What is your earliest memory of watching the news on t.v.?

[Butterbean]

The hubs and I were talking about the Middle East last night, and I was lamenting at how it's been a hotbed for so long, etc., etc.. It struck me, my first memory of the evening news is the Iran Hostage Crisis, way back in 1979. I just remember being scared, I was only 6.

What's your first memory of watching the news as a kid?

[a geek named Bob]

1. Seeing the first person to walk on the moon

[tk2kewl]

83. +1

other early memories include viet nam war coverage and nixon's resignation

[a geek named Bob]

150. My mom wouldn't let me watch Vietnam footage, as a kid

As my father was serving as a Naval Combat Aviator, during the conflict.

[tk2kewl]

151. understandable

i hope dad made it through intact

[a geek named Bob]

152. Thank you for the concern.

Dad made it through (sort of) okay... He nearly lost a plane, when a SAM kept tracking.
He had to do a 6G pull-out of a power dive. They de-rated the plane.
He fused three disks in his back, but he gets around okay.

[tk2kewl]

155. wow

i have been in a glider doing a loop and thought my spine would be crushed... i can't even imagine what 6Gs feels like. it's amazing he stayed conscious and could bring the plane home

i am glad he made it back to help you grow up

[a geek named Bob]

156. Thank you!

Mind you, when he taught me to fly, I learned some "non-standard flight manuevers..."

Now, he teaches at a university in DC, grows grapes, and is spoiling my nieces rotten.

[cbayer]

2. Huntley and Brinkley. Walter Cronkite. The Civil Rights Movement.

[Hamlette]

145. hoses turned on blacks, same era

I was curious because I'd never thought of water pressure being strong enough to do that, the clip I remember had a young girl with her father (I assumed) he was trying to protect her.

I grew up in the mostly white West. My parents were very liberal. I remember my dad talking about segregation and how awful it was (the bus driver threw him off the bus on a visit to the South because he sat in the back, he didn't know he couldn't sit there and wouldn't move when the bus driver told him to move. He was in his Air Force uniform.)

Those scenes from the South during the civil rights era stuck with me.

[cbayer]

148. They left an indelible impression on me as well.

My parents were also very liberal and were active in the movement. They made a point of having us watch it and, at one point, took us from DC to the deeper south so we could see the extent of the segregation and poverty.

I will be forever grateful to them for that.

[onehandle]

3. Moon landing. I have a vague impression of Nixon winning in '68.

Probably more about my parents being pissed about that than TV.

[DonRedwood]

122. me for the moonwalk too and Vietnam ending

In Anchorage up on one of the mountains, there was a star made out of lights that was lit up at Christmas. They lit that up when we pulled out of Vietnam.

[Ian David]

4. I remember the adults watching the Watergate hearings and trying to explain to me...

... why they were laughing.

It was something like, "That man just admitted to doing something very wrong, but he said it as if it was a normal thing for him to be doing."

[Butterbean]

16. Oh dear. I remember watching the Macneil/Lehrer report every night with my dad.

He tried to explain things to me sometimes, but it was always hard for me to digest.

[Lex]

5. Richard Nixon resigning from the Presidency.

And some memories of end of the war with Vietnam--helicopters, jungles, stretchers, etc.

[pkz]

6. Walter Cronkite on JFK assasination

I was in 1st grade and just walked in the door from early dismissal

[trailmonkee]

7. Iranian Hostage Crisis

[elfin]

8. Huntley Brinkley

I think it was all of 15 minutes long.

And yes, I am a geezer.

Most "big" news still by radio for a LONG time at our house. Ex. Nixon Kennedy debate. I thought Nixon had won until I saw his sweaty pics and mannerisms.

[Sherman A1]

136. Same here

"Good Night, Chet.... Good Night, David and Good Night from NBC News."

[Initech]

9. The Challenger space shuttle blowing up on launch.

Last edited Tue Sep 18, 2012, 02:04 AM - Edit history (1)

[Butterbean]

14. Oh holy crap. My sister was home sick from school that day and watched it live.

[all american girl]

66. That's so wierd....so was I.

I was at a community college and sick, so that tells you how old I am , I just sat there crying. It was so sad.

[Butterbean]

68. My sister was 15 when it happened, she said she thought to herself

Wait, was that supposed to happen???

[Scootaloo]

31. It was during takeoff; Columbia (2003) was the one that exploded on re-entry

Challenger was my first memory of news and television alike, as well.

[Butterbean]

50. Yeah, I got his (her) gist though. I remember that so well. I also remember

all the tasteless, tacky jokes that followed. Ugh. Elementary school kids can really be crass.

[Scootaloo]

117. I was only four

My mother and godmother had taken me clothes shopping at the mall or something, and we rushed home to watch the takeoff. I remember that thy'd even bought me a little space shuttle toy kit of some sort. Which got eaten by a neighbor's dog two years later.

[Egalitarian Thug]

174. Thank you. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

91. you are young!

[Initech]

112. I'm 32. I was six years old when that happened.

[a geek named Bob]

159. I remember the Challenger Shuttle blowing up on launch, back in 1986

and Columbia burning up on Reentry, in 2003.

God Speed, you brave explorers...

[Zoeisright]

179. Me too. The Challenger launch was on my birthday.

and I was watching TV with the sound off. So I didn't know what had happened until I saw it blow up.

[a geek named Bob]

180. sorry about the nasty birthday present...

Should we meet somewhere, I'll buy you a cupcake.

[wickerwoman]

198. Me too.

I was in third or fourth grade and they brought in a TV so we could watch it

[Butterbean]

10. Wow. I feel like a bean sprout when here I thought it was weird that I remembered

the hostage crisis. I'm still 20 years old in my head.

[Spider Jerusalem]

11. A vague memory of John Lennon's death on the CBS Evening News

I remember it as CBS because it was Walter Cronkite; I was three.

[LiberalArkie]

12. Watching the McCarthy hearings as a wee pup

[mitchtv]

109. Army Mc cCarthy Hearings, too

[alfredo]

158. Same here

Our TV was a Cathode Ray tube and a big-assed magnifying lens.



You had to pull the magnifier toward you for greater magnification.

[mitchtv]

175. we also had the giant magnifier

it must have weighed 20 lbs

[alfredo]

177. Yeah, but they were a great source of fun for us kids.

[unc70]

163. Hearings were early: McCarthy, organized crime, plane crashes , 54-55

Probably some other stuff that's slipped my mind.

[edhopper]

13. Kennedy

sometime early during his Presidency. Remember seeing him and Jackie. And definitely the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[Speck Tater]

15. The Eisenhower VS Stevenson presidential campaign.

I remember watching coverage of the Republican convention in Chicago. I was 7 years old.

[Butterbean]

22. Whoa, cool. I remember watching Mondale and Ferraro on the Dem convention and being

incredibly perplexed on election night when Mondale/Ferraro didn't win. It truly baffled me.

[Warpy]

37. I was preschool and coached by my dad

to say my folks were going to vote for Adlike Stevenhower.

I think Stevenson was the last Democrat my dad voted for until 2004.

[elleng]

96. I do recall family being upset at the outcome,

but don't recall TV coverage.

[mainstreetonce]

100. I remember that

And I remember a news headline that said Stevenson called someone an SOB. And I asked.

What is an SOB?

[MineralMan]

17. 1952, when we got our first TV.

The news was 15 minutes long. 15 minutes of network news, followed by 15 minutes of local news. And this was in Southern California, on Los Angeles stations. Early TV was very, very different from today's. After the news, you might get to watch boxing matches or motorcycle races. It was a trip, for sure.

[Speck Tater]

108. And then the preacher said a prayer, they played the national anthem, and

then they went off the air for the night.

Next morning, about half and hour before they went on the air they showed a test pattern so the engineers could spend that half hour tuning up the transmitter.

[MineralMan]

118. I was too young to stay up for the Anthem and the prayer.

But I do remember seeing the test pattern. It was actually on quite a bit at first. Everything was done live, so there were screw-ups. They'd show the test pattern, and sometimes a hand-lettered sign saying - Technical Difficulties.

And then, in the afternoon, and on Saturday mornings, we kids would watch ancient cartoons. Some of them were even silent. What a deal it was! I was a bit Hopalong Cassidy fan.

[Speck Tater]

132. How about Captain Video?

And Rocky Jones, Space Ranger? And Kukla Fran and Olie? And Howdy Doodie! "Hey kids! What time is it?" hehe, What memories.

[MineralMan]

138. Yah. All of those things, plus Sheriff John and

other kids shows. It was great, but we soon outgrew those. Then there was Sky King, with pretty Penny, for the 11-13 year old boys to drool over.

Early TV was great. What's nice is that all of those shows are available now on YouTube. It's fun to go have a look at them. They look way different when you're an adult. Early TV shows were pretty primitive, really.

[Speck Tater]

173. Dont' forget Vena Ray (Rocky Jones) and Annette on Mickey Mouse Club.

Although as cute mousekateers go, I was always more of a Doreen and Karen fan than an Annette fan. Annette was a little old for me at the time.

[Vox Moi]

154. Hey Spec Tater: I do remember those shows

I wonder if you were from the NYC metro area.
How about Foodini and Pinhead?
Crusader Rabbit?
Officer Joe Bolton (hosted Three Stooges Films)
Captain Allen Swift (Popeye cartoons) and ...
Sandy Becker?

[Speck Tater]

171. I remember Crusader Rabbit, but not the others.

I was in Michigan back then; WOOD TV territory.

[musette_sf]

172. and:

The Merry Mailman with Ray Heatherton (Joey's dad)

Wonderama with Sonny Fox

Zacherle

Chuck McCann

Birthday House with Paul Tripp

Tommy Seven

Beachcomber Bill

Captain Jack McCarthy

[Art_from_Ark]

185. I had an old 45 record of Merry Mailman songs

On one side was "Waltzing Matilda" (can't remember the other side). At the end of the song, some kids said in unison "That was pretty, Merry Mailman"

[Vox Moi]

186. and others:

Wow! Sonny Fox!
Chuck McCann could really do Stan Laurel.
Zach's wife ... priceless.
.................................
Winky Dink? Jack Barry as host.
'You Are There" - Walter Cronkite at times

[lastlib]

193. That Conelrad was a helluva detective!!!

. . . . . . . .

[PCIntern]

18. President Eisenhower press conference or announcement in black and white...

have no recollection of the substance, but it was important b/c my mom and dad watched it intently...must have been 1956.

[DJ13]

19. My mom standing in front of the TV crying after JFK was killed

[Butterbean]

25. Oh how awful. :(

[kevinmc]

162. I remember my mom crying ... I was gonna post that

I was 5 years old and that was my first memory of news.

[X_Digger]

20. Brinkley and the Munich Olympics?

At least I *think* it was Brinkley..

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. The moon landing

that is also one of my first memories.



The ME, was too young for '67... but not for the Yom Kippur war in '73. Being a Jew, well that also included a few Rabies and other leaders of the community if you get my drift.

[PCIntern]

27. "rabies"?

Better get a shot...

[Butterbean]

32. Freudian slip on her part, I hope. LOL.

[Skidmore]

23. Something between labors strikes (heard Teamster a lot)

on the teevee and in conversation at home and images of the civil rights movement.

[markpkessinger]

24. The nightly body counts from Vietnam on the Evening News with Walter Cronkite...

... as well as the extremely graphic footage of the ongoing combat, and the coverage of RFK's and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassinations and funerals.

[Butterbean]

29. Sweet Lord. I was talking to my mom about that the other day, when we were

watching something on the news about Iraq and she made the comment that they never used to televise the wars before Vietnam, that it was a big deal when they started doing that. It's striking to me when she makes comments like that, how contrasted our upbringings have been.

[markpkessinger]

101. And what we see now is a whole lot milder than what was shown during Vietnam...

... when reporters were routinely embedded with front line combat forces. I think the powers that be decided, after Vietnam, that there would be no more such honest reporting, because it tends to be bad for the war business.

[Nay]

161. Agreed. Vietnam war coverage was BRUTAL. Nothing like the lily-ass coverage of the present

ME wars. If ppl saw the same type of coverage we all saw during the VN era, we would have had a much better chance of shutting that shit down long ago.

That's what happens when the oligarchs capture and own the presses.

[yardwork]

168. That's the idea. Control the content and control the people.

Some people remember the 1960s as the time of peace and love. I remember hearing machine guns and watching people diving into ditches every night on the TV.

[lastlib]

195. "The Eastern world, it is explodin'..."

"...Violence flarin', bullets loadin',
You're old enough to kill, but not for votin',
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'?
An' even the Jordan River has bodies floatin',

but ya tell me over and over and over again, my friend,
Ah, ya don't believe we're on the eve of destruction?

...think of all the hate there is in Red China,
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama..."


What a memory!!

[lumberjack_jeff]

104. +1 n/t

[lpbk2713]

26. John Cameron Swayze and Douglas Edwards

The network news was a fifteen minute segment. The local news was the other
fifteen, pretty much they repeated what was in the local newspaper that day.

[immoderate]

28. Douglas Edwards and the News on CBS early 50s.

The sponsor was a tobacco company, so he smoked (or pretended to smoke) during the broadcast. He parked the cigarette in an ash try on the table.

Edwards did the first regular news. It was 15 minutes weeknights. He preceded Cronkite in the job.

Not a great clip, but it's history!

--imm

[Graybeard]

64. NBC vs CBS

The Camel News Caravan (sponsored by Camel cigarettes) had John Cameron Swayze on NBC. Douglas Edwards and the News on CBS for some reason was changed to Douglas Edwards With the News.

[immoderate]

70. Yeah! Swayze did the smoking.

The Original title of the CBS broadcast didn't use Edward's name.

--imm

[kestrel91316]

30. I'm pretty sure I saw tv news before 1963, but nothing sticks in my memory.

In 1963 we lived in Japan, and there was no English language programming to speak of, but I am pretty sure I saw TV news footage of the Kennedy assassination aftemath. I was 6.

[Art_from_Ark]

129. The first satellite relay in Japan was of the Kennedy assassination news,

so you may very well have seen it if you were in Japan at the time.

http://www.sptvjsat.com/sp_world/worldtop/history/chronicle/index.html

[Warpy]

33. Edward R. Murrow and his chainsmoking. Feh.

I also remember the McCarthy hearings and my mother watching them, white knuckled. To this day, I am loath to sign petitions or do anything that gives them a paper trail on me. The fear back then was pervasive and any neighbor with a grudge could ruin your life completely.

I was also fascinated with the massive propeller plane in geosynchronous orbit that was the Dumont Network's logo.

I also remember Cronkite's "You are There" historical dramatizations fondly.

I was preschool when all this was happening.

[Va Lefty]

34. Remember CBS News in the field during Vietnam War

Last edited Mon Sep 17, 2012, 09:14 PM - Edit history (1)

I remember how every week they would show the stats on Killed, Wounded and MIA. The US numbers were always better than the NVA's. Usually it wasn't even close. I asked my Dad how come if we were always killing and capturing more than we were losing why weren't we winning? He said "Something ain't right with those numbers." It never occurred to me as a seven year-old that our Government and Media would lie to us. That was what the other side did. So naive

[Art_from_Ark]

131. I had exactly the same experience as you

Sometimes it seemed like the VC/North Vietnamese were suffering 10 times as many casualties as the US, but the war kept dragging on.

[BeyondGeography]

35. Vietnam...I think Roger Mudd was talking about the DMZ

in the afternoon. And Cronkite talking about it at night...

[RagAss]

36. November 1963.

[AzSweet]

38. Vietnam....Cronkite, Huntly and Brinkley..

I was very young, and when my parents had the news on, it was mostly background noise, to me. I can remember a few times when I actually tried to pay attention, but was too young to understand words like Tet offensive...etc..etc..so just kinda gave up. i remember watching when we landed on the moon. We were at a family reunion in Idaho, my cousins and I all on the floor directly in front of the TV, and all the Aunts and Uncles gathered behind us. After that, I really didnt start paying attention again until Watergate was all over the news.

[BeeBee]

39. I distinctly remember Nixon resigning. n/t

[Butterbean]

42. WOW.

[RebelOne]

79. Yup, me too. The I am not a crook speech. n/t

[RebelOne]

82. JFK's death and the moon landing. n/t

[truebluegreen]

169. That wasn't the same speech

That was before he threw in the towel.

[frazzled]

40. 1957: Eisenhower's second inauguration (and the conventions that preceded)

I was six and seven years old. I remember sitting by our old black-and-white TV and watching as my parents viewed the Democratic convention, with Huntley and Brinkley reporting together (my mother was a big Adlai Stevenson fan). I remember the roll call, and the floor reporters. These images remain very strong in my memory. It's probably what led me to become something of a political junkie later in life.

Then after the election I remember being hustled, with all the other kids, from my first-grade classroom into the school's gym/auditorium to watch the inauguration. We sat cross-legged on the floor and looked up at the TV. I have no recollection as to what I actually thought about it, if anything. I was more consumed with trying to get from printing to writing in script.

[2ndAmForComputers]

43. Some guy saying Iran this and Iran that.

[1-Old-Man]

44. Korean War coverage is the first I recall, after we got a TV

Oh, and please don't be mistaken, I was not out here in some rural newsless hell-hole. When we got our first TV we lived within a mile of the DC line in Maryland, there were four channels as I recall; 4, 5, 7, and 9.

[Chiyo-chichi]

45. I'm just a few months younger than President Obama. Definitely the moon landing.

I also think I was pretty heavily invested in the 1972 election for a 10-year-old.

I recall watching a lot of the Watergate hearings, too. I believe I saw the Nixon press conference live when Nixon called on Dan Rather, who got some applause. Nixon asked "Are you running for something?" Rather replied, "No, sir, Mr. President. Are you?"

[COLGATE4]

46. Not my earliest, but the earliest that made a

real impression - Kennedy's funeral. Still get shivers thinking about it.

[Art_from_Ark]

139. That's probably the first "adult" thing on TV I remember

(besides the cigarette jingles). I remember John Jr. standing there, saluting his father's coffin, the somber voices of the announcers, and the word "caisson".

[cordelia]

47. Huntley and Brinkley.

[graham4anything]

48. the civil rights marches, JFK being killed, LBJ taking office, LBJ signing the acts

the civil rights marches, JFK being killed, LBJ taking office, LBJ signing the acts
are some of the oldest tv memories all of which were watched in glorious black and white

I remember my transistor radio was left on overnight and I woke up to the news Bobby was shot right when it was announced(being in NYC it was I believe shortly after 3am eastern, midniight in L.A.)

and years later on, at I remember watching tv and at 11:11 on my clock which might have been off a little, announcing that John Lennon was shot and frantically turning on WNEW-fm to hear details on the same day we had taken the kids to see the Christmas Tree lighting in Rockerfeller center. Imagine that

whatever happened to the News?
anybody here seen my old friend Dan Rather, can you tell me where he's gone?(to paraphrase Dion) The news on tv died the day Dan was character assasssinated and the last man standing stood no more, and no one had Dan's back. (and the commision that caused his firing never did find any proof that the message was not true, the message that was never denied by the Bush's). It still steams me

[annabanana]

49. Army - McCarthy hearings...'54

I was just 4, mind you. Pop was a prof at Harvard, the living room (not ours since we had no set yet) full of rapt, concerned academics. I was miffed at not being the center of attention for once.

I actually remember wondering wtf was the big deal.

[Butterbean]

54. Holy crap. I just still can't even wrap my head around the fact that those hearings

actually happened. It freaks me out.

[slackmaster]

51. February 20, 1962

John Glenn's orbital flight in Friendship 7.

[Butterbean]

59. That's so cool. It strikes me that most of my burned-in-my-brain memories from the news

are all of catastrophic tragedies, nothing good like moon landings, or even the shuttle launches. I should have been in awe of those shuttle launches, but for some reason I wasn't. I don't know why. When they showed the mock-up pictures from the Mars Rover, I was so excited that I was actually excited about seeing something NOT morbid. Then hubs told me they weren't real. What a buzzkill.

[Freddie]

146. Yes--the space program

My clearest memory was the weekend of the JFK assassination--I was 6--my brother and I complaining that the Sat. AM cartoons weren't on! But before that I remember the TV being brought to the classrooms so we could watch the space launches.

[tridim]

52. John Chancellor talking about "Watergate"...

and me thinking that a gate wouldn't keep water out of anywhere.

[HubertHeaver]

53. Chet Huntley and David Brinkley with Sander van Oecher in Washington

We got a television in fall of 1955, and antenna in spring 1956. The NBC affiliate in Davenport, Ia was the most reliable signal.

[PlanetBev]

55. September 1957

I was six, going on seven. I remember Eisenhower sending troops to Little Rock, AR, to intergrate Central High School. Just remember seeing the troops on TV and seeing a lot of white people running and yelling. I didn't quite understand it, but it was my first inkling there were some people who just didn't want to live with or get along with other people.

About two or three weeks later, Sputnik was launched and I remember that very clearly.

[Lugnut]

56. We didn't yet have a TV until I was 5 in 1950.

I grew up with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.

[Glorfindel]

57. John Cameron Swayze on NBC - his program was 15 minutes long

We got our first TV in 1954.
Yes, I am as old as dirt.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

58. 1960. News was 15 minutes back then.

There was an announcement that Chicago was getting new garbage trucks, larger capacity, quieter, and would lower the rodent problem. Sure enough, the very next morning, I looked out of my back window, and there was a bright, brand new, Orange garbage truck coming down the alley. (bridgeport was Daley Central back then.

[MadrasT]

60. Huntley Brinkley and Cronkite and the Vietnam War and the hippies.

My parents worried about a little pipsqueak seeing the war on teevee (during dinner no less, we always ate dinner and watched the news at the same time).

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

61. The coranation of Queen Elizabeth II 1953

With my Irish granny and English mom.

[Butterbean]

62. I believe you win.

[maveric56]

63. Kennedy/Nixon debates, 1960

I was four when my old man sat next to and try to tell me things about both candidates.
He and Ma where always strong, active Dems.

Ma told me years later that I said that Nixon was scary looking.

[Douglas Carpenter]

65. my first memory of tv news was the 1960 election

[Sienna86]

67. Walter Cronkite

My Dad always watched the news. I remember the sober ending when Walter Cronkite would give the numbers of American soldiers that had died in Vietnam.

[hunter]

69. Jerry Dunphy and "The Big News"

in 1960, Dunphy took over the anchor chair at the Los Angeles CBS O&O station KNXT (now KCBS-TV), where he anchored Los Angeles' most popular newscast later titled "The Big News", a program that often attracted a quarter of Los Angeles television owners, ratings unheard of in the market.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Dunphy

My dad would get home from work, pop open a beer (Olympia or Hamm's, as I recall...) and we'd watch The Big News.

[DearHeart]

71. Walter Cronkite and Watergate n/t

[LuckyStrykes]

72. Vietnam and Uncle Walt

Until i was 11 or 12, I thought the Vietnam war was something that had been going on for ages and always would. I didn't know a world without the nightly body count and horrific Newsweek covers.

[mike_c]

73. earliest I remember was the Cuban missile crisis...

...although I don't recall comprehending the gravity of the news personally, I do recall how seriously the grownups in the room considered it. I THINK that's also my earliest memory of Walter Cronkite.

[porphyrian]

74. Pres. Ford pre-empting Horton Hears a Who. Something about Nixon, I think. n/t

[Aerows]

75. I was five

and lived in Tuscon, AZ. The Easter bunny had just come, and mom and dad had on the early morning news. President Carter did something that my parents didn't like (they are staunch Republicans that came over as part of the Dixiecrat movement, which we all know why that was).

I was eating a pink marshmallow bunny, and wondering where to take a bite out of the chocolate bunny.

Funny thing is as an adult, I don't really like sweets or sugar.

[Butterbean]

81. That is amazingly detailed. You have memories like me.

I can remember things like where I was standing, the sounds, the smells, what a person's hand position was in, what was on the floor and the counter, details on the woodwork, stuff like that. If it's a profound moment, I remember everything.

[Aerows]

90. I can remember where the Easter basket was

It was right by the fireplace, the basket was placed on the (of course, cold) bricks of the hearth because it was spring in Tuscon. I was sitting there on the white carpet rug eating a marshmallow bunny, listening to them complain about Carter LOL while I unwrapped the toys and candy in the Easter basket.

[Butterbean]

76. Who always signed off with "And that's....the way it is." I cannot for the life of me remember.

[Aerows]

78. Paul Harvey

My dad made us listen to it in the car on road trips.

[Butterbean]

85. Thanks! That was making me nuts. Ah, my dad listened to Paul Harvey too.

Now that he has XM radio in his car, he listens to the news 24/7. It is mind-numbing. Sometimes you need to just listen to a little music and take a brain break.

[Aerows]

105. He also once said

"I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their money where my mouth is."

He was probably the most honest right wing person on AM radio.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/mar/03/paul-harvey

Throat problems ended his career.

[Art_from_Ark]

144. It wasn't Paul Harvey who said that-- it was Walter Cronkite

Cronkite would add the date to his sign-off. For example,

"And that's the way it is for Sunday, July 4, 1976. This is Walter Cronkite reporting".

Paul Harvey talked about "the rest of the story", and would sign off with "Good day".

[nebenaube]

77. Watching Vietnam new reels...

Expecting to see my dad being carried out.

[moriah]

80. I'm a youngling... either the Challenger or Iran/Contra.

I mean, I have lots of memories of us just *watching* the news.... I do think I vaguely recall the 1984 Presidential election and my mother disagreeing with my grandparents about who to vote for, but I remember clearly both the Challenger explosion, and of my grandfather constantly watching the Iran/Contra hearings. Looking at dates, it was probably the Challenger I saw first, but it's kind of jumbled like a lot of childhood memories are.

[rurallib]

84. 1*56 political conventions - then blacks being firehosed

or somehow being suppressed in the south.
Pretty much a steady viewer from then on.

[Victor_c3]

86. 1986 (I think) Reagen bombing Libya

Either that or the Challenger space shuttle blowing up (whichever happened first, I remember both).

I loved Ronald Reagen and I remember this vividly. I was scared shitless. It was very scary for a 6 year old to realize that I could die if some foreign country decided to send bombers to our country to bomb us.

[mainstreetonce]

93. Earliest news I remember

Although I don't remember a scene on TV....my mother came into the bedroom and said
"We are at war ". Korea.


I was six and I remember my aunt keeping us late for school till we saw on the TV that General Mac Arthur was coming home.

[Cirque du So-What]

87. An airliner crash

This one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Orient_Airlines_Flight_710

The news coverage was reinforced in my memory because of people I knew who were involved in the recovery effort.

[MissMarple]

88. Local channel in Wichita, Kansas, 1950's.

I don't remember the news, but I do remember the news guy. He looked like Superman, or so I thought at the time.

[elleng]

89. Army/McCarthy hearings, as a kid.

Dates me, eh???

[mia]

181. Me too.

My parents and aunts and uncles gathered to watch the hearings and we children had to be very quiet.

&feature=related

[catbyte]

92. Cuban Missle Crisis

I remember being scared shitless and classmate Tim Parsell announcing in our one
room school (K-6) every day the latest developments.

[cindyperry2010]

94. walter cronkite annoucing

president kennedy is dead

[Liberal_in_LA]

95. walter conkrite. no particular news event, just remember parents watching him everyday

[glowing]

97. Reagan being shot... I was very young, but I remember it on TV.. The one that

I watched had a big impact on me was the Challenger exploding... A teacher was on that flight. We were in this contest to try and name the shuttle. One of my teacher's was in the top running to be on that flight.

I was home with my mom and sister.. I think we were sick. We watched it live. The rest of the students at school were supposed to have a parent run in a copy of the tape into the school... Still no cable in that town. My mom was on the school board and called in immediately. They didn't show it at the school that day. They waited for the kids to go home and have their parents around to deal with the tragedy... Then a few days later we all huddled together in the school and watched it and the memorial to "heal and deal" with the tragedy.

[Callmecrazy]

98. I was three when Apollo 11 landed.

I remember going outside to see if I could spot Neil Armstrong walking around up there.
But I couldn't see him.

[Faygo Kid]

99. Kennedy-Nixon election

Although I'm sure I saw reports of Sputnik, the first news event I vividly remembering watching was the Kennedy-Nixon election in 1960.

[WCGreen]

102. Cuban Missile Crisis....

JFK gave his speech about the crisis on my 5th birthday. My dad all white, shaking. He took us out in the big white chevy we had and he drove us to the NIKE sites that I believe all big cities had. Anti Aircraft missiles.

Back then, Cleveland was the 7th or 8th largest city in the country.

There were three sites and he just drove to show us that we would be protected.

[blue neen]

153. Yep.

I remember how the adults were sitting there listening intently to JFK...everyone had such grim looks on their faces. My little brother and I didn't get it--we just wanted to watch the regular shows!

Boy, that's some fifth birthday you had!

[WCGreen]

190. I think it is why, in the end, that I wanted to get involved...

I had this craving to see what was going on behind the curtain, so to speakl...

[lumberjack_jeff]

103. Vietnam body counts. n/t

[William Seger]

106. Huntley-Brinkley Report covering Nixon/Kennedy, 1960 (n/t)

[sakabatou]

107. Must've been the assasination of Yitzhak Rabin (1995) or the reelection of Clinton (96)

[riverbendviewgal]

110. John Charles Daley - first one on my evening news

and also Edward R Murrow and Walter Cronkite

I especially remember Cronkite reporting on JFK funeral...That was an awesome 3 days. We didn't even have school.

[Go Vols]

111. MLK funeral

I was 5 at the time.

[CanisCrocinus]

113. "Who Will Win??"

I remember watching a convention in 1960, on our B&W set. I think it was the Democratic, but am not sure. I do know the next day in school I drew a picture of an elephant and a donkey and writing beneath them "Who Will Win??" Probably my first political thought. Thanks for inspiring the memory!

[cynatnite]

114. The moon landing. Later, I remember my grandfather watching the Watergate hearings. n/t

[mahina]

115. Martin Luther King's speech at the Washington Monument

and my family's love and aloha for him.

And tears after.

[jberryhill]

116. Huntley and Brinkley - Vietnam

Good night, David.

Good night, Chet.

[yardwork]

119. Kennedy assassination.

[Glitterati]

160. Same here n/t

[yardwork]

166. Sad introduction to TV news, wasn't it?

It's the first memory I have of TV, period.

[ballabosh]

120. I don't know if I watched this on TV, but I suppose I must have

but the first major story that I recall was the Patty Hearst kidnapping.

[cpwm17]

137. That's not my first memory

I don't know what was. We didn't have a TV until I was around 11 or 12.

I do remember the kidnapping of Patty Hearst because when the newsman said that a member of the Hearst family had been kidnapped my mother thought he said a member of the First Family had been kidnapped. My mother said something like, "oh no, not again" as if Nixon was a victim. She thought Watergate was bogus.

[Codeine]

121. The SALT negotiations in the early 70s.

I was little (4 or so) but I vividly remember my mother explaining that it had nothing to do with salt, which was just beyond ridiculous to me.

[Butterbean]

134. When my mom first told me about periods, I thought it was a little

red ball that fell out of you once a month. Kids are very literal-minded.

[Irishonly]

123. Huntley, Brinkley and Walter

Kennedy assassinations, King's assassination, Glenn and the list goes on. I learned to watch when you knew the news was really being reported.

[a la izquierda]

124. Cold war stuff in Latin America...

in the '80s. That may explain my choice of career.

[treestar]

125. I vaguely recall Huntley and Brinkley and Cronkite

My earliest memories are of the war in Vietnam, because every night they consistently stated how many Americans were killed there and how many South Vietnamese and how many Viet Cong.

We used to watch rocket launches and splashdowns. I remember Apollo 8 through 11.

Oddly now that I look back, as a child, I did not absorb the protests or Kent State or the like - maybe it was too complex for me to really get.

The first Presidential election I remember is 1968. My dad despised "Tricky Dick."

[robinlynne]

126. JFk being shot.

[bluestateguy]

127. When the Soviets shot down the 007 airplane

nt

[Louisiana1976]

128. The Vietnam War when I was 7 or so.

I wanted the TV turned off because I didn't want to see all that fighting during dinner.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

130. The 1952 election - Eisenhower vs Stevenson

I remember election night and the news reporting a landslide. It was the first time I had ever heard that word. My parents were very happy. They were both Democrats but liked Ike, mainly I think because my dad was career military. I had just turned three.

[notadmblnd]

133. President Kennedy's funeral. I was four.

[LittlestStar]

135. I remember watching when Reagan got elected.

I was still watching cartoons for the most part, so Reagan fit right in.

[Still Sensible]

140. The space race, early '60s, President Kennedy

John Glenn, Scott Carpener, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, etc.... being reported by Huntley-Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, Eric Severied, etc..

[PD Turk]

141. Bobby Kennedy assisination

I was 5, that's the first I can recall paying attention to the news

[ghurley]

142. CNN - Desert Storm

[Butterbean]

149. I remember that night very clearly, but don't remember the newscast.

[ncgrits]

143. 5 yrs old. Vietnam on the news every night.

Asked my dad why they were always fighting. He looked really sad and said, "They just are, missy. They just are."

Also remember the announcement about MLK Jr. being shot.

[WillyT]

147. John Glenn Orbiting The Earth...

They (the networks) had a really bad graphic to show what was happening in real-time.

But we stayed up and watched the whole thing as a family.

[Vidar]

157. The Mercury launches.

[Lisa0825]

164. I think I was 5 - my dad turned it off in a huff and shouted,

"I AM SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT FUCKING WATERGATE!!!"

In his defense, he didn't realize I was in the room. LOL

[tavernier]

165. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth.

I was four. I didn't know anything about those people but it was fascinating to watch, even in B&W.

[truebluegreen]

167. Staying up late to watch election returns

in 1960. "Late" is probably a relative term--I was only 5 at the time, so it might have been until 8 or 9 o'clock!

[LadyHawkAZ]

170. The first news item I remember noticing

was Skylab's demise, which scared me because I thought it might fall on our house. I was 6.

The news was always on in our house in the evening, but up till then it was just background noise.

[pepperbear]

176. Cronkite and Vietnam, then it was the bussing issue, gas crisis, and watergate.

[Zoeisright]

178. JFK funeral in 1963

Of course, I was so young I was irritated that cartoons weren't on.

[browntown]

182. I'm a bit of a youngin

Earliest news exposure had to be early 90s Reagan-Bush I handover of power (blech) and the first Gulf War buildup. I distinct recall from early grade school our public teacher had us "pray for the warriors about to enter battle" lol. Bit weird for a first grader. I aso recall a lot of frightening ozone hole reports in the mid 90s.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

183. The overthrow of the Marcos regime in the Philippines in the mid-1980s

At least I think it was about the downfall of the Marcos regime -I can't really be sure since I was only 4 or 5 at the time but I seem to remember that it involved President Marcos and that it must have coincided with the time that his regime was overthrown. Of course I only remember it in the context of me wanting to talk and my mother asking me to be quiet because she wanted to listen.

Our family lived in SE Asia at the time -my dad was an expatriate working over there -and all the TV networks in the country in which we resided were controlled by the government. That often meant that the news programs were rather boring when it came to domestic news because everything reflected the government's priorities and the government line. My grandfather was a news addict to the extent that almost every hour, he would go into his study and listen to the BBC news on the radio so I'm sure I got some exposure to the news from hanging arouind him a lot but I don't remember much of it

If you're asking about the first time when I can remember paying serious attention to the news, it was when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. I'd heard about Mandela from various sources during my younger years and had already had in my mind that he was a great hero who was being imprisoned unfairly so his release was a big thing and I remember watching the coverage of his release. I also remember watching the news on the night Germany was reunited as one country -I seem to remember thinking it was amazing even then. That period of time also coincided with the resignation of our country of residence's founding father and Prime Minister, who was retiring after thirty-one years in office and I paid vague attention to that as well. Then events starting unfolding rapidly -Margaret Thatcher's resignation, the Persian Gulf War, collapse of the Soviet Union and so on and I became an evening news addict

[applegrove]

184. I remember seeing one of the moon walks. I would have been about 4 I think.

[murielm99]

187. The Suez Canal crisis in 1956

and the Hungarian refugees in 1956. That was the first year we had a t.v. I read about them in the newspaper, too, but I am not sure I understood what I read as quite as much as what I was viewing. Newspapers were written for adults, and I was eight.

On edit: This was not the first year we had a t.v. We had a t.v. when I was six. I just don't remember watching the news until I was eight.

[spanone]

188. david garroway...original today show...

walter cronkite...huntley & brinkley....

[CitizenLeft]

189. Oswald

I was four. I don't remember the news about Kennedy's assassination - probably because our TV was on the blink - but I distinctly remember my mother kneeling on the floor and crying.

But that Sunday, my mother took me downstairs to the neighbor's apartment to watch TV, and I saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Oswald. It was shocking beyond words. It's something you don't forget.

[lastlib]

191. John Glenn's Mercury flight--I was four.

Became a space junkie after that, watched every launch, tuned in for a lot of the flight updates. I remember Kennedy's assassination, and later, while spending time with my grandparents, watching footage of the Vietnam conflict with Cronkite. That set me on a course to become the news/political junkie that I am today. I still have vivid memories of watching the House Judiciary's Nixon impeachment hearings, and that one really set me on the path to being the flaming liberal that I am now.

[Art_from_Ark]

196. My history teacher, who was a diehard Democrat

arranged for us to take time off from our regular classes to watch some of the hearings (May 1974). He predicted, with a gleam in his eye, that Nixon would be finished before the summer was up.

[IrishEyes]

192. Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster in 1986

I was watching cartoons at the time. It was interrupted by the news of the tragedy. I remember being really sad about it. That is my earliest memory of watching the news.

I also remember watching a program with my family where a newsman was talking to a group of people. One of the people had AIDS and they wanted him to leave town because they were worried that he might infect them. I remember thinking how mean and awful the people were to the man and his family. I think the program was from 1986.

[Jennicut]

194. That was mine too.

I remember everything about the buildup to the first teacher in space. And then when she and the others died...they announced it to us during my lunch.
I just remember watching the news after school about it. It must have been about 3rd grade for me. Nothing else sticks out before that.

[RexDart]

197. Jonestown, Milk/Moscone muders and the White Night riot.

Nov. 1978 to May 79. It was a bad few months in the bay area.

Edit to add: mentioned this to my wife, and for her it was the 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping.