WLS Channel 7 – Weekend Eyewitness News (Complete Broadcast, 2/18/1979) 📺
Here’s a complete broadcast of the late Sunday edition of Eyewitness News on WLS Channel 7, anchored by Jay Levine.
Includes:
Promo for The $20,000 Pyramid (voiceover by Ernie Anderson)
Little bit of a delay – eight seconds of no picture or sound before coming into newscast preview already in progress
Commercials for:
Celeste Pizza – “Abbondanza” (with Mama Celeste) (1978 Copyright Quaker Oats Co.)
Union 76 (at Murph’s 76 Station) (with Larry Wilcox of “CHIPS” fame as Billy) – “The Spirit of 76”
Theatrical trailer for “Fast Break” (ending voiceover by Wayne Atkinson)
Station ID / promo for “Black Powers,” Monday at 6 on Eyewitness News (voiceover by Gary Gears?)
Newscast open (voiceover by Wayne Atkinson), with items:
– Over 2,000 protestors (comprising “well over 50” Church, Labor, Peace and Civic groups) including some “Illinois Nazis” descend on O’Hare Exposition Center (at 9301 Bryn Mawr Avenue in Rosemont) where the Defense Technology trade show is being held; Diane Allen reports, interviewing some protestors including Father Roy Bourgeois, an “Egyptian participant”, banner for “Nebraskans for Peace” is seen, and Rosemont Mayor Donald Stephens speaks
– Several hundred Northern Illinois University students in De Kalb made homeless after a fire
– Fire at three North Side buildings (one at 1650 West Ohio Street) leaves 10 families homeless
– Mayor Bilandic’s mother Minnie in critical condition at Northwestern Hospital; he maintains a vigil there, meanwhile a key city union endorses him
– Independent Aldermanic candidates (including 43rd Ward Alderman Martin Oberman) slam city over timing of releasing details of snow report; video of 46th Ward candidate Helen Shiller speaking
– Des Plaines honors officers (including Joseph Kosreczak) who helped crack John Wayne Gacy case; Harold Piest (father of Gacy victim Robert Piest) says a few words
Commercials for:
American National Bank
Ultima II makeup kit – “The Ultima Experience” (with Lauren Hutton)
Sanyo car radios
Weather with Dr. Frank Sechrist, followed by Bill Frink sports (a few months before leaving WLS):
– Results of Daytona 500 race
– Bulls lose to Kansas City Chiefs (now Sacramento Kings)
– Hawks defeat Colorado Rockies (today’s New Jersey Devils)
– Bruce Lietzke wins Tucson Open in golf
– Duke defeats Louisville in college basketball
– Ice skater Leah Paulus (sp?) wins 500 meter in World Championships in West Germany
Commercials for:
Santa Fe fuel freight shippers
Levitz – Washington’s Birthday Sale
– Sylvia Cisneros reports on City House home improvement fair at Navy Pier for those working to redo their old homes as built between 1870 and 1940; comments from J. Arthur Moisan of the Building Department, and phone number given out at end of report
With that, Jay closes local newscasts and promotes upcoming ABC News Weekend Report
Commercials for:
Air Canada
Realty World – “A World of Difference”
Holsum family loaf
Final shot of set, zooming into monitor as ABC News Weekend Report is about to begin (and that is where we end)
This aired on local Chicago TV on Sunday, February 18th 1979 during the 9:58pm to 10:17pm timeframe.
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: tapes@fuzzy.tv Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives – the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please e-mail tapes@fuzzy.tv Thank you for your help!
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