WGN Channel 9 - Newsbreak, Five Minutes to Live By and Station Sign-Off (1979)

Here's a news update, Five Minutes to Live By and sign-off sequence on WGN Channel 9, coming in at the end of The Cromie Circle (full edition seen over at • WGN Channel 9 - The Cr... ).
(TECHNICAL NOTE: There was considerable ghosting and reception issues on the source tape, which was mitigated somewhat by utilizing a time-base corrector.)
Includes:
Final moments of The Cromie Circle ending with hesitant pre-recorded notice voiceover (by George Bauer)
Installment of Chicago Is...... series, with a look at University of Chicago, from Mr. D.J.R. (Don) Bruckner, vice president of public affairs (A WGN Community Affairs Presentation in Association with The Chicago Public Library)
Commercial: Long Chevrolet - with Timmy dressed up as TV reporter with microphone
Commercial: Nelson Brothers - bedroom ensemble (voiceover by Al Parker)
Commercial: Aarco-American Insurance (voiceover by George Bauer)
"Last Farewell" animated station ID (voiceover by George Bauer)
Slides-only Newsbreak with voiceover by George Bauer, reading the local, national and international news, sports and weather
( (C) 1979 WGN Continental Broadcasting Co.) (notice they still use the same vintage library music as they did on the 1965 Len Johnson and the News broadcast - the track is called "Effervescence" and is by Dorf van der Linden - • Dolf van der Linden - ... )
- Two shot to death, two others seriously injured by Insane Unknown gang members on West Hirsch Street at 3800 block
- Lawrence Dalton arrested in Cleveland in connection with murders of two women and 12-year-old girl
- Volunteers pick up over 350 tons of bulk refuse at Far Northwest side as part of spring cleaning
- Trucking companies and Teamsters agree on new contract for striking steel haulers, and Chicago Teamsters Local 705 rejects proposed contract with industry
- Billy Carter to be released from U.S. Navy Medical Center in Long Beach, CA after treatment for alcoholism
- Israeli gunboats shell Palestinian amphibious base in Lebanon after terrorist attack on northern Israeli resort town
- In sports, Blackhawks lose to NY Islanders in playoffs (and other hockey scores), Cubs beat Montreal and White Sox lose to Cleveland (and other baseball scores), followed by final scores of NBA playoff games, and Tom Watson's winning Tournament of Champions Golf Classic
- Weather forecast for next two days
Ending with notice:
This has been a presentation of WGN News which is totally responsible for its content.
Five Minutes to Live By (opening voiceover by Merri Dee), delivered by Father Dennis Strouzas, Pastor of St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church of Palatine, IL (ending titles with notice - Presentation, WGN Community Affairs)
Station sign-off (voiceover by George Bauer) - ID with shot of John Hancock Building, 1965 Seal of Good Practice, legal notice, and Chicago skyline at night with older WGN logo
National Anthem with flag being lowered outside WGN-TV building
6 seconds of black, followed by EIA color bars and tone which last for 40 seconds before carrier is cut
(long version of the sign-off with signal testing - is here:
This aired on local Chicago TV early Monday, April 23rd 1979 around the 3:10am to 3:30am timeframe.
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The Museum of Classic Chicago Television's primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s and early 80s, primarily) recorded off of any and all Chicago TV channels; footage which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. 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 purposes. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to DVD, and to view more of the 4,700+ (and counting) video clips available for viewing in our online archive, please visit us at:
www.fuzzymemori...

[@luisreyes1963]

WGN-TV certainly had the most iconic National Anthem at sign-off. 🇺🇸

[@jareddicarlo7816]

Father Dennis Strouzas is still alive and well. He’s now the pastor at a church in Port Washington, NY. He even has a Twitter account, so someone should show this to him and see what he thinks!

[@adrianlyord5300]

Rest In Peace Merri Dee

[@lavontreyclarke3285]

"Copyright 1979, WGN Continental Broadcasting Co." "This is WGN Television Channel 9 in Chicago, owned and operated by WGN Continental Broadcasting Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tribune Company coming to you from the top of the John Hancock Building. This Seal of Good Practice is WGN Television's pledge to present the finest possible programs of entertainment, information and education to our community. It identifies Channel 9 as a subscriber to the Television Code of the National Association of Broadcasters. The preceding day's programming is copyrighted by WGN Television 9, Chicago. All rights in programs telecast by this station are reserved. These programs may be received in places where no cover, admission, entertainment, or mechanical operations charges are made, but no program may be used or reproduced in any other manner. We invite you to join us again later this morning on Channel 9. Until then, this is George Bauer and the entire staff of WGN Television, biding you all a very pleasant good morning."

[@Lockbar]

ITS TIMMY FROM LONG CHEVROLET!!!

[@pauljr.harrington1905]

Now Mike Anderson Chevrolet of Chicago.

[@timharper73]

This clip aired 6 days before my 6th birthday...thanks Fuzz! Enjoyed seeing this rare documented sign-off sequence from Chicago's Very Own.

[@TomandAmyinthePI]

6? Hell I was 19 in '79....lol

[@richardszablewski1420]

Thanks for sharing, I hope you post more of these

[@TomandAmyinthePI]

If you woke up and saw 5 minutes to live by on your tv you knew the national anthem (signoff) was coming soon lol

[@pernelldh]

Long before WGN America (now NewsNation), Antenna TV, Rewind TV, etc. as WGN’s sister channels.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Although WGN still exists as a local channel in Chicago, separate from the cable channel it was separated from. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGN-TV

[@luisreyes1963]

Fun Fact: The last fleeting seconds in the first part of this video was the end credits for "The Cromie Circle", one of WGN-TVs original productions.

[@pauljr.harrington1905]

Billy Carter died in 1988 of pancreatic cancer. Not sure why, but the pancreases in the Carter family seem to be cursed.

[@CrowTRobot-ni7zu]

Hoo-wee, that’s some severe ghosting! I thought my dad’s reception of WXON back in the day was bad.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

My dad loved WXON and did his best to get it in on a TV in a bedroom!

[@CrowTRobot-ni7zu]

Christopher Sobieniak thankfully, my dad got cable around 82. His recordings off of ON-TV have some really bad ghosting problems. Other than that, he got all the other Detroit stations just fine. We have a lot of recordings of documentaries off of PBS, and when he was just using an antenna, he picked up 56 clear as a bell!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

@@CrowTRobot-ni7zu Nice! I had grandparents who could pick up the Detroit channels easy with their outdoor Channel Master antennas.

[@bethdibartolomeo2042]

My dad was working at Argonne National Laboratory at the time (he retired in the mid-90s).

[@closetedhippie]

wow...I didn't know Wolfman Jack moonlighted as a Greek Orthodox priest... ;)

[@jorgegaston5391]

From 19:20 to the end, the channel looked like a reception problem with the antenna on an UHF channel (14-69) and sometimes the VHF channels (2-13) where a reception was ummmmm ok. Imagine being drowsy after 11:00p and you fall asleep waking up in the wee hours of the night and you find your TV looking like this. My mom at one time, was watching Ch 47 until 12:30a and I heard that sound all the way up to 2:30a

[@ir10031981]

18:19 WGN Continental Broadcast Center that name became effective in 1966, the video was filmed late 60s/early 70s?

[@carolannmiles3079]

Go Go go....Nowakowski....Wilkis.....Zaborick.....

[@MrSamer83]

“Totally Responsible.” 10:55

[@joshgalka9414]

Nice!

[@mannbradmusic]

Very nice! Plus, for the courtesy of you and others who view this, the words of our national anthem were written by Francis Scott Key in the aftermath of the British attack on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 upon seeing the American flag still waving over the fort that morning and below are Mr. Key's words if you want to read them while listening or sing along as you stand with your hand over your heart. The anthem begins at the 16:47 mark. O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

[@carolannmiles3079]

Marinez Y Munoz....Marco Poli.......Gatlun is all yours.....go..go...go....

[@idayuliastutik8588]

*SIGN OFF* [Khrisna: welp that sucks xD]

[@pernellharrison1292]

Our national anthem starts at 16:41.

[@pernelldh]

16:41 Our national anthem starts.