The Kennedy Tapes: 1983 ~ WFAA-TV, Dallas, TX in Orlando, Florida

This was a Dallas-only TV special which runs about 17 hours and was broadcast over three nights on the 20th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It was never repeated or released on home video, and contains much footage which had never been seen since their original broadcast in xxxx. WFAA was the first station to break the news that President Kennedy had been assassinated on November 22, xxxx about two blocks north of the television station near Dealey Plaza outside the Texas School Book Depository. The station conducted the first live television interview with Abraham Zapruder, who shot the famous Zapruder film, which was processed at WFAA's photo lab, about an hour and a half after the President's death. WFAA and its live remote unit fed much coverage of the assassination and its aftermath to the ABC network over the next four days. The station had been lucky??"it had just received a shipment of videotape and had nearly 40 hours available (at a cost of about $10,000). The ABC network, at that time, was a distant third with both people and equipment, so WFAA was forced to originate far more local cut-ins than the other network affiliates; in fact, ABC taped none of its own coverage! So the over-30 hours kept by WFAA is all that remains of that weekend (the little news film shot by ABC photographers is still available). Except for the commercial breaks, which were few, and occasional on-camera commentary by news anchor Tracy Rowlett, it is xxxx all over again. In xxxx, WFAA-TV donated these tapes to the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, which occupies the space formerly known as the Texas School Book Depository. However, the tapes are only partially available for viewing at the museum. 7 DVDs.