Before there was a “wire room” adjacent to the newsroom, the teletype machines were just lined up along a wall. Note all the Western Union clocks above the machines. On the hour, all the little red lights would light up as the clocks re-set themselves.
The light-colored machine just behind the AP machine in the foreground was a Reuters printer, obtained at great cost to the station. I seem to recall it was sacrificed when we got that high-speed local wire, the one on which Rudy (Ruderman) and I faked the bulletin about an ape being spotted on the Empire State Building. Jim Gash was almost out the door on that one, a rare “gotcha” for which he never forgave Rudy OR me (Andy Fisher).
Poor Bill had his share of challenges, both deliberate and inadvertent. One afternoon, the bulletin bells clanged as AP (or was it UPI?) broke the news of the death of Joseph P. Kennedy. Rudy Ruderman and I tore off the bulletin, stapled it to a piece of copy paper, and rushed it into the studio, where a voice report in Bill’s newscast was just ending. “This just in,” said Bill, smoothly but with a clear sense of urgency. “Joseph P. Kennedy, father of an ill-starred political dynasty, has died. More details as they become available.” Back in the newsroom, however, AP (or was it UPI?) was running a retraction. The bulletin had been run in error. Rudy handed Bill the retraction just as he was going into his headline recap. “Repeating the top story,” he said, solemnly. “Joseph P. Kennedy… is… not… dead. A bulletin heard earlier on WNEW was in error…”
I remember. How are you doing, J0hn?
Wow Ray, after all these years :)… how and where are you? I’m sort of retired, living in Richmond. Mike and Bill were the last people I was in contact with from WNEW
Hmmm… read something interesting…. The Gorilla gag was played on Bill Diehl while he was doing a newsread on Dick Shepards show…. I typed up the copy on AP carbons on a machine that was of a similar Font to the news wires, went running in waving the copy and handed it to Bill, he started to read ..”This just in, A large Black Gorilla has been sighted climbing….” laughter on air and a throw to Dick with a comical exchange. It was i that went to the carpet in front of News Director Mike Stein and The PD. Got a stern warning and a chuckle was tearing copy that night… I was Jim Gash’s Assistant, but tearing copy for some OT.
Ray Rice, Bill Diehl, Mike or Dick will verify that… the winter of 68-9. I went on to work With Mike at ABC News much later and had a laugh about it with both him and Bill one day
John L Venable