"When the News Went Live" Program

Object number2008.001.0092

Date11/20/2008

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Robert Huffaker

Oral history interview subject Bill Mercer

Oral history interview subject George Phenix

Oral history interview subject Wes Wise

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file)

DimensionsDuration: 61 Minutes

Collections

DescriptionVideotaped public program titled "When the News Went Live." Participants included former KRLD employees Bob Huffaker, Bill Mercer, George Phenix and Wes Wise. This panel discussion focused on their memories of the Kennedy assassination weekend and promoted their 2004 book, "When the News Went Live." Broadcaster Bob Huffaker narrated the motorcade at Main and Akard streets in downtown Dallas for KRLD Radio and later covered events at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He then reported live on KRLD-TV and CBS from Dallas police headquarters and witnessed the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. In 1964, Huffaker covered the Jack Ruby trial. Bill Mercer was a news and sportscaster at KRLD-TV and Radio in 1963. At a midnight press showing of Lee Harvey Oswald at Dallas police headquarters, he informed the suspect that he had been charged with the murder of President Kennedy. A news photographer for KRLD-TV, George Phenix was at Dallas Love Field and Parkland Memorial Hospital on November 22, 1963. On Sunday, he filmed the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. Mayor of Dallas from 1971 to 1976, Wes Wise in 1963 was a president of the Dallas Press Club and a KRLD-TV broadcaster. He spoke with Jack Ruby in Dealey Plaza the day after the assassination. Program conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on November 20, 2008. The program is one hour and one minute long.

Curatorial Commentary

In addition to this 2008 program, the authors of When the News Went Live (2004) each recorded one or more one-on-one oral history interviews with The Sixth Floor Museum and participated in multiple public programs. As of spring 2024, Bill Mercer is the only co-author still living.

Bob Huffaker's three-hour 1994 oral history may be accessed here: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/4792. He also participated in a 2012 panel discussion about the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald that is on the Museum's YouTube channel: Oswald Has Been Shot! (youtube.com). He passed away on June 25, 2018.

Bill Mercer's 2005 oral history may be accessed here: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/26104. His 2019 Living History public program is on the Museum's YouTube channel: Living History with Bill Mercer (youtube.com). Most recently, a special visit by Bill to the Museum in 2023 to examine a new artifact is also on YouTube: Rediscovering History: KRLD-TV Camera 3 with Bill Mercer (youtube.com).

George Phenix's 2012 oral history may be accessed here: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/36526. He passed away on September 24, 2021.

Wes Wise, who consulted on the Museum's Oral History Project in its earliest years, recorded interviews in 1993 (https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/4681) and 2005 (https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/26135). A 2015 public program featuring Wise is on the Museum's YouTube channel: Legacies 2015: A Conversation with Wes Wise (youtube.com).

Two other Museum panel discussions with the authors of When the News Went Live may be found online. A 2007 conversation may be found here: https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/26384. Their final panel discussion, recorded in October 2013, is on the Museum's YouTube channel: When The News Went Live: Author Panel Discussion (2013) - YouTube.

Their book may be found here in the Museum's Library Collection: Bibliovation | Details for When the news went live. - Stephen Fagin, May 10, 2024.