Tuesday, November 22, 2005

One of those "where were you when it happened ?" days that we'll never forget...

There are just a handful of those days when you remember exactly where you were when it happened and November 22, 1963 is right up there in the top 3, maybe even #1 for me. I was cutting a Canada Dry commercial in the phone booth of a production studio at WMID in Atlantic City when fellow disc jockey Bob McClay made like a bad mime (aren't they all ?) imitating a gun pointed to his head and mouthing something that was impossible to hear through the thick glass separating the on-air and production studios...

I mean who would have thought that I would live to see the President of the United States killed, assassinated no less, in my lifetime ? And how many other people shared that thought ? Our own charismatic, bigger than life, young and spirited president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was gone in an instant on that dreaded day in Dallas at the hands of an ex-Marine with Communist leanings, Lee Harvey Oswald...

What followed couldn't have been scripted better in Hollywood. JFK assassinated on Friday, Oswald cut down by a fatal shot fired by Jack Ruby on live television on Sunday and Kennedy's funeral on Monday with the images of Jackie and Caroline in mourning and John-John saluting his dad...

The weekend was an endless dirge with people kind of sleepwalking or trying to will the disbelieving event away but keeping an eye on additional unfolding events on television. At WMID we toned all the music down, carried some network news and stumbled through our broadcast day...

More memories of that day in Dallas and WMID in my commentary...

More November 22 Memories...

1906) The S-O-S distress signal is adopted in Berlin...

1917) The NHL is formed with 5 Canadian teams...

1950) The Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18 in the lowest scoring game in NBA history (which makes you wonder what the leading scorer had)...

1955) RCA pays $25,000 to Sam Phillips for the rights to the music of a truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi by the name of Elvis. Colonel Tom Parker tosses in a $5,000 bonus as well which Elvis would spend on a pink Cadillac for his mother...

1957) Simon & Garfunkel appear on "American Bandstand" as Tom & Jerry, their first stage name...

1961) Frank Robinson is the first player to win MVP awards in both leagues...

1963) JFK is assassinated (feature story)...

1964) The Shangri-Las are #1 with "Leader of the Pack"...

1968) The Beatles' "White Album" is released...

1971) "Theme from 'Shaft" tops the charts for Isaac Hayes (the single is the 3rd chart topper to win an Academy Award for best song)...

1980) Mae West dies at 88...

1985) 38,648 immigrants become U.S. citizens after a week of rallies around the country (Chrysler's Lee Iacocca helps to preside over the event. Hey Lee, how about a new car for everyone ?)...

1986) Mike Tyson becomes the youngest world heavyweight champion by KOing Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas (Tyson is 20 years and 4 months old which is his biological age, not his mental age)...

1986) "Human" by Human League is #1...

1997) INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence is found hanging in his hotel suite in Sydney, Australia...

1998) John Elway becomes only the second NFL quarterback to surpass 50,000 yards, joining Dan Marino (both will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame)...

1998) "60 Minutes" airs videotape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian administering lethal drugs to a terminally ill patient...

1999) "The Great One", Wayne Gretzky is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame (Gretzky retired with 61 NHL records)...

Happy Birthday To...

1932) "Man from U.N.C.L.E." actor Robert Vaughn...

1943) Tennis Hall of Famer Billie Jean King...

1950) Steve Van Zandt...

1958) Jamie Lee Curtis...

1961) Mariel Hemingway...

1967) Tennis Hall of Famer Boris Becker...

1984) Scarlett Johansson...

Commentary...

It's interesting to note that the Warren Commision report of 1964 concluded that there was no conspiracy in the JFK assassination yet the 1978 House Select Committee ruled that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy" that may have involved multiple shooters and organized crime. The committee's findings as with those of the Warren Commission continue to be widely disputed. Will we ever know ?

I remember visiting the plaza that contains the Texas School Book Depository Building, the alleged site of Lee Harvey Oswald's shooting and noting how small the area was and that it could be possible that the president was shot from that distance but then again I believe that there was another gunman on the "grassy knoll" where it looked like shots were also fired from. Can I say this with any degree of certainty ? Certainly not. Who knows what really happened and whether or not we will ever find out ???

Remembering this day in 1963 brings back memories of WMID, the breeding ground of many jocks who were either in a holding pattern (Like Humble Harve) waiting for a major market station opening or those who cut their radio teeth at the "Jersey Giant" like legendary talker Joe Pyne. There was Tom Donahue, the father of AOR radio who along with the original Bobby Mitchell and then Bob McClay were all trail-blazers at KSAN and other stations in the San Francisco bay area. There was Harvey Holliday, Bill Todd a.k.a. Johnny Williams, Bob Connell, Bruce Greenberg, Greg Mason, Jerry Blavat and on and on the list goes. Let's not forget Mike McCann who also plied his work at WMID. The list is not only legendary, it's endless. If you worked at WMID, you know who you are...

Those who've worked at WMID have a favorite memory, mine is personal, the birth of my daughter Lynn who was born in Atlantic City Hospital just a couple of months after that dark day in 1963...