If and when the apocalypse comes, CNN will have a marching band.
That’s what was revealed Monday, when a former intern released a long-rumored video kept in CNN’s archive in the event the world comes to an end.
“Barring satellite problems, we won’t be signing off until the world ends,” Turner said in 1980.
Back then, the network launched with the Armed Forces Band singing the national anthem. And according to Gawker site Jalopnik, Turner asked the band to perform an encore in the event the world ends.
Then, as things cranked up, I asked if they’d play “Nearer My God, to Thee” to put on videotape just in case the world ever came to an end. That would be the last thing CNN played…before we signed off. And, I’ll tell you, those guys in the military bands knew what I was up to.
The band performed the song for Turner, and it has lived in CNN’s archives ever since, labeled “TURNER DOOMSDAY VIDEO.”
Watch the video, appropriately filmed in 1980s standard definition, with a 4×3 aspect ratio, above.