WGN Channel 9 - Len Johnson and the News (Complete Broadcast, 3/5/1965) 📺

[Remastered] - Here's an incredibly rare find - an edition of Len Johnson and the News on WGN Channel 9 from 1965! This was a forerunner to their overnight Night Beat newscast that ran from the late-sixties well into the 1980s.
You'll notice that this was during that awkward transition phase from black-and-white to color with most of the broadcast appearing in black-and-white, but then interspersed by random color commercials and a few color slides.
Tech Note: Next to Len at the anchor desk is an Electro-Voice EV-667 microphone.
Includes:
Brief shot of multiburst test pattern with 378 Hz tone
Commercial (incomplete; recording starting a few seconds after commercial begins) for Salvo Low Suds Power Tablets
Commercial: Vicks VapoRub
Station ID slide with promo for upcoming presentation of "The Tall Men" at 10:15pm - with early appearance of "9" logo that first debuted in 1964 and would be used well into the 1970s - and, in some instances, as late as 1981 ("Tomorrow 10:15 PM" set in 18 point Gothic Condensed No. 1; though this slide is in black-and-white, there are color artifacts that give this away as being transmitted through an RCA TK-26 color film chain)
Opening title card slide (in color) for Carl Greyson and the News (Len was filling in for Carl on this day), set in Microgramma Bold; the chipper theme music ("Effervescence" by Dorf van der Linden) would be used for years thereafter on sign-off newscasts such as this Newsbreak from 1978)
Len gives preview of the news to follow
Commercial: American Airlines (voiceover by ??)
Len reads the following items:
- One American soldier is killed and another critically wounded in a double ambush by Communist guerillas in Laotian - Vietnamese border
- Relating to Dirksen's above comments, Russia has agreed to pay for damages to U.S. Embassy
- U.S. closing all informational activities in Indonesia
- Chicagoans pay their last respects to Air Force Captain (and Chicago native) Kurt Gareiss, who was killed on February 24th in a plane crash in South Vietnam
- 10-acre community in Natchitoches, LA flattened when a 24-inch gas pipeline (owned by the Tennessee Gas Transmission Company, which in turn was owned by Tenneco) explodes
- Novelist and Chicago native Willard Motley dies in a Mexico City hospital
- A hearing on a possible sanity test for Jack Ruby (assassin of John F. Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald) to be held Monday in Dallas; one of his lawyers, Chicago-based Elmer Gertz, is interviewed, with Gertz asserting that Ruby was insane both during the time he shot Oswald and afterwards (can anyone name the WGN reporter who interviewed him?)
Len then signals for a commercial break, with a tease on Albert Cardinal Meyer's condition
Commercial: Tums Antacid
Len reading the following items:
- Albert Cardinal Meyer remains in stable condition at Mercy Hospital, breathing through a tube and fed intravenously (though not mentioned, this was after he suffered a heart attack following an operation to remove a brain tumor; Meyer died on April 9th)
- A new underground parking garage in Grant Park South opens, with Mayor Daley's limousine crashing into a paper "wall" to signify its opening
- Earlier, the Associated Retail Bakers of Greater Chicago whipped up a 70-pound cake to commemorate the city's incorporation in 1837
- Women's Bar Association of Illinois holds a meeting on the topic of reapportionment, and both political parties debate the issue; features film footage of a press conference given by Rep. Albert Hackmeister (R-Chicago), Minority Leader of the State House, who charges that Democrats want an "at large" election for both Senate and House in 1966; Democrat Daniel Doherty, asked by WGN's Steve Schickel if that's what his party wants, denies this to be the case
Commercial: 4-Way Cold Tablets (voiceover by Phil Tonken, longtime WOR Channel 9 (New York) staff announcer)
Len reads sports scores along with:
- In baseball, Chicago White Sox announce that pitcher Joe Horlen has arrived in Sarasota to sign his 1965 contract after a holdout; he signed for $21,000 but wanted $3,000 more, and general manager Ed Short didn't budge
- Film footage of the Cubs at their spring training camp in Mesa, AZ,
- Golf scores at the Pensacola Open
Commercial: Calgon Water Conditioner - "Mommy's Choice" - animation done in the style of children's drawings (in color)
Len reads the weather forecast for Chicago and vicinity, including snow; and closes the newscast with mention that it was a presentation of Channel 9 News, written and edited by Charles Schreiber.
Title card slides (in color):
Len Johnson and the News
A Presentation of WGN News - Portions of the preceding program were mechanically reproduced
Commercial: Wrigley's Doublemint Gum - "Doublemint Time" with Tommy & Joy (in color) (recording cuts out in middle of this ad)
This aired on local Chicago TV early Friday, March 5th 1965 during the 12:28am to 12:49am timeframe

[@jchow5966]

This clip is an amazing piece of cultural history. Thank you for sharing.

[@StudioZ7]

What I find interesting is the broadcast is mostly black and white, except for the title cards on the newscast and two commercials. As most households had only black and white TVs in those days, few viewers would have noticed.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I'm sure. I suppose it depended on what channel or program was in color at this time, since it varied greatly.

[@retronewfoundland]

Always a rare treat.

[@smadaf]

9:10 Now there's a commercial I would sit through! The modern ones are almost all obnoxious from beginning to end.

[@rogertemple7193]

"the actor in the Salvo commercial was the late Mark Tapscott a veteran actor of many tv shows and several films throughout the 50's,60's,70's & 80's up until his death, Soap Opera fans of the 70's may remember him from "Days of Our Lives" & "the Young and the Restless"."-🤔🖥🌐..

[@iangraham9988]

That Tums commercial reminds me that LSD was still legal in 65

[@wmbrown6]

Notice the wording at the end: "Portions of the preceding program were mechanically reproduced." Then-sister station WPIX Channel 11 in New York switched two key words at the end so it read " . . . were pre-recorded."

[@napoleonsolo3784]

Glad that 1500 spot underground parking lot solved Chicago parking issues

[@smadaf]

Imagine that! A local station starts its evening newscast with stories of national and global importance-not a single reporter standing "live at five on the southside" at the site of a housefire that was extinguished ten hours earlier because, hey, housefires are exciting.

[@andyrose5616]

Standards and expectations change with the times. I find coverage of a house fire much less problematic than news crews holding their cameras literally inches from the faces of grieving mourners and pallbearers (5:33) as they enter the funeral service for a fallen airman. As far as the national stories are concerned, WGN was an independent station. It had no nationally-produced network newscast to air, so they tended to run more national stories in their local newscast than other stations.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I guess their telecine equipment was already set for color despite mostly being in black and white at this point in time at the station.

[@davanmani556]

The same year, WGN covered Jim Maloney’s no-hitter In color.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@davanmani556 Nice! I'm sure those cameras cost a pretty penny.

[@SteveC619]

I remember Salvo laundry tablets. God, I'm old.

[@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles]

Not necessarily a bad thing. One day, someone will say "I remember Taylor Swift. God, I'm old." No generation gets out alive without saying "God I'm old" at some point- but I'm glad I grew up as a child of the 60's/70's; A Much more fun time!

[@bethdibartolomeo2042]

@@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles I get that way when I think how I have lived through the history of the PC and cell phones, or how records were dying when I was a child and now they've come back again.

[@Tomovox_PAMS_Radio_JIngles]

@@bethdibartolomeo2042 Thanks for letting me know I was on the right track! It really surprised me once when I heard a co-worker talk about feeling old, and he was in his late 20's- that's when I kind of realized everybody and every generation is going to feel like this at some point! Still, I always feel like everyone should be pretty proud of the changes they lived through.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@bethdibartolomeo2042 Explains my life.

[@The_best_days_are_yesterdays]

You and me both. But then again, all the cool people are! 😉

[@smadaf]

That map has Florida very skinny.

[@edwinearl4584]

Len Johnson. Memories.

[@StudioZ7]

Also interesting, the Salvo detergent commercial does not feature housewives or any women for that matter, but some pretty macho rodeo men. Unusual for the time.

[@smadaf]

Interesting pronunciation of "gangrene" at 7:35: "gang-rene" instead of "gan-grene".

[@MrWolfTickets]

2:40 interesting wording on the American Airlines ad. They must have offered installment accounts to pay for a vacation?

[@davanmani556]

Alvin Dark should have been Cubs full-time and lead manager.

[@batterymakermarkii2654]

How odd, title cards in color, b/w camera for the news...

[@raydemos1181]

just think, the Vietnam war was just starting to escalate, I was born 23 days after this broadcast.

[@GiddeonFox]

Man I am so glad that South Vietnam with the help of Yugoslavia managed a diplomatic end to the fighting, that really could have gotten out of hand.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Apparently the North had better ideas! Who knew? 😀

[@MrWolfTickets]

I picture a Yugo pulling up with diplomat plates😄

[@MrDuds1984]

Joel Horlan couldn’t get $3K additional to his $21K salary from the Sox.

[@jamesward6935]

Let the friendless eat cake...

[@DanKirchner5150]

good old st josephs home of the friendless gets the cake again -bravo bb

[@jchow5966]

Canadian.

[@KeithE4]

WGN switched back and forth from live to filmed/tape in the early/mid 1960s. There's a KZbin video of a 1965 Cubs game in color with a filmed Hamm's beer commercial with Jack Brickhouse and Lloyd Pettit in black and white that's just as jarring. They went full-color soon thereafter.

[@darrylh1971]

Was it 1966 or 1967 WGN News went all color?

[@torgman]

They could broadcast thier graphics in color but the show itself is in black and white?!

[@andyrose5616]

This was very common during the color transition because every single piece of video equipment had to be changed to become color-ready. They had already replaced the transmitter, some film chains and processing equipment. It took longer to retrofit entire studios, including replacing cameras, VTRs, and switcher. The same thing happened in the transition to HDTV decades later. Most local stations were carrying high-definition national programs years before they started producing their newscasts in HD.

[@tkaye2]

@@andyrose5616WGN had color cameras for several years by this point. Stations with early color capability often treated it as a premium for which they could charge advertisers extra. Rate cards would charge more for color spots. To some degree, it was more expensive to produce a color program, as it required more lighting and the sets had to be painted in more than just shades of gray. For news, shooting and developing stories on color film was a big cost factor. I don't know about WGN specifically, but some stations would have their early evening news in color because it had the sponsorship to justify it. The 10 or 11 p.m. broadcast would be in black and white.

[@bsteven885]

American Airlines Commercial: 1:49 - 2:49 2:16 - "California, see it before it grows up." Little did they know what would happen just 2-3 years later... 2:40 - "...and you don't even have to bring the money..." DId American Airlines have their own credit service, or were credit cards starting to dominate?

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I'm sure it was credit cards.

[@smadaf]

The end of the ad suggests that it's not a credit card.

[@rogertemple7193]

"I wished the news was still like this and not what it is now a bunch of drama queens pretending to report news."-🤔🖥🌐..

[@fratzogmopars]

No unbiased reporting of facts today, only an agenda driven media now.

[@radiosaido66]

idk what news program you watch to only have those, but that isn't how they are nowadays.

[@JustinSaysRadio]

6:23 Nak i dish

[@russbott4062]

look theirs Nancy and Joe

[@idiotsloveboxes]

I too would like a plastic head. My hair will never move again.