PATRICK McDONALD SAID:
At 12:30pm Central Time on November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullet. The three shots that echoed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, have resonated for years, but beyond the actual event there was a treasure trove of TV and radio coverage that was recorded.
David Von Pein has collected this coverage and it can be found on his comprehensive YouTube channel. Click HERE to start browsing.
Not only has David found high-quality, as-it-happened video from the three major networks at the time -- CBS-TV, NBC-TV and ABC-TV -- but the channel also contains the local Dallas coverage (TV and radio) and a collection of radio coverage from different markets, special programming and post-assassination coverage, including the killing of JFK's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, and JFK’s funeral.
The depth, breadth and dive into this media is a revealing time machine, both in being within the midst of the events and the state of the journalism of the time, including an important step in television news coverage that preceded and predicted the future 24/7 news cycle.
I’ve been a fan of the channel for many years, and I continue to visit for the updates or to re-listen or re-watch the hours and hours of broadcasting, learning more about the times of the assassination and the atmosphere that the media created. The television news teams 58 years ago were best described as “radio on the air,” as the ability to go live to an event was hampered by the overwhelming bulk of cameras and remote broadcasting capabilities in the pre-digital age. Yet, NBC-TV was able to show the Lee Harvey Oswald killing live (still chilling) and the technology of “instant replay,” which was to make its debut at a college football game in December of 1963, was then utilized to re-show a murder on television.
In my interview with curator David Von Pein, we talk about his journey within all things assassination-related and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
QUESTION:
DVP, thank you for getting back to me regarding this inquiry. In all the stuff on the web and on YouTube, yours is actually one of the most passionate collections, and it contributes and enhances our culture, education and knowledge. It's an honor to have you answer the questions below....
The depth, breadth and comprehensiveness of your YouTube channel on the assassination of John F. Kennedy continues to astound me. In collecting all this audio/video ephemera, what strikes you about the state of the U.S. and the world on November 22nd, 1963, and what do you think it reveals to us today?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Well, Patrick, this is probably going to sound silly and naive, but whenever I watch or listen to anything from my JFK Assassination audio/video collection, I often can't help but think to myself how much better everything seemed to be back in the early 1960s.
I think perhaps I belong permanently in the Kennedy era of the '60s. And my fixation on JFK material and other videos focusing on that decade would tend to support my last statement.
Things in the 1960s seemed to be simpler. People dressed nicer. People talked better, using less slang and much better grammar than today (for the most part). There were no smartphones in everybody's hands. No personal computers. No $50,000 SUVs with GPS. No 55-inch HD televisions. No Amazon.com. And no Office of Homeland Security.
Mind you, I'm not knocking all those electronic gadgets that we have in today's world that didn't exist in 1963. Oh no! Not at all! I love my new 50-inch Toshiba LED 4K UHD Smart FireTV television set. It's great. And I don't know how I could survive for even a single day without my PC. I'd be totally lost without that contraption (and I'd probably be forced to commit hari-kari if I had to go more than two days without hearing the dulcet tones of the Microsoft Windows start-up theme music). 😁
So from strictly a technological standpoint, the world we live in today certainly beats out JFK's era by a mile (or more). I was just attempting to comment on how different and simpler—and less mechanical—everything was back in 1963.
I don't really have an opinion about the "politics" of 1963 vs. the political situation as it exists today in 2021. I'm not a political person at all. I stay away from discussions regarding politics as much as I can. But I will say this: I think we lost one of the best Presidents this country ever had when Lee Harvey Oswald fired those three shots at John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
PATRICK McDONALD:
In a previous interview that you've done, you ruminated on the strangeness of the Father Knows Best episode that gets interrupted by the ABC bulletin on the assassination and then is returned to complete before they go to their 24/7 coverage. In the other audio or video within the collection, can you point toward any other instance where the initial bulletin is proclaimed, and then the "normal" programming is resumed to strike a before and after ironic note?
DAVID VON PEIN:
Well, I don't know about the "ironic note" part of this, but there are other examples of television and radio stations and networks resuming their regular programming on 11/22/63 after delivering their initial bulletins on the Presidential shooting. A good example of this happening comes from the CBS-TV coverage on November 22nd, when the normal CBS soap opera that was airing between 1:30 and 2:00 PM (EST)—"As The World Turns"—was interrupted at 1:40 PM (EST) by Walter Cronkite's first voice-over bulletin about the assassination attempt against President Kennedy that had just occurred minutes earlier in Dallas, Texas. That first CBS-TV bulletin lasted for precisely 59 seconds, with CBS then going back to regular programming with a Nescafe coffee commercial.
Other instances (on radio) of regular Friday programming being resumed on 11/22/63 after the first assassination bulletin was aired include the coverage of the ABC Radio Network. [Note——The resumption of the regular program that was interrupted by Don Gardiner, however, is not heard on my archived version of the ABC Radio broadcast. But it is clear from Gardiner's words that the day's regular programming was being resumed for at least a brief period following ABC Radio's very first bulletin concerning the shooting—which, by the way, is a bulletin that beat all other national radio and television networks to the punch on November 22nd. ABC Radio was the first national U.S. network to report on the Dallas shooting, at 1:36 PM EST (12:36 PM CST in Dallas).]
Here are five additional examples of local radio stations from across the country which went back to their regularly scheduled programs following their first assassination bulletin:
KLIF Radio in Dallas, Texas:
WLW Radio in Cincinnati, Ohio:
KNX Radio in Los Angeles, California:
KXA Radio in Seattle, Washington:
WTIC Radio in Hartford, Connecticut:
The WTIC audio above has become one of my very favorite assassination-related videos. (See the description I wrote within my WTIC logo above.) It was first made available in 2013 (on YouTube) by Doug Bertel, the son of one of the WTIC announcers, Dick Bertel, who can be heard during the November 22 Hartford coverage.
Here's something else concerning that WTIC Radio broadcast that might be of some interest --- it's an e-mail conversation I had with Doug Bertel on November 22, 2013 (which was, of course, the 50th anniversary of JFK's death):
E-Mail Subject: WTIC
Date: 11/22/2013 (3:06 PM EST)
From: Doug Bertel
To: David Von Pein
------------------------------
Hi, Dave!
I've got to say, it's kind of a thrill to make your acquaintance. I really do admire your collection of JFK materials and can't help but be flattered that you found the WTIC audio worthy to be included in it. I guess it's fair to say that I'm a fan.
Also, I wanted to tell you that I love that you appended the audio from WLW to the end of the WTIC recording. The audio from my dad's collection just ends where it does in my video. I actually thought about doing what you did, but decided against it for two reasons. One, the WLW audio was yours and I didn't want to "steal" it. And also, I didn't want to suggest that the WTIC audio is more complete than it actually is. But given your collection and the stature it lends you, you were in a much better position to address both of those matters. And, in fact, your version is just better story telling --- which is what makes radio great anyway.
Best regards,
Doug
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E-Mail Subject: WTIC
Date: 11/22/2013 (4:24 PM EST)
From: David Von Pein
To: Doug Bertel
------------------------------
Hi Doug,
Good to meet you and thanks so much for your e-mail.
You better believe that your WTIC audio is worthy of inclusion in my collection. In fact, the WTIC coverage is quickly becoming a favorite of mine already. So I'm very grateful to you for uploading it in the first place. And I'm glad I found it.
Yes, I added the last few minutes from my WLW archive in order to "complete" the story [confirming JFK's death]. It's too bad your copy simply ends abruptly just minutes--maybe seconds--before Edwin Newman's famous "The Priests Say He's Dead Of Bullet Wounds" announcement. But, thankfully, at least there is another audio source for that very same material.
Feel free to write back anytime---hopefully with tons of additional "new" JFK audio from various radio stations around the country. ~grin~
Actually, though, Doug, speaking of that -- Just yesterday (11/21/13), incredibly, I came across TWO more pieces of audio from other radio stations that I had never heard before....and I'm going to be adding those audio clips to my collection on my websites and at YouTube very shortly (probably today, on Nov. 22nd).
The two stations are: WGN in Chicago and KXOL in Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth footage doesn't start until about 6 PM on 11/22/63, but it's got some really interesting news reports from the local KXOL reporter--and remarkably accurate for the most part too. I was impressed by the amount of accurate detail in those KXOL reports. So I hope you'll enjoy that when I get it done and uploaded.
The WGN stuff is (quite literally) "hot off the press", so to speak. At least for me personally---because a Facebook friend sent me the link just a few hours ago and I haven't even listened to it yet.
I love finding "new" stuff for my sites. And there's probably lots more from various TV/radio markets too--it's just not been "found" as yet.
Thanks again for writing.
Regards,
David Von Pein
PATRICK McDONALD:
You also include a nice collection of John F. Kennedy coverage before and during his administration. What is your favorite piece of coverage or moment in that collection that you think captures the spirit of the man?
DAVID VON PEIN:
I think my all-time favorite "JFK moment" is THIS SPEECH that President Kennedy made at Madison Square Garden in New York City on May 20, 1962. It's his "Medical Care For The Aged" speech, and it's simply fantastic. It almost looks like he's ad-libbing the whole 25-minute talk. A very inspiring and heartfelt speech indeed.
But I can't just stop with that one speech. I must give you a couple more "favorite" things from JFK's 1,037 days in the White House....
There's this December 1962 interview with Mr. Kennedy (linked below). It was recorded by CBS-TV in the Oval Office, and it features several outstanding moments highlighting JFK's humor and his vast reservoir of knowledge pertaining to many topics:
And there's also these 64 JFK press conferences. I can't really pick a favorite among the sixty-four. They're all very good. I was able to download and collect all of them (in audio form) when the JFK Library made them all available at their website in January 2011. A few of the conferences are also available in video format here too:
PATRICK McDONALD:
What was the circumstance of you obtaining the rare audio of the first JFK bulletins on NBC-TV, only recorded because an engineer was testing his equipment that morning?
DAVID VON PEIN:
The name of the man who recorded that rare NBC Television Network audio is Phil Gries, an avid collector of archival television audio. He had his audio tape recorder set up next to his television set at his home on Friday, November 22, 1963. He had just finished recording the audio of a program called "Tell Us More", which aired that day from 1:00 to 1:30 PM (EST) on WNBC-TV in New York City.
At 1:45 PM, he noticed an "NBC Bulletin" slide come on the screen, interrupting the program ("Bachelor Father") that was airing at the time on WNBC. Phil then quickly hit the "record" button on his tape recorder and was able to tape announcer Don Pardo's first two bulletins concerning the shooting of President Kennedy, plus the next four minutes of NBC-TV's coverage of the unfolding tragedy taking place in Dallas.
As of this date, that single recording made by Phil Gries is the only one in the world known to exist of those first few minutes of NBC-TV's 11/22/63 assassination coverage. (Due to the fact that NBC failed to record those first minutes on videotape.)
More information about Mr. Gries' one-of-a-kind audio recording, in Phil's own words, can be found at his website here.
My acquisition of a digital copy of Phil's original "lost" NBC-TV bulletins came about on November 21, 2013, just one day prior to the 50th anniversary of the assassination. Here's an e-mail exchange I had with Phil Gries in November 2013, concerning his rare audio clips:
E-Mail Subject: Question About Your Lost NBC Footage
Date: 11/20/2013 (6:09 AM EST)
From: David Von Pein
To: Phil Gries
------------------------------
Hi Phil,
It's been a long time since I talked with you, but as the 50th anniversary of that terrible day back in '63 draws ever so nearer, I wanted to touch base with you regarding something you wrote on the RadioDiscussions.com website on November 18th [2013]. You said this:
"All of the related "lost" footage that I recorded (a few moments have been omitted to prove I am the original taper) was donated a number of years ago to David Von Pein's incredible website channel and is currently accessible on its youtube link."
The above comment made my mouth water a little bit, because I am always wanting to add more and more material to my JFK Channel (if possible). And rare stuff is even better.
I said my mouth was watering because I'm a bit lost when you say you've "donated" ALL (or most) of your lost footage to me for use on my YouTube channel. I certainly don't remember you doing that.
In fact, the only clip from your "lost" material that is currently on my sites or on my YouTube channels is the first Don Pardo bulletin from 1:45:03 PM. I haven't used the 3 minutes & 53 seconds of lost footage or the second Pardo clip at all on my sites. But I did get your permission to use the first Pardo clip (as long as a credit was provided whenever I utilized it--which I have always done).
So, since this offer of a "donation" of other NBC material has apparently been made by you, I'm wondering if you could possibly e-mail the other clips (not counting the first Pardo clip, which I do not need), so that I could add them to my channel in time for the 50th anniversary?
Those extra "lost" clips would, indeed, make a great addition to my JFK archive--and right in time for November 22.
If you agree, you could probably easily fit the files in an e-mail attachment (since the length is not substantial).
Thanks for considering this proposal, and if you send the clips, I will (of course) provide a source credit in the video description--plus a link to your site too.
Best regards,
David Von Pein
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E-Mail Subject: Re: Question About Your Lost NBC Footage
Date: 11/20/2013 (9:30 AM EST)
From: Phil Gries
To: David Von Pein
------------------------------
Good Morning, David,
I agree to your proposal, but prior to emailing these files I would like to converse with you by phone. I could call you today at 10:45am EST. Please forward your phone number, and I will call you in approximately an hour.
Cordially,
Phil Gries
==========================================
E-Mail Subject: MP3s Of Lost JFK Audio
Date: 11/21/2013 (1:50 PM EST)
From: Phil Gries
To: David Von Pein
------------------------------
Dave,
It was a great pleasure discussing JFK related information with you this morning for almost two hours!
As discussed, enclosed, with my permission to use any/all of the files delivered to you, are additional JFK material to be evaluated and used at your discretion on your most ambitious and prodigious JFK internet multiple sites.
Best Regards,
Phil
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E-Mail Subject: All Audio Files Received
Date: 11/21/2013 (2:33 PM EST)
From: David Von Pein
To: Phil Gries
------------------------------
Hi Phil,
Just wanted to let you know via this e-mail that I received all of the audio files you sent in your 2 e-mails today.
Thank you so much for allowing me to use these historic and rare clips on my websites. I know a lot of people who visit my sites will enjoy them.
Feel free to write at any time. And let me know if you ever find more rare JFK audio or video. And I'll let you know if I ever find the "Bachelor Father" episode. I've already done a Google search for it today--and came up empty. But, who knows, maybe one day it'll turn up.
Best regards,
David V.P.
PATRICK McDONALD:
You do occasionally update the page with new material. What has been one of your latest and greatest finds in association with the assassination broadcasts and what was the circumstance of unearthing it?
DAVID VON PEIN:
Well, let me think for a minute. ....
I guess I'd have to say it's the "new and improved" version of the 11/22/63
NBC-TV coverage in the last link I just provided in my last answer above. That "improved" coverage has much higher quality video resolution than my previous online versions of the same material. I acquired that enhanced version of the NBC material from an anonymous individual on Facebook in November of 2015. He was kind enough to send me the video through a file-sharing service at no cost at all.
The picture quality he was able to extract for his finished Nov. 22 video is quite good, especially since he told me he had merely used two different VHS tape sources to work with to do his enhancements. I have no idea how he achieved the excellent PQ he ultimately produced, with only old VHS tapes to work with. But I thank him for it (whoever he is).
To see several screen captures from the enhanced version of the NBC-TV coverage, click the logo below:
PATRICK McDONALD:
What in the hours of broadcasting, both on TV and radio, do you think are the weirdest moments, either in an on-air gaffe or unnecessary over-editorializing in the midst of the assassination and related events?
DAVID VON PEIN:
There are several odd gaffes by the media that occurred during the weekend of the assassination. I discuss many of them at my webpage below:
PATRICK McDONALD:
I was born in 1960, you were born in 1961. Given we were toddlers when the assassination took place, how do you think it affected our generation as an event in the background of our subsequent lives?
DAVID VON PEIN:
I wish I had my crystal ball with me, so I could find out how the majority of people would answer your last question. But as for me personally, I'd have to say that it has affected my life perhaps quite a bit more than most other people, simply due to the fact that I have immersed myself deeply in the subjects of John F. Kennedy and his assassination for much of the last 20+ years.
But for most people of our generation (those born in the early 1960s), I doubt that JFK's assassination has really had a huge impact upon their lives.
But for the previous generation (people born in the 1940s and 1950s), I have heard that President Kennedy's death affected them much more profoundly, due to the fact that they can actually remember a time when JFK was alive and was President of the United States.
And, of course, most of those people can also vividly remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the awful news on November 22, 1963. It affected many of them very deeply, as they felt they had actually lost someone very close to them personally. You and I, Patrick, don't have such memories. And maybe it's for the best that we don't. It spares us the burden of dealing with the tragic memories of that terrible Friday in Dallas.
Thank you very much, Patrick, for your thought-provoking questions. I've enjoyed answering them.
Best regards,
David Von Pein
November 20, 2021
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