Challenger - Live TV coverage

I believe that John Palmer, the news reader @ the time for NBC's Today
show did at first a live voice over of the launch for West Coast
affiliates as an "Update for Today." Sever minutes later they brought
up the entire network.

In LA the local anchor did do a live report on the launch for his
station.

That night Pres Reagan was to deliver his "State of the Union" message.
As is the policy, network anchors are given a briefing @ the White
House about that evening's address. tom Brokaw & Peter Jennings were
there, Dan Rather skipped and stayed in NYC. The meeting was to occur
some time after 12 Noon. They we informed of Challenger and high tailed
it out of there, going to their Wash, DC bureaus.

ABC came on first with Steve Bell, morning news reader for "Good
Morning America."

John Palmer was there already. Dan Rather, due to his fortune of not
going to NYC, reported for CBS.

In NYC, except for those in Manhattan with CNN, there was no live
coverage. CBS radio coverage ended prior to the loss, NBC Radio did not
cover it live (as per Jay Barbree on NBC TV), don't know about ABC
radio.

I heard it live in NYC via telephone on the National space Institute's
Dial-A-Shuttle, pricey @ around 35 cents/minute. WABC-TV came on first
with their local anchor Bill Buetel, followed by the network. Jennings
& Brokaw were seen on screen shortly around 12 noon. So I would
estimate that the nets were on live about 2-3 minutes after he event.

On 28 Jan 2006 19:21:41 -0800, "searcher305"
wrote:

I heard it live in NYC via telephone on the National space Institute's
Dial-A-Shuttle, pricey @ around 35 cents/minute.

....Ah, now *that* brings back memories. The NSI's feed was provided by
the same pay service that the news media had phone access to. When
Columbia first went up, my entire NROTC unit a) got a box code, b)
phreaked the pay phone, c) took a pair of bolt cutters and clipped the
handset line, d) ran wire up to the fantail on the 3rd floor, e)
hooked the feed into the stereo, f) tweaked it so we got decent audio,
and g) enjoyed the show for the entire flight.

Of course, we *did* put an "out of order" sign on the phone...:-)

OM
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I believe NPR carried it live, on radio at least. I was in Indonesia
at the time, listening to the launch live on VOA, which I think was carrying
the NPR feed. While those watching on TV had a good idea that something
was very wrong, radio listeners were a little in the dark. After the
explosion, the only comment I remember from the commentators was a remark
on how clear the booster separation was to see, because it was such a cold
day - no-one corrected her, and it was silent until Mission Control made
the major malfunction comment ... and loss of downlink comment. TV
viewers had a good idea what had happened at this point, but the radio
was pretty quiet, and it wasn't for a nother minute when Mission Control
announced that the vehicle had exploded that it was obvious on the
radio that this was more than a communications failure.

I'd love to hear that VOA (NPR?) broadcast again one day. Very eerie ...

Nick