NBC Coverage of JFK Assassination

[Murphu222]

I used to work at a public broadcasting station in Morgantown, West Virginia, when A&E aired 5 hours of NBC's coverage. At the time, Bill Ryan, on of the anchors of NBC's coverage, was working at our station as the host of a talk show. Bill was one of the most incredible people I have ever met, total professional.
He was getting ready to do the top of the hour radio network newscast when the first bulletin came over the wires. He went to what NBC called a flash studio that had two black and white cameras up and ready for emergencies. At that time during a weekday afternoon, most of the local affiliates were running their own shows or weren't even on the air. It was amazing hearing him talk about that day. He ended up being on the air for 11 hours. If you notice, Chet Huntley left just after Kennedy had been declared dead. Bill said all he could think of when he was on the air was "everything I say has to be correct." William Manchester's "Death of a President" details more of the coverage. My favorite part is when Robert McNeil is phoning in his report from Dallas, and Frank McGhee is relaying what he is saying because of audio problems. To me the thing to take away from this wondering if there are enough network reporters working today that could handle a situation like this. I don't think there are.