[QuadList] Videotape of CBS Kennedy assassination

Sammy Jones sjones69 at bellsouth.net
Mon Jul 20 20:15:13 CDT 2009


Guys,

This is my first post here, and while I wasn't around during the Quad days
(or indeed even in television during 1-inch days), I enjoy reading about all
this great gear and your stories.

I seem to recall that in documentaries I've seen, the footage of Walter
Cronkite doing Kennedy assassination breaking news was from kinescope.
During the past several days, I've seen some of those clips over and over
again in Cronkite retrospective pieces, and they are videotape!  Under what
circumstances might have both kinescopes and videotapes been made of the
live coverage?  

Has the quad tape of the coverage only recently been unearthed, or is it
conceivable that the kinescope version has been in circulation simply
because it was at hand when someone needed it?

Also why does the VT or kinnie of the first flash bulletin exist in the
first place?  Is the source CBS's time zone delay recording of the daytime
soaps?

On a side note, I recently got to witness a quad machine in action for the
first time!  It was a later model Ampex (sorry don't know enough about them
to know which one; a model number wasn't evident on the machine) at South
Carolina Educational TV.  What a thrill to see a tape threaded and played
back on that beast!

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge!

Sammy Jones
Associate Producer
Georgia Public Broadcasting





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