WMUR turns 50

[Kevin Vahey]

The roof of a hockey rink collapsed in Berlin.
The story is sadly true.

Then there was the follow of the xmtr engineer on the mountain in 
Goffstown. In 1968 9 was the only local station with coverage of the 
shooting of RFK as the Boston stations went off after the speech. After 
the anthem was played, the STL would have the ABC signal fed into it and 
since xmtr guy was asleep 9 picked up by accident WABC going back to LA. 
A few weeks later, same xmtr guy heard anthem and shut xmtr off and went 
home. Only problem, it was a gold medal being given at the Mexico City 
Olympics.

Oh and in November 1968, WMUR was the first station to declare Nixon the 
President, as GM Sam Phillips didn't want to pay OT to the crew.
Station didn t carry Joey Bishop either as that would have meant staying 
on until 1. 9 ran People Are Funny reruns followed by The Rifleman and 
went off at 1230. (And we always supered BY FILM

Since 9 didn't have a color VTR, if something was delayed, ABC would 
send a 16MM print with commercials spliced in as we did have color 
film.

We had one perk, if we ran an ad for Pizza by Charles on Elm St, they 
would deliver a free pizza for crew. Same with dinner, run an ad for the 
Red Arrow or Puritan.

United Broadcasting was quite the operation.
All they ever wanted was to move the xmtr to Georgetown, MA and become a 
Boston indy, but Uncle Charley didn't buy it.


On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 6:26pm, Mark Watson wrote:
>   Kevin Vahey wrote:
>
>
>>  I could remind them of an ugly newcast at 11 back in 1968
>>
>>  The newsman back then devised the perfect way to have an affair, he
>>  would tape the Friday night 11 PM news at 7
>>
>>  One night the trusty AMPEX 1000 failed and the news was shown at 11 
>> with
>>  audio and his picture on a color slide.
>>
>>  Oh and in the meantime Russia had invaded the Czechs.
>>
>>  Another night ABC in NY called asking if we had footage on a plane 
>> crash
>>  in W Lebanon, NH. I replied "what plane crash?"
>
>    Someone once told me of another WMUR news gaffe from the golden era,
> don't know if this is true or urban legend.
>
>    One late night or early morning there was a major fire somewhere in
> Northern NH, I believe it was Berlin, and on the WMUR 6PM news, they
> apparently had a second camera that night, for a "live report from 
> Berlin".
> The reporter was standing outside 1819 Elm St (the former WMUR studios)
> doing the live shot. The film of the fire rolled, back to the reporter 
> to
> wrap up the report. As he was finishing up, a Manchester Transit 
> Authority
> bus drove by behind the reporter. How did that Manchester bus get that 
> far
> off route? <g>
>
>  Mark Watson