(With the odd events in Hawaii today, I thought I’d repost this diary from 2011 about odd broadcast reminiscences with my late mom.)
No, it's not a post about race, hate speech or, indeed, anything of consequence. Hanging with my mom right now and, as sometimes happens when we're together, we've been reminiscing about odd events, checking each other's recollections. She's getting on and I, well, I've done a good bit of DIY brain cell experimenting over the years. It's good to check the data backups now and then.
Today, we've been talking about anomalies over the airwaves, especially those others can't recall. Most recent, lost in the horror and hilarity of Dick Cheney's buckshot peppering of Harry Wittington, was Slyvia Poggioli's inelegant expletive on February 14, 2006 when, thinking she'd lost the link from Rome to NPR in Washington, she let out a plosive "Shit!" Regrettably, the link was intact and all the way live. Funniest was Michele Norris' tentative, "Um, Sylvia?" afterward.
We were driving back from my aunt's funeral in Vermont and happy the other was there to confirm we'd actually heard it. Our memories were backed up the next week by Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger in their Washington Post column.
Another broadcast mind-blower we both recall (my brother as well) was a commercial aired in the mid or late 60s introducing Fresca (pretty sure) which claimed the drinks taste was so lively "you may be seeing color on your black and white TV."
And we were! The makers of the commercial had found just the right densities of black and grey and the right frequency of strobing to create a yellow/green and purple afterimage on the screen of our B&W set. Damned effective (and freaky) ad. I haven't found any mention of it on the internet.
Lastly, she reminded me of the "hatefulness" broadcast of 1971, which had completely fallen out of my brain bucket until she mentioned it. One morning, we were riding in the car (living in Southern California at the time) when the radio broadcast was interrupted by a man saying, "Hatefulness! Hatefulness! Hatefulness!" followed by an announcement that it was an "Emergency broadcast" and that regular programming would cease, which it did. We wondered what the heck it was about. In a couple of minutes, the regular program came back on.
It wasn't until the next day that a couple of media outlets explained what had happened. Good thing, too, because if we'd known at the time, we'd probably have soiled ourselves. From the New York Times account:
An employee at the (National Emergency Warning)center, in a confusion over punched tapes that are prepared in advance, put on the wire to the country's radio and television stations at 9:33 A. M. a message saying that the President had declared a national emergency and that normal broadcasting was to cease "immediately." The message contained the code word "hatefulness," which was to be used only in the event of a real alert. In the subsequent turmoil, a number of stations around the country went off the air after telling listeners of the "emergency." Others quickly checked and found that the transmission was an error and continued normal broadcasting. . . . The National Emergency Warning Center frantically tried to cancel the message several times, but it was not until 10:13 A. M. that it found the proper code word--"impish"--to indicate that the cancellation was authentic.
Another little-remembered Cold War tale. I'm always grateful to have these bizarre memories confirmed by someone else who was present. Because, honestly, half of the crazy shit I've been through I don't even believe myself. So, how about you? Anybody remember these episodes? Any others you saw or heard that seem like myths to you now?