Re: Claim: NO broadcast network live lift-off coverage

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006, OM wrote:

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:44:32 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
<jameseoberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Now a retired TV news broadcast guy is telling me that NO broadcast
news team -- ABC, CBS, or NBC -- had covered the launch live, they
only came on air after the disaster. I had checked with NASA PAO and
they, like me, had recalled at least one network with live launch coverage
because of the teacher-in-space aboard.


...First off, who's the retired talking head?

...Secondly, from what I gathered at the time it depended on the time
zone you were in as to whether or not you saw it live, combined with
whether or not the local affiliate carried the coverage anyway if the
national morning show was already done for the day.

I wonder whether the Vanderbilt Television Archive <http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/> could settle this. They archive evening network news broadcasts, but they might have some morning shows.

Their abstracts page for January 1986 <http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1986-1/> descrbes only evening shows, so it doesn't look good.

I wouldn't be surprised if they, or another such center, had made a special collection of tapes of big breaking stories such as this one. The Museum of Television and Radio in New York would be another place to look.

Also, there may be scholars who have studied TV coverage of *Challenger*.
Hmm... yes, there are: <http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=challenger+shuttle+television&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&btnG=Search>.

--
     "If you hold a meteorite            | Bill Higgins
          up to your ear,                | Fermilab
you can hear the sounds of outer space." | Internet:
         --Dr. Barry D. Gehm             | higgins@xxxxxxxx
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