The canaries in Studio A and othere tales of 1950s Washington

Sam Smith - 60 years ago this month and 19 years old, I got a job at the top rated Washington radio station WWDC and later with its national news service. My tasks ran from writing nine newscasts a day to covering everything from murders to White House press conferences. One of news vehicles was a dubious Isetta (see below). But I also was one of maybe a dozen reporters in town with a battery operated tape recorder (that's me interviewing JFK just after he had announced for president) which was great for things like covering one of the first sit-ins (at Glen Echo Amusement Park)