[BC] "Breaking News" Interruptions

[Sid Schweiger]

>>As I recall reading, it took NBC longer to do even that much, because
it 
was during the network's down time, and they had to get AT&T to put 
everything back together. From then on, telco left the network switched

and patched together for the entire broadcast day...<<

Both CBS and NBC aired programs consisting of the news footage from
that weekend some years ago.  When NBC went live, they were only on
WNBC-TV for almost an hour (Bill Ryan, Frank McGee and Chet Huntley
anchoring) before the full network could be patched together. 
Supposedly David Brinkley was having a fit because, based in Washington,
he was only being aired on WRC-TV, while the network was still feeding a
soap opera until the AT&T folks got everything patched together.

I also recall that NBC did not have a hybrid phone setup, because Frank
McGee took some live phone calls from Robert MacNeil, who was in Dallas
on the grassy knoll during the shooting.  During the first two calls
from Dallas, McGee had to repeat everything MacNeil said into the mike
so the viewers could hear it.  Later they bridged the phone line to get
phone audio on the air, but had to shut off McGee's mike during the
calls to avoid feedback.  CBS had ordered a video circuit in advance
between their affiliate KRLD-TV and CBS-NY, and didn't try to take phone
calls, so they had no such problems (although there was no H-sync, so
when they went to Dallas live the picture would roll once...ah, the good
old days...).



Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
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