WLS Channel 7 - Eyewitness News at 4pm (Complete Broadcast, 3/12/1986) 📺

Here's an edition of Eyewitness News at 4pm, anchored by Linda Yu and Joel Daly.
(NOTE: This aired immediately following Jeopardy! which can be viewed in its entirety here: • Jeopardy! - "Barbara L... )
Includes:
Preview of newscast
Commercials for:
Dodge Car & Truck
ChemLawn (with Jim Delfino, head groundskeeper of Candlestick Park in San Francisco)
Station ID/promo for The Oprah Winfrey Show (with Oprah)
News open (voiceover by Al Parker), and these stories:
- Natural gas explosion at former Frank Kent Cadillac in Fort Worth, TX; at least 11 injured (at the time of broadcast)
- Broward County, FL medical examiner given permission by government to observe autopsies of victims of space shuttle Challenger
- Talks to end TWA flight attendants' strike in recess; union negotiator Victoria Frankovich explains why
- Condemned killer Charles Bass put to death in Huntsville, TX; state attorney general Jim Mattox speaks about case; Roger DeGarmo given stay of execution
- U.S. Senate starts experimental gavel-to-gavel coverage of proceedings on radio as reported by Patricia Sagon
Commercials for:
Vaseline Intensive Care lotion
Amtrak (sung by Richie Havens)
Al Piemonte Nissan
Illinois State Lottery - Lotto
Oil Express - "Greased Lightning!"
Jerry Taft weather
- Art Petracque on gang including former Chicago policemen involved in drug dealing and robberies
Commercials for:
Sears Living Room Collection
MCI Dial One (with Burt Lancaster)
Pontiac Sunbird
Pepperidge Farm distinctive cookies
Quick Gel Super Glue (with Winston Churchill impersonator)
- Andrew Leckey on finding a financial planner; talks with investor Julie Hatcher
Commercials for:
Anacin 3
Regina Steemer
Waste Management, Inc.
Kellogg's Special K
Bulls/United Airlines promo for United Cerebral Palsy (with Orlando Woolridge)
- Russ Ewing on drug raid that nabbed over 100 gang members; Gang Crimes Unit Cmdr. Edward Pleines and Cook County State's Atty. Richard M. Daley speak
- Bob Petty on Lincoln Park lagoon dealing with problem of dead fish, about which Dr. William Beecher explains
- Hugh Hill on close of Alderman Vito Marzullo's career
- John Drury with preview of 5pm edition
Commercials for:
Ford Mustang
Florida Gold Orange Juice
Tim Weigel on sports (baseball Spring Training)
Commercials for:
Chevrolet Caprice Classic
Marshall Field's (with Michael Doulton promoting fine English china)
Group W Cable of Chicago (with Donald O'Connor)
Saxon sale on Eclipse paint
- Gary Deeb on press conference with Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams promoting upcoming HBO Comic Relief special to raise money for homeless; plus, WFLD Channel 32 paying twice as much to air White Sox games this season
Commercials for:
Pepperidge Farm Raisin Bread
La-Z-Boy Sleep Center (with Bob the "unemployed sheep")
Canada - "The World Next Door"
Maaco
- Brooklyn, NY-based Marianne and Arthur Bonneau and neighbor Estelle Williams hold press conference after winning $1 million in New York State Lottery
- Vernon Jarrett on coming Aldermanic election, and how four Hispanics came to get a shot at a seat on the City Council; spotlights story of steelworker Morris Ketchum
Jerry returns with another forecast
Commercials for:
Al Piemonte Chevrolet - Grand Opening Sale
MCI (with Burt Lancaster)
Turismo de Mexico - "Feel the Warmth of Mexico"
Hyatt Legal Services (with Joel Hyatt)
Promo for St. Patrick's Day Parade
Spotlight on Truman College art exhibit showcasing Depression-era artists; Buddy Black interviews WPA artists Frances Badger and William Carter about their trials, tribulations and careers (snippet of Dave Brubeck version of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" had to be futzed with for copyright reasons)
Linda and Joel close their newscast, as John and Joan Esposito preview stories of coming Eyewitness News at 5pm (with Tim Weigel and Andy Avalos; voiceover by Al Parker)
Commercial: Coronet towels and tissues (with Rosemary Clooney; recording ends just before commercial does)
This aired on local Chicago TV on Wednesday, March 12th 1986 during the 3:58pm to 4:56pm timeframe.
This is from a videotape donated to the Museum of Classic Chicago Television as part of the Dr. William Matviuw collection.
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. 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 [e-mail] Thank you for your help!

[@BrianJNelson]

Holy cow, Linda Yu and Joel Daly. There's a memory unlocked. Danm, and Jerry Taft at 51:37 I remember him as well.

[@LisaSidels]

I sure love revisiting the 80's. These were my days, good times

[@jchow5966]

Thank you for this!!!!!

[@JeffK787]

Linda Yu was one of my favorite anchors.

[@mysticakhenaton1701]

LOVE these old Chicago news broadcast, the memories.

[@mysticakhenaton1701]

I forgot just FINE Linda was back in the day. LOL

[@umrrobberk]

This was the news my parents watched for years, as well as my 11 year old self. This was like another family watching them everyday in the 80’s. The A team for sure. Hope you have more you could post. Thank you!

[@RusstheTroubadour]

Thanks Fuzzy. 18:32 Character Actor Charles C Welch was the spokesman for Pepperidge Farm for nearly 20 years.

[@memeburgess4467]

B4 there was Connie Chung there was Linda Yu. Even though Linda started her career b4 Connie. 💋

[@wmbrown6]

In New York, on sister station WABC Channel 7, there was Kaity Tong (who's still carrying on at WPIX Channel 11).

[@MrDuds1984]

Linda was a beauty

[@wmbrown6]

@@MrDuds1984 - I ain't arguin' . . . ;-) also shout out to Tritia Toyota out in L.A. . . . we're talkin' pioneers (and icons) here, folks.

[@StudioZ7]

Connie Chung had a long career at CBS (KNXT) in Los Angeles going back to the 1970s.

[@memeburgess4467]

@@StudioZ7Im guessing diversity hiring. Lind started out n the 70's as well. 💋

[@ken_danerdiest1]

41:27 I chose TCI over Group W cable that year. 😀 Thanks for this classic newscast!

[@rrmond]

As a kid I used to think their desk looked like a coffin

[@RusstheTroubadour]

John & Joan had also co- anchored the nightly news at WGN .

[@gluechunk]

"Why don't you use that teleprompter?" Ouch.

[@jarrelljimerson3346]

@ 1:43, I could've swore Channel 7 Action News (WXYZ, Detroit) used the same theme music.

[@rustyshackleford1114]

Jeff Spicoli's cousin @ 2:30.

[@rustyshackleford1114]

BTW, my 10th birthday was on March 12th, 1986.

[@chigal0926]

I was 9!!!

[@rustyshackleford1114]

Speaking of the Challenger crew remains and the autopsy, what NASA did after they recovered the bodies was heinous at best and desecration at worst: They put the remains in garbage cans and put the garbage cans in the bed/back of an unmarked pickup truck and the driver (who may or may not have been aware of what he was transporting) drove them to the County Medical Examiners Office in the dead of night. No BS.

[@mixon270]

The 80s 😢😢😢😢😢what an era

[@jamesparker4471]

Eighties hair , sculpted

[@chigal0926]

Can you all upload the day when Harold Washington died?

[@dave11686]

Brevard, not Broward ;)

[@timothythompson999]

Venture again

[@kennethoats2322]

In two months I would be 13 😮

[@awahl5099]

9 mos. for me lol

[@RusstheTroubadour]

I was long passed 13 and still am.

[@1thetvzone]

Oprah - didn’t the show go into syndication fall of 1986? So it wasn’t AM Chicago in March of 86? How did that happened?

[@kennethoats2322]

The show's name changed from AM Chicago to the Oprah Winfrey Show in '85, then the show went national in '86

[@wmbrown6]

@@kennethoats2322 - Exactly. Its name was changed in preparation for it going national. She was one of two "secret weapons" that ended up dethroning Donahue. The other? Regis and Kathie Lee in New York, on what was then still the local "Morning Show" on WABC Channel 7 (which title didn't change until 1988 when it was first syndicated as "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee"). Oprah worked out far greater, in that strategy, than back in 1977 at WABC, when what was then "AM New York" became "The Stanley Siegel Show" when its neurotic and often controversial host propelled the show "from worst to first" in the morning ratings (he largely benefitted from the loss of Barbara Walters on WNBC Channel 4's "Not for Women Only" [upon her move to ABC] and her replacements - first Polly Bergen, then Lynn Redgrave - didn't have the same pull) - then WNBC took on "Donahue" in fall '77 and he dominated for the next eight years (and "NFWO" shunted to the "graveyard," post-sign-on 6:30 A.M. time slot before "Today" for the remainder of its run) - and Siegel was gone from Channel 7 by '78.

[@1thetvzone]

@kennethoats2322 Thx u for the clarification... I didn't know it changed in 85.