The Death Of Martin Luther King, Jr.

[classictvfan]

Why is there no thread on the television coverage of his murder? What I wanted to ask was this:
what was the order in which the three networks broke in with news on it?

 

[Stanislav]

Why is there no thread on the television coverage of his murder?

Because no one started one yet -- now you have, so we will discuss.

What I wanted to ask was this: what was the order in which the three networks broke in with news on it?

I'd be curious myself as to how it was covered -- never seen any video clips of the coverage. I do have an audio file (downloaded ages ago from a now defunct website) of an NBC-TV bulletin regarding the shooting -- whether it was the first bulletin that broke network programming, I don't know. (I put a copy of that file HERE for anyone who wants to hear it -- look for the tiny print link that says "Click here to download the file").

Given that it's the 40th anniversary, it would have been nice if A&E put together an "As It Happened" special.

 

[Ultimajock]

I do have an audio file (downloaded ages ago from a now defunct website) of an NBC-TV bulletin regarding the shooting -- whether it was the first bulletin that broke network programming, I don't know. (I put a copy of that file HERE for anyone who wants to hear it -- look for the tiny print link that says "Click here to download the file").

...that's the NBC *radio* bulletin, not the TV. I believe the TV had Chet Huntley delivering it; the shooting occurred just as that night's "Huntley-Brinkley Report" had wrapped...

 

[RALfan]

If y'all didn't know already, I have already posted a nearly accurate schedule of that day:

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,96764.0.html

 

[Stanislav]

I do have an audio file (downloaded ages ago from a now defunct website) of an NBC-TV bulletin regarding the shooting -- whether it was the first bulletin that broke network programming, I don't know. (I put a copy of that file HERE for anyone who wants to hear it -- look for the tiny print link that says "Click here to download the file").

...that's the NBC *radio* bulletin, not the TV. I believe the TV had Chet Huntley delivering it; the shooting occurred just as that night's "Huntley-Brinkley Report" had wrapped...

My bad.....I was going by memory and the file name...guess I should have listened to it anew before I shot off my mouth...

 

[Stanislav]

Totally by accident (I wasn't searching) I came across this gent's YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/dcat918

.....where prominently featured right on the main page are 4 files comprising the 4/4/68 "CBS Evening News" with Walter Cronkite! The comments speculate about whether this was the East Coast broadcast or an updated feed for western TZs....if the former, it may have been the first word on CBS about the assassination.

 

[pqgeorge]

Totally by accident (I wasn't searching) I came across this gent's YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/dcat918

.....where prominently featured right on the main page are 4 files comprising the 4/4/68 "CBS Evening News" with Walter Cronkite! The comments speculate about whether this was the East Coast broadcast or an updated feed for western TZs....if the former, it may have been the first word on CBS about the assassination.

I have a feeling that it was the feed for the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. Dr. King was assassinated at 6:01 PM, Central Time. At the time, most Eastern/Central CBS affiliates took the 6:30 feed (5:30 PM Central) after the local news. Considering that they had color film inserts from Memphis and the President came on to speak to the nation about the tragedy, it was probably around 8:00 or 8:30 PM eastern time. So it was probably the Pacific feed. I saw the first bulletin on ABC between 7:30 and 8:00 PM, which was a voice-over with a camera view of the actual AP teletype feed. Surprisingly, my first actual info about the shooting came from WSBK-TV (Channel 38 in Boston) who (voice-over) said that "The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. has been shot, repeating... the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been shot".

 

[KML0224]

I also seem to remember that James Brown had done a concert at Boston Garden for NET/PBS either that night or the night after. He had to urge the crowd several times to stay calm and enjoy the show.

 

[pqgeorge]

I also seem to remember that James Brown had done a concert at Boston Garden for NET/PBS either that night or the night after. He had to urge the crowd several times to stay calm and enjoy the show.

You are correct. WGBH-TV (Channel 2) broadcast James Brown's Boston Garden Concert the night after Dr. King was assassinated. I believe James Brown's concert probably saved Boston from the same riots that sprung up everywhere else. I remember, all too well, the violence that happened that week. I remember watching the funeral with my Mom the following week. And of course, some 8 weeks later, Bobby Kennedy met with same fate. I was eight years old, but I remember everything that occured that year. Hard to believe that it was 40 years ago.

 

[bpatrick]

Dr. King's nephew, now a minister in Greensboro, NC,
was seven years old and living in Louisville when his
uncle was killed. He said he was watching "I Dream
Of Jeannie," which at the time aired on delay in Louisville
Thursdays at 7 PM, when the first bulletin came on.

I seem to recall one of the Norfolk stations breaking in
about 7:15 with a bulletin. It's also possible that the
networks had something about it on their 7 PM feeds,
although I doubt it; no one anticipated it, and the 6:30
feed was off the air before the shooting.

Our local CBS affiliate, WFMY/2, had some old footage
of their 11 PM newscast on April 4, 1968 that they showed
on Friday's "Good Morning Show." If you want
to see their report of the shooting and the aftermath,
go to www.digtriad.com.

 

[Stanislav]

I was eight years old, but I remember everything that occured that year. Hard to believe that it was 40 years ago.

I was all of 10 myself, yet aware enough of current events to shake my head along with everyone else and say to myself "what the hell is going on?" King assassinated, racial riots, Johnson announcing he would not run, Bobby Kennedy assassinated, protests and "cops gone wild" at the Democratic convention....sheesh.

And yet, right as the year was about to end, we were all awestruck and inspired watching Apollo 8 orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve, with the astronauts quoting from Genesis. I recall reading that the astronauts in particular and NASA in general got many letters and telegrams to the effect of "Thank you -- you saved 1968 for us."

 

[Stanislav]

I have a feeling that it was the feed for the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. Dr. King was assassinated at 6:01 PM, Central Time. At the time, most Eastern/Central CBS affiliates took the 6:30 feed (5:30 PM Central) after the local news. Considering that they had color film inserts from Memphis and the President came on to speak to the nation about the tragedy, it was probably around 8:00 or 8:30 PM eastern time. So it was probably the Pacific feed.

I wonder if the East Coast affiliates would have broken practice and carried that feed as well, given as it was probably the first "hard news" of the assassination. Did that ever happened for any reason -- running a second feed of "CBS Evening News" or "Huntley-Brinkley" because of major breaking news between feeds?

 

[radiorob2.0]

I also seem to remember that James Brown had done a concert at Boston Garden for NET/PBS either that night or the night after. He had to urge the crowd several times to stay calm and enjoy the show.

You are correct. WGBH-TV (Channel 2) broadcast James Brown's Boston Garden Concert the night after Dr. King was assassinated. I believe James Brown's concert probably saved Boston from the same riots that sprung up everywhere else. I remember, all too well, the violence that happened that week. I remember watching the funeral with my Mom the following week. And of course, some 8 weeks later, Bobby Kennedy met with same fate. I was eight years old, but I remember everything that occured that year. Hard to believe that it was 40 years ago.

There was a discussion of that show elsewhere on the web. The mayor of Boston quickly arranged the concert telecast. His hope was James Brown would have a larger audience to urge calm, it worked.

 

[DrBear]

Sorry to bring this back up but I was going through looking for something else and found this...

I was watching in Green Bay WI that night, and at 6:25 the local anchorman interrupted the sports anchor to announce the shooting. I think they went to the network at the bottom of the hour. (This would have been at the same time that the 7 pm ET network news feeds would have been running).

 

[Ultimajock]

I was watching in Green Bay WI that night, and at 6:25 the local anchorman interrupted the sports anchor to announce the shooting. I think they went to the network at the bottom of the hour. (This would have been at the same time that the 7 pm ET network news feeds would have been running).

...I'd have to think that you were watching either WBAY-TV/2 (CBS, Les Sturmer?) or WFRV/5 (NBC, had Don Sidney moved over from 2 by that time?), as WLUK/11 (ABC) was running the hour-long edit of The Mike Douglas Show between the end of ABC's 5:00 P.M. CT evening newscast and the beginning of prime time...

 

[ixnay]

I was all of 10 myself, yet aware enough of current events to shake my head along with everyone else and say to myself "what the hell is going on?" King assassinated, racial riots, Johnson announcing he would not run, Bobby Kennedy assassinated, protests and "cops gone wild" at the Democratic convention....sheesh.

I was 6y 7m 8d old on 4/4/68. All I remember of MLK/RFK (and for that matter JFK) is watching RFK's funeral from St. Patrick's Cathedral, and later on watching (on Philly's WCAU-10) the funeral train crawling through North Philadelphia station (Ted was waving out the back porch of the last [casket] car). I never heard of RFK until I watched his funeral with my mom at my paternal grandparents'. I never heard of MLK or his assassination or career until 3 or 4 years later.

And yet, right as the year was about to end, we were all awestruck and inspired watching Apollo 8 orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve, with the astronauts quoting from Genesis. I recall reading that the astronauts in particular and NASA in general got many letters and telegrams to the effect of "Thank you -- you saved 1968 for us."

Well, sorry, I didn't feel any of *that*. :-[ I do remember bawling my eyes out because the launch of Apollo 8 preempted my beloved CBS Saturday morning "Cartooniverse" including The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show and Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races (Dastardly and Muttley, meet Borman, Lovell, and Anders ;D :-[). But space mission-generated preemptions is a topic for another thread.

ixnay

 

[DrBear]

I was watching in Green Bay WI that night, and at 6:25 the local anchorman interrupted the sports anchor to announce the shooting. I think they went to the network at the bottom of the hour. (This would have been at the same time that the 7 pm ET network news feeds would have been running).

...I'd have to think that you were watching either WBAY-TV/2 (CBS, Les Sturmer?) or WFRV/5 (NBC, had Don Sidney moved over from 2 by that time?), as WLUK/11 (ABC) was running the hour-long edit of The Mike Douglas Show between the end of ABC's 5:00 P.M. CT evening newscast and the beginning of prime time...

As I remember it was Don Sidney...this was 1968, so he had moved over. I really don't remember who was on TV-2 at the time...

One of my favorite TV memories was one of the late sessions of a Democratic convention ending up at 3 a.m. They hung around to do the newscast (!) and Sidney signed off, as he always did, promoting the program and holding up his hand for five fingers (on Channel 5, of course). Usually it was Johnny Carson or whatever the 6:30 sitcom was...but this time he said
"Meditation and the National Anthem - next on 5!"

(By the way, this was during WLUK's dark period of no-news which didn't end until 1971).

 

[bpatrick]

Network newscasts went live on the second feed if
there was breaking news; I remember during the Yom
Kippur War Harry Reasoner closed the 6 PM feed of ABC's
news with the bare headline of an event that had taken
place; at 6:30 it was the lead story (I know because I
switched from WLOS to WXIA to see what was going on).

But King was killed at about 7:15 PM (ET), so it's not
likely Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley were on live.

 

[davalvideo]

that evening, all three networks carried lengthy special reports on the assassination of Dr. King. ABC's was anchored by Bob Young and included Peter Jennings with some additional reporting. Tom Jarell reported live from Memphis, which incouded film from the Lorraine Motel and Saint Joseph's Hospital where King died. NBC aired a lengthy report anchored by Chet Huntley which also included a direct report from Memphis, plus a short photographic bio of Dr. King and a profile og Memphis, where the crime occured. Huntley concluded the broadcast with an eloquent commentary and a replay from 1963 of Dr. King's I Have a Dream Speech. CBS' special was anchored by Joseph Benti and included a direct report from Russ Hodge from the network's Memphis affiliate, which included film from both the Lorraine Motel and the hospital. Chares Kuralt narrated a filmed biography of Dr. King and Dan Rather hosted a panel discussion of civil rights leaders, including the NAACP's Roy Wilkins. A filmed segment from Indianapolis showing RFK talking about King's death was also included. The broadcast both began and ended with segments from Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" Speech. All three networks carried the remarks (in black and white strangely) of President Johnson shortly after DR. King's death was announced.

 

[MCarney]

Here's the ABC coverage with Bob Young:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=1804170