Lack of network coverage of LAUNCH
Had to listen to the local WCBS news in NYC metro area, they cut off after 45 secs after launch or so and went to advertising, bitter cold here and was stunned to hear a few secs later that the shuttle blew up, swithed over to a local ham freq that ran the shuttlle comm real time. Then all major broadcast stations came on with the news, and a general pall grew over the work area. Buddy worked for NY TIMES, and saved the front page for me, still have it and he was kept on call for 48 hrs to set type and transmit front pages to other presses around county(pre WWWeb,of course) Saw the ice on the towers from the broken water lines and did wonder why they did launch that day?