January 20, 1986: The first Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Posted by & filed under 1980s.

Yesterday UNT, along with other state institutions, observed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law on Nov. 2, 1983. Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, stated upon the bill’s ratification that “This is not a black holiday; it is a people’s holiday.” Martin Luther King, Jr. Day… Read more »

Today in History: January 4, 1981

Posted by & filed under 1980s.

NBC5 reporter Brad Wright traveled to El Paso,Texas on January 4, 1981 to report on President-elect Ronald Reagan’s meeting with Mexico President Jose Lopez Portilla. This segment was digitized from the original 3/4 inch analog source tape, and shows many examples of tape degradation which interfere with the both the picture and sound quality. Footage… Read more »

From Radio to TV: The History of WBAP

Posted by & filed under 1950s.

Before the widespread adoption of TV in America many people had become accustomed to tuning into their radios for news in addition to the more traditional formats such as newspapers and magazines.In fact, the rise of broadcast television news in the 1940’s was a natural extension of the capabilities built during the war years by… Read more »

Sticking to the Script

Posted by & filed under 1950s.

This is a project update on the Broadcast Script Digitization Project. One of the major challenges in preservation of early news footage is that it was largely recorded without any soundtrack.The earliest news film in the NBC5/KXAS (WBAP) collection is completely silent, and was meant to be accompanied during a live broadcast by a news… Read more »

Welcome to the Statler Hilton Dallas

Posted by & filed under 1950s.

The Statler Hilton Dallas Hotel, located at 1914 Commerce Street, was considered an iconic example of modernist design when it opened in 1956. It was the first hotel built in Dallas in over 30 years, and the largest conference facility in the South. When it opened the hotel had 1,001 guest rooms and a ball… Read more »

Martian Landing

Posted by & filed under 1990s.

One of the most interesting aspects of a local news collection is that the coverage provides a regional perspective for national news events. On December 2, 1999 the Mars Polar Lander was quickly approaching the Martian atmosphere in preparation for a landing which would send significant scientific information back to Earth. Scientists hoped that data… Read more »