Okay, I heard it on Geraldo's nighttime "legal issues" show. The one where he was serious, discussing the O.J. case all through that, then the Ramsey case came on the radar. The "911 tape" was only advertised for that day or so, and it was played on one of the "tabloid" shows at the time as well, something like "Inside Edition". I heard/saw the Geraldo episode, I'm sure, because I remember he had a couple of guests, they listened as well, and they discussed if they could actually "distinguish" the words--no, they couldn't, and neither could I. This lasted only about 5 or 10 minutes of the show and then they went on to the next topic. It was very anti-climatic, actually, and I had no idea it was a big deal until I came online sometime later and found out I would be attacked for sharing what I'd seen that night. I mean, how many 911 calls get released? Plenty, and no drama with them "disappearing" into oblivion.
But there is an issue that I didn't understand even existed when I heard that airing of the ENHANCED TAPE, and obviously, with time and confusion, many here haven't caught on to it or don't remember.
What I heard played was THE ENHANCEMENT OF THE END OF THE 911 TAPE, not the whole 911 original call with Patsy's "performance". At least, this is what I remember and how I have deduced the sequence, though lord knows anything in this mess of a case is arguable:
At the time I heard the tape on Geraldo's show, which I watched EVERY night or I probably would have missed it myself, I had NO IDEA there WAS an "enhanced tape", per se. I may have heard about that being done--or maybe not. In either case, I just didn't "comprehend" the specific elements of that process to "raise" the voices in the background from the orginal tape, nor did I differentiate between the "original 911 tape" vs the "enhanced tape". I really hadn't studied the case that intensely then nor did I even ponder airing the tape was strange, because at that time, it was just another murder case we expected to be solved one day. I wasn't online then, only saw national news reports or writings on the murder, etc. I saw none of the early stuff written by Colorado news media, not until I came online. I still find articles all the time from the Co. media, reporting early in the case history, that I never saw before. I can't even remember if Schilller's book was out yet, or if I'd read it, but I don't think so.
The reason I figured out that Geraldo played the ENHANCED tape is because when Wood released the ORIGINAL 911 tape in full, I couldn't remember at ALL hearing Patsy in that panicked voice, etc. I was about convinced I'd hallucinated the whole Geraldo episode myself--and I had a memory like a steel trap most of my life, so I had never wondered THAT before, but you know how this case twists and turns until you think YOU'VE lost YOUR mind.... Then a poster at another forum, one who prides herself on "inside sources" and "posting 13 minutes before anyone else", wrote about her source revealing the enhanced tape made by Aerospace blahblahblah. That's when it clicked: you can't HEAR the voices that well unless you hear the SEPARATE, ENHANCEMENT TAPED BY AEROSPACE. It's a SEPARATE TAPE, made FROM the original. Of course it is: they couldn't DESTROY the original to work on it, could they?
So I realized, unless I really did have a memory fade out highly uncharacteristic of me at the time, that I had not heard the entire original until Wood released it. What Geraldo had played was the enhanced tape,--a copy of it, and that was the one with a voice on it alleged to be Burke's--a minor child. It was and is highly protected evidence in an open murder case. So IMO, that's why "someone" saw it aired and reached the BPD or BDA promptly. That obviously resulted in a "cease and desist' order for airing the enhanced tape" given to the broadcast company that was parent to both CNBC (that's the channel Geraldo's night show was on at the time) and the network or production company which produced the tabloid show which also ran it, and any other show which people might have seen it on. The copy of the enhanced tape was probably spirited away or given to LE, then the repeat of the show and tapes of it were purged by threatening lord knows what.
Now, it has been a very long time ago, and we've heard the entire 911 tape many times. So memories get mixed up, etc. If someone else has another memory of this, I'm not saying I'm right and they're wrong. This is just what I remember. My memory is really not what it once was, and there have been many years when I didn't even think about this disputed airing. When I did try to recall the events, I had to wait for some of that memory to "surface again" at times, because I just hadn't thought about it for a long time. So...all I can swear to in a court of law is this: I heard Geraldo play what he said was the 911 call, and what I remember is that we could hear a man's voice scolding a childlike voice, with Patsy's voice in the mix as well. I can't actually remember the 911 operator's voice now, so can't say if that was audible in the recording or not. I guess I remember the other voices most because they were the ones in question. It has been too long. I look forward to the day I never write about this again.
Another word about what other shows played the tape that day: many people have said they thought they saw it on a tabloid show, or they have a relative who saw it on such a show, etc. Since we know that various media outlets are owned by the same company often, that's how the tape got aired on more than one show, IMO. I never watched Geraldo's morning/afternoon/Springer-type show, however, so I'm certain I did not see it on that program. I did not watch Geraldo's mock trial, either, though I saw ads for it: I just thought it would be dumb because it was pure exploitative sensationalism, and it was, IMO.
Anyhow, that's my best guess about the whole mess. I've said this about a thousand times through the years and I'm as tired as you, Rat, of being called a liar, delusional, mistaken, or taken in by a hoax, all over something that really is just another Ramsey case perversion of the truth, perpetrated by LE in Boulder who have spent 12 years burying the case for reasons they'll never, ever expose.
Oh, I do have some posts from others on the net who have written about seeing/hearing that tape, and one mentioned that the repeat she was going to tape after she saw it on the original airing had a message up front about the show being edited for legal reasons or some such. I'll try to find it to post for y'all.
In the end, people believe what they want. I know what I saw and heard. But it's really moot, because there is lots of corroboration that the voices are on the tape, from credible sources, including Michael Kane, Thomas, and Schiller, all who heard it.