On November 22 , 1963 , NBC interrupted various programs on its affiliate stations at 1:45 p.m. to announce that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas , Texas . Eight minutes later , at 1:53:12 p.m. , NBC broke into programming with a network bumper slide and Chet Huntley , Bill Ryan and Frank McGee informing the viewers what was going on as it happened ; but since a camera was not in service , the reports were audio only . However , NBC did not begin broadcasting over the air until 1:57 p.m. ET . About 40 minutes later , after word came that JFK was pronounced dead , NBC suspended regular programming and carried 71 hours of uninterrupted news coverage of the assassination and the funeral of the president — including the only live broadcast of the fatal shooting of Kennedy 's assassin , Lee Harvey Oswald , by Jack Ruby as Oswald was being led in handcuffs by law-enforcement officials through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters
President John F. Kennedy had been shot
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
NBC News