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

[stevezodiac]

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.

Concerning WBAP in color, don't you know Amon Carter was grinning big that day. WBAP was actually the second station in the nation to get color equipment. http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/PION_6m.htm. They were probably still using the TK-40's on that day.

 

[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.

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.

As I said, I noticed that watching the "As It Happens". My point was sending the color signal feed back to NYC. Obviously it made it to the VTR in color with lots of noise but did it go back out the network in color? Even back then it was all about bandwidth.

 

[Stanislav]

As I said, I noticed that watching the "As It Happens". My point was sending the color signal feed back to NYC. Obviously it made it to the VTR in color with lots of noise but did it go back out the network in color?

That's a good question, and one I never considered. IANAT (I am not a techie), but was it not the practice back in the day to delete or suppress the colorburst signal when transmitting in B&W? Since NBC in NYC was using B&W equipment, I would assume that the signal that went out over the network did not carry color information, and the brief WBAP segments would have shown up as B&W to the viewer. Am I correct, or way off base? (Again, IANAT.....)

If correct, then I wonder why WBAP changed to B&W after the 2nd or 3rd switch to Dallas? I had always assumed that perhaps someone at NBC asked them to do so, perhaps figuring that the picture going from B&W to color to B&W again and again might cause color TV owners to think something was wrong with their sets. But that is moot if the color information never made it out of 30 Rock to begin with.

 

[radiorob2.0]

It might have been the bandwidth issue. The erratic color was either the shortcoming of the VTR or the ATT line. If it was the later then New York asked WBAP to kill the color burst for a consistent picture.

 

[Ultimajock]

KRLD (KDFW) Ch. 4 (CBS)

8:30 Twilight Zone


WBAP (KXAS) Ch. 5 (NBC)

9 PM Jack Paar (color)

WFAA-TV Ch. 8 (ABC)

12:30 Julie Benell (this show is interrupted by a
local reporter announcing that JFK has been
shot--programs that follow are pre-empted)


KTVT Ch. 11 (Ind.)

(I have no idea if Ch. 11 pre-empted the
rest of its schedule for assassination coverage.)

...the "Twilight Zone" episode was "Night Call," the one in which the elderly and disabled woman (Gladys Cooper) recieves strange telephone calls in the middle of the night. It was postponed and run instead on February 7, 1964, thus it would have been the episode The Beatles would have been able to tune in the evening of the day they arrived in New York for their first "Ed Sullivan Show" broadcast (THE BEATLES: THE FIRST U.S. VISIT shows them watching the "CBS Evening News" and "The Huntley-Brinkley Report"). The "Jack Paar Program" installment was the one on which the guests were Miss Miller, Liberace and Cassius Clay, postponed for broadcast until the following week; the discussion with Clay in which he recites his poetry about fighting then-champion Sonny Liston while Liberace accompanies him on piano is included in the JACK PAAR COLLECTION 3-DVD set. The "local reporter" who interrupted Julie Benell's WFAA 12:30 show was in fact Jay Watson, WFAA-TV's program director and an eyewitness to the assassination, as WFAA's studios were only a couple of blocks away from Dealey Plaza. I don't know to what extent KTVT had coverage, but when CBS bought the station a few years back, they went through the old films and found one where Jack Ruby was seen attending a Saturday press briefing by the Dallas Police Department...

 

[Ranger]

When I started at Channel 4 a lot of the old timers that worked that weekend were still there. Heard a lot of interesting stories.
Leigh Webb, the director at the truck at the Trade Mart told me about standing on the steps outside the truck with an engineer having a last smoke with one of the engineers before the show started. As they stood there, they saw the motorcade tear by them on Stemmons and ran inside and let Eddie Barker know.
Ken Hanson, in the art dept. was working Sunday morning when a friend of his dropped by. He had bought a second hand 16mm film camera and was going to try and pick up some extra cash by shooting Oswald's transfer from the jail. The only problem was, he didn't know how to operate the camera. Ken showed him, and a little while after Oswald was shot, the guy showed up at the station with the only 16mm footage of the shooting. One of the engineers modified a film chain projector so they could crank the film through a frame at a time. One of the first slow motion replays on tv.

 

[genius]

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?

Unfortunately I don't have a copy, I saw it back on the World of Soap Themes(www.wost.org) back before they went pay and before they went largely inactive. But I believe copies of it exist in the Museum of Broadcasting, and I'm sure others have copies of it as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if it does indeed end up of YouTube or if it already hasn't.

 

[Stanislav]

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?

Unfortunately I don't have a copy, I saw it back on the World of Soap Themes(www.wost.org) back before they went pay and before they went largely inactive. But I believe copies of it exist in the Museum of Broadcasting, and I'm sure others have copies of it as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if it does indeed end up of YouTube or if it already hasn't.

Yeah, I just checked that site, and it looks like they are going to shut down in August 2009 (interesting that they are giving almost two years notice!) and they are not accepting new members (but will allow current members to renew). A shame, as I almost might have parted with $25 to have that video.

 

[easttxtv]

I've been a member at WoST for quite a while, and believe me, many of us tried and tried to convince Brian (the webmaster there) to reconsider, but apparently he'd had it with people copying from his site. He found out several YouTube files had a WoST logo in the corner, and for a while he would tell YouTube what was going on. Then others would have same/similar video samples on YT without the WoST logo later on. Plus Brian was getting grief right and left because he was charging for membership; he had partnered with a techie firm that had quite a server availability. This allowed Brian to go beyond his initial audio themes listings into video opens and full eps. Apparently it was quite the pretty penny to do this. Brian even listed expenses and balances right on the site so he would show full disclosure of donated funds and their eventual use. In June, he'd gone as far as considering pulling the plug on the site's message board, which he eventually did after a lengthy thread went ugly and over-the-top (I didn't read it, but I think it had to do with agreeing or disagreeing about Rosie's actions on The View, I think). I've tried twice to email Brian, but I've heard nothing back. Apparently whatever he's doing now offline takes up all his time. The thing about August 2009 is that the date would mark the 10th anniversary of the site, and the $$ in the site's fund will cover expenses and bills related to bandwidth and storage up until then. As for the content, I've never heard exactly what Brian plans to do with it. It's sad to see it just disappear. Hopefully a Paley Center/MBC/university archive-type of place will end up the owner.

WoST did a special 50th Anniversary tribute to As the World Turns and Edge of Night last year, maybe the 11-22-1963 ep is in that section.

 

[wbhist]

A poster on YouTube has put up the first two hours of ABC's coverage of the events in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. On the first clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDQrp3sllHo
the individual claimed that WABC-TV in New York was running a repeat of Father Knows Best between 1:30 and 2 P.M. NYT (the episode "Man About Town," original air date Oct. 3, 1956). However, if the New York-Metro TV Guide for Nov. 16-22, 1963 is of any indication, WABC would've interrupted a repeat of The Ann Sothern Show at 1:42 and again at 1:50 for bulletins. A few other ABC O&O's and affiliates likewise had different programs that would've been interrupted:
- WFIL (WPVI) Philadelphia: Who Do You Trust?
- WNHC (WTNH) New Haven: The Gale Storm Show
- WBKB (WLS) Chicago: December Bride (starting time: 12:30 P.M. Chicago time)
The other factor that convinces me that these tapes hadn't originated from WABC was the obvious 5 kHz telco sound. And massive time base / sync issues when switching from one source to the other.

The questions are thus:
- At what time would WABC have actually aired Father Knows Best reruns on that day?
- Which stations (presumably on the West Coast) would've actually broken in to FKB to report on the shooting in Dallas? My money's on either KABC-TV in Los Angeles or KGO-TV in San Francisco (the shooting would've been 10:30 A.M. Pacific time). Or perhaps one of the Mountain states?

 

[Stanislav]

A poster on YouTube has put up the first two hours of ABC's coverage of the events in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. On the first clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDQrp3sllHo
the individual claimed that WABC-TV in New York was running a repeat of Father Knows Best between 1:30 and 2 P.M. NYT (the episode "Man About Town," original air date Oct. 3, 1956). However, if the New York-Metro TV Guide for Nov. 16-22, 1963 is of any indication, WABC would've interrupted a repeat of The Ann Sothern Show at 1:42 and again at 1:50 for bulletins. A few other ABC O&O's and affiliates likewise had different programs that would've been interrupted:
- WFIL (WPVI) Philadelphia: Who Do You Trust?
- WNHC (WTNH) New Haven: The Gale Storm Show
- WBKB (WLS) Chicago: December Bride (starting time: 12:30 P.M. Chicago time)
The other factor that convinces me that these tapes hadn't originated from WABC was the obvious 5 kHz telco sound. And massive time base / sync issues when switching from one source to the other.

The questions are thus:
- At what time would WABC have actually aired Father Knows Best reruns on that day?
- Which stations (presumably on the West Coast) would've actually broken in to FKB to report on the shooting in Dallas? My money's on either KABC-TV in Los Angeles or KGO-TV in San Francisco (the shooting would've been 10:30 A.M. Pacific time). Or perhaps one of the Mountain states?

I've only had a chance to look (very briefly, and not in whole) at Part 1, and I didn't see any local ID or other material during the break that would indicate WABC-TV as the source. Note, however, that there are at least a couple of obvious points where you can see the roll/glitch of a VCR that's been stopped and then restarted (possibly a VHS-ish artifact, and not something from the original source), so whoever was dubbing this may well have edited out the local break. I assume the "ABC-TV Closed Circuit NOT FOR BROADCAST" slide briefly seen was a standard placeholder that would run on the network feed when there was no programming; probably the station that this is sourced from cut to network a few seconds early, before the second bulletin on this clip was actually ready to go. (Note, BTW, that this clip does NOT begin with the first ABC break-in -- the first bulletin seen on the clip is presenting "more details," updating at least one previous bulletin.)

 

[bpatrick]

Father Knows Best was on ABC at 12:30 (ET)/11:30 (CT).
WABC, according to the New York Metro edition of TV Guide,
was showing Ann Sothern when the first reports of the shooting
in Dallas occurred; the episode that day involved Katy O'Connor's
giving a kid a puppy. She came on at 1:30 in New York.
(Remember from my original posting that "FKB" aired in Dallas
in pattern at 11:30, and that Julie Benell's local program was on
WFAA at 12:30, during which program director Jay Watson dashed
breathlessly into the studio to announce the shooting.)

On the West Coast, where it was 10:30 AM, the stations would
have been into local programming, since ABC didn't come up
until 11 AM, and in those days the Pacific time zone followed
the Eastern in the daytime (CBS and NBC followed Central, and
if ABC had done the same, "Seven Keys" would have been interrupted).
So KABC and KGO could have broken in with their own people,
then waited for the live network break-in. At any rate, "FKB"
would not have aired that day in Los Angeles or San Francisco.
I would agree that if "FKB" was interrupted anywhere, it would
have been in the Mountain time zone, assuming the affiliates
delayed it an hour to 11:30 (MT).

 

[wbhist]

Father Knows Best was on ABC at 12:30 (ET)/11:30 (CT). WABC, according to the New York Metro edition of TV Guide, was showing Ann Sothern when the first reports of the shooting in Dallas occurred; the episode that day involved Katy O'Connor's giving a kid a puppy. She came on at 1:30 in New York. (Remember from my original posting that "FKB" aired in Dallas in pattern at 11:30, and that Julie Benell's local program was on WFAA at 12:30, during which program director Jay Watson dashed breathlessly into the studio to announce the shooting.)

On the West Coast, where it was 10:30 AM, the stations would have been into local programming, since ABC didn't come up until 11 AM, and in those days the Pacific time zone followed the Eastern in the daytime (CBS and NBC followed Central, and if ABC had done the same, "Seven Keys" would have been interrupted). So KABC and KGO could have broken in with their own people, then waited for the live network break-in. At any rate, "FKB" would not have aired that day in Los Angeles or San Francisco. I would agree that if "FKB" was interrupted anywhere, it would have been in the Mountain time zone, assuming the affiliates delayed it an hour to 11:30 (MT).

Thought so, about the Mountain time zone. So, among major market stations in that zone, that'd probably leave KTVK in Phoenix, AZ; KCPX (now KTVX) in Salt Lake City, UT; or KLZ (now KMGH) in Denver, CO, as being possible sources.

 

[Stanislav]

Regardless of the source, it's great to have this stuff available -- as I've mentioned in older JFK threads, I've been looking for the ABC coverage for a long, long time! (It should also have a large chunk of the WFAA coverage as well, since they fed the network for long stretches that day.) Of course, it would have to come to my attention on a day when I am unusually busy...so far, I've only grabbed peeks at bits and pieces of the footage.

(Suggestion to all: grab it while you can before some ABC lawyer DMCA's it into oblivion...)

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

May I add something to this thread? Those "Father Knows Best" shows ABC-TV aired in those days were shown at 12:30 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. I watched that show for many years at that time - sometimes while eating lunch. (In fact, almost all of the "Father Knows Best" shows I saw were in those re-runs on weekday afternoons on ABC rather than when the show was in primetime years before). This particular program must have been showing in another time zone to have been interupted for the JFK bulletins because those began between 1:30 P.M. - 2:00 P.M. Eastern Time that day. As such, New York's affiliate and all of those ABC stations in the Eastern Time Zone would already have aired the "Father Knows Best" program that day. Since stations in the Central Time Zone picked up network shows at the same time as those in the Eastern Time even though it was an hour earlier there, my guess is the station from which this video came may have been in Mountain Time Zone. Just a thought.

 

[bpatrick]

That's a possibility; I've placed retro schedules
from Southeast Texas where the ABC stations
followed Eastern time in 1962. And since there
were dual ABC/NBC affiliates in those days, a
station could have been airing "Truth Or Consequences"
(NBC) at 12:30 and "Father Knows Best" (ABC) at 1:30.

For the record, here is the usual ABC daytime lineup
in the fall of '63 (listed Eastern/Central):

11 AM/10 AM Price Is Right
11:30/10:30 Seven Keys
12 N/11 AM Tennessee Ernie Ford Show
12:30/11:30 Father Knows Best
1 PM/12 N General Hospital
1:30/12:30 (Local--this becomes crucial, as some
stations like WFAA were into local
programming, some like WABC were
showing a syndicated rerun, and some
like Raleigh's WRAL were showing a delayed
ABC show--in this case, "Queen For A Day.")
2:30/1:30 Day In Court
2:55/1:55 ABC News
3 PM/2 PM Queen For A Day
3:30/2:30 Who Do You Trust?
4 PM/3 PM Trailmaster ("Wagon Train" reruns, to 5/4)

 

[bpatrick]

Since I don't have the Dallas/Ft. Worth schedules for Nov. 21,
I can only guess at some of the pre-emptions on Nov. 22. I
would guess that Ch. 4 pre-empted the "CBS Morning News With
Mike Wallace" and Ch. 5 pre-empted "Say When!" for JFK's breakfast
speech in Ft. Worth, Ch. 8 pre-empted Tennessee Ernie for JFK's
arrival at Love Field, and Ch. 4 would have pre-empted "Password"
had JFK made his speech at the Trade Mart (don't know if Julie Benell
stayed on until 1:30 or something else was on Ch. 8 at 1 PM).

And I know somebody's going to bring it up, so I should explain why
WRAL delayed "Queen For A Day." Raleigh/Durham was a two-station
market: WRAL (ABC, some NBC) and WTVD (CBS/NBC). WRAL's
schedule from 10 AM in the fall of '63 looked like this:

10 AM Time Out (local game show)
10:30 Word For Word (NBC)
11 AM Price Is Right (ABC)
11:30 Femme Fare (local women's show)
12 N Tennessee Ernie Ford (ABC)
12:30 Father Knows Best (ABC)
1 PM General Hospital (ABC)
1:30 Queen For A Day (ABC, delay from 3 PM)
2 PM Seven Keys (ABC, delay from 11:30 AM,
apparently to keep it near its old timeslot
of 2:30)
2:30 The Doctors (NBC) (pre-empts "Day In Court")
3 PM Loretta Young (NBC)
3:30 Who Do You Trust? (ABC)
4 PM ABC News (delay from 2:55)
4:05 Captain Five (local kids' show)
5 PM Trailmaster (ABC, delay from 4 PM)

WTVD had "As The World Turns"/"Password"/"Art
Linkletter's House Party" from 1:30-3 and would have
had not only the first bulletin on the shooting but
Cronkite's classic on-air announcement of JFK's death.

 

[Stanislav]

Just a silly thought, but has anyone tried to contact the guy who posted those clips on YouTube to ask what the source station was? It's a long shot -- he may not want to answer, or he may not even know (he could well have gotten that footage second- or third- or fourth-hand on the trading circuit...).

Of course, it's probably more fun to just speculate like this (I love a mystery...)

 

[mleach]

Thought so, about the Mountain time zone. So, among major market stations in that zone, that'd probably leave KTVK in Phoenix, AZ; KCPX (now KTVX) in Salt Lake City, UT; or KLZ (now KMGH) in Denver, CO, as being possible sources.

Since we are talking ABC, in Denver ( 1963 ) that would be KBTV ( later KUSA ) channel 9. It would be another 32 years before Denver's channel 7 ( KMGH/KLZ ) would join the ABC family.

WFAA Dallas coverage of JFK's assasination...that is on archive.org.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

I doubt the footage originated from the Mountain time zone, as
I'm pretty confident the Mountain zone stations did not do any
in-pattern delays for daytime in 1963, but rather aired most if
not all shows live off of the Eastern feed--and this for all three
of the networks.

The reason? Not enough tape machines. In checking the 1964
Broadcasting Yearbook (thanks again to the Old Gringo!), the
stations in Phoenix, Denver and Salt Lake reported having either
two or three tape machines. You need at least four VTRs to
effectively do a one-hour delay for a continuous period of several
hours--assuming you do record a backup (and I doubt a station
would risk not doing a backup unless it was for a one-week delay
or similar).

Father Knows Best would very likely have aired at 10:30am in
the Mountain time zone and the bulletins/pre-emptions did not begin
until the 11:30am MT half-hour. At that time, ABC affils were, for
the most part, still the "also rans" and would be less inclined to
flip stuff around during daytime.