JFK Assassination: First Radio Network Bulletin

[mellie9227]

47 years today

[MsKeith1969]

may god rest jfk AND rfk's souls!!

[nholt]

What song is being played at the begining?

[JFKABCRadio]

@nholt As mentioned in the description for this video, the ABC Radio Network was providing its affiliated stations a program of popular music and had just begun feeding Doris Day's song, "Hooray For Hollywood", when the radio network's news division interrupted with this first bulletin.

[kennethchrane]

Please let me know where I may receive the entire ABC Radio Coverage of the JFK Assassination from November 22, through 25, 1963.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Chrane

P.S. HiFi only.

[bkj333]

@kennethchrane Hello, I believe I can be of assistance to you on this. It's my understanding that the entire collection of ABC Radio Network broadcasts from November 22-25, 1963 is located at the National Archives II building at College Park, Maryland.

[alysymon]

wow...even on the radio they said it was THREE shots...and not a magic bullet....

[JFKABCRadio]

Nothing amazing about that. Radio and TV news bulletins reported "three shots fired" because that's what reporters on the scene thought they heard.

As for the magic bullet or single-bullet theory... no one was talking about that on November 22, 1963. This was an issue that didn't arise until the 1964 Warren Commission report and the controversies the report caused.

[moboutmen]

chilling

[mhrvy1976]

shocking

[JBFrenchhorn]

RE: video description

How did Smith make a phone call from the car? What kind of equipment did they have?

[JFKABCRadio]

It was a mobile phone. Some people born after 1963 are surprised to learn that car phones existed in the early 1960s. However they did, as we noted in this Comments section a year ago. Back then, it was very rare to find someone with such an item in their car (this was long before cellular technology). At the time, it was usually the very wealthy or very powerful who had them. The Internet is filled with articles on the history of two-way communications in vehicles. Quite fascinating.

[JFKABCRadio]

Actually, what I should have said was that this was long before the commercial explosion in cellular technology, since cellular technology was in its early stages of scientific development in the 1960s (and was years away from becoming available to consumers).

[JBFrenchhorn]

Interesting.  Thanks for replying.

[JFKABCRadio]

Certainly. That phone that was located in the front seat of the motorcade's so-called "wire car" (whose occupants included the two wire service correspondents from UPI and AP) might be more accurately called a radio-telephone. In any case, Merriman Smith used the phone to speak with an Operator, who then at his request connected him with UPI's Dallas bureau.

[bapyou]

C.

I.

A.

[Beder7913]

Exactly.

[mysticmrsam]

his limo was probably just getting to the hospital when this first bulletin went out

[fatalityhawk]

wtf.... for something so old the sound quality of the song atleast seems great.

[vinnyStigerknight97]

i kno rite

[HerkyHawk1985]

Hard to believe that this november it will be 45 years since this tragedy happened. HerkyHawk1985

[RP19890]

Didn't know this until a minute ago, but this is the version of Hooray for Hollywood from 1958, not the original 1937 version from the movie.

[JFKABCRadio]

That's correct. This is the Doris Day version of "Hooray For Hollywood" released by Columbia on October 20, 1958. Ironically, it was also a favorite of President Kennedy's.

[troy19540]

I will never forget Don Gardiner's ABC Contemporary newscast on the June 1968 morning Robert Kennedy's body lie in state at the Capitol. I am still thinking about his [Gardiner's] moving work 40 years later.

[habbowolf9]

the song is "I have a boyfriend" acording to wikipedia, I don't know the artist

[JFKABCRadio]

You might be confusing your JFK assassination coverage. The song, "I Have A Boyfriend" was never played on any of the network radio feeds on November 22, 1963. It was played locally on independent radio station KLIF in Dallas, just before KLIF interrupted its regular programming for its first JFK shooting bulletin.

[GFI888]

This is a great piece of broadcast history. This is the kind of thing the Newseum should have, assuming they don't. Do you also know where to find the CBS radio bulletin from this day. I'd like to hear the Alan Jackson announcement that I have read about, but never heard.

[ntbsam]

There is a multi-part montage recorded from WCCO Minneapolis including the Alan Jackson announcement of the death of JFK. Please search WCCO JFK on You Tube.

[CrazyGamerGuy]

Who Was Singing? And What Is The Name Of The Song?

[MissDorisDay]

Great question! When you find out, let me know!

[HooorayForHollywoood]

Same here! That one's been bugging me, too!

[DDayHoorayForHwood]

Ditto!

[AHOOSIER]

I think I have a real good idea of who it might be. Now mind you it is just a hunch as I sit here looking at my DVD collection which includes: "SEND ME NO FLOWERS" "GLASS BOTTOM BOAT" "PILLOW TALK" "DO NOT DISTURB" MOVE OVER DARLING" and "WITH SIX YOU GET EGG ROLL". ;)

[aussiebeachut]

It's Doris Day and the song is "Hooray for Hollywood".. By the way.. This information is posted on the side where it says ..

About this video.. click on more..

[cathytreks]

Singer/Actress Doris Day Singing.

"Hooray For Hollywood" is the song.

[HomeoftheGoodGuys]

Yep! It's from the LP "Hooray for Hollywood".

[JFKABCRadio]

6. Don Gardiner was one of the best radio newsmen in the history of the business (Gardiner was an anchor man's anchor man of the first order) and the way he handled the initial ABC Radio network bulletin and handled all the rest of ABC Radio's live coverage in November 1963 was absolutely superb.

[JFKABCRadio]

5. It also could have been that there indeed were no more than three shots fired. We may never really know for sure. But one thing is for certain: there was nothing conspiratorial or sinister concerning the UPI wire bulletin itself or concerning the way Gardiner read that bulletin on the air.

[JFKABCRadio]

4. All of these occupants of the press car reported hearing no more than "three shots", not just Smith. Now that does not mean they were correct. It only means that this is what they have reported was their impression at the time. It could have been that there were more than three shots fired, by more than one gunman, but that some of the shots were fired too closely together to have been separately discernible to most human ears.

[JFKABCRadio]

3. Also riding inside that press car were Jack Bell of the Associated Press (who at one point wrestled with Smith for the car's only telephone), Bob Clark of ABC (who was the pool reporter for all radio and TV networks and was unable to make his first phone call to ABC in New York until they reached the hospital) and Malcolm Kilduff (who was the acting White House press secretary for the Texas trip and who officially announced the president's death an hour later at 2:33 pm EST).

[JFKABCRadio]

2. As stated in the description, the content of this UPI bulletin, including the information about "three shots" being fired, came from UPI White House Correspondent Merriman Smith, who was in Dallas and riding in a press follow-up car about three cars behind JFK's car. Merriman Smith dictated that first UPI bulletin by phone while still inside the press car as it raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital.

[Jamiep84]

They had car phones in 1963?

[JFKABCRadio]

Yes. Although the items were quite rare at the time, mobile phones did exist in 1963. But it was not the same kind of technology that we use today (this particular pool car, in the JFK Dallas motorcade, used a radio-telephone).

[Jamiep84]

I see. interesting. So were you working for ABC Radio at the time?

[JFKABCRadio]

1. As stated in this item's description, ABC Radio's Don Gardiner is in New York reading a UPI wire bulletin that had just cleared on the wires at 1:34 pm EST (about two or three minutes earlier). This same wire bulletin was available to all radio and television stations and networks throughout the United States who subscribed to UPI, and it was thus read over the air by many, many broadcasters (Gardiner was the first of the network broadcasters to read it to listeners).

[3theThird]

I love the way he repeats that it was "Three Shots" fired.

Maybe he gets his copy info from the same ticker as the BBC did before WTC 7 fell.

[stanleytone1]

thats the way news was.............straight and to the point........no hype........no bimbos....

and no meaningless endless, commentary by some no nothing ,snotty nosed celebrity.

there. i feel better now.

[noodlerocker17]

Wow. at one second adult contemporary music is playing on ABC Radio. the next moment, the world is upside down.

[noodlerocker17]

At one moment. Life in the United States was normal. mainstream Adult Contemporary music was playing on ABC radio. Then, the world turned upside down.

[devils950003]

Great find. Chilling.