I cannot stop repaying that WGN station ID tag. It's such a picayune thing, but I must've seen it hundreds of times as a kid. Hearing it again makes me wish I could go back to 1978 and stay there.
I wonder why WGN couldn't have used a similar-sounding open, "The Great Outside" by Keith Mansfield from the KPM library, written about a year after "The Last Farewell's" original release (and B.T.W., R.I.P. Roger Whittaker): ua-cam.com/video/sT37jzLYMn0/v-deo.html
@@wmbrown6 It was just a matter of choice for them back then. I love the different bumpers they did. I remember for the News bumper in Winter they used Glen Campbell’s “County Lineman.”
Wife: "What are you watching" Me: "The weather report for the Chicago area for September 22, 1978" Wife: "It's May, in 2022, and you've never even *been* to Chicago" Me: "What's your point"
It would be like, on WNEW Channel 5 in New York, say, Tom Gregory or Ed Ladd or Lou Steele delivering an editorial "for the staff and management of WNEW-TV." But yep, Ms. Dee did it all, as they say.
By contrast, until "Independent Network News" came along in 1980, WPIX Channel 11's overnight news (prior to sign-off up to that legendary NYC station going 24/7 earlier in 1980, then in the early months before "INN's" launch) was a "slides-only" affair with excerpts from the 10 P.M. "Action News." Off-camera "anchors" rotated among Bill Biery, Ralph Lowenstein, and Roy Whitfield.
Bensenville is where the Spilotro brothers got whacked and one of those involved in moving the corpses to the Indiana cornfield resided in Chicago Heights. (Sometimes I wish I never read Operation Family Secrets---I now know way too much detail about the Chicago Mob.)
I sometimes wonder what it would’ve been like to be a man in the 70s, what would be on tv, what my home would look like, what the people where like, what commercials there would’ve been on tv, at least this video partially answers my questions lol
lived through it all the sixties ta boot ! It was certainly a time to cherish. It's really when it felt like a America 🇺🇸..McDonald's..Burger King..KFC..Were all delicious..Music was so much better..on and on...
I remember that crash and the Plainfield tornado like it was yesterday. The news coverage interrupted afternoon programming and went on for hours. It was sheer devastation.
I would guess that, for the most part, WGN was still operating from the old model that the newscasts were simply there to fulfill FCC requirements. That's why they used staff announcers to read the news and except for NewsNine, they appeared to have been broadcast from a broom closet. Their interest in ratings was more about whether their alternative programming beat the big 3 newscasts at 10 p.m. When WGN rehired John Drury in 1979, I think you could say that began the evolution of their news department as a competitive operation.
Hi Thomas. Did you grow up during this era and watching Chicago News/TV? Not being flip or throwing darts- honest curiosity. I just find it interesting all the different opinions several people can have while watching the same thing. I grew up watching WGN, WBBM AND WLS newscasts and I had not thought in terms of the personalities of the WGN anchors. I think I have a more "nostalgic" view of WGN; I enjoyed Jack Taylor and Marty McNeely. But I was also just hitting 12 at this time. In contrast, you have a more no-frills, maybe analytical view focused on the real facts of ratings, something I hadn't thought about.
@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles I'm about the same age. My mom was a local news junkie. She had the afternoon and evening news on, daily . I remember coverage of the biggest news stories of that time. Elvis's death, New York Blackout, the CTA elevated train falling off the tracks on Feb 4, 1977. Lol. That said, those guys at eyewitness news, and Channel 2, Bill and Walter , had a flair for delivering news, sometimes with sensation. The WGN room seemed like a deflated room of a political candidate about to concede. I didn't know much about local ratings back then. But I'd imagine they were applied.
@@thomasbrown3356 Actually, now that you mention Bill and Walter at Channel 2, I know exactly what you mean. When those two were in their prime, yeah, Channel 9 could look dull by comparison. And we did watch them for the most part. I did, and still do, have a spot in my heart for Jack Taylor and Marty McNeely but on average, in our house, Bill & Walter was the favorite of my folks. "...a deflated room of a political candidate about to concede." I've always loved a good, colorful turn of words- and that was GOOD.
Ugh, looking at the Scarsdale diet in the Enquirer commercial, they advocate a grapefruit every day for breakfast. Yuck. 🤢 It's the same every day, too. I couldn't eat the same breakfast every day.
I like that dodge Commercial, A new Dodge van for 4,000.00 bucks, Now days you will pay 80 thousand for a new pickup truck, what world was a better one
@@ChristopherSobieniak .....I'm American too but I know Kraft came down to the US from Ontario. He invented processed cheese for good reasons, not to create a product maligned as junk quality, fake cheese often referred to as plastic. Other cheeses were also being processed around 1911 in Switzerland in order to extend shelf life.
The worst recessions in history,[1978-2008], were during republican Presidencies . Wtf are you talking about. And I recall, people experienced horrible unemployment..The downsizing and Eliminating of the middle class, started in 1988. Shall I remind you, who was President? I'll give you a hint, read my lips. Lol..
@@thomasbrown3356 Since you brought up the 2008 recession, lets put the blame squarely on the one responsible for the housing market crash of that year, Jimmy Carter, due to his Community Re-investment Act of 1977. This forced banks to make loans to people who did not meet banking industry standards, in other words, it forced banks to loan money to people who couldn’t possibly pay back those loans.
Carter was justifiably reamed for running around, worrying about foreign affairs while the domestic situation was completely going to hell. I voted for Reagan in '80 just to help oust the peanut farmer and his idiot brother fraternizing with Libyians and selling cans of Billy beer.
@@fratzogmopars That was a typo. The recessions of 1981 and 2008, were presided over with Republicans Presidents. 1929 Hoover. Discrediting your claim about Democrats in the white House and Recessions. It don't matter what you say caused it. Whoever is president will get the blame. You're the one that brought it up, and you are dead wrong..
I cannot stop repaying that WGN station ID tag. It's such a picayune thing, but I must've seen it hundreds of times as a kid. Hearing it again makes me wish I could go back to 1978 and stay there.
I wonder why WGN couldn't have used a similar-sounding open, "The Great Outside" by Keith Mansfield from the KPM library, written about a year after "The Last Farewell's" original release (and B.T.W., R.I.P. Roger Whittaker):
ua-cam.com/video/sT37jzLYMn0/v-deo.html
@@wmbrown6 It was just a matter of choice for them back then. I love the different bumpers they did. I remember for the News bumper in Winter they used Glen Campbell’s “County Lineman.”
September of 78. I was Just going into the 5th Grade. I remember just how GREAT the Music was in the LATE 70's.
I wish I could go back to 1978. It was a fun yr for me.
Wife: "What are you watching"
Me: "The weather report for the Chicago area for September 22, 1978"
Wife: "It's May, in 2022, and you've never even *been* to Chicago"
Me: "What's your point"
This is my life, as well. She ends up watching anyways, too.
She doesn't understand the miracle that was WGN.
LOL
Ignore her. I'm a woman and I love this shit. Also helps I grew up in Chicago, though.
Watching this in 2024,take me back,pleeeeaaaase😂
Had to Google Mary Dee WGN 9... She had just passed March '22 ..RIP Ms.Mary..Job well done.
It would be like, on WNEW Channel 5 in New York, say, Tom Gregory or Ed Ladd or Lou Steele delivering an editorial "for the staff and management of WNEW-TV." But yep, Ms. Dee did it all, as they say.
There was nothing better then back in the day after a night out staying up to watch Night Beat.
When news was reported and not just mostly editorializing.
That's what NewsNation is today.
By contrast, until "Independent Network News" came along in 1980, WPIX Channel 11's overnight news (prior to sign-off up to that legendary NYC station going 24/7 earlier in 1980, then in the early months before "INN's" launch) was a "slides-only" affair with excerpts from the 10 P.M. "Action News." Off-camera "anchors" rotated among Bill Biery, Ralph Lowenstein, and Roy Whitfield.
I was 13 soon to be 14 in Nov. .....what I would not give to go back.
Night Beat aired from 1967-83
39:02 🎶Nelson Brothers loves me ...and they love you too 🎶
As long as you make your payments on time. 😅
My grandfather owned many of those Brown and Beige men’s clothing items .
This is such a hoot for me. I was 24 years old.
Wow … Real News …. I remember REAL NEWS .
I wish it was that day again, so badly I can taste it.
Never knew 'til now that that was Pia Zadora in the Dubonnet commercial. Didn't know her until "Butterfly" came out.
14:28 was that BEFORE Ray Hara bought the dealership and renamed it King Datsun?
I was 13 when this aired here in Chicago those were great times😊
5:11 4K in 1978 is equal to an estimated 18K today
At the end was an intro to MURDER IN THE RUE MORGUE Arlene Francis favorite movie .
Patrick Swayze @3:52
Yep, a very young Swayze at that!
yikes so young
Bensenville NEAR O HARE IS WHAT I AUTOMATICALLY THOUGHT LOL CHICAGO IN THE 70S LOL
Bensenville is where the Spilotro brothers got whacked and one of those involved in moving the corpses to the Indiana cornfield resided in Chicago Heights. (Sometimes I wish I never read Operation Family Secrets---I now know way too much detail about the Chicago Mob.)
That sports report was a painful reminder of Chicago's sports teams at the height of suckage. 😫
I started school in 1978. Left in 1996.
I thought creature features was up to 1976, why does this show it in 78?
It was brought back in a limited form overnights for a couple years on select days
I sometimes wonder what it would’ve been like to be a man in the 70s, what would be on tv, what my home would look like, what the people where like, what commercials there would’ve been on tv, at least this video partially answers my questions lol
lived through it all the sixties ta boot ! It was certainly a time to cherish. It's really when it felt like a America 🇺🇸..McDonald's..Burger King..KFC..Were all delicious..Music was so much better..on and on...
🫂🌎🫂sharing..Chicago, IL.
Do you have any Flight 191 crash reports?
I remember that crash and the Plainfield tornado like it was yesterday. The news coverage interrupted afternoon programming and went on for hours. It was sheer devastation.
I thought it was the one in San Diego.
I wonder if John Gacy watched this?
3 months later..we would be watching him!
Or the other people that were involved in those murders.
WGN new anchors had no personalities. No wonder Walter and Bill at channel 2, and Fahey Flynn and John Drury , at WLS left them behind in the ratings.
I would guess that, for the most part, WGN was still operating from the old model that the newscasts were simply there to fulfill FCC requirements. That's why they used staff announcers to read the news and except for NewsNine, they appeared to have been broadcast from a broom closet. Their interest in ratings was more about whether their alternative programming beat the big 3 newscasts at 10 p.m.
When WGN rehired John Drury in 1979, I think you could say that began the evolution of their news department as a competitive operation.
Hi Thomas. Did you grow up during this era and watching Chicago News/TV? Not being flip or throwing darts- honest curiosity. I just find it interesting all the different opinions several people can have while watching the same thing. I grew up watching WGN, WBBM AND WLS newscasts and I had not thought in terms of the personalities of the WGN anchors. I think I have a more "nostalgic" view of WGN; I enjoyed Jack Taylor and Marty McNeely. But I was also just hitting 12 at this time. In contrast, you have a more no-frills, maybe analytical view focused on the real facts of ratings, something I hadn't thought about.
@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles I'm about the same age. My mom was a local news junkie. She had the afternoon and evening news on, daily . I remember coverage of the biggest news stories of that time. Elvis's death, New York Blackout, the CTA elevated train falling off the tracks on Feb 4, 1977. Lol. That said, those guys at eyewitness news, and Channel 2, Bill and Walter , had a flair for delivering news, sometimes with sensation. The WGN room seemed like a deflated room of a political candidate about to concede. I didn't know much about local ratings back then. But I'd imagine they were applied.
@@thomasbrown3356 Actually, now that you mention Bill and Walter at Channel 2, I know exactly what you mean. When those two were in their prime, yeah, Channel 9 could look dull by comparison. And we did watch them for the most part. I did, and still do, have a spot in my heart for Jack Taylor and Marty McNeely but on average, in our house, Bill & Walter was the favorite of my folks. "...a deflated room of a political candidate about to concede." I've always loved a good, colorful turn of words- and that was GOOD.
Ugh, looking at the Scarsdale diet in the Enquirer commercial, they advocate a grapefruit every day for breakfast. Yuck. 🤢 It's the same every day, too. I couldn't eat the same breakfast every day.
This the 11 o 'clock news
Earthquake in Iran? GOOD! 💀
I like that dodge Commercial, A new Dodge van for 4,000.00 bucks, Now days you will pay 80 thousand for a new pickup truck, what world was a better one
Jim Thompson v. Michael Bakalis = Leviathan v. Lilliputian.
Lots of ads for P&G products
Is Len O'Conner a robot? Read it in the STAR!
Robot? No. Owl? Yesh!
$4000.00 for a brand new car😂😂😂
5:45 american flavored cheese
James L. Kraft was Canadian....he invented American processed cheese.
@@msr1116 Thank you Canada.
@@ChristopherSobieniak .....I'm American too but I know Kraft came down to the US from Ontario. He invented processed cheese for good reasons, not to create a product maligned as junk quality, fake cheese often referred to as plastic. Other cheeses were also being processed around 1911 in Switzerland in order to extend shelf life.
1978 Democratic president in office, high taxes, shortages, refinery explosions. Nothing has changed.
The worst recessions in history,[1978-2008], were during republican Presidencies . Wtf are you talking about. And I recall, people experienced horrible unemployment..The downsizing and Eliminating of the middle class, started in 1988. Shall I remind you, who was President? I'll give you a hint, read my lips. Lol..
@@thomasbrown3356 1978 Carter was President, WTF you talking about.m I’ll give you a hint, malaise.
@@thomasbrown3356 Since you brought up the 2008 recession, lets put the blame squarely on the one responsible for the housing market crash of that year, Jimmy Carter, due to his Community Re-investment Act of 1977. This forced banks to make loans to people who did not meet banking industry standards, in other words, it forced banks to loan money to people who couldn’t possibly pay back those loans.
Carter was justifiably reamed for running around, worrying about foreign affairs while the domestic situation was completely going to hell. I voted for Reagan in '80 just to help oust the peanut farmer and his idiot brother fraternizing with Libyians and selling cans of Billy beer.
@@fratzogmopars That was a typo. The recessions of 1981 and 2008, were presided over with Republicans Presidents. 1929 Hoover. Discrediting your claim about Democrats in the white House and Recessions. It don't matter what you say caused it. Whoever is president will get the blame. You're the one that brought it up, and you are dead wrong..