CNN founder Ted Turner once said the US cable news network would broadcast until the world ended and even said a special clip was prepared to show on Doomsday.
According to a former intern who claims to have found the long-lost video, he was not joking.
The clip of the Armed Forces band playing 'Nearer My God To Thee' has been published by former intern Michael Ballaban on the website Jalopnik.
He reported that he dug out the never-before-seen video, whose existence has been alluded to in reports over the decades, from an archive while working there as an intern with CNN.
A still from the video
"This is the never-before-seen video the last living CNN employee will be required to play before succumbing to radiation poisoning, the plague, zombies, or whatever crazy end Turner saw coming," Mr Ballaban wrote.
"It lives on CNN's MIRA archive system, under the name TURNER DOOMSDAY VIDEO. Reflecting its status as an artifact, not to be used except in the ultimate emergency, it's in standard definition, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, perfect for the cathode-ray tube televisions of the 1980s."
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In 1988, Mr Turner dscribed the video and its contents to The New Yorker.
He said: "Normally, when a TV station begins & ends the broacast day, it signs on & off by playing the National Anthem.
“But with CNN–a 24-hour-a day channel– we would only sign off once & I knew what that would mean.
"So we got the combined Armed Forces marching bands together, the Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force bands and took them out to the old CNN headquarters & we had them practice the National Anthem for a videotaping.
"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–before we signed off."
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