11/22/63 RADIO COVERAGE FROM THE WESTINGHOUSE BROADCASTING COMPANY
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Sid Davis and others cover the story of President Kennedy's assassination for the Westinghouse (Group W) Broadcasting Company.
SOURCE: Kevin Lorusso
ALSO SEE: JFK-Assassinati...
![WESTINGHOUSE BROADCASTING COMPANY (NOVEMBER 22-24, 1963) [1-PART, 2.5-HOUR VERSION]](/img/1.gif)
Am so very humble. My beloved father, a native of Pittsburgh, was a longtime employee of a division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. So was I. Group W Broadcasting was so exceptionally prestigious in the different communities we lived and worked in. One was proud to state one worked for Westinghouse. I recall this legendary broadcaster and treasured American cultural contributor. We are all blessed by his life’s work. Thank you for these iconic descriptions. ❤. P. S. What a historic demonstration of these professionals’ yeoman work to harness the available technologies for the as it’s happening messaging to their fellow citizens.
This is an amazing find!
Sid Davis was White House correspondent for the Group W/Westinghouse-owned radio stations and a few dozen other stations that subscribed to Group W for news reports, mostly isolated taped reports with some accompanying teletype fact sheets.
The Group W stations at that time were WINS New York, WIND Chicago, WBZ Boston, KDKA Pittsburgh, KYW (previously and later WTAM; later WKYC and WWWE) Cleveland, and WOWO Fort Wayne, Indiana. None of these stations were yet all-news, so most taped reports were for use in local top/bottom of hour newscasts.
Group W also owned five network-affiliated TV stations at the time, which likely received most of their reports from the networks with which they were affiliated, some from Group W, and some local-reaction stories from their own reporters. Those stations were: KPIX channel 5 (CBS-affiliated) San Francisco, WBZ-TV channel 4 (then NBC-affiliated) Boston, WJZ channel 13 (then ABC-affiliated) Baltimore, KDKA-TV channel 2 (CBS-affiliated) Pittsburgh, and KYW-TV (NBC-affiliated, previously WNBK-TV; later WKYC) Cleveland.
By the end of the 60’s, FCC rulings led to Group W and NBC swapping their Philadelphia and Cleveland stations. For quite some time, NBC ended up owning WKYC, its station in Cleveland. Group W ended up owning KYW-AM/TV, the NBC affiliates in Philadelphia.
The beginning of this audio sounds like tape of Davis’ phone feeds to Group W HQ, which was in New York, though Westinghouse was based in Pittsburgh. Later audio seems to be of the New York HQ’s recording of Jim Snyder’s feed from Washington, including his phone interviews with Davis and others. Stations likely aired stretches of this live, but much of this was likely edited into shorter reports and sound bites for stations.
It’s routine for the White House to provide media outlets with advance copies of text of prepared remarks. Release of prepared remarks, in part or in full, is embargoed until after the speech. Reporters, and sometimes outlets, violating embargoes may be temporarily or permanently banned from receiving advance copies of prepared remarks. Davis and other reporters likely phoned/taped reports with past-tense references to the Trade Mart speech that morning in the press room set up at the hotel in Fort Worth.
Had the speech happened, Davis would have contacted Washington Bureau Chief Jim Snyder, who is heard on the tape, when the speech was done, with additional notes, perhaps sent by teletype, for local anchors to add to intros/outros to the report, to completely re-tape the report if needed, or to tell HQ if there was any reason not to feed the reports to stations at all.
The taped past-tense reports about the speech seem to have been taped off the phone feed at Group W in New York, and were almost certainly never fed to stations. Tape always rolls prior to feed, so most of the backstage patter on this tape was heard only at Group W in New York.
As Davis mentions, he was on the press bus, about ten vehicles behind JFK-not in the lead pool press car with the phone-and witnessed the pandemonium when the shots happened at 12:30 CT/1:30 ET.
In the press car with the phone, Merriman Smith, UPI’s reporter, grabbed the phone first, for scoop of the century. ABC radio went on air with the UPI story at 1:36 ET, and was first to reach a national audience. Bob McNeil of NBC was able to jump off the bus Davis was on, to call New York from the lobby of the School Book Depository. NBC radio and CBS television broke the news at 1:40 ET. By 2pm ET, about as soon as technology allowed, all radio and TV networks were providing continuous coverage, after a few brief initial bulletins. Dallas stations were able to offer their own live reports to DFW-area viewers early on.
While the presidential party’s cars sped to Parkland, Davis was among many reporters unceremoniously dumped at the Trade Mart, a mile from Parkland (not just four quick blocks, as David thought-very few places in Dallas were or are only a short walk to any other places). Reporters dashed to the phones inside to quickly phone in reports like the ones that were broadcast live as this recording was made, and also to quickly phone/tape more polished versions of their live reports. Then, reporters who hadn’t already found a way to Parkland, headed out front to fight for cabs, or to try to hitch rides with anyone they recognized. Davis hitched a ride from a stranger.
By the way, Johnson technically became president at the moment of JFK’s death. Ordinarily, the presidency automatically changes hands at noon ET on Inauguration Day. The oath is required-though, as with most Constitutional requirements of president, there’s no clear penalty for unimpeachable failures to meet requirements. Still, the oath isn’t what “makes someone president”. The pressure to quickly administer the oath is really a matter of protocol and of signaling stability and a smooth transition of power to the country and the world.
I hadn’t actually realized the extent of Group W’s news operations, outside of the news departments within its stations. Does anyone know more about this? Also: Is the woman reporter named Ann Corey? Corek? I’d like to know more about her.
I remember reading an account of JFK’s assassination that said, Lyndon Johnson probably became president while speeding to the hospital at 75 miles an hour.
Regarding the oath, Johnson became president when JFK died but technically couldn’t do anything til he took the oath of office
@@paulsonj72 Not so. A president has all the power of the office, from the moment the clock strikes 12 on Inauguration Day or the previous president is declared dead.
Thank you so very much !!!
The ending just gets you. It hits you right in the heart.
You are amazing Mr. Von Pein. Great stuff!
Wow! I was 17 in High School on The Day and remember every minute of it in PA. This is a find! I had never heard this broadcast. Westinghouse Corporate HQ was, of course, here in Pittsburgh at the time and still is.
Wow, this is amazing. Sid Davis just steals the show.
While I find the news broadcasts fascinating, I also find the "behind the scenes" comments fascinating as well, for example, the "can you be as calm as you can" right before the first report of the shooting.
DVP is the MVP.
Group W, Westinghouse Broadcasting. I grew up in the shadow of Westinghouse's WOWO, Fort Wayne, IN, probably the first station I ever knew about.
Outtakes! These are excellent. What a find.
Poor Sid. He couldn’t even remember his name, he was so upset.
Sid Davis trade mart report , as it should have been. Heartbreaking.
Thanks for posting this!
Sid Davis is so unnerved by the events (understandably) and I wonder if he was wondering if his previous report (done in advance) of JFK's speech at the Trade-Mart had gone out, when it was not supposed to (embargoed). But anyone who has been in radio knows that not everyone respects embargoes. By the David, great inside stuff from Westinghouse!! I hope for more of this. Thanks!
He was definitely rattled - "at the president time" and "I'm Sid Dallas" were clear indications of that...
Broadcasting 'news' BEFORE it has happened and therefore obviously when the reporter did not witness firsthand is HACK JOURNALISM. Not Sid's fault. Westinghouse is to blame.
The Artful Dodger NBC also quoted President Kennedy’s Dallas speech in their 1:00PM EST newscast, 30 minutes before the shooting.
@@gns423 There had been an embargo on the speech till 1pm when it was ended. JFK was to have given the speech by that time. They fell behind at the airport
@@theartfuldodger935 You’re obviously very ignorant about journalism. No one was broadcasting news that hadn’t yet happened. And if we insisted that only journalists who witnessed events could report on them, we would still be waiting for word on the fate of the Titanic.
It breaks my heart to hear Sid Davis' voice crumble at the end of this video...
There are some great interviews that Sid Davis has done with the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza over the years. Tons of them available on You Tube. He and many others. You get a really good sense of that day from it.
I guess this might be the closest to what was heard on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh since it was a major Westinghouse station.
"Group W, a Westinghouse Broadcasting station." Did Bill Burns stay on the air on KDKA TV rather than switch to CBS? I'd heard that years ago.
I am also in Pittsburgh and am wondering the same thing? On that day the news came over the PA System at 1:50 PM Eastern in my High School which clicked on over the classroom speakers. I remember because I looked at my watch in study hall to mark the historical time. But it must have been WMBS and not KDKA because what I remember was what appears on the CBS broadcasts on others of these historical broadcast programs. Total confusion at that stage with very sketchy developing information.
@@dougdrazga4461 That would be interesting to know. That sounds like what Bill Burns would have done. Man, did I have a crush on Patty Burns decades later ...
I would imagine Westinghouse Broadcasting (Like Mutual) also made their coverage available to stations with no network (Including their own)
That last clip at the end...Sid crying at the end.
So sad. I never heard the very end before. So sad.
Re your observation about him reporting the Trade Mart speech as if it had in fact been delivered: in one of the other videos you've posted of coverage (CBS Radio, I think), the anchor person stated that Kennedy's trade mart speech had been released to the press, and that some US afternoon papers ran it in their early editions.
Thanks for that info, Max.
That report by Davis was probably recorded for playback later.
@@historicusjoe121 Agree
The speech was embargoed til 13:00 hours(1:00 PM CT) After that it could be reported on. And in the original schedule the speech was scheduled for 12:30 and was due to be over by 1 PM
I know that Kennedy spoke earlier at Forth Worth. I wonder if he “misspoke.” But I doubt it. I volunteered at smaller stations AM and FM, the announcers always use terms like “reportedly will” before an event occurs. Assume nothing.
Great Reporting from Group W
Great stuff, David.
2:00 This broadcast was from an alternate universe where JFK was not assassinated. It describes the speech he gave at the Trade Mart. 1:14:20 Walter Cronkite had more composure than this dude.
Great stuff , David. Thank you !
KDKA RADIO 1020 A GROUP W WESTINGHOUSE BROADCASTING STATION. PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA!
WBZ 1030 Boston was a Westinghouse/Group W Station at the time.
So was 1010 WINS New York.
It’s Sid Dallas!!!
Walter Cronkite & Sid Dallas from Davis. Two Giants of the News Media.
It's crazy when you think about it...if it had just continued to rain..the bubble top would have been on the car, thus changing history.
Nothing is random. HIGHER POWER made sure the rain would stop. It was a conspiracy. But not by humans.
Kennedy didnt want the bubbletop on..told the secret service not to use it. It would have not saved him. The bubbletop was not made for security.
The Bubble Top was not bulletproof.
@@pauldavis5459 Doesn't matter. It's still possible it could have deflected a bullet on a shallow angle such as this. Also it's a psychological barrier, maybe Oswald upon seeing would think that it was and decided not to go through with it. No way to know but always something to think about.
So they took Sid Davis on the plane returning to D.C. - Who were the other 2 reporters ?
+Liz F Charles Roberts of Newsweek was one of them.
I believe the other pool reporter was UPI reporter Merriman Smith
Sid Davis was brought on board for the swearing in. He did not return to DC with AF1. He had to debrief the rest of the press pool on the ground following the event.
Who is the female reporter on the air with Sid at 57:00?
I've always wondered why there was no interview of the police officers who ran up the "grassy knoll" ( at least I have never seen one ). If the shots rang out from the other direction, why did they go up the grassy knoll to the railroad overpass?
I've posted this several times on social media. Media footage from the motorcade document several LEO running up the hill. Why? Detractors can only scoff. The question begs an answer. Because of instincts, or because they heard shots from that direction?
Hearing the Dallas PD radio recordings from that day , the Chief of Police, who was riding in the lead car broadcast for some patrolman to find out who those people are and why they’re up on the overpass.(paraphrasing) He also issued other directions as well. For instance he said to pull all of the people out of his department and secure the railroad right if way behind the picket fence, kept it locked down until the investigators can get in there and look at it. But that was probably why they were running to the overpass.
@@MrDavidfarris But the shots came from the TSBD , right ? So did the DPC think otherwise?
That was ultimately what they figured out. But in the moment, during all the confusion he issuing orders, trying to cover as many angles as he could from what he had observed. All while getting the motorcade to Parkland. But yes that is correct.
Just because you aren't aware of something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Maybe any LEO who went up the grassy knoll didn't find anything of note? As in, the truth.
2:02 President Kennedy took aim.....oh my
The fear of right-wing opponents is ironic because the assassin was a left-winger.
Yep...the media narrative has been the same for a long time.
LHO didn’t shoot ANYBODY; including General Walker.
@@nycsongman9758 You don't think Oswald was even responsible for shooting of the General?
The assassin was the Mafiooz. Corsican hitmen. Kennedys double-crossed the Mafiooz. No one survives that.
LBJ and j Edgar Hoover in on it from the start
I've always been curious about Westinghouse broadcasting, I think they just syndicated news and programs and were not quite a network, but I'm not sure. What a great find!
Group W syndicated some news and commentary to their owned and operated stations, such as WOWO, Fort Wayne, which likely used this coverage. They didn't have a top-of-the-hour news product.
Were they connected by a phone line?
WOWO, KYW (then in Cleveland), KDKA, WBZ and WINS all had fully staffed news departments. All but WINS (which never had a network affiliation and was bought by Westinghouse in 1962) were taken independent in 1956, a likely consequence of the WTAM-KYW forced station swap between NBC and Westinghouse.
4:16 - " . . . at the *president* time . . . "
Damn dude give him a break, you do understand what he is reporting on right?
Did they cut out the part where they announce his death?
Brandon Dougherty This service primarily provided disjointed reports for Group W stations and subscriber stations to include in their newscasts, so local anchors likely announced that when the official White House confirmation was teletyped to them by Group W and wire services.
it would have been a grand time
Sid Dallas!
Where were you November 22,1963?
Getting potty trained.
Those people should have known that Coolidge's father swore him in.I could understand them not knowing that fact in today's egalitarianism run wild society but not in 1963.
Hello
This is why Westinghouse decided to stick with making stoves and refrigerators...
They didn't just stick with consumer products. Westinghouse was a very diversified industrial conglomerate which started with railroad air brakes and still works on nuclear energy. Like NBC for RCA, Group W was formed in part to create a market for Westinghouse broadcasting equipment and receivers. They even made the television cameras NASA took to the moon.
Yeah, that owning hugely successful broadcast properties thing only worked for them for about seventy years.
1:14:47 was too far
JFK Assassination Who did it?
Colette Nasislski The Mafia. The Kennedys stupidly thought they could betray them after using them to get elected.
Colette Nasislski Lee Harvey Oswald. Case closed.
LHO
@@DK-ub5ph When was Lee's trial and conviction? I must have missed it! Because in America we are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law by a jury of peers!
Oswald
after we saw the president being shot we knew immediately that he was dead when Kennedy was taking him to the hospital there was another structure that went into the emergency room with him that has the body of The Bodyguard because the camera went to the room the private room that John Candy was in and we saw him sitting on the bed in fantastic condition so the cover-up was all right then to cover up the information of the death about president John Fitzgerald Kennedy there is no way in the world that we the students would have believed that he was still alive we knew he was dead at approximately 1 o'clock a doctor came out which is 12 o'clock Los Angeles Times right before we went to lunch and made the announcement that our president is dead but remember we saw the headshot at approximately 1245 Los Angeles Times and we knew that he was dead
Stanley Allen - wtf are you talking about? "John Candy"? Was Jerry Lewis there too? Are you claiming you saw the assassination firsthand? You said "we saw the headshot"... who is "we" and in what way did you witness it? Oh, and BTW... the film clip you saw of John Connaly in his hospital bed was taped a day AFTER the assassination. You would not have seen it on Nov 22.
Suggestion... try using punctuation when you write, instead of making your entire comment one huge run-on sentence. Please?
Stanley Allen, lay off the psilocybin for awhile, okay, pal?
Cocaine is a hellava drug
If you can follow what Stanley Allen wrote you can follow a marble rolling down concrete steps.