Challenger explodes-January 28, 1986

[Kevin Vahey]

I was in Chicago and how the local stations reacted was horrific.

On that freezing cold Tuesday in Chicago ( it was below zero ) the Chicago
Bears were having their parade after winning the Super Bowl.

NONE of the local stations mentioned the Challenger until the parade was
over as WBBM, WMAQ, WLS and WGN were all covering the parade. I had no clue
what had happened until a Cambridge friend called me.

Gary Deeb went ballistic in the paper and it came out that the stations did
not want to lose the ad revenue from the parade since they had already sent
the crews out.

Chicago was only then getting wired for cable and for most CNN was not an
option.

Management at its worse.