How a Fresno Rock Station Covered Challenger

On the morning of Jan. 28, 1986, I was co-host of KKDJ's Dean & Don Show. As our news anchor Gunnar Jensen was finishing his 8:30 headlines, Don and I were monitoring the countdown of the Challenger launch on the NBC radio network. KKDJ wasn't an NBC affiliate but for some reason Ma Bell sent NBC through our studios en route to a competitor just across the street. It soon became apparent that Challenger's countdown was going to perfectly coincide with the end of our newscast so we decided to put NBC's coverage on the air even if it made us guilty of bootlegging a national network. As Challenger climbed, Don and I flipped through the music library in search of the perfect song to follow the launch. Little did we know David Bowie's "Space Oddity" would be so appropriate. This is the audio as broadcast on KKDJ that morning.