Hartford learns of JFK murder

For the last few years, I’ve made a ritual of listening to this recording of the call-in show that WTIC-AM/FM in Hartford was airing as news of JFK’s murder broke on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. The first news bulletin comes at about the 26-minute mark. But what’s also haunting is the conversation leading up to it: how to make a German chocolate cake, when to trim a maple tree, what the Sigourney-Burk market had for specials that week. So mundane. Then the world changes.

Also on Youtube: Dennis House, then host of the WFSB-TV Sunday morning show “Face the State,” marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination with a look back at how local news organizations covered it: