Paul R. Beane, host of The Way I See It commentary weekdays on KFYO, has been involved in the business of radio, and news reporting in both radio and television, for over 50 years. Earlier this week, I had the chance to talk to him about his recollections of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (pictured, right) on November 22, 1963.

Back in November of 1963, Beane was working in Lubbock with the KLBK television and radio station combo. KLBK-TV was located on Channel 13 and it is today and co-owned KLBK-AM was on 1340 AM and it's now the present-day SportsRadio 1340 The Fan (KKAM-AM).

At the time, KLBK was an UPI (United Press International) outlet. Beane said he was in the cafeteria at KLBK when they had received the news of the shooting in Dealey Plaza.

Beane recalls what he heard when he and other staffers got to their UPI Teletype machine in the newsroom. "I heard five bells as the teletype was printing. *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding*," Beane recalled. "It was the only time I ever heard the UPI five bell alert.  Each time the wire was updating, the bells were going off."

Three Lions, Getty Images
Three Lions, Getty Images
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At that point Beane, and the staff at KLBK hunkered down to provide reports on both radio and television, along with airing CBS News reports on KLBK-TV (KFYO at that time was the CBS News Radio affiliate in Lubbock).  As the afternoon turned into evening, Beane recalled the phones continuing to ring off the hook at KLBK. "We received many, many calls from people into that fateful evening. Mostly distraught women who couldn't believe that President Kennedy was dead," Beane said.

Beane, and a number of other staffers at KLBK, didn't leave the station until Sunday because of the flurry of events after President Kennedy was killed.

Friday's edition of The Way I See It (1:30p during Rush Limbaugh) will focus on the 50th anniversary of the JFK Assassination.

Earlier in the article I mentioned the KLBK Teletype machine. Paul Beane saved seven pages of UPI wire from that fateful date in 1963.  He allowed us to scan the pages and you can read the reporting as the events unfolded 50 years ago right here on KFYO.com. Right click on the link above each page, and open in a new tab/page, to view each page in a larger size.

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