TVTechnology: TV Coverage of Kennedy assassination

[old_tv_nut]

TVTechnology article on television technology in 1963 for coverage of Kennedy assassination.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/feature-...ination/222441

[earlyfilm]

At the time of the Assassination, remote trucks were very rare. The former Crosley ABC network station in Atlanta, WLW-A's remote bus had been under contract to CBS(?) Sports for football coverage and happened to be nearby. NBC(?) found out about it and promptly leased it for NBC's use in their news coverage.

For a picture of this bus, see the fourth image on Chuck Pharis' web site where it looks like his webmaster got bit by the spelling checker on the bus name:

http://www.pharis-video.com/p1660.htm

This WWII era Flxible bus was originally built with a pre-NTSC standard video cameras and had been acquired by the station from War Surplus. It had been loving rebuilt by the station to NTSC standards. It was thought that this remote van and equipment had been used in the atomic test in Nevada by the military. During the coverage, the bus had to relocate several times and its 30+ year old differential decided to fail. In a panic, they had two big wreckers hoist the bus on to the back of the very big flat bed trailer, where it lived, chained to the trailer, for the rest of the news coverage.

They were panicking as the Ampex VTR in the truck had to be carefully leveled before use and it was no longer possible here as the bus was sitting high in the air on the lowboy's wheel wells, but the recordings apparently did work well enough to be used with the equipment in this position.

This happened about 3 years after I had left WLW-A, so I'm repeating the story as I heard it from others, back in the day. WLW-A TV is now WXIA TV 11.

[old_coot88]

How many here remember exactly where they were and what they were doing 50 years ago this morning?

[Dangler]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

How many here remember exactly where they were and what they were doing 50 years ago this morning?

I was 13 and at Starr Commonwealth For Boys in Albion, Michigan. We were watching the movie "The Man In The Iron Mask" in the gymnasium. The movie was stopped and everyone was sent back to their respective cottages. To this day, I still haven't seen the rest of that movie.

[IsthmusTV]

CBS News has assembled a bunch of clips of their coverage in 1963.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jfk-assa...allas-unfolds/
The clip of "shocked reaction of people on the street" shot in Chicago, appears to have been originally recoded on videotape and not 16 mm film.

I was three years old, living in Chicago. I complained to my mother that Bozo's Circus was not on because the president had been shot. I'll never forget the look on her face.

[kvflyer]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

How many here remember exactly where they were and what they were doing 50 years ago this morning?

I will paste what I posted on my Facebook page today:

Today is November 22, 2013. Exactly 50 years ago, it was a Friday and I was in High School. I was a sophomore, 15 years old. Sitting in the afternoon religion class, the bitch box suddenly came to life. A song was playing, "500 Miles" by Bobby Bare. Then, the station was changed and we were informed that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas.

Like most of my friends then and now, I was very sad. What I saw was the horse without a rider, the boots turned backwards in the stirrups, and the drums beating the death march the entire way. I remember the horse was rather feisty not following along, rather switching back and forth.

And I also remember Jacks little son John, giving the salute to his dad...

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

How many here remember exactly where they were and what they were doing 50 years ago this morning?

I was in 4th grade, but home sick that day. I was watching cartoons on our B&W set (a console Magnavox my father had gotten without a cabinet, we used a separate audio amp for the sound), on one of the independent TV stations of New York City at the time, and then the breaking news preempted the cartoons. Then it was wall to wall coverage for the next 4 or so days. Memory is hazy if I saw the assassination live, but I couldn't have. Maybe it was Jack Ruby taking Oswald out a few days later.

[old_coot88]

I was on the roof of the Texaco bulk plant midway between Globe-Miami, AZ. Had just delivered a TV set they had bought from us for their office, and was installing the roof antenna (a UHF bowtie corner reflector, since the area was served by UHF repeaters). Came down and the set was already on, everybody in stunned silence at the breaking news.

[egrand]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

TVTechnology article on television technology in 1963 for coverage of Kennedy assassination.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/feature-...ination/222441

There's a few things in that article that are wrong. One of them is that youtube clip of Don Pardo's voice over the NBC color slide was made up. There is no video of Don Pardo's first two announcements, or of the first three minutes of live camera's in the WNBC newsroom with Bill Ryan and Chet Huntley. I don't think anyone knows for sure what slide NBC used for Pardo's announcements.

A reel to reel audio recording made by a guy named Phil Gries surfaced in the 90's, and that is the only known record.

All of CBS and ABC's coverage through the end of the funeral on that following Monday exist. All of NBC's after the first three minutes exist. Most of it was on youtube until earlier this year when it started disappearing. Apparently each of the networks planned specials and had the footage pulled from youtube.

If you think NBC's coverage is disorganized that day, you should see ABC's! They were totally befuddled. They didn't even have a camera in their newsroom. The first 30 minutes is literally in an empty studio with lumber leaning against the wall and junk around. Ron Cochran is out of breath and sweaty from having to run many blocks from a restaurant where he was having lunch. You see workers behind him hanging up sheets and trying to create a temporary set for him.

CBS was also far less polished than they would have you believe. Dan Rather went to the Dallas Trade Mart on the press bus, and wasn't able to give much info. CBS was relying mainly on wire bulletins that were often confusing and late in details. In fact, NBC beat them by a few minutes with the official announcement of Kennedy's death because they had Robert MacNeil at Parkland Hospital on a live phone hook-up. Cronkite reported it a few minutes later when they got the word on a press wire.

Funny thing is today most people say they remember watching Cronkite on TV that weekend. However, Nielson did continue tracking ratings that weekend and NBC was on top most of the time. And, most people still heard about the assassination on radio, not on tv.

MSNBC is planning to run NBC's coverage of the assassination sometime this weekend. C-SPAN is going to show NBC's rare coverage of the funeral on Sunday.

I wasn't born yet in '63. A few years ago I was at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH and toured Air Force One tail number 2600 that carried JFK to and from Dallas that day. In the back of the plane a section of wall was literally cut out with a jig saw to make room for the casket. The wall was put back with the cut mark still there as a reminder of what happened that day.

[Reece]

I was in college in Beaumont, Texas, walking back to school from lunch at a hamburger joint with two friends. I noted the sky had some ominous dark clouds with the sunlight playing on them like the twilight of the gods, and my friend said the German term for it, Gotterdamerung, from Wagner. As we approached the first college building we saw a group gathered around a car: the guy in the car had his radio on and that's where we first heard the news. After that we walked over to the student union where crowds of students were watching it all unfold on TV. All over the country movie theatres shut down for some days and it was all very somber for some time.

[bgadow]

I have the NBC coverage on VHS, from when PBS rebroadcast it one year. Maybe I'll take a look at it again this weekend. I was really amazed how fast they were able to get up and running given the circumstances and technology. As I recall, before the evening news they were already interviewing folks on TV who knew Lee Harvey Oswald.

[W3XWT]

I was seven years old in second grade. I was off early from school that day due to a teachers meeting. So, I was at my paternal grandmother's. I was reading the latest Popular Mechanics (you would expect me to read a comic book? Other than "Archies" (I liked "Veronica", but also wanted to be like "Archie" when I got older!), I only read one Flintstones comic. It was one my maternal grandfather bought me (from the drugstore in Wagener, SC) because Fred was a ham op in it, and my grandfather thought I'd be interested!), and "As the World Turns" was on WTOP-TV. Yes, my grandmother was addicted to quiz shows and soaps. When the audio muted, I looked up and saw the slide so many of us would later see on VTR. My father picked me up and we drove downtown to pickup my mother who was getting off early from work. She was a GS'er, working at 19th and Pennsylvania Ave, three blocks from the White House. My father had the Mutual affiliate, WOL-1450 on our Mercury Meteor's radio as we drove on in. We were stopped at Pennsylvania Ave by police as a whole bunch of limo's dashed out of the White House, apparently heading for Andrews AFB.

Once home, we watched the coverage on WMAL-TV, as that was the station my parents preferred for news.

On Sunday, I got to see LHO get blown away like everyone else who was watching NBC-TV. (WRC-TV in our case...)

Non-electronic aside #1: My father was at the BX at Bolling AFB that day, buying my Christmas toys when the news hit. They immediately closed the base.

Non-electron aside #2: My parents bought and serviced the Meteor (Mercury's version of that generation's Ford Fairlane) at O'Brien & Rohall, a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in Rosslyn, VA. The dealer had the service contract for the Presidential bubble-top limo. One day, our Meteor and the bubble-top were in for service at the same time. And, I got to briefly sit in the spot JFK would later occupy on that day in Dallas. I understand the car was later destroyed in "target practice"...

[Jeffhs]

Youtube currently has a three-part series on the TV coverage of Kennedy's assassination by NBC. I've downloaded the first two parts of the series to my computer already, and will download the last one tonight before I go to bed. Tomorrow I'll burn them to DVDs. I'm interested in this because NBC was then and is to this day my most-watched TV network for news; a lot of my favorite dramas are also showing up on NBC's cable networks, particularly USA Network which carries Law & Order and at least one of its spinoffs.

There was also a special program on NBC tonight, "Where Were You? The Day JFK Died", which I watched with interest. I was seven years old in 1963 and in grade school; we heard of Kennedy's assassination over the PA system, and were sent home early that day. Of course, the news was all over TV (all three networks at that time) and was in the papers the next day.

[egrand]

Originally Posted by W3XWT

I understand the car was later destroyed in "target practice"...

Wow, it must have been fascinating to be that close to history!

Nope, the car still exists and is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn (I've also been there a few times and seen it). It was always owned by Ford Motor Co., who leased it to the US Government for $1.00 a year. After the assassination, it went back to Ford, who took out the interior and stored it, totally refitted it, changed the outside to look like a newer model, and welded on a permanent steel top. It was used by Johnson and Nixon before being returned to Ford Motor.

[Telecruiser]

Here is a remote unit that was actually there. www.telecruiser.com. It was used to feed the network coverage of the J. D. Tippitt funeral. He was the Dallas police officer who was shot by Oswald.