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)
...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.
...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."
...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.
...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...