WLS Channel 7 - Eyewitness News (Complete Broadcast, 3/9/1980) 📺

Here's a complete edition of the late Sunday Eyewitness News on WLS Channel 7, anchored by Jay Levine, with weatherman Tom Hale and sportscaster Al Lerner.
Includes:
Ending titles for The ABC Sunday Night Movie (full broadcast posted separately here: • The ABC Sunday Night M... )
World News Tonight promo with look at coming Southern primaries (posted separately here: • ABC Network - ABC Worl... )
Jay promotes upcoming newscast
Commercials for:
Wickes Furniture Storewide Celebration Sale
Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (with Florence Ledgister, Tom Heffernan, Barbara M. Lyszczasz, J. Michael Peterson, Juliette Fritz and Stephanie Heckler)
RC Cola (voiceover by Hal Riney)
Station ID / 3:30 Movie "Playmates" promo (voiceover by Gary Gears)
Newscast open (voiceover by Wayne Atkinson), followed by items:
- Carol Bogart report on Sen. Edward Kennedy campaigning at Conrad Hilton in preparation for Illinois primary
- Sun-Times endorses President Carter for second term
- Sun-Times and Tribune endorse John Anderson on Republican side; John Connally quits race after losing South Carolina primary
- ABC News/Harris poll showing Gerald Ford having a second shot at Presidency; while a Draft Ford committee is established in state - Robert Blair speaks
- Anderson vows to continue his drive in spite of Ford talk
Commercials for:
United Airlines (with Tom Poston)
La Salle National Bank
Daisy 2 home pregnancy test
- 4-year-old twins Lucy and Lisette Odiveros (sp?) treated in South Chicago hospital for burns on hands sustained after being punished for damaging mother's watch by her boyfriend, Joe Zarek (sp?)
- Intensive manhunt on North Side for 9-year-old third-grader Victoria Jones, as reported by Fred Villanueva; her mother (Beverly Jones) pleads for Vicki to come back home
- Tom Hale weather forecast
Commercials for:
Soave Bolla wine
Cash back on Mercury sedans and wagons (with Gary Collins)
Saks Fifth Avenue
Al Lerner sports:
- Ray Meyers DePaul Blue Demons loses to UCLA in college basketball rematch, 77-71; plus other West division scores
- Bobby Knight's Indiana Hoosiers handily defeat Virginia Tech Gobblers; plus other Midwest division scores
- Johnny Miller wins Jackie Gleason Inverrary Golf Classic
- In exhibition baseball at Mesa, AZ, Cubs tie 7-7 with Taiyo Whales
- Soccer fans of rival teams attack each other on streets of Amsterdam, unhappy game ended in tie
- Hustle beats Milwaukee 135-114 in women's basketball; coach Doug Bruno suspended and fined after attacking referees
- Video of DePaul team returning shown
Commercial: Berol pens - "The Write Source"
- More than 200 12-year-old girls trying out for one of eight scholarships to study with ballet master George Balanchine; tryouts run at 410 South Michigan by star ballerina Suzanne Farrell; winners will have tuition free education at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York
With that, Jay closes newscast
(C) 1980 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
(The ABC News Weekend Report follows, as posted separately here: • ABC News Weekend Repor... )
This aired on local Chicago TV on Sunday, March 9th 1980 during the 9:57pm to 10:20pm timeframe.
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. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: [e-mail] 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 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!

[@bobxoneill]

i love these memories...keep them coming. i was a freshman when this was originally on TV. the one thing that stands out is how broadcast news covered print news events. print news was that important to our world. moving everything to the internet was great for many reasons but losing print news is unfortunate.

[@CrowTRobot-ni7zu]

Interesting to see Al Lerner again. I LOVED that show you posted with him from 44.

[@DavidFell]

He and his wife are good friends of mine.

[@DavidFell]

I didn’t expect Tom Poston to pop up in a United Airlines spot.

[@nathancoleman7235]

I always liked the Eyewitness News theme music!

[@DavidFell]

Those ABC/Louis Harris Poll graphics had to be from the network. As primitive as they are, the local Chyron at WLS-TV didn’t make it.

[@mysticakhenaton1701]

here in early 1980. the OFF THE WALL album took Michael Jackson to Superstardom.

[@samanthanickson6478]

dude, you are doing the lord’s work with these videos. thank you! jay levine looks like a baby! is wickes still around?

[@JenA2145]

Wickes closed around 15 years ago maybe? My sister bought a furniture set and entertainment center from Wickes in 2003. She STILL has that furniture. Very good quality.

[@theworldwariioldtimeradioc8676]

Was hoping to see Fahey Flynn at anchor.

[@jen2574]

Yes, we need more Fahey Flynn!

[@The_best_days_are_yesterdays]

I think Fahey was on weeknights, this broadcast was Sunday night.

[@jazziccoolcat]

March 9, 1980: My birthday when I was born.

[@benjaminyeager6914]

The V/O on the RC Cola ad is Hal Riney, of the ad agency that bore his name.

[@wmbrown6]

Funny, it's been corrected to reflect that.

[@bobbish782]

I was a Junior in high school when this was broadcast. I can't believe how antiquated the world looks from a 2024 POV.

[@DavidFell]

Hi Rick; Just started watching. This is about 2 years before I started working there. You ought to separate out that Southern Primaries promo. Love old news promos.

[@DavidFell]

Booth announcer at the top is Wayne Atkinson. I have one of his watercolors on my wall.

[@dave11686]

My grandfather died at South Chicago Hospital

[@RusstheTroubadour]

That was the last year of the Jackie Gleason Inverrary. Due to a dispute w/ the sponsor. Honda has sponsored the tournament since 1981. Now known as the Honda Classic.

[@The_best_days_are_yesterdays]

"little tiny puffy clouds..."

[@20thcenturyfoxyoutube]

I remember that news caster who looks like Steve Martin!

[@The_best_days_are_yesterdays]

You mean Jay Levine?

[@20thcenturyfoxyoutube]

@@The_best_days_are_yesterdays ha yes!

[@mukbangsareawesome6335]

What a fascinating time. Reagan had strong Republican opponents, plus Ted Kennedy challenging one-termer Carter, plus Anderson.

[@didsomebodysaydmt8193]

Man I thought that was Steve Martin at first,lol.

[@worthyofdeath]

Yep!

[@MikeBreiburg]

10:36 I wonder if they ever found that missing girl. Tried to look it up online but there’s not much and she has a pretty common name.

[@MikeBreiburg]

It’s not the same one but that school looks like the one I attended up to 2nd grade, Clinton school on California Ave. on the north side

[@TheBandit7613]

There were a lot of serial killers roaming around back then. I think Gacy was doing his thing in 1980.

[@batterymakermarkii2654]

8:46 tom poston, bless that man

[@archenema6792]

He mentions a wife in the commercial. In real life, he would marry another Newhart co-star, Suzanne Pleshette, 20 years later.

[@hss8973]

Gray School on Laramie, this was my grammar school.

[@worthyofdeath]

Mine too

[@didsomebodysaydmt8193]

I bet she never rode with Ted wearing her seatbelt and the window up!

[@tomlund205]

Ted Kennedy? The one who left that woman to drown? That same Ted Kennedy?

[@theworldwariioldtimeradioc8676]

He gave Carter a run for his money if I recall.

[@kristidrehnig4313]

Yeah, he never did leave politics, but never had a good chance at the Presidency after Chappequiddick.

[@keybyss98]

Wow, Ford *lead* Reagan in the polls? I wonder what changed by Election Day (wasn’t around in 1980, so I’m genuinely not sure).

[@JJJBRICE]

At 15:48 the sports report starts with the UCLA win versus the local DePaul team , That UCLA team was in the midst of a run all the way to the 1980 NCAA championship basketball finals where they lost to Louisville 59 to 54 .

[@rnman99]

12.65 percent...

[@antony716]

Yea, it's amazing to think that a bank would dream of paying over a point for money, let alone more than 12 for $500

[@DavidFell]

The way weather guy Tom Hale looms over Jay Levine and Al Lerner is an odd choice.

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

I thought that looked strange too! 😄

[@Rnyargd]

I thought he was coming in for a hug.

[@andyrose5616]

Strange that they put the chroma key on the wall on the main set instead of off to the side, leaving him nowhere else to go. I guess that monitor in the middle of the set doubled as his reference monitor for the weather.

[@batterymakermarkii2654]

14:55 Gary Collins

[@KT72273]

Husband of Mary Ann Mobley!

[@airassault11]

And Joan Kennedy would divorce Ted two years later.

[@fabio40]

WXYZ's Action News in Detroit had a set identical to that set.

[@antony716]

Man, it's been a long time since a presidential candidate gave a shit about Chicago/IL

[@joeferguson2606]

All the way back to Obama

[@jerrycurtis7097]

Who is the girl in the Wickes Furniture spot?

[@silvanaorizi5643]

Did they find victoria ?

[@leepatterson7790]

Ted “the swimmer” Kennedy being considered for president? That was funny

[@jen2574]

What's even funnier is Jane Byrne throwing Jimmy Carter under the bus for ol' Teddy

[@laurabeane8862]

John Anderson tried to run as a third party candidate

[@antony716]

Don't spoil the ending. I'm waiting to find out if Gerry Ford is going to run.

[@laurabeane8862]

@@antony716 Seriously, an ACTOR as President!? I'm on the edge of my seat, too!😄

[@antony716]

@@laurabeane8862 joking aside, as a voting Democrat, John Anderson seems like the most sensible politician I've ever seen. I know things are different now, but even the reporter said that his honesty would sink John Anderson

[@laurabeane8862]

@@antony716 It WAS forty years ago. Some things never Change.

[@antony716]

@@laurabeane8862 no need to keep reminding me how old I am.

[@EsotericOccultist]

Ah the good ol days when they used to have white people in commercials

[@majestyk3337]

I don't know where you live but I still get mostly whites in my commercials.

[@antony716]

Tell us what really matters to your life

[@JenA2145]

@@majestyk3337 national commercials, or your local ones?

[@joeferguson2606]

Trumpers are a dying breed..lol

[@joedimaggio3687]

​@majestyk3337 not where I live. Blacks make 13% of the US population but make up 90% of the actors in commercials.

[@markthrasher6770]

Who wants to be notified of this??.... this is just a novelty. It's not some super strong powerful click bait to make you watch more ads..🙄

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

Yeah, it's a novelty - no real reason, just thought I'd try it out. Perhaps some people will be excited by the countdown to watch a local newscast from 3/9/1980 though. :-)

[@kuryakn]

I love these videos and appreciate the notification option.

[@cabalenproductions6480]

Well it's interesting that WLS, WXYZ and KATV at one point shared the same news studio design.

[@zaheerahshareef8131]

Me!!

[@AL-mp2mo]

What else do you complain about throughout the day? Just curious

[@zaheerahshareef8131]

It was a good time to be 3 years old 😂😂