[BC] AP 10 Bells Survey

[John Holt]

It took me a while to get home and find the book.  FLASH! The Associated 
Press Covers the World, published i n 1998 on the 150 anniversary of the 
Associated Press, states, on the jacket, that "The last FLASH transmitted 
was on July 20, 1969 at the moment Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon.  In 
the days when it took several minutes to transmit or 'move' a story, a 
flash would break into the middle of anything moving on the wires.  Today 
stories move in seconds...."

The AP instituted the FLASH in 1906.  The teletype machine didn't arrive 
until 1914.

John M. Holt
Director of Engineering and Operations
WAMU-American University
Washington, DC 20016
202-885-1242
jholt at wamu.org
http://www.wamu.org

broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net wrote on 06/21/2006 02:58:02 AM:

> On 20 Jun 2006 at 22:19, Stanley Adams wrote:
> 
> > I have heard the 10 Bells about three times I think since the middle 
60's.
> > 
> > Can everyone pitch in and lets count the events that have happened 
since 
> > that time that would set the bells off.
> > Now, remember this has to be an actual 10 Bell event, not just 
something 
> > that we might think would be newsworthy.
> > 
> > I have been sitting here thinking tonight and I just cannot remember a 

> > one of them.
> > 
> > Perhaps when Johnson died, this was a long time ago.
> 
> #1 Unforgettable if you were on duty at the time.  Saturday, Oct. 27, 
1962.
> 
> WHCA broke all wires, sent 10 bells followed by a Presidential message 
to
> prepare for ConelraD operations within 12 hours if authorized. 
> They sent another 10 bells and the wire resumed. This was no drill. The
> message cleared the wire at about 9 PM eastern time. 
> 
> So you can call that a 10 bell event, or a 20 bell event, or an almost 
big
> BOOM event. You can call it anything EXCEPT a news event because 
broadcast 
> was prohibited. Very few knew how really close we came.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------
> Phil Alexander, CSRE, AMD
> Broadcast Engineering Services and Technology 
> (a Div. of Advanced Parts Corporation) 
> Ph. (317) 335-2065   FAX (317) 335-9037
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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