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Saturday, November 22, 1997

Radio stations air audio time capsule

By ROBERT G. WIELAND / Associated Press Writer

DALLAS (AP) -- A new generation has heard the chilling news that President Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas.

Forgotten audio tapes were dusted off and excerpts broadcast Friday on WBAP. KRLD also aired taped reports that had been archived. Both radio stations are in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.

The WBAP announcer's voice was taut with strain and disbelief as he reported the shooting that shocked the world.

"It has not been fully confirmed, but police radios are carrying that the president has been hit," Bob Welch said.

A contract employee of KXAS-TV, a former sister station of WBAP, recently found the reel-to-reel tapes, labels turned to the wall, while looking for storage space in the basement room where the station keeps old film.

"They said: 'WBAP -- Kennedy Assassination Tapes,' " said Lee Elsesser, a free lance producer.

"I thought, 'I can't believe that they were left here if these were the actual tapes,' " Elsesser said Friday. "But at the same time I could understand how it could happen."

KXAS turned the tapes over to WBAP, which played some of them on the eve of the 34th anniversary of the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination.

"It gives you goose bumps," said WBAP operations manager Tyler Cox. "It's stuff people haven't heard in years."

Gary Mack, archivist of The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, said the quality of the tapes is "really impressive" because they were made on a portable reel-to-reel recorder.

He was interested in the historical aspect of the material.

"They do have some things in there that no one else has," Mack told the Star-Telegram. "It's worth being excited over."

Mack cited the complete recording of Kennedy's speech outside the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth on the damp morning of the assassination.

Kennedy spoke with crowds in the parking lot of the hotel before going inside for a breakfast appearance. He painted a picture of the need for a strong United States.

"In the final analysis, that strength depends upon the willingness of the citizens of the United States to assume the burdens of leadership," Kennedy said. "I know one place where they are. Here, in this rain, in Fort Worth, in Texas, in the United States, we're going forward."

On KRLD, reporter Bob Huffaker reported a warm reception for the president's motorcade as it passed his downtown vantage point just before the shooting.

"There was no danger whatsoever and none in evidence of adverse reactions to the president's visit," Huffaker said, his report punctuated by police whistles controlling traffic.

But with the crack of rifle shots, the story, and the world, changed.

"Here is a bulletin from The Associated Press and the WBAP newsroom," an announcer said. "President Kennedy may have been shot in Dallas. Stay tuned to WBAP 820 for the latest on this tragic event."

KRLD's Jim Underwood was breathless as he described officers swarming toward the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza, where the shooting took place.

"The police are now surrounding the area down here," Underwood said. "Sirens are screaming. And evidently police believe that the man who fired the shots is still in the Texas School Book Depository building at the corner of Elm and Houston in downtown Dallas."

Minutes later, Norwood McLendon of WBAP read the grim bulletin from his news wire:

"The Associated Press reports from Dallas that President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left the downtown section. Mrs. Kennedy is said to have jumped up and grabbed her husband and cried, 'Oh, no!,' and the motorcade sped off."