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There Was Nothing Funny About The Space Shuttle Disaster But This Was
I heard John Moore talking about the space shuttle Challenger blowing up exactly 39 years ago Tuesday. It was one of the worst space disasters in history and took the lives of everyone on board.
But even in the midst of all this tragedy, there was one moment that stands out in the TV coverage of the event. And it happened on City TV.
The station interrupted programming to follow the unfolding disaster, with Gord Martineau anchoring the coverage. He relied on the expertise of David Onley, who - in addition to being a station staffer - was known for writing a book called "Shuttle" several years earlier, that prophesied just such a tragedy.
The call went out for a fully built space shuttle model, which Onley could use as a prop to better illustrate to viewers what might have happened. A staffer ran out to a nearby downtown science store and somehow got the very last one in the shop, brought it back to the station and rushed it over to Onley.
But as he started handling the prop, the thing broke apart and a large piece of the model landed with a thud on the desk. It happened on air and Martineau and Onley could only make lame observations that it wasn't quite what happened to the actual ship - although no one at the time knew exactly what caused it.
I remember watching that coverage and as terrible as the loss of all those people was, I had to laugh out loud - what are the odds something like that would happen at that exact moment, let alone on air? To their credit, the duo carried on and tried to put it behind them.
And while the shuttle story has never left me, neither has the moment when the world lost the Challenger - and so did City TV.
- BowmanvilleBob
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Re: There Was Nothing Funny About The Space Shuttle Disaster But This Was
For those interested, here's some of the live radio coverage of the Shuttle disaster. The first two minutes are of ABC Radio's live coverage of the Challenger launch, featuring veteran correspondent Vic Ratner's incredulous reaction to watching the spacecraft explode in mid-flight. The coverage then switches to CBS Radio's Christopher Glenn trying adlib a live description of what's going on at the Kennedy Space Centre.
"Something has gone amiss" - ABC/CBS Radio coverage of Challenger space shuttle disaster
- paterson1
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Re: There Was Nothing Funny About The Space Shuttle Disaster But This Was
CFOS in Owen Sound had the tragedy on air before most stations. One of the station techs was watching the launch live by satellite. As soon as the shuttle blew up, he phoned the news director and told him. The news department went live with reports that the shuttle had just blown up soon after launch. As the newsperson was ad libbing the report, the first bulletin came in from BN. What a day that was.
- Shorty Wave
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Re: There Was Nothing Funny About The Space Shuttle Disaster But This Was
RadioActive wrote:
I heard John Moore talking about the space shuttle Challenger blowing up exactly 39 years ago Tuesday. It was one of the worst space disasters in history and took the lives of everyone on board.
The station interrupted programming to follow the unfolding disaster, with Gord Martineau anchoring the coverage. He relied on the expertise of David Onley, who - in addition to being a station staffer - was known for writing a book called "Shuttle" several years earlier, that prophesied just such a tragedy.
The call went out for a fully built space shuttle model, which Onley could use as a prop to better illustrate to viewers what might have happened. A staffer ran out to a nearby downtown science store and somehow got the very last one in the shop, brought it back to the station and rushed it over to Onley.
But as he started handling the prop, the thing broke apart and a large piece of the model landed with a thud on the desk. It happened on air and Martineau and Onley could only make lame observations that it wasn't quite what happened to the actual ship - although no one at the time knew exactly what caused it.
Years later, when I worked at Citytv, this story came up! There was a few stories like this that veteran CityPulse staff would share at the Beverly and other such watering holes, Mark Dailey had some good ones!
- newsguy1
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Re: There Was Nothing Funny About The Space Shuttle Disaster But This Was
I watched it live on TV. I don't remember what station, but I will never forget that moment when Mission Control told the shuttle crew, "Roger go with throttle up," then those huge clouds of white smoke.
With a similar story regarding the Shuttle Colombia disaster, I have one very grim but true story.
I was working the early morning shift. it was a weekend.
I was relieving the overnight guy, and I asked, so what kind of night was it?
He replied,"really dead, (yes he said dead), and there's nothing big expected to happen today." Then he paused and "joked," "unless of course the shuttle blows up."
We never let him forget his words.