WJKW Cleveland ENTIRE newscast Christmas Eve 1977

[@mikemarlier1]

How cool! That's my dad, Mike Marlier, doing the weather. Wow. And my brother singing "Frosty the Snowman" as a bonus. What a day!

[@candysmith8724]

I was 6 years old in 1977! Christmas in the 70's in Cleveland I have super fond memories of. Such super special times. I remember my sister being so scared of the talking Christmas tree at Parmatown Mall. lol We moved to Texas in 1980...still think of Cleveland the home of my childhood years.

[@Umberto2]

I was six months old when this aired. Asleep in my crib in Cleveland Heights.

[@bob110088]

If time travel were possible I'd go back here, great time and great years.

[@buffdaddy2032]

I agree

[@jeffreycooper7763]

This brings back so many memories of my childhood in Cleveland.

[@TPBHockeyGirl]

I LOVED the Cleveland Barons report and interview. It was great seeing the old radar technology too. LOL, my kids couldn't believe it.

[@calvinsaxon5822]

Yes but here's where they get the last laugh: it's more than 40 years later and radar is more expensive and has more colors but at the end of the day they both convey roughly the same information: it's raining here and not there.

[@realguy440]

As I recall, the body found in the snowbank outside Randall Park Mall was the manager of the Father and Sons shoe store. Randall Park Mall was the largest enclosed mall in the country when it had its grand opening in August, 1976. By the time of this broadcast the mall wasn't quite a year and a half old. The murder was the first 'bad' thing to happen at Randall, and unfortunately the first of many more to come for this ill-fated mall. Although the mall was so large it contained 5 major department stores , over one hundred smaller stores and a well-developed sea of outlots, the opening of nearby Beachwood Place in 1978 immediately began to siphon upscale shoppers from Randall Park Mall and began it slow, painful decline. The entire mall closed in 2008.

[@Tracymmo]

I checked the newspaper, and he was robbed of the store's deposit. What a horrific crime. His poor family.

[@zestydude87]

I was 7 when this aired. We had just moved from Valley View to Garrettsville Ohio. This is a blast from the past.

[@candysmith8724]

My sister was born in 1970...I was 1971...yeah great years in Cleveland back then.

[@jhankline8963]

Hey im from nelson and garrettsville or as we say g-ville

[@zestydude87]

@@jhankline8963 Yep, home of the G-men. You still live there?

[@jhankline8963]

@@zestydude87 florida but moving back in august Go fight win tonight garfield are the best

[@jhankline8963]

I graduated in 1980 and you?

[@phillipstankey8881]

Righteous hair helmet, Fred McLeod....

[@robertbrown-qf8xy]

So glad this was recorded, especially with the vintage Lawrence Welk Xmas at the beginning. Thanks

[@timbradypromos2]

My dad is in that Season's Greetings from TV8 promo near the top of the broadcast. I hope you never take this video down.

[@Thompsonnw]

R.I.P. Fred McLeod ='(

[@1thetvzone]

Didn't know he passed...I knew he worked in Detroit, but WOW

[@kim71749]

This is how I imagine this video came to be: a couple is getting ready to leave to celebrate their long-awaited Christmas Eve. They love The Lawrence Welk Show, so they had decided to tape it that night. As the tape rolls and the couple is having a great time with their relatives, the snow falls and it is getting later and later. When they finally arrive home after a long and cozy Christmas Eve, they decide to just roll into bed, leaving the house as it is. There will be plenty of time the next morning to clean up before heading out to the Christmas Day's activities.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

Good theory, but these people taped Lawrence Welk on a regular basis as this came in a box with other Lawrence Welk shows from the same station (a few also including the news afterwards) and I've traded copies of these for other recordings from the same people! They taped the Saturday night country music shows from channel 43 a lot also, some great late-night commercials on those!

[@greg9497]

You know, that's just the kind of mundane reason that makes this video so wonderful. They weren't recording LW and then the news in order to preserve history: it just happened. And what a wonderful time capsule it is. I was a senior in high school at the time and probably had to work that day (at Sears or Spencer Gifts at the Great Lakes Mall, I had 2 jobs). The video makes me wonder what I was doing that evening. Probably nothing spectacular, just the normal Christmas Eve stuff. I LOVE it...

[@vampgrl79]

I love seeing this. Especially my Grandfather do the weather.

[@robertglenn5398]

I love the first commercial regarding constipation. Today, at age 62, man do I now know what my grandfathers meant that they knew they were having a good day when they could take a good dump! When a kid, I could never understand exactly what they were talking about given there to me seemed so much more to think about on any given day other than taking a shit. Oh, do I understand my antecedents now...oh, yeah!

[@MrTexcess]

Ha!

[@robertglenn5398]

Exactly what I utter about 8:30 every morning when nature is being kind to the old man!

[@robertglenn5398]

Christopher Corey Long time no chat with. How you been?

[@Ed3737]

At 13:37, Bob from Sesame Street washing his dishes.

[@robertbrown-qf8xy]

I love this! Thanks for sharing it.

[@carl6956]

Wow! I was stationed in San Diego and came home for 14 day leave,blast from the past.

[@The723343]

thats my father in the constipation commercial

[@am74343]

It's awesome to be welcomed into watching this video by seeing a commercial about constipation! LOL!!!

[@lavatube11]

Wow, super interesting!! Thanks for posting this!

[@GaryNolt]

Fantastic video.Takes me back to my high school years.

[@gli7utubeo]

Great slice of life! Cleveland was a lot more vibrant back then. No stories about economic decline or hardship. Nice that now you don't need to slice this into 10-minute pieces.

[@DawgPound86]

Didn’t cleveland go bankrupt in the 70’s?

[@professorseventy-five1148]

OMG lead-painted wooden blocks. The 70s were the bomb!

[@froggynotacon]

I was one when this aired!

[@RQBtv]

It's remarkable how great the image is for such an old cassette!

[@Clint_the_Audio-Photo_Guy]

Wow, this is the year I was born. Dang, I feel so old now, lol.

[@mrsmaul2010]

OMG it was WJKW in the past. I had forgotten.

[@jpeluso50]

+A Lannister pays his debts First it was WJW then WJKW. Theh it was WJW again.

[@usa02]

Christmas Promo from WJKW TV-8 Personalities. 04:00, Dave Buckel, 04:03, Jim Finnerty, 04:07, Susan Howard, Bob Franken, 04:25, Bob Cerminara, 04:35, Dick Goddard, Jim Mueller, Judd Hambrick, Tim Taylor, 04:40, Herb "Soulman" Thomas, the late Ralph Gertz as Santa Claus, and the voiceover throughout the whole video is former staff announcer Andy Hale. Plus you will see Peter Marshall of "The Hollywood Squares" in the Carpet Barn and Tile House ad.

[@laurenceamspoker6739]

R.I.P. Dick Goddard

[@rem145]

When this video was shot I was just turned 2 years old and would have been one of the kids held by one of the parents. Too young to appreciate how easy things were then. Yes, my parents still probably went to Christmas parties then. They would last until 1981, when my Mom would then be working at What is now Macy's for the next 30 Christmases to keep food on the table and the lights on.

[@jm0lesky]

I was 7 years old myself at the time. I remember that year being the last Christmas that I truly believed in Santa Claus. My family went to church, then we went with relatives to look at Christmas lights that evening. Things did seem simpler then.

[@bpmvlogs7123]

I just turned 2 as well!

[@saxongreen78]

'Merrrry Christmas Everyone! ... MURDER, MURDERS, MURDERS, FIRE, COMMERCE, COMMERCE, ROAD DEATH, COPS, ENERGY CRISIS, PROTESTS, DANGEROUS TOYS, DANGEROUS HOMES (poor advice: emetics for poisoning)....' 😊

[@rl1800]

The report of the guy shot in the head at Randall Park mall intrigued me so I looked it up. "the murder of Larry Cook, a 23-year-old Father & Sons Shoes employee, just after Christmas in 1977 was an ominous sign. Cook had been shot in the back of the head with a .38 caliber gun and was robbed of the $800 in cash and $500 in checks he had been carrying from the day’s sales. His body was found two days later when a maintenance man spotted his feet sticking out of a snow drift in a little used section of the mall’s parking lot. "

[@TimL2005]

I found the Newscast on Google Video several years ago (thanks gli7) and featured it on my blog a few times, most recently this last Christmas season..Nice to have the extra content and background.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

Thanks- I've seriously been wondering about that ever since I got this tape. I've heard of those used in movie theaters but not at sports arenas.

[@robertglenn5398]

What a thrill it was to see Kenny Stabler! I recall so fondly watching the Raiders during the days before the Seattle Seahawks, Ken Stabler, George Blanda...the entire crew who made the Raiders icons during the late 60s and 70s

[@StukInBuf]

+robert glenn RIP to Ken "Snake" Stabler.

[@robertglenn5398]

No! He passed away? I hadn't heard.

[@StukInBuf]

robert glenn Yes; last July 8th was when he passed.

[@robertglenn5398]

Thanks for informing me. Damn, I used to love watching him play.

[@rl1800]

I loved Christmas in Cleveland Heights back then. They would put a giant Santa on top of the Higbees at Severance every year.

[@Melodycat918]

I did some research on the Cleveland plain dealer in regards to the brutal murders of Linda Guthier and her daughter Tanya. It involved two men one of them Jerry Bryant was an acquaintance of the woman. It apparently was a robbery attempt that went bad. His accomplice Stanley Jones turned himself in to authorities and testified against Bryant in court. According to Jones, Bryant beat and stabbed the woman to death then killed her daughter in the same fashion. They then put the bodies in her car and dropped them off in a snow bank at a nearby park then set the vehicle afire. Jones was spared the death penalty for his testimony. Bryant however was sentenced to die by electrocution. But the Ohio Supreme Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. He's still in jail the last I heard. RIP Linda and Tanya.

[@jrnyace]

Thank you for the update. I was wondering what happened.

[@fg6971]

Great look back and video quality. The included Public Square is interesting. However it ended too soon. What was Bruce Jenner's re-occuring dream?

[@calvinbealer7264]

Great 😃👍 Memories from 1977.

[@jeffreybryan5548]

I feel more like a man now having watched this.

[@AJ-lf6ho]

i was born 2 years later after this news cast

[@owlfeatherliving]

Wow back then they had the full tv with the knobs on the set. Not just a screen monitor.

[@dougtaylor2803]

One kid got a Shogun Warrior! Cool! I was very fond of those myself and still have at least one of them in my basement. Wonder if Santa put some Serutan in the kiddies stockings?

[@MsTexas73]

OK...in the Puffs commercial was Audrey Landers (aka Afton on DALLAS). Bob McGrath (aka Bob on Sesame Street) was in the commercial for dish liquid. And I TOTALLY forgot the theme to Public Square...I had been thinking it was "Westchester Lady" by Bob James...but as SOON as I heard it, I remembered. Ahhh memories.

[@lasttractionhero]

This is priceless.

[@johe64]

Whew. I was sure there could not possibly have been a store called that, but I simply could not make out the store's name. Thanks for your reply!

[@skystarless]

That one kid got a Shogun Warrior! Awesome!

[@dubcentric]

@vampgrl79 thats awesome you were able to see your Grandfather :)

[@DanKirchner5150]

dem news boi's flossin dem hair piece's lol[10:22]

[@cobolsaurus]

I miss the '70s =-(

[@scspera]

RIP Fred McLeod

[@MsTexas73]

And Christmas Eve 1977 was on a Saturday Night. Public Square aired on Saturday nights, right before Tom and Jerry and the Muppet Show.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

I have a couple tapes from a few months later where Hee Haw comes on after Public Square. Wonder when that changed.

[@MsTexas73]

@@TheMediaHoarder Hmm interesting. Didn’t Hee Haw come on Sunday nights? Oh wait. I forgot it was Saturday’s in syndication. I wish I could see a schedule of programming for that era on local TV.

[@destinationdaddio9977]

at 56:12 the guy starts talking about Bruce Jenner and a dream of his but it ends.......would like to see the rest to find out if Bruce was dreaming of being a woman

[@am74343]

The instrumental promo at 3:44 reminds me of the Family Guy episode where Helen Reddy sings the "Channel 5, We're There for You" theme song. LOL!

[@72CDOGG]

i love this!

[@StukInBuf]

The *NewsCenter 8* opening theme sounds like it was used in New Orleans at WDSU for the *NewsCenter 6* broadcasts around that time.

[@bryanscudier8427]

I think it was! Me and my family went to vacay in NOLA that summer and I heard that music on their news!

[@cobolsaurus]

One of the kids got a Big Jim! I had one too! =-)

[@StukInBuf]

That scene in the airport after the Wendy's ad... only because I was living in NYC at the time... I wonder how JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Airports were looking at that same point.

[@stevenmandl4920]

Why was the cleveland Cavs vs Buffalo game blacked out in Cleveland?

[@tkaye2]

It was likely an Eidophor projection system. The Seattle Kingdome had one during the first several years of the stadium's existence... there's a good article that comes up if you search for "Kingdome" and "Eidophor." The images were easily washed out by the house lights and the Kingdome Eidophor was replaced by one of the first DiamondVision installations.

[@whataboutrob442]

Who could forget the Colts vs Raiders Christmas eve playoff game.

[@daved1974]

Good God, those kids at the beginning are probably in their forties by now I was three years old Damn

[@brownstownmike]

I think tkaye2 is correct. The first time I ever went to the Coliseum was in November 1978 for the circus, and I remember being mesmerized by the size of the TV screen, even though it didn't have much color.

[@realguy440]

Interestingly, the footage at 7:19 was filmed inside Randall Park. It had such a short hey day. The mall began a noticeable decline starting in 1978. See my blog entry in deadmalls.com for more comments about Randall Park. Thank you, David

[@TheMediaHoarder]

It says "Small Stuff", but don't know what kind of store it was.

[@DimeraFan28]

This Happened 34 Years Ago.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

@gli7utubeo I've had this on Google Video for a few years (they don't take new uploads anymore) but hardly anyone's found it there. During the basketball promo after the news, there's what appears to be a large screen up high in the arena showing the game that's being played. Anyone know exactly what that was? Didn't think that would be so easy to do in 1977.

[@DennisMorrison1955]

Read your comment on an article about a woman who archived newscasts and had to come here and check out what you have to offer.

[@TechRyze]

Likewise - I'm chuckling already at the constipation remedy immediately being endorsed!

[@robertcarillio9126]

Newscasts used to be so much more professional.

[@StukInBuf]

I look at those juicy burgers in the Wendy's ad.... and I'm thinking the current slogan for Arby's: *WE HAVE THE MEATS!*

[@americanidol434]

Omg! Bob McGrath from Sesame Street like 13:42

[@StukInBuf]

In the Puffs ad before the Wendy's commercial, Audrey Landers was there.

[@crgray1979]

Fred McCloud is the play by play for the cavs on fox sports ohio

[@Umberto2]

RIP Fred

[@Cloud39.]

Videoholic would love to see THIS!!!!

[@UncleLarrysVault]

Does anyone know the name of the music starting at 45:33?

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

Sounds like a little jingle they put together for that video clip.

[@11UncleBooker22]

The certain ethnic girls in Cleveland always said Jim Finerty's cologne worked on them every time 60% of the time.

[@jhankline8963]

Fred mcleod passed away recently

[@StukInBuf]

Those small kids towards the end of the Welk show must be pushing 40 now, or past that marker.

[@usa02]

The announcer on the local program "Public Square" hosted by former WJW/WJKW TV-8 personality Mike Keen was former WJW/WJKW TV-8 staff announcer, the late Joe Grant.

[@carlabrown5635]

Wow all of the children are in there 40s and early 50s

[@StukInBuf]

I remember that Wendy's ad music from back then, about 9 minutes through.

[@StukInBuf]

The "Public Square" theme was used in Buffalo on WKBW-TV for their weekday morning show *AM BUFFALO* about that time.

[@SaleGuy]

When did Mike Marlier pass away?

[@vampgrl79]

June 1992, I'm his granddaughter.

[@am74343]

There's a newscaster on NewsMax named Rob Finnerty (spelled with 2 n's) who looks like he could be Jim Finerty's son LOL!

[@robertglenn5398]

Oh, that was too great..."Is Santa coming to your house tonight?" No, we celebrate Hannuka!" Only smart kid in the bunch...bet today she is a forty-something doctor or highly paid professional while the rest of the kids grew up to be ultra maroons. Have probably been suffering from PTSD ever since they discovered they'd been lied to...probably asked themselves, "What's next, no Easter Bunny?"

[@calvinbealer7264]

Kathy Adams is a Cutie 🥰😊 🥧

[@cornerofthemoon]

God I love the Ron Burgundy Era

[@jamesqualls8125]

Huh? I've heard of games that are being blacked out in the city,but NBA? That is wrong, same for MLB!

[@ItzJaxsonoki34753]

5:11

[@shopsshire9282]

I feel

[@stevenmandl4920]

kind of a morbid x-mas eve newscast

[@igorbog88]

"Downy"... what

[@Redlinesixtynine]

Dick Goddard still going!

[@michaeloden937]

WHA Cleveland Crusaders.

[@trey2977]

i was born june of this year

[@michaeloden937]

You know you are in the 70s when cops are smokeys and they are broadcasting on CB channels.

[@StukInBuf]

First four stories about homicides. All of a sudden, I'm thinking of another notorious set of homicides that same year... the *Son of Sam* killings in New York City.

[@guilesmith4205]

heard life was better then

[@usa02]

Plus, Bob McGrath of TV's "Sesame Street" is in the Joy dish soap Commercial.

[@jmarcum2887]

5:08