No Subject

Subject: Memories of April 4th, 1968.

Today (April 4th) is the 30th anniversary of the assination of Martin Luther
 King, Jr. I wish to post my memories about where I was and what I was doing
 when I heard that Dr. King had been shot.

I was 12 years old at the time--my younger brother was less than a month
 away from his 9th birthday. We were watching a rerun of "F Troop" on
 channel 7 when a news flash (I think they interrupted the closing credits)
 interrupted the program to announce that Dr. King had been shot and was
 probably dead.

I then recall switching to channel 4, the then-NBC affiliate, in-time for
 the 7:30 P.M. station ID. Instead of "Daniel Boone" came an "NBC News
 Special Report" slide, and then Chet Huntley, who (along with David
 Brinkley) had just finished the 7 P.M. feed of their newscast when the
 King bulletin moved on the wires. Huntley welcomes the rest of the network
 (who had not been taking the 7 P.M. H/B feed) and then said that a late
 flash from Memphis indicated that Dr. King indeed had been killed. While
 the networks did not pre-empt all regular programming between then and
 the funeral a few days later, I think they did pretty much pre-empt
 everything for the rest of that evening. 

One exception, as I learned the next day, was Johnny Carson's "Tonight
 Show", which was about to be taped when the news hit. Carson dumped all
 but one of his originally-scheduled guests (Sammy Davis Jr.), and with
 Davis and several New York-based NBC newsmen, had a commercial-free 90-
 minute discussion about Dr. King, his life and times.

The next night--April 5th--soul singer James Brown was scheduled to perform
 at Boston Garden. Boston Mayor Kevin White weas fearful of trouble, so
 when it became obvious the concert wouldn't be postponed, he asked if
 one of Boston's TV stations would carry it. Channel 2 (WGBH) did so,
 and besides the live broadcast, I think it was rerun once or twice in
 the days that followed (perhaps the repeats were also fed to NET, the
 predesescor to PBS). The telecast of that concert is credited with 
 keeping things calm in Boston. Of 15,000 tickets sold (a sellout), only
 a few hundred actually went.

The networks, of course, aired DSr. King's funeral live. 

One other footnote is that the Stanley Cup Hockey Playoffs (in which the
 Bruins were playing for the first time in 9 years; they met Montreal in
 the first round) and the NBA Basketball playoffs (the Celtics' series
 against Philadelphia was underway by April 4th) were put on hold for
 several days following Dr. King's death. Both playoffs only resumed
 after the funeral, although games in both sports scheduled for the
 night of the 4th were held because the news hit just as those games
 were about to start. (I think the suspension of hockey was only for
 games played in the U.S.; games played in Montreal and Toronto may
 have gone off as planned) I don't know if baseball was suspended, but
 I don't think it was.

While things stayed calm in Boston and Los Angeles, there was rioting in
 black neighborhoods of many other major cities. 

Anyone else's memories of watching TV or listening to the radio on April
 4th, 1968 are welcomed. Just post them here for the other members of this
 newsgroup to see.

Joseph Gallant

<notquite@hotmail.com>

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