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

...this year, the Past Daily historical audio website posted http://pastdaily.com/2012/11/23/lest-we-forget-the-jfk-assassination-november-22-1963/ a 22 November 1963 network linecheck of NBC Radio's hourly newscast, one of that day's "Emphasis" features (about former Vice President John Nance Garner, whose 95th Birthday it was that day) and the first bulletins (including the closed-circuit talkdowns and alert tones) about the shooting of President Kennedy and Governor Connally in Dallas. This linecheck apparently started rolling at 1:30 PM Eastern Time, the minute that the shooting occurred, and I've noticed that this same NBC hourly newscast was aired at 1:30 by WLW/700 Cincinnati https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pJ1q-3w-VU&feature=fvwrel even though the announcer specifies the newscast is "on the hour" rather than at half-past the hour. Did NBC refeed the most recent top-of-the-hour newscast at :30 past the hour on tape during this era?...

This is very interesting to listen to.

Thanks for giving up a "heads-up".

I remember listening to this as part of a 10 Year Anniversary special NBC Radio
ran back in 1973.

At that time, WLW Radio aired Ruth Lyons "50-50 Club" show that was also telecast in Cincinnati and three other cities. The show went from 12-noon to 1:30 P.M. When the program ended, WLW would broadcast a tape of the 1:00 P.M. NBC news starting at 1:30. My guess is the station was probably obligated to air the commercials that were a part of that newscast.

WLW's simualcast of the "50-50 Club" show began around 1959 and lasted to approximately 1980 or so. Beginning in 1967, Bob Braun became the host of the 90-minute program when Lyons retired. After WLW stopped airing the show, another AM outlet in the area carried it for a time.

...that was what I thought; I'd first heard the WLW aircheck of the assassination coverage some years ago, and assumed that WLW had taped the NBC News feed at 1:00 and run the tape back at 1:30, after Ruth Lyons' simulcast. The Past Daily linecheck suggests that NBC may have in fact refed the 1:00 newscast at 1:30 and WLW didn't need to tape it on their own, and I'm trying to confirm this was in fact the case. The newscast-to-"Emphasis"-to-first-bulletin seems to match up precisely with the time frame that WLW leaves the newscast to go into the "Tunepike" program and then cut to the first NBC bulletin in the middle of the overture to L'il Abner...

As I recall, when WLW was an NBC affiliate, the station featured local news on the half-hour with the network news on the hour. As such, the only time they aired NBC news on the half-hour was right after the 50-50 Club show on Monday-Friday. That's why I assumed it was WLW who did the taping of it. Not sure how you might find out for sure these many years later.

I don't know how to do Wikipedia edits, but someone needs to tell them that WLW was an NBC affiliate for over fifty years. Reading the station's Wiki entry, one gets the impression that with the exception of a single year, WLW has been with ABC since 1945. Not so.

This just shows the topics on Wikipedia are subject to question. There were times when WLW would pick up programs from the ABC Radio Network. An example would be in the late-50's-early 60's period when the station taped ABC's news at five minutes before the hour and ran it the following half-hour. It was somewhat confusing then to hear the ABC announcer say "Live at 55" and it was coming delayed 35 minutes later.

This blog site has HOURS of coverage from NBC Radio (Via WLW-AM 700 in Cincinnati) which you can find here (Short Version) or here (Long Version - 33 HOURS)

Most of it is NBC's national coverage with local cut-ins for local reaction, closures, event cancellations & the like - All related to the assassination

The site above also has coverage straight from Dallas as well courtesy of WBAP-AM 820 (Staffers were providing the news while WFAA-AM was on the air on 820 - WFAA staffers were mostly on the TV side. Coverage from WFAA-TV can also be found at the same site), KRLD-AM 1080 & (Perhaps the best & most unique one of 'em all) Gordon McClendon's KLIF-AM 1190

In any case, you can spend HOURS on that site ALONE !!! No fooling

Enjoy

Cheers & 73

Somehow, there's something about that WLW aircheck that sends chills up my spine even more than listening to the frenetic pace of the assassination coverage from KLIF and KILT (Houston). The announcer on the "Tunepike" Show (his name escapes me now) just keeps sounding so relaxed and laid-back even as he relates the news bulletins, and the calm, serene instrumental music the station starts playing right after he announces that the presentation of the "Li'l Abner" cast recording is cancelled makes it even more unsettling - such a contrast between the laid-back presentation, almost FM Beautiful Music style, and the fact that events were happening outside the studio that would change America forever. It's like they were making a concerted effort to try to keep people calm in the face of unspeakable tragedy. CBS Radio's coverage is chilling for similar reasons; perhaps it's the tone of announcer Allan Jackson's voice when he announces (prematurely, before the confirmation was official), "Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States is dead."

If you listen to WBAP (Fort Worth)'s coverage from the same day, it's equally chilling but for a different reason. They also went to instrumental music, but the first piece played on that aircheck, while certainly not cheery, is loud and brassy.

I'd love to find an aircheck someday of a Detroit station from 11/22/63 as the news started to break... 760 WJR was CBS, 950 WWJ was NBC, and 1270 WXYZ was ABC O&O with Top 40 outside the network programming. Does anyone have memories of how Detroit stations broke the news?

It is interesting how various stations and announcers dealt with the announcement of the JFK shooting and death. However, it must be remembered that, for the most part, the coverage of such an event was something none of the people involved had dealt with before. It might be remembered that at that time of the day (1:30 in the east and 12:30 in the central part of the country), many stations had minimal staff on hand so it was ripping and reading wire copy and, if the station had a network affiliation, going to it when it became available. That's why some still played music for a time as it gave them the chance to get off the board and get information to relay to listeners. You couldn't just go to dead air.

In this regard, I would point out that if you are able to watch a tape of the CBS-TV feed, you will see that even after the first bulletin is given by Walter Cronkite, the network returns to "As The World Turns" and there are even a couple of commercials and a promotion for a CBS-TV show for that night. Even they had to continue their programming until some news of the event could be gotten on the air.

I was in a college dorm on that day. When someone brought the news of the shooting to my and others attention, I began tuning up and down the AM radio in my room. Due to some previous planning, this particular radio was set up to bring in a number of stations even during the day and at each one I came to, the news was the same. There was no way to dial out of the nightmare.

ChrisInMI said:

Somehow, there's something about that WLW aircheck that sends chills up my spine even more than listening to the frenetic pace of the assassination coverage from KLIF and KILT (Houston). The announcer on the "Tunepike" Show (his name escapes me now)

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...Fred Bernard. He also did the 7-to-9 AM disc jockey shift that morning as well...

just keeps sounding so relaxed and laid-back even as he relates the news bulletins, and the calm, serene instrumental music the station starts playing right after he announces that the presentation of the "Li'l Abner" cast recording is cancelled makes it even more unsettling - such a contrast between the laid-back presentation, almost FM Beautiful Music style, and the fact that events were happening outside the studio that would change America forever. It's like they were making a concerted effort to try to keep people calm in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

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...which is precisely why I'm very favourably impressed with how Bernard handled things. I particularly like the fact that he took pains to calmly read the exact jumbled text of the UPI teletype copy that had just been handed him. It's very unfortunate that it's the Overture to Li'l Abner (a Comic Musical set in the rural Deep South) he goes into immediately after announcing the first bulletin, but that's hardly his fault, as he couldn't have simply flipped the air over to a newsroom that was still finding out what was happening in Dallas. In fact, when the newsroom does break in with their first bulletin, in the background you can hear one staffer informing a shocked co-worker ("Kennedy?" "Yeah.") before the third staffer makes the announcement. (It's also unfortunate that one of the dreary Percy Faith sides played before the top-of-the-hour NBC News is the major-key jazz standard "How High the Moon.") However, in other cities it wasn't a much better scenario; most West Coast CBS affiliates (including CBS O&Os KCBS San Francisco and KNX Los Angeles) interrupted and returned to an Arthur Godfrey Time program at a point when Godfrey and guest Gabriel Heatter are chuckling about customs in Florida (that morning's broadcast, produced live three hours earlier for the Eastern and Central zones, was from the Kenilworth Hotel in Miami Beach, partially owned by Godfrey). WCCO Minneapolis was the most jarring of all the situations: after the first (local) bulletin was read, the news announcer simply returns to the Farm Report he'd interrupted, right in the middle of a live (remote?) commercial for a local cattle slaughterhouse!...

...NBC-TV's East Coast bulletin on the night John Lennon was assassinated was similarly jarring, as the utility announcer broke into a Best of Carson and, not having a ready newsroom to flip to (couldn't WNBC-TV's local coverage have been picked up, or were they also scrambling in preparation for a local live piece?), simply returned to the Carson rerun in the middle of one of those comedy bits Johnny and Ed usually did at the desk and chair in the second segment...

CBS Radio's coverage is chilling for similar reasons; perhaps it's the tone of announcer Allan Jackson's voice when he announces (prematurely, before the confirmation was official), "Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States is dead."

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...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...

If you listen to WBAP (Fort Worth)'s coverage from the same day, it's equally chilling but for a different reason. They also went to instrumental music, but the first piece played on that aircheck, while certainly not cheery, is loud and brassy.

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...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...

I have parts 2-10 (is that all there is by the way) but I cannot get part one. I found a page where it is, but says that I cannot download it from Israel. Does anyone know if I can find part one (maybe another file will download) and anybody can help me, I would really appreciate it. Also is there more WLW coverage beyond part 10. The whole thing is about 33 hours, but that would only take it to Saturday night. I would think WLW would have interesting local programming when the network would shut down for the night (which is what I believe...that the radio webs went to bed early in the am, and came back a few hours later). In my home town of Norfolk, one station programmed funeral type music which was carried by much of the rest of the market's stations.

Thanks,

Joe

"In this regard, I would point out that if you are able to watch a tape of the CBS-TV feed, you will see that even after the first bulletin is given by Walter Cronkite, the network returns to "As The World Turns" and there are even a couple of commercials and a promotion for a CBS-TV show for that night. Even they had to continue their programming until some news of the event could be gotten on the air."

Also interesting to note that CBS (and I would guess the other networks) did not have a "camera ready" studio for announcements of great importance such as this. I think it is two bullitans or so and close to 2 o'clock before CBS could heat up a camera and put Walter's face on tv.

Later, CBS would install a "flash" studio, so that code one stuff could be on camera immediately.

Ironically, both NBc and CBS had their people on-camera that day before CBS and Cronkite, but not by much. We know that NBC had Ryan, McGee and Huntley on camera as of 1:56pm, which is when the network began rolling tape...four minutes before Cronkite was first seen. ABC had Ron Cochran on camera at 1:46 from a makeshift New York studio...so makeshift you could see the plaster and paneling in the background. they all learned a lesson from that weekend, which is to have a hot camera ready at all times.

Don Goddard was the initial on-camera anchor of ABC's coverage. It took Ron Cochran several minutes to arrive and once he got there, he had to spend time telling the audience (twice) how he was summoned from a restaurant where he had been eating lunch. He may not have intended it, but his entrance appears pretty pompous, walking right into the camera frame and taking Goddard's telephone handset and then his lavalier mic with a nervous grin.

I would even venture to guess that Ron Cochran had enjoyed a few martinis prior to being summoned to the studio. He just seemed to be a little "buzzed" IMO. It WAS a Friday afternoon, after all.

NBC had Ryan, McGee and Huntley on camera as of 1:56pm

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… but that was not on the network! The network was down until probably 2:00 PM when they would have started the afternoon soaps. It went dark after the end of the game show (CONCENTRATION?) ended at 11:58 AM. Local NBC affiliates were vamping until it came up at 2:00 and smack in the middle of the coverage without any introduction from the NBC news guys.

Over on ABC Radio, their director of operations (name escapes me right now) was on as early as 1:52 PM advising all stations the network would remain on the air until further notice. This was to alert any station that carried "News at :55" that hadn't already joined the coverage what was going on.

The 1:30 PM Mutual news had just concluded and the news reader (Del Sharbutt) was coming out of the booth when someone dashed in with the bulletins and shoved him back into the studio. It took them about 30 seconds to get him back on the air.

Charles Collingwood spelled Cronkite a few times that afternoon on the direct orders of the director, Don Hewitt. On his first relief was when Cronkite discovered he'd been on the air in his shirt sleeves; his coat was draped on the back of his chair. I think Cronkite did anchor the Friday night coverage.

Actually, Walter Cronkite was not on the air much on that Friday, despite his own claims that he was on for several hours before being relieved. Within fifteen minutes of his announcement of the President's death, he was briefly relieved by Charles Collingwood. He then came back briefly a short time later, announcing that LBJ had been sworn in, but was then quickly relived by Collingood and then by Harry Reasoner. Cronkite didn't come back on again until 6:30 when he anchored an extended version of the CBS Evening News. Shortly before 8pm, the broadcast was over and Harry Reasoner took over for the rest of the night. Cronkite did anchor much of Saturday's coverage however, from 9:30 am until late in the afternoon when Reasoner and Robert Trout relieved him.

To me, what was shown on the CBS-TV Network that afternoon (once a camera was warmed up) was basically radio news with a camera. You had Cronkite not wearing a suitcoat, a desk microphone in front of him, various employees moving about behind him and from time-to-time handing him wire copy to read. Even a wire photo showing a still picture of the President in the parade route was held by Cronkite for the camera to zoom in on.

This is not meant to be critical, but rather a look at a news department and a network using what they had available at the time. It was probably the first time in TV history that such an event had taken place and each radio and TV network did all it could to get it covered.