Christopher Glenn

Radio News Coverage: STS-51L Part 1

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• published: 27 Feb 2013
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Well, I've got some 'splainin' to do, and I've been dreading this day. THE ONLY MATERIAL ON THIS PARTICULAR UPLOAD THAT I ACTUALLY GOT AT THE TIME OF THIS EVENT LASTS ONLY UNTIL THE 5:30 MARK, starting with the frustrating delay and scrub from the day before. I have a report from Vic Ratner (ABC Radio) where even he sounds incredulous that they couldn't get the door handle dislodged, a later report where you can actually hear the sound of the gusty cold-front driven winds, and then, on the morning of the explosion, a CBS Radio newscast 2 1/2 hours before launch. The rest of what you'll hear is an amalgamation, from various other sources, that I put together just recently (2013) of the final minutes of the countdown when CNN picked up coverage until just after "tower clear," followed by a sync-up using ABC Radio of the first few minutes from then until a sync-up with the point about 45 seconds after the explosion when Christopher Glenn came back on the air as part of the CBS Net Alert (from the WCBS appreciation site). The next material that I actually got at the time (about 80 minutes after the crackup) doesn't start until Part II (ie the second upload for 51L), and here's why. I had just started an internship at the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG) the afternoon before, and my first actual morning there was the day of the explosion. Being that I had just started, I wasn't sure how anyone would feel about me bringing more than one radio along with a tape recorder, so I left the recorder and the extra radio at the house. My internship mentor and another of the project managers had just come from a meeting when the Challenger launched. I was listening to the CBS coverage, although they had been severely truncating launches as of late, and had it not been for the fact that I was in a bldg that hurt reception for an ABC affiliate and an AP Network News affiliate that began airing just a few months earlier, I probably would have been listening to one of those instead because they were still covering launches through SRB sep. Just as Christopher Glenn left the air (about a minute after the launch) I turned to the project manager to mention that the Shuttle finally got off, and he and I talked briefly about all that. Just as I was getting ready to mention that this was the first time since Apollo 15 I wasn't recording a launch and to explain why, coming from my radio behind me I thought I heard what sounded like Christopher Glenn once more. I missed, either that or WOAI missed, the introductory jingle and the "NOW! Direct from CBS News....." Nevertheless, I knew immediately that if HE was back on the air it couldn't be good (although I didn't fully grasp the magnitude of the situation and had briefly thought they were "simply" attempting an RTLS). The explosion itself was bad enough, but of course I was pretty shaken up about it all (I was physically shaking once the gravity of the situation fully sank in), given how closely I'd been following these things----recording them, mind you---and on all of the days in which to not be recording the thing after having attempted to do so the day before and having gotten stuff on all of 31 manned flights prior, I was AWOL (it "launched" me on a guilt trip of sorts for quite some time thereafter). The AACOG guys were very understanding, fortunately, and of course everyone was by this time following it in some manner or form anyway. My internship hours were only for mornings unless a special event, project or meeting was scheduled, so I was able to get back to the house to actually start recording the coverage. On the morning of the explosion, before I left for AACOG, I asked my mom to program our VCR before she left for work so I could get at least something from CNN, only to discover that my dad had taken the unit in to have the heads cleaned. Given the confluence of events and situations, IT'S ALMOST AS IF I WASN'T MEANT TO ACTUALLY SEE WHAT HAPPENED LIVE, OR TO GET ANY RECORD OF IT LIVE ---at least at the time. I had struggled in trying to decide whether or not to weave the CNN, ABC Radio, and initial CBS Radio Net Alert reports into what I actually did get at the time, and at one point until just recently had decided to simply upload exactly what I got at the time. I finally decided, though, that the amalgamation that I came up with helps to fill in what would otherwise be a serious gap in coverage. Also, the Vic Ratner and Bob Walker ABC coverage of this incident (also a "classic") dovetailing directly into the initial CBS Net Alert Bulletin gives the listener the kind of startling "jolt" that many radio listeners actually received at the time.