THIS DAY IN 1963

Like most people who were old enough in this day in 1963 I remember what happened on November 22 in Dallas in that year. But I have perhaps even a keener memory of that day because I was a newsman at KYTV in Springfield, Missouri, and helped inform people what was happening in Dallas.

I remember going to lunch during the noon hour and hearing on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot. I got back to the TV station as fast as I could.

At that time television had not progressed to the point that it could immediately present live coverage of the assassination. At that time we relied a great deal on the Associated Press Photofax which transmitted news photos. So while national broadcasters were talking about what was happening in Dallas were were grabbing photos off the Photofax, stapling them to cards and rushing them to the studio where the TV camera would capture them. Engineers would superimpose

those photos over the audio being received from the network.

Even though KYTV was an NBC station we were watching Walter Cronkite on CBS covering the events in Dallas. He, too, was showing some AP photos. I will never forget that moment when the visibly shaken Cronkite announced that the president had died.