV coverage on 9/11 makes for an interesting discussion.

 

[donnyg]

This one is truly fascinating, thanks!! Yes, I wonder whether channels 11 and 13 would have picked up someone else's programming (if that were even possible back then) or if they just signed off out of respect. It would be very interesting to learn how each channel handled the tragedy - just as TV coverage on 9/11 makes for an interesting discussion.

I wonder if any of the network stations stayed on all night for any late breaking developments, obviously we know of the shooting of oswald, but what of meetings at the white house and so forth?

 

[Braves2005]

All of the networks stayed on from the minute of Kennedy's assassination to the funeral which meant that all shows were affected by this from Friday night to when Kennedy was buried. I'm sure that some of the meetings were shown when possible.

 

[donnyg]

All of the networks stayed on from the minute of Kennedy's assassination to the funeral which meant that all shows were affected by this from Friday night to when Kennedy was buried. I'm sure that some of the meetings were shown when possible.

I guess I should be more specific, I mean the local Dallas affiliates. From having watched the NBC coverage of that day, I know that Frank McGee signed off NBC at approximately 1 AM eastern time.

 

[Stanislav]

Yes, I wonder whether channels 11 and 13 would have picked up someone else's programming (if that were even possible back then) or if they just signed off out of respect.

I have for many years wondered what KTVT-11 did, and never have gotten an informed answer. There is an intriguing photo in one of the dozens of JFK books (I forget which), showing a news conference at Parkland, and clearly visible in the pic is a KTVT studio camera! So, I wonder if they were covering some of the events (it doesn't appear that they had much of a news operation apart from the two daily 15-minute newscasts, which were probably just "rip and read") or if they were loaning equipment and techs to help the affiliates feed video to the networks?

KERA-13, broadcasting instructional programming, would probably have either signed off or simply maintained their schedule for awhile -- much as Nickelodeon stayed with their own school-age programs during 9/11 so as not to unduly alarm any kids who were watching.

 

[Stanislav]

All of the networks stayed on from the minute of Kennedy's assassination to the funeral which meant that all shows were affected by this from Friday night to when Kennedy was buried.

Not exactly true -- I believe the only night that the networks actually broadcast all night was the night that JFK's body was lying in state, because even in the wee hours of the morning throngs of mourners were filing through.

I think the question is, "on those nights when the network signed off for a few hours, did the local affiliates in DFW do any local coverage while the network was dark?" I would imagine the answer is no, although perhaps WFAA-8 might have gone all night.

 

[Stanislav]

KRLD (KDFW) Ch. 4 (CBS)

1 PM Kennedy Address (the one he had been
scheduled to make at the Trade Mart--
by now, all three networks were on the
air with assassination coverage, so what
follows are the pre-empted programs)

And that is why CBS had an immediate advantage over the other networks in the initial coverage. CBS had already set up a circuit to feed KRLD coverage of the speech to New York, where they could videotape it and possibly use some clips on the evening news that night. So, as soon as Uncle Walter went on the air, within the first 20 seconds he was able to immediately cut to the Trade Mart where Eddie Barker was reporting on-air. By contrast, as anyone who has seen the A&E special "JFK: As It Happened" knows, NBC had to set up a feed from Dallas (from WBAP) "on the fly" in a matter of minutes -- not an easy task with the technology of the era -- and the first WBAP reports were marred by technical problems.

 

[genius]

I have seen the As The World Turns episode from that date. Don Hastings I belived said in an interview once that he was on-screen with the late Henderson Forsythe when CBS News cut into the show, which is partially true but the first break-in occurred during a scene where Nancy and Pa Hughes(Chris' father) were discussing about Lisa coming over for Thanksgiving then cut to a black slide that said "CBS News Bulletin" with Cronkite doing a voice-over about JFK's shooting. After repeating the annoucement, then cut to commercials, including a promo for that night's Route 66 episode. The CBS News Bulletin slide then came back on for a few minutes with Cronkite updating the situation, then cut back to the show with Bob and Dan dicussing their current lives over lunch, finally the cameras were ready and Cronkite appeared on-screen.

As The World Turns continued filming live through all the interruptions. They didn't realize that they had been cut into until the commercial break, when organist Charles Paul found out about the shooting and told Eileen Fulton.

 

[bpatrick]

Since Channel 8 had a movie scheduled at
12:15 AM Saturday, it wouldn't surprise me
if they stayed with assassination coverage
at least until the time the movie would have
ended (around 2 AM, I suppose). I can
guarantee you that if this had happened when
Marty Haag was news director in the '70s,
Channel 8 would have gone with round-the-clock
coverage.

Unfortunately I didn't move to Dallas until 1976
and I frequently kick myself for never going to
the public library and reading the local newspaper
coverage; there just might have been something
about how each station covered the story. So
anything I say is simply conjecture.

I do know that the poster who mentioned that
the only night the networks stayed on all night
was Sunday, when JFK's body was lying in state
in the Capitol rotunda, is correct.

 

[genius]

Just a minor correction...Bob Hughes was talking David Stewart, not Dan Stewart, who was a child at the time. My apologies to World Turns fans!

 

[Stanislav]

I have seen the As The World Turns episode from that date. Don Hastings I belived said in an interview once that he was on-screen with the late Henderson Forsythe when CBS News cut into the show, which is partially true but the first break-in occurred during a scene where Nancy and Pa Hughes(Chris' father) were discussing about Lisa coming over for Thanksgiving then cut to a black slide that said "CBS News Bulletin" with Cronkite doing a voice-over about JFK's shooting. After repeating the annoucement, then cut to commercials, including a promo for that night's Route 66 episode. The CBS News Bulletin slide then came back on for a few minutes with Cronkite updating the situation, then cut back to the show with Bob and Dan dicussing their current lives over lunch, finally the cameras were ready and Cronkite appeared on-screen.

I would love to see a copy of that -- all I've seen is the highly truncated and edited clips that opened the CBS "Four Days in November" special. Where did you get it, and in what format? (Kinescoped? Videotaped?) Maybe you could post at least part of that to YouTube?

As The World Turns continued filming live through all the interruptions. They didn't realize that they had been cut into until the commercial break, when organist Charles Paul found out about the shooting and told Eileen Fulton.

Which was not surprising (that they didn't tell the ATWT actors and let them continue to do the show between bulletins) -- the news had just broken, information and details were coming in slowly, and it would be a while before the studio cameras were sufficiently warmed up to go on the air with full video and audio. The alternative, I suppose, would have been to just keep the "Bulletin" slide up and keep repeating what meager details they had over and over -- that might have been better (and more respectful). I imagine there were more than a few households that day who were tuned to CBS, someone saw the first bulletin, rushed to tell other family members, then by the time they get back to the TV they're shilling coffee or denture cream or something. ("Oh, so the President has been shot, huh? That's a pretty sick joke, there....")

 

[Stanislav]

Just a minor correction...Bob Hughes was talking David Stewart, not Dan Stewart, who was a child at the time. My apologies to World Turns fans!

Good thing you corrected yourself so quickly -- those soap fanatics are a prickly bunch and take their interest VERRRY seriously!! ;D

 

[bk77]

With all the various postings about TV coverage of
JFK's assassination, no one has posted what was
scheduled on the Dallas/Ft. Worth stations that day.
Here are the schedules, from The Dallas Morning News:


WFAA Ch. 8 (ABC)

12:30 Julie Benell (this show is interrupted by a
local reporter announcing that JFK has been
shot--

Is this it?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TpicOfFajNE

 

[stevezodiac]

The Museum of Broadcast Communications site has a lot of info on the network end of things. There are links to WBAP and WFAA and others, but they have never worked for me. There's got to be some people out there that could fill in the info about 11 and 13, if they could be directed to this page. I was in 4th grade in Dallas, and think we watched channel 4 mostly. Thanks bpatrick, you always bring something interesting.


http://museum.tv/exhibitionssection.php?page=91

 

[Stanislav]

With all the various postings about TV coverage of
JFK's assassination, no one has posted what was
scheduled on the Dallas/Ft. Worth stations that day.
Here are the schedules, from The Dallas Morning News:


WFAA Ch. 8 (ABC)

12:30 Julie Benell (this show is interrupted by a
local reporter announcing that JFK has been
shot--

Is this it?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TpicOfFajNE

Yup, that's WFAA when they first broke the news.

 

[radiorob2.0]

I found it fascinating on the A&E "As It Happened" the network was black and white but the feed from WBAP was color.

 

[newsmark]

The WFAA clip was part of a KERA special, JFK: Breaking the News, which chronicles Dallas TV and Radio coverage of the assassination.

KERA occasionally re-runs that special, which I believe was produced in 2005. I think they also sell DVDs of it.

 

[bpatrick]

I found it fascinating on the A&E "As It Happened" the network was black and white but the feed from WBAP was color.

Channel 5 had the capability of doing local programs in color, as you'll
see in the listings. NBC's coverage was in black and white.

 

[Stanislav]

I found it fascinating on the A&E "As It Happened" the network was black and white but the feed from WBAP was color.

Channel 5 had the capability of doing local programs in color, as you'll
see in the listings. NBC's coverage was in black and white.

WBAP was one of the first local stations to use color on their local programming, back in the mid-50's. NBC had for some time been colorcasting some variety shows, game shows, filmed series, etc. in color (much more at that point than either CBS or ABC) but in '63 they were still using B&W for their news and public affairs type stuff.