I couldn’t find anything googling around, and searched Cafe Society to see if anyone’s discussed it before. Seems not.
Can anyone identify the station or newscaster who does the news portion of ‘Silent Night/the Seven O’ Clock News’ from Simon and Garfunkle’s ‘Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme’ album?
Researching the events mentioned, they could concievably be part of an Aug 3rd 1966 Newscast, but what station, where. I don’t have a copy of the album, maybe it’s credited?
According to this post on a music knowledge forum and also Wikipedia, it’s Charlie O’Donnell, who at the time was a New York disk jockey. And who, according to Wikipedia, is apparently the announcer for “Wheel of Fortune.”
Thanks, choie. The pieces seem to fit. Someone remembers Art Garfunkle saying they were in Los Angeles, and the O’Donnel Bio says he worked for TV station KCOP in LA.
The COP is a nice touch, given the anti-establishment tone of much of the album.
Missed the edit window, doing a bit more research. I glossed the bit where you said O’Donnel was working in NY at the time. PSRT was released 21 aug 66. Still, with the tape technology of the time, gave them a little time to find a newscast of the right tone and length. Or it could have been entirely serendipitous.
Was O’Donnell’s reading of the news from a real news broadcast, or was it something written especially for the song that wasn’t actually broadcast on radio?
Well, that’s one of the things we’d like to know. Also, choie puts him in NY at the time, but his Bio makes him out to be more of a west coaster, either in his late days at KRLA or early In his TV career.
This site puts him at KRLA in 1966 ~Los Angeles Radio People, Where ARe They Now, o
I think it’s a real broadcast, rather than something they had him come in and do.
I don’t think it’s a real broadcast. I’m going by memory here (haven’t heard the song in a while), but I believe it mentions Richard Speck, who killed 8 student nurses on July 13, 1966 and Charles Whitman who shot people at random from the University of Texas tower on August 1, 1966.
It seems to me these 2 stories, being about 2 weeks apart, would not have the same importance in the typical news broadcast.
(By that I mean, the Speck and Whitman killings were discussed as if they happened that day).
It mentions Richard Speck being brought before a Grand Jury for Indictment. No mention of Charles Whitman. Also mentioned are Lenny Bruce dying that day, which fixes it Aug 3rd, 1966, the Senate discussing the issue of open housing, Dr. King planning a march in Cicero, Ill. over open housing, The House Unamerican Activities special subcommitte looking into anti-war protests (and being disrupted by shouts from protesters), and ‘former vice president’ Nixon telling an audience of VFW members to look forward to five more years of war without a substantial increase of war effort, and that opposition to the war was the enemy’s greatest weapon.
The 60’s weren’t all love and acid, it seems.
Course, it’s possible they edited together stories from several different newscasts.
It would have to be from the same broadcaster, though, wouldn’t it? Since the voice was the same throughout, if I recall correctly.
I’m with EddyTeddyFreddy, it doesn’t sound like a cut and paste job, I’ve heard plenty of those.
Unless someone has an authoritative cite, I think Charlie O’Donnell on KRLA is the most likely answer. We don’t know where the guy on the message board that choie linked had the information to cite it so certainly, but it seems to fit.
I would just like to pipe in to say “Thanks.” I axed this same question five years ago and got nowhere.
Right on. I searched Cafe Society, but I didn’t snag your thread, maybe becaused I used Newscast instead of Newscaster for the search term.
It wouldn’t have had to be a cut and paste job, if it was scripted.
That was always the real question, in my mind.
Well, I decided to do a search for the “lyrics” of the seven o’clock news.
(I imagine many of you have also searched. For those few who may not have found the words they are here)
No doubt, Cafe Society would prohibit a full publishing of the words so I’ll just make a few comments.
It begins This is the early evening edition of the news. and
ends with That’s the 7 o’clock edition of the news,
Goodnight.
No mention of what city the station is located? The announcer doesn’t mention his name? No call letters? No ads? A chunk of news that size should have a bit of a let-up somewhere in its presentation don’t you think? It just seems a bit too generic.
The report about Richard Speck:
For one thing, the broadcast is incorrect about mentioning nine student nurses.
Also, the phrasing seems a little too condensed and stilted. That’s quite a jump from mentioning Speck’s indictment to the nurses being found dead.
Wouldn’t it be more realistic if that second sentence read “Speck allegedly murdered the eight student nurses found dead on July 13th” (or two weeks ago or something that put it into some kind of time frame? We are assuming this broadcast was no earlier than August 3, 1966, the date of Lenny Bruce’s death.)
I don’t know. It does sound contrived.
(Of course I also thought it mentioned Charles Whitman, so what do I know?) 
Well, yeah.
I’ve always thought that the newscast sounded like it was done in the studio, not taken from a real broadcast. I’m surprised there’s no info about this in the booklet in the Simon & Garfunkel Columbia Studio Recordings box set.
Interesting. My mom always hated that song - she didn’t like the juxtaposition of a lovely Christmas song alongside a recitation of awful news, proof of just how screwed-up the world is. Which was the whole point, of course.
When I listen, the news becomes audible about the time it says ‘President Johnson’, even when I have the balance all the way over.
It was very seamless, but I’m beginning to think it may have been ‘cut down’ from one actuall broadcast.
Nine nurses were in the apartment, one escaped, Mr. O’Donnell may have been conflating the number of nurses involved with the number murdered. Newscasters make mistakes, even get handed incorrect copy, on occasion. We’re assuming it was on Aug 3rd. The Newscaster reads ‘Lenny Bruce died today.’
The more I listen to it, the more I’m thinking it’s a real broadcast, but S&G picked out the parts they thought evocative, and left out ads, station ID, etc.
OK, this is number 23 on the things to do with a time machine. Take a tape recorder back to Aug 6, 1966, in LA and tape the 7’O Clock news on KRLA.
Since O’Donnell is alive, ask him if it was a real broadcast.