WMAQ Channel 5 - PSAs, Meditation, Sign-Off & Joanna Lopez 'Missing' Slide (1/14/1989)

Here are some public service announcements, then Meditation, and finally the station sign-off for WMAQ Channel 5. Includes:
PSA - Illegal Drugs: It's Not Someone Else's Problem
PSA - Project Serve with Janelle LaVigne
PSA - Medic Alert bracelets with Diahann Carroll and Vic Damond
PSA - United Way / Crusade of Mercy with Michael Jordan
PSA - Latino Institute with Migdalia (Millie) Rivera
Meditation with Reverend Claude Tears of First Corinthians Baptist Church
WMAQ-TV Chicago Station Sign-Off (voiceover by Jim Hill) and National Anthem
Missing child alert slide - Joanna Lopez
WMAQ-TV constantly strives to maintain high programming standards in the public interest. Portions of some of our programs today have been mechanically reproduced. The programs telecast by this station may not be used for any purpose except exhibition at the time of their telecast on receivers of the type ordinarily used for home reception in places where no admission, cover or mechanical operation charges are made.
This aired on local Chicago TV early Saturday, January 14th 1989.
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 4,500+ (and counting) video clips available for viewing in our online archive, please visit us at:
www.fuzzymemori...

[@buffmywifi3839]

No creepy tones. No overblown imagery. No details. No resolution. This is scarier than any analog horror series. Worst part is, this is real.

[@TheStepmonkey]

Exactly, so eerie

[@ShadeATV]

No jumpscares. No source. No known information. No ARG. No creator.

[@russlh7693]

jesus christ it's just a missing persons poster, don't be so damn dramatic.

[@nettoyagedelamaison9557]

@@russlh7693 Shush

[@mr.spider6859]

Exactly. Sometimes less is more.

[@roccoricobene2746]

I remember seeing this and other missing person slides, sometimes with a loud annoying tone playing. When you are 8 years old and flipping through the stations at 4AM this is the stuff of nightmares.

[@NORMALLYRETRO]

LMFAO I'm so glad I'm not alone in thinking this is ENTIRELY creepy.

[@90sNath]

NORM NORM I'm not alone either. in fact I just heard something scary as I was typing this comment. from somebody's phone lol

[@christopherhodges5722]

Yes! I'd fall asleep watching TV as a kid and wake up to this. Absolutely terrifying. The pictures always looked so creepy!

[@bdalbor]

Fascinating. There may be much more to this mystery than I thought. Hopefully more of these WMAQ sign-offs from this time period will show up one day!

[@Ecumba]

Her glasses? make it look like she’s an alien too man, I was gonna sleep on the job rn but uhh nvmd

[@unoriginalumbrella8111]

I think what makes this Missing Persons notice so terrifying and uncanny is not just due to how low-quality the image is and the lack of information, but the silence. The absolute, complete lack of any sound. It makes you expect something to happen, but nothing ever comes, you just...sit there, looking at is probably one of the most unnerving photos I have ever seen, and I have seen pretty brutal things.

[@FloorPills]

Also the pitch black emptiness in the background

[@spudartz]

Fun fact: I’ve heard about a guy getting his skin melted off and I’m not sure which one is more unnerving

[@pauljr.harrington1905]

Low quality, even by 1980s standards.

[@tay9813]

Exactly it’s the lack of anything, like it’s just nothiness

[@siphobrisloks8133]

I've seen a man got shot in the head irl and a girl who's leg got broken and she started screaming irl, I also saw a man got decapitated on the head but the knife was too blunt so he just bleed to death I saw that on the internet. But this is kinda terrifying tbh

[@buffmywifi3839]

The saddest and scariest part about this is that Joanna Lopez was a real person, but they didn't really care about her. The missing person slide was made with zero effort. The only information they give you is a super creepy picture where you can't make out any of her facial features, and her name. This also played when most people were asleep. She was a real person that was really missing, and all the TV station did to help was to unintentionally make you associate her name with this creepy visual.

[@soychidoese]

Most likely a poor black girl who had little to no connections and was placed in a Youth Division where runaways were an occurence. With her circumstances, it seems likely that she had no place to go but away from the Youth division in Chicago and may unfortunately run into organized crime as one possible Jane Doe had before her passing.

[@soychidoese]

@@TimmyTickle most likely due to her name, assuming it's the Jane Doe that redditors theorize might be the one.

[@soychidoese]

@@roy5k2 black latino is a thing though

[@Aprocrisin]

is ther any evidence she was real

[@firstrussianbd5683]

@@roy5k2 gotta us one guys

[@acatwithaids5398]

Here's a fun fact: that slide at the end, the one that abruptly cuts out the national anthem for the bad resolution pic of some woman? Yeah that stayed on screen for HOURS. Till the station started back up at 5am next morning. This was after the news station had already done a segment on missing persons with an entirely different format. Very odd.

[@thewigglesunreleasedarchiv5273]

well that's not fun at all.

[@shrivvlez5883]

Since it was sign-off hours that means it had shown up at night, so just imagine. You’re laying there on the couch watching tv, and you close your heavy eyes and decide to keep them closed because of how relaxing it feels, until you inevitably pass out on the couch with the tv still running, and then you wake up. “Huh, I must have fallen asleep. It’s night time? I gotta get to bed. Who turned off the TV?” Then you roll over and see it. You now need to find yourself a new pair of pants

[@whateverguy1835]

When it was shown again after the sign off 2 years later in 1991, it only stayed for 10 seconds.

[@whateverguy1835]

@@shrivvlez5883 Lol true

[@amso7169]

@@whateverguy1835 i theorize that joanna lopez was either fake or was found. the 1991 could’ve been a mistake considering it was taken off after 10 seconds.

[@ricks.1779]

I remember falling asleep with the tv on occasionally, then waking up in the late hours to the glow of my tv and these ultra low-res, "missing person" images being displayed. Completely terrifying.

[@Vic_T_234]

How old were you when you seen this?

[@ricks.1779]

@@Vic_T_234 late teens. Seems a little old to get creeped out, but it was just weird and unnerving- especially with the frequency hum of the tv.

[@sonofab30]

you're telling me there were MORE of these???? Joanna wasn't the only one????

[@ricks.1779]

@@sonofab30 yes! They had an entire Missing Persons segment after the station went off the air each evening.

[@whardy0410]

@@ricks.1779 Don't worry lol, you're never old to be scared of this creepy shit. I'm currently in my late teens, and this footage is about to make me shit my pants lol.

[@TheNathanNS]

This is the absolute perfect combo for a scary moment. 1. There's absolutely no warning it's coming up, like you're probably expecting it to be playing adverts next or the network's title card, but what you get is a sudden cut to black, no fade transitions or any editing, just it suddenly popping up out of nowhere. 2. No sound whatsoever, no voice overs giving you information about this person. No background music, just completely ominous silence, it's extremely unnerving. 3. The photo they used is so unnatural. I don't mean to rag or comment on the woman's appearance but the photo just doesn't look normal. You can barely make out any of her face , only the middle part is lit up, you cannot see any distinctive features, her mouth, nose and eyes look non human and really "shadowy" as a result, like the picture isn't of a person. 4. The "information" provided gives us no information about her, except her name. Where or when was she last seen? How old or tall is she? Any info on if she said she was going anywhere? It gives a strong sense of mystery about her. 5. About the phone number, who does it belong to? Boyfriend? Sister? Police? Parents? A trafficker? Without knowing who's number it is is eerie. 6. The fact this all takes place at 4am, the time when most of us are probably too tired, we're drowsing off and our rooms are very dimly lit or completely dark except for our TVs. Seeing that before we go to sleep probably would impact our dreams. Or, the exact opposite, falling asleep and just waking up to it.

[@unoriginalumbrella8111]

I know right? Like most horror movies nowadays try and use jumpscares, loudsounds, and other techniques to get a reaction out of the audience. Here? It's a completely silent, grainy picture of what *seems* to be a person, given to us with little to no warning whatsoever. Seriously, when I first saw this video it genuinely made me jump because it's just so unexpected. It doesn't help the fact that we are given no information on her, just a phone number, which can easily lead to the theory that she was never real in the first place.

[@enimo9241]

The mysterious phone number used to lead to the Chicago Police Department's Youth Division at the time, now the number doesn't lead anywhere because it has probably changed since then

[@quickrevivesoda6759]

The fact that this played again in '91 too. And I believe a ton of other missing person images popped up after the station signed off for the night, though the second time this was shown it was only for merely a few seconds before cutting into colored bars.

[@Millennialtomb]

What kind of sunglasses were they? As far as I know around that time Wayfarers were huge, but they're a totally different shape to Wayfarers, the way the bridge sits well below the brow. I've googled a bit for sunglasses from around then and did find some Chanels that kind of have the 'bug eye' thing going, but again not with the low sitting bridge like that.

[@thirdanimator3347]

Damn, I watched some of your videos a long time ago. And I'd like to make light on the little phone number you were talking about. The phone number is now defunct, but it once belonged to the Youth Department of the Chicago PD, you know, the department that works in missing adolescent people. People did report probably finding the person, matching her face with a 'Jane Doe', I can't explain it but you can probably look it up to flatten the finer details. The two images, it's a close match, but I don't believe it's her. She just looks slightly too young to be in her young adult stage.

[@smoocifilms6169]

I think the scariest part would be waking up to this, knowing it’s been on your TV screen the whole time you were asleep.

[@Bendaboioffical]

It's worse if it burned in overnight

[@chutorakaiken8]

I tried looking up Joanna Lopez in the Chicago area to see if there was any mention of her in maybe a past news article if she was still missing or, preferably, found safe. They aired this same missing person in 1991, meaning she was missing for two years. Sadly, it makes me think the worst, but if the worst has happened, they probably have yet to find her body. It's just so strange there is nothing on her. No archived news. Just this.

[@jemima216]

Good research.

[@colleendefabbio7736]

She possibly died disappearing.

[@CindyWu1665]

Thank you very much for the research we appreciate it

[@pauljr.harrington1905]

And, keep in mind, this was 31 years ago now!

[@eliconrad6139]

I showed this video to someone who was a teenager in the Chicagoland area at the time to see if she'd heard about this girl. Her response broke my heart: "There were a lot of cases like this. Judging by the photo quality, that family didn't have a lot of money to search for her, or even get the story out there. She probably just went missing and they never heard from her again." Not that that's conclusive, of course, but... given that this reran two years later, I assume she's just... gone.

[@melaniatoczko3376]

The craziest part about this whole thing is that it's completely impossible to identify this woman based on the information presented on the last slide. No height, weight, race, or age is indicated, just a phone number. It's kind of hilarious in a morbid way. What was the person who made that slide even thinking?

[@Tokuijin]

Since that number used to belong to the Chicago's youth department, it's possible that the authorities at the time wanted to protect as much of her identity as possible.

[@asapling]

People are saying it could be a test kinda like that other one that ran that was a test

[@ruden6905]

it's a possibility that she could be black

[@yerlocalpeanutdealer795]

@@ruden6905 She probably is judging by the photo.

[@Gamers_Underground_Club]

The only thing that you can see is that she has Glasses on

[@iluvj0j0]

is it just me or does that missing picture give me chills

[@PIB2000]

Photos of missing people are already chilling enough, but the graininess and deterioration of the picture makes it even worse.

[@WolfKing-dv6xd]

It gives EVERYBODY the chills!

[@babygirl6789]

@@PIB2000 this was in back in 89' right? So why was the picture in black and white and not color. Also. You can't even see the person's face at all

[@babygirl6789]

@Vanillamel0n im just saying that like it's impossible to even identify this person's face.

[@thewigglesunreleasedarchiv5273]

very chilling.

[@AlexanderBruyns]

The abrupt cut to the photo and silence is so chilling.

[@jjwkk2183]

Whenever we see a human face our brains automatically piece together the precise location of the eyes, nose, and mouth along with other small features so we can more easily recognize a person, that's why to us vague objects could resemble faces. I believe the reason this image is so unnerving is mainly due to shading, and how chaotic and unnerving it looks. I've been looking at her face for some time and I cannot identify where her eyes are located. I swear I can see them or at least the shape of the eyelids and yet I can't tell where they are. I can't properly see the nose, and the mouth is made up of nothing but two small specks of white on the picture. My brain is trying so hard to relate to the image but it just can't, and yet I have no idea why.

[@IgnacioCheuque]

This is due to a type of survival style of our ancestors, something that "imitates" being something similar to us humans, gives us restlessness and bewilderment, That's why people are traumatized by this.

[@ahmadjomaa8675]

Probably cause she’s wearing sunglasses in the picture.

[@creatos2556]

She looks kinda like alien with these eyes

[@nxx99]

@@ahmadjomaa8675 Even then, it's hard to tell if she's wearing glasses or not. That picture makes it look like she has 2 voids and small specks of light for eyes

[@petealonso5497]

I think its that our face wants to put them together but cant making it think its a threat and making us scared

[@astriverofstrengthandknowledge]

Those missing person images are probably the closest thing to real life analogue horror. Imagine being a kid under the age of 10 falling asleep in the dark with your TV on and waking up to those pictures.

[@knucklestheyoutuber4694]

I would shit myself till I couldn't shit anymore

[@mayhare9754]

Forget under the age of 10, I'm 25 and I would still freak out if I suddenly woke up to this.

[@cellytron]

I’m 38 and I jumped backward and sharply inhaled through my nose when I saw this 😬 The fact that it (mistakenly?) stayed on screen for, apparently, hours, after the network signed off and was supposed to be showing color bars?! I can imagine a night of absolute terror. Turning off the TV… and then wondering, is it still there?! And then you turn it on and it IS. I wouldn’t be able to sleep.

[@some.random.baldie2111]

That picture really is scary. It's like it was badly photocopied. You'd have thought that they would have asked the family or police for a better quality picture. I bet that frightened a lot of people who fell asleep in front of the TV and got woke up to that scarey picture. Throw in no details about her profile too. I hope she was found and this story had a happy ending, but I do feel the worst happened. The picture gave it no justice for the case.

[@lilmissbloodbath89]

This slide was shown again in 1991. It's so damn creepy! People on reddit even started looking for her at the Doe Network. There's nothing but this creepy slide.

[@Vic_T_234]

I've seen it being compared to the missing Jane doe woman who they found dead in an alley. If you ask me,i have to say this picture looks like it fits that missing woman.

[@luciddreaming4478]

@@Vic_T_234 My guess is that she was another Edward Surrett Jane Doe

[@michaelheinaman3078]

@@lilmissbloodbath89 this slide was also shown in 1990 but it shown a different woman. Her name was Christine Nelson and her picture was much better quality and we could somewhat make out her face. But other than that it was the same thing with the text word ‘missing’ at the top.

[@Ajae78]

@@michaelheinaman3078 That video is fake. The creator admitted it was a joke on the Reddit sub unresolvedmysteries. Christine Nelson (aka Spike) is a character from the Canadian show Degrassi Junior High/High School/TNG. The woman pictured is Amanda Stepto, the actress that played the role.

[@mori-cq5282]

On a less creepy note, that first PSA fucking slapped

[@holzman00]

Fr, I keep coming back for that part lol

[@HipixOFFICIAL]

That bass was phat

[@Millennialtomb]

Song is called We're All In This Together, originally by a Christian jazz fusion band called Koinonia, however the version in the PSA is a pretty decent cover, unfortunately I've been unable to find out who performed it.

[@Patya69]

@@Millennialtomb When a cover is better than the original song.

[@Jake76667]

it’s easily the least creepy thing in this entire video

[@enimo9241]

When the Joanna Lopez image is on screen with no music, it feels like there's going to be a jumpscare.. Imagine watching TV and seeing that image on screen for hours straight, and none of the other channels have anything on..

[@lilauxy]

Yeah your right i thought that also when i was watching yt vids about Joanna Lopez

[@Sensatokiko]

Rede Globo was kinda like that, after the sing-off, was just a color-screen and all channels sing off as well

[@Fletcher6183]

the fact that this wasnt made to be intentionally creepy makes it even more unnerving

[@nightfallgloam]

KZbin's been recommending this video to me, even during night time in my time zone. Needles to say, the seeing the missing person slide in the thumbnail is absolute nightmare fuel.

[@babygirl6789]

This was recommended to me at 3 am. Of course the thumbnail sparked my curiosity.

[@404.filenotfound]

@Chubby Wubbzy let me guess your from blameitonjorge like me?

[@zahkrosis666]

@@404.filenotfound He made a vid on this ad?

[@Jake76667]

good luck sleeping bro

[@keybyss98]

Very weird that they’d broadcast this right after many people would turn their TV’s off for the night. Like, isn’t a Missing Person’s report something you’d share in the middle of the day so that more people would actually be aware of this?

[@ArchiveofAwesomeness1886]

You certainly have a point

[@babycoconut]

My thinking is maybe the family or police paid for this. Because late night spots at the time were the cheapest, that was what could be afforded.

[@ArchiveofAwesomeness1886]

@@babycoconut that makes sense

[@stellinam4199]

@@babycoconut That wouldn't make sense though either, if I'm remembering correctly her image stayed up for hours until the channel resumed for its morning programing, surely having her picture up for an entire night would've cost a pretty penny, even during the night recording time still costs bank. This is a weird situation either way you slice it.

[@automatedinsanity]

@@stellinam4199 most likely a error that no one in the broadcasting studio noticed until the next day, there is supposed to be color bars when it's signed off.

[@belowthedot8903]

That missing person image triggers my fight or flight response

[@l3azooka_36]

This is more like a "stay away from this person" poster than a "missing person"

[@jumperboi12]

True

[@izzy5500]

I feel like the person could have been murdered

[@TheManofthefuture101]

I watched this video during the day, and that overly exposed missing person slide still gave me the creeps!

[@skeleton599]

It’s so sad and terrifying how people can simply vanish from the earth.. never to be seen or heard from again.

[@crazycoollady]

I completely agree. It breaks my heart.

[@t.castro4493]

Absolutely, I used to read about true crime and mysteries (even solved a few internet mysteries myself) and it's weird how people disappear out of nowhere. Oftentimes nobody even cares.

[@The_Davo_Domain]

This reminds me of the Canal 5 missing persons reports and its very ironic that 2 missing women with the last name Lopez had photos that were so poor quality it made them almost impossible to identify

[@alphab9933]

selene delgado lopez, yup! there's a theory that neither Joanna nor Selene actually actually exist O_o

[@thebruhnetwork]

Bruh that’s what I was thinking dude

[@thedaochannel.4458]

Nexpo?

[@The_Davo_Domain]

@@thedaochannel.4458 Did Nexpo make a video on it? Haven't watched any of their content in a while so I might have to check their video out. I heard about this originally from Scare Theatre

[@thedaochannel.4458]

@@The_Davo_Domain Yeah he made it today

[@GALuigi]

Honestly the creepiest thing about this for me is the fact that it's so unexpected and pops up without any warning... You got your late 80s anti-drug PSAs, various ads including one with Michael Jordan, then a message about the Bible, then the average national anthem sign-off...and then that message, just pops up out of nowhere, sitting there in the middle of the night. Creepy stuff.

[@Henotlegend]

tf are you doing here???

[@pookieluh]

I liked watching the ads things idk

[@RIPdixiecarter]

If I woke up at 4 AM and saw that ghastly silent missing person slide on my screen I'd initially think I died and summoned to hell.

[@littlegamer6332]

lol

[@bluepearl9075]

This doesn’t even scare me, just breaks my heart. Some family who could only afford the worst time slot is still missing a daughter.

[@rural8438]

You have to *pay* for a missing poster?

[@royalgarden18]

​@@rural8438They had to pay to air this on TV and most likely could only afford a slot in the middle of the night since those are the cheapest

[@mergieismoronic]

@@rural8438you have to pay for TV ad time, yeah

[@gdsosen]

@@rural8438yes?

[@cevesik9208]

I cried looking at the end cause it just saddens me how this was set up and how she still isn’t found. It’s a lack of information, they didn’t even put a height, weight, race, scars, or anything to identify her. I don’t even know who this person was/is, but it’s really saddens me

[@qypthon]

I mean her last name is Latin related

[@ShadeATV]

I think she was black

[@may292]

@@qypthon her name could be both related to latinoamerica or spain, lopez is a really common here and in spain. Her face is unrecognizable tho so its hard to see if she is spanish or latina.

[@mscheetofighter9437]

That photography has been enhanced using AI and among other things, the weird shading is partially because she's wearing big round glasses and the fact they didn't put a whole lot of effort scanning the picture. Having said that, on Reddit there's an entire subreddit dedicated to her and some users have made extensive posts recreating her face, a user found a Jane Doe that many people believe it's her.

[@magnum7978]

I’m relieved to know I wasn’t the only one saddened, especially after learning the details here

[@nickitysplit1232]

This is like real life analog horror

[@Vic_T_234]

I can see why now they made stuff digital. There was too much tv analog happening back then. Id pissed my self if I saw this. I am now actually.😂🤯

[@xWasabiNekoProx]

@@Vic_T_234 analog tv was all that existed back then, analog simply means that it isn't digital.

[@Vic_T_234]

@@xWasabiNekoProx i know this bc i grew up with part of that. I was upset honestly when it went to Dtv. I think i was about 11/12 years old when they did. I always loved it bc my parents had a little tv that had analog reception and was great for our bedroom and kitchen table.

[@mrsuns10]

Analog horror is just amazing

[@thebloodyside4723]

Mandela Catalogue and Local 58 must’ve gotten inspiration by this

[@krysidian]

How have I never found out about this. There are so many creepy elements playing together that it really unnerves me.

[@ofacid3439]

The closer and longer you look at the girl's image, the less it scares you. I've spent some hours surfing the net about her story and the picture isn't scary for me anymore. It actually makes me wonder was that a stupid joke to publish a b/w photo of a missing person of such a terrible resolution

[@andypritchard9644]

@@ofacid3439 I don't know dude, I've done my fair bit of research on Joanna Lopez, if you're alone at night in a quiet room it's still can be quite creepy. Not as much as the first time or two that I saw it but it's still there, at least for me

[@ofacid3439]

@@andypritchard9644 Fair enough. Have you got anything new of the case?

[@andypritchard9644]

@@ofacid3439 Other than the Jane Doe possibility that's gone around, no, not really

[@ArchiveofAwesomeness1886]

@@andypritchard9644 one Redditor claimed that the Jane doe has unattached ear lobes and Joanna Lopez doesn't. However, because of the angle of this photo, and the lack of details, it's somewhat difficult to tell

[@nic4811]

The silence makes this so much more unsettling and just eerie.

[@zeroryoko999]

That missing person photograph of Joanna Lopez is making me feel very uneasy.

[@babygirl6789]

The person in the photograph is so unrecognizable tbh...like I can't even see the eyes. Also. It looks like a male in the picture rather than a female.

[@OtroCanaldeMisterios]

​@@babygirl6789 her pose is also frightening

[@MoonshineTheDragThing]

@@babygirl6789 I talked about that photo of Joanna with multiple people and we came to the conclusion that she is wearing sunglasses in the photo. Notice the reflections of light in the eye area, it is consistent with a pair of glasses.

[@babygirl6789]

@@MoonshineTheDragThing I guess you could be right

[@ianschwartz08]

yeah.

[@525Lines]

Okay. Everybody keep your eyes peeled for Joanna. She looks kinda like a power ranger there.

[@creatos2556]

Or an alien

[@lifewithjazmin7661]

Imagine waking up to that on your screen at like 4 am 😭😭😭omg I would literally have a heart attack💀

[@grizzgeargaming6738]

And then seeing it 2 years later

[@danielg9174]

That anti-drug PSA is very nostalgic but with a tone of eerie, it feels trapped in time.

[@Cinnamon_Rolls_In_Pantry]

I think what makes this so terrifying is that usually missing person reports usually contain information on the person so that they can be identified, like heights, hair and eye color, and where they where last seen, but with this you can barely see what the image is supposed to be and it just shows the woman’s name, worst part is is that it was showed throughout the entire night, imagine falling alsleep watching tv and waking up to that, truly unsettling

[@nxavz]

imagine having a tv in 1989 and the only channel you have is this

[@mrquiet2009]

PSAs need to be revived. They often contained major Hollywood celebs or powerful messages. Unfortunately, that seems to have been lost today.

[@videotoblin]

*don't bring back Reeda the Raccoon*

[@EvansSt83]

As long as they feature Hollywood celebs that practice what they preach.

[@sillygoose635]

PSAs never left.

[@babygirl6789]

You're right. Mcgruff needs to make a reappearance

[@thewigglesunreleasedarchiv5273]

yes

[@DallySkyeAnims]

It almost made me think this wasn't real just to scare people into protecting their children and for children to never go out without their parents. Jesus, that looked haunting.

[@ArchiveofAwesomeness1886]

@Joey Van hellsing it's probably real, but the scariest part, is that nobody can ever know for sure

[@ArchiveofAwesomeness1886]

@@TimmyTickle I have heard that that scared people, but this, I think is probably even worse especially if I were to wake up in the middle of the night after realizing you fell asleep watching tv and you see this, I certainly would not even move

[@RoyalBlood1996]

Now... that's what I call a real life analog horror

[@mrsuns10]

Reality is scarier than fiction

[@md_randoms2429]

She apparently isn’t even a real human

[@yb6.]

Bruh imagine being alone at night in your living room and this just pops up these ppl from Chicago did see this

[@Vic_T_234]

I asked a friend who was living in Chicago at the time. He's 40 now but he says he don't remember seeing this.

[@FloorPills]

@@Vic_T_234 he probably didn't watch this channel or bothered to stay up that late.

[@belowthedot8903]

For all y'all wondering, the song in the Illegal Drugs PSA is "We're All In This Together" by David Peaston.

[@LordOfBored258]

THANK YOU!!!!

[@Fuckingmegadeth]

Imagine seeing this at 3am in your bed at night and then the “missing” scene came on…

[@nimrodsfall3259]

The photo looks so disturbing. The room looks like it is lit with bright lights. Joanna's clothing is shinning, yet her complexion is dark. Her features are unseen and are too blurry to make out. It is like you are looking at a ghost.

[@Kacper42PL]

I already would shit myself when I was younger at the colored bars + pitch in the night, but if I ever saw this shit I would literally panic and be too scared to move, I already got creeped out as shit when I watched this yesterday 1 am with windows behind me after hearing some noise ;-;

[@FloorPills]

I remember sleeping in the living room by myself and I woke up in the middle of the night with the colored bars and pitch. No other lights besides the tv. I was like in elementary school

[@zahkrosis666]

Glad im not the only one who found the colored bars terrifying.

[@thepatriotsfan7127]

This was enough to keep me up most of the night Man, local TV in Chicago must be unsettling in the 80s

[@joeysparta]

The scariest thing for me is that I live in Chicago

[@iCupcakeMelaniex3]

Why would they send in a low quality photo for a missing person? Someone need to explain cause...this is sooo weird.

[@Maddox209]

To be fair, this was in 1989 back then there wasn't cameras like we have today.

[@iaincowell9747]

@@Maddox209 Lol, picture quality wasn't that bad in 1989.

[@OneKnifeYeHand]

@@Maddox209 Lolwut? As a amateur historian, I've seen a lot of old photos over the years and I've seen ones from 1890-1920 (but also 1920-2000) that look better than this one. So picture quality was good in quite some cases.

[@ArchiveofAwesomeness1886]

@@Maddox209 1989 photos weren't that bad. heck even 1800s photos look way better than this lmao, this has to be photocopied as that a known generation loss issue

[@user-64896]

it was possibly the only photo they had for her, taken on a cheap, crappy, disposable camera

[@vastohs]

I came here for Joanna Lopez, but I just couldn’t stop dying at Michael Jordan for some reason

[@6muffinz]

You what for her😃

[@Small_mac31]

@@6muffinz you what

[@pdmaviation1974]

I can't imagine falling asleep on the couch and waking up to this at 3AM.

[@liamgahanvazquezlopez3203]

So guys, here in Mexico we have a similar story: back in 2001 there was a special capsule in between commercials called "Service for the Community" where a bunch of pictures of missing people would show up and a man would provide some information about them. The thing is that sometimes a woman called Selene Delgado Lopez would show up but nobody ever knew who she was, where did she came for, relatives, nothing, so, theories started saying that her picture was made up by a computer, that she didn't really exist, that it was an experiment from the government, etc. Now there are two coincidences here with both cases, the first one is that in Both Mexico and The US the channels are called chanel 5. And the other one is that both of the girls last names are Lopez. One of the greatest misterys I have ever seen.

[@iwillrockyourday]

The Selene Delgado thing is ridiculous. It's disrespectful to make an urban legend about a real woman that went missing. Shes real, not some sort of spooky mystery.

[@Small_mac31]

Not to be controversial but your last name nvm WTF WAS I THINKING

[@Small_mac31]

@@iwillrockyourday how do you know she's real man

[@Fakeus]

@@Small_mac31 :000000 omg 3 lopez fiejuguenige

[@crislucer0]

same surname, suspicious

[@shaggygabe728]

The part that creeps me out most is that theres no information about her. Nothing. Not her last seen location. Not her age. Not her height. Nothing. The fact that theres just so little known about her, makes me feel hopeless. I cant really explain it by typing, i just cant find the right words. I hope we'll be able to know what happened to her and put this mystery to rest. Lets just hope she's out there somewhere and not dead.

[@qypthon]

there’s a chance she doesn’t exist

[@Davethegoat19]

@@qypthon like selene Delgado in Mexico

[@KA-SPLAT]

I don't think she exists...

[@Knightlychan]

There's something odd about this, the lack of information, the picture that has very low quality, and the word "MISSING" right on the picture, and the fact that this stayed on for hours until the station started back up at 5 am at the next morning, it's very obscure and unnerving.

[@redeyethedragon9077]

Imagine it’s 5AM you wake up to the glow of the tv you forgot to shut off it’s 1989 you walk downstairs and you se this with static (I would run upstairs and hide)

[@timharper73]

@Knightlychan On this particular late night/early morning, the slide stayed on for barely an hour. The sign-off time that this occurred was around 4:55am. WMAQ's sign-ons during this period usually took place at about 5:50am.

[@VicGChad07]

If I read correctly, WMAQ didn't shut off their transmitter; the NBC O&O stuck with the slide through the overnight hours until it was sign-on time.

[@manimovedfrfr]

I don't live anywhere near Chicago, and I wasn't alive in the 1980s or the 1990s, but something about Joanna's case intrigues me. You'd think that maybe they would put a little effort into the slide, maybe add her height, weight, her last whereabouts, maybe even the last thing she wore, but no. Just a phone number, and a strangely eerie image. What makes it a little more uncomfortable is that the same slide was aired twice, and there was a two year gap between when they both were broadcast, meaning that she is still missing, and could possibly be alive today, knowing that this was back in the 80s. Just imagine if this happened to you; You're missing, and there was little to no information about you, just a low quality image, and someone's phone number to contact.

[@raiderishere]

imagine sleeping on this channel and waking up seeing that at like 2 am

[@coachman1532]

Imagine going missing and this is the only thing that appears for you on tv

[@thepalatrpro]

Even as a 44 year old grown man this still gives me the creeps! It looked like she was going to jump out of the screen at you or show up at your house in the middle of the night.

[@aprestoargentino5695]

It reminds me when I was a little kid and I woke up at 3 am. The TV was on MTV and it was playing a eerie commercial with a blue smoke, like if it was comming from a cigarette, on a black screen and the song "Air - Caramel Prisoner". I'm 30 y.o and I still remember the creepiness it made me feel. The video used to be on youtube (that's how I found out the name of the song) but I can't find it.

[@kamraman6487]

m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXTPlnR6m9Wgq5Y

[@WhyWhydaguy]

Can you tell me more about this supposed commercial? I'm really interested.

[@WhyWhydaguy]

1. Seeing you are located in Spain (Via your videos), I'm guessing you saw this on MTV Europe? 2. Air by Caramel Prisoner was released in 2001.

[@aprestoargentino5695]

Hello. I found your post on the lost media wiki forum. Thank you for picking up my comment and digging into it, because that video that was posted on the forum is, indeed, the one I was referring to (the one posted by YT user PYNTAMAN. As my username suggest, I'm from Argentina. It's very likely I saw this commercial somewhere around 2001. As I said, I can confirm that video posted on the forum of the blue smoke is not a remake, but an actual VHS recording of the creepy MTV commercial. Congratulations on contributing to this lost media case, which we can officially SOLVED! On a side note, I don't believe that user PYNTAMAN is the original poster of the video because he posted it in 2022, but I remember already finding that lost MTV clip somewhere earlier. That is why I knew the song playing was "Caramel Prisoner by Air". Maybe the original poster took it down, then PYNTAMAN re-posted it. I don't use this account often so that is why I took so long to reply. Cheers and thanks. @@WhyWhydaguy

[@spoilzed4527]

This is SO unsettling- and for so many reasons. The low quality picture, the silence, the lack of information ,there is no way this could've been real, with literally no back evidence that she existed.

[@camillelolzz]

ik im late , but just imagine if u gone missing with lots of lack of info and people are saying that u arent missing and ur cant be real

[@spoilzed4527]

@@camillelolzz I would eventually lose my mind. And I’m sure, if I came out about it and said “hey this is me” I’d just get told off or something

[@mayavenuemisfit814]

I think the only thing that would have been scarier would have been if the Chicago Max Headroom pirate had broken through Channel 5's signal while the Joanna Lopez slide was playing.

[@Frankingator]

That would probably be the most fucked up incident in world TV history

[@cwahl6007]

The silence… and sitting there thinking of all the horrible implications of going missing. The mystery of what happened to this women… your imagination running wild with all sorts of twisted fates, wondering if her very soul is staring you down in the darkness, and asking you and the few who saw this distorted image of her person in the dead of night would take action in finding her remains rotting in the middle of some field so her soul could be free. If I saw this as a kid, or shit, even as an adult… I’d be scared shitless for the rest of the night.

[@timharper73]

This is the WMAQ sign-off type I remember most fondly. Jim Hill's booming voice. The 5 logo at that time. The missing children slides. Like this version of the SSB also...wonder when they started using this one and retired the old 60's SSB clip?

[@jareddicarlo7816]

According to another person in the comments, this National Anthem clip first appeared on the Today Show in July of 1988. WMAQ must have started using it around then.

[@metalisonline]

Could they have at least chose a not-so-scary missing person ad at the end? Besides wasn't there a bit higher quality picture of miss Joanna? That plus did they ever find her??? So many questions…

[@90sNath]

John Roberts if they did they'd have to have found her quick because the number doesn't work no more. I checked.

[@metalisonline]

I checked as well, googled it and it goes back to some building on Wacker Dr. Update: turns out the phone number was for Chicago Police youth division, they used to be located on 11th and State St. But the building has been demolished

[@enimo9241]

I saw a comment saying that maybe that image was a photocopy of a photocopy, hence the bad quality.

[@charlesispi]

that poster btw stayed on there for hours

[@heluvsdiamond2406]

i would have actually screamed if i ever saw this in the middle of the night…

[@Kazuhik0]

This honestly ... I'm not scared of much , but this actually legit scares me ... and it's sad to know that maybe there actually is a girl // woman missing

[@Zemun_SerbianCB]

Imagine you're a kid in 1989 staying up late at night and your parents went to buy something or something like that, you are home alone watching TV with the lights off and suddently this pops up.

[@carolinadiezjimenez1525]

Imagine go to sleep meanwhile your watching a movie and minutes later after you go yo to sleep you wake up at 4-5AM and you see this in your TV..... 💀💀💀

[@thedoomtestament4547]

I’d just laugh

[@chriswideman4284]

Imagine having a NOAA Weather Radio audio in the background when this missing person is showed on the screen? Nightmareishly creepy!

[@zahkrosis666]

The silent, never ending stare of the dark creepy static face with zero warning is somehow worse than sound and build-up...

[@CubsFan2812]

My research indicates nothing on a Joanna Lopez. I would think if she was still missing, it would be known. hopefully she is alive and well

[@MoonshineTheDragThing]

Everyone is still trying to do research on her.

[@CubsFan2812]

@@MoonshineTheDragThing Yep, no updates at all. Very eerie.

[@lavontreyclarke3285]

"This concludes another day of outstanding television programming on WMAQ-TV Channel 5 NBC in Chicago. WMAQ-TV constantly strives to maintain high programming standards in the public interest. Portions of some of our programs today have been mechanically reproduced. The programs telecast by this station may not be used for any purpose except exhibition at the time of their telecast on receivers of the type ordinarily used for home reception in places where no admission, cover, or mechanical operation charges are made. This is WMAQ-TV Channel 5 NBC Television in Chicago. We now leave the air and wish you a pleasant good morning."

[@SamanthaTheSonicFan]

What did this mean, exactly?

[@mrsuns10]

Fucking creepy image pops up

[@Nightshde524]

@@SamanthaTheSonicFan it might be a clue

[@TinyRaptor24]

My stomach dropped and I felt so sick after seeing this because its just a mystery. It gives me the most unnerving feeling. It looks like it was straight out of a horror movie. She doesn't even look human, and seems like the whole "missing" thing was fake! But the worst part about it is that it has been over 35 years since it first was shown, and calling the number wouldn't do anything. Nobody would pick up.

[@Roraliya]

If i was watching this at night and the missing person popped I would die instantly by heart attack

[@svinjamaria]

The entire broadcast of the missing person looks like it was put on air by accident. The image of what was shown was most likely a test of FBI VICAP Missing Persons partnering with the TV station. My dad worked with them in the early 2000's and they would have blank or "filler" templates that FBI/police can use to fill missing or unidentified Jane or John Doe's. That "picture" shows no specific facial structure, no body identifiers, no details and there is no description of where she was last seen or anything about her. Only who to contact. I called the number on the bottom and it rings forever. We get virtually nothing from the TV broadcast. Also- the picture was *probably* added on that placeholder *not to incite fear*, but to keep the image in your head. That's usually why recreations of missing/unidentified cadavers are so fucking starling, it's the uncanny valley and uncertainty of if the clay model/sketch is even close. In this case the black and white pops and is kept to not identify a single person; it's more jarring than a colored image, and an oven roasted black and white scan is muuuuch cheaper, quicker and easier then hiring a whole ass forensic artist to recreate a model or sculpture of a face for just for testing purposes.

[@luminoth3514]

This would explain everything, why the first broadcast stayed on for hours, the lack of information, and why the picture is nightmare fuel. I hope that's what happened.

[@bdalbor]

The phone number that's on-screen actually did go somewhere when this was broadcasted back then. This went to the Chicago PD's Youth Division. This division is no longer active, which is why you're getting the infinite ringing on your end.

[@cursorguy]

@@luminoth3514 This could also explain why it came on so late. As most people won’t be awake to see it at that time.

[@BlueTubePoland]

So in my opinion it looks like the "programmer" wanted to turn on testcard, but instead he/she accidentally turned on this creepy board and probably wasn't even aware that it was on air. The board was transmitted once again in 1991, but only for 10 seconds - I think it was once again turned on accidentally, but this time they had a view on what is on air and quickly turned it off when they realized their mistake.

[@ArchiveofAwesomeness1886]

@@BlueTubePoland that's one possible explanation, but the scary part is that nobody can really know for sure due to little information about this in general

[@nalabear97]

As a person of youth living in chicago every last bit of this terrifies me. Joanna Lopez has.. no information on her, no archives, no news articles of her case. There are speculations about how she would’ve come from a low income family, but it doesn’t just chalk up to that so easily. Her picture was only shown at NIGHT, after sign-off, for HOURS on end… no information, no nothing. Just her name, the number for the department of youth; no longer in service, and a terribly photocopied image of her. That’s it. Aired twice. There’s no other record of any sort of attempt to find her or raise awareness. The thing that’s even weirder is that back then these stations already had running programs specifically meant to give information on missing people, but no, Joanna was never shown in those, she was only ever shown after sign-off at ungodly hours of the night with barely any information. …What? It doesn’t add up. And as a person of youth in this city it terrifies me to the freaking bone the idea of going missing off the face of the fuckin’ planet and nobody being able to chalk up any remnants of information about whatever happened to me after almost 30 years.

[@thepalatrpro]

So I was not the only kid in the 80!s who was petrified almost to the point of brief paralysis when I saw this for the first time? I was 8 when it came across my screen after a night of watching Saturday Night Live then playing Nintendo until about 2am and switching back to channel 5 and this creepy image was on the box TV?

[@lextavactchi]

The silence makes it even creepier dude holy shit

[@mudkip33]

Its been 35 years now.

[@gvn1111]

People mention a lot of things: this is uncanny, black background and TV static makes it creepier, lack of information is really a factor to get strange feeling and I agree to all of that. What makes it even more creepy is that you don't know if the person on that creepy photo with creepy atmosphere is alive or not.

[@weltonvillegal6258]

Part of me hopes this was just a test card and the names are borrowed from staff and the picture was of a receptionist that volunteered to have her picture taken. Could you imagine 30 years later looking at your kid’s watching KZbin and seeing your face on there?

[@PleebTheNoob]

I may have figured out that Joanna is probably wearing sunglasses in that picture. That’s probably why the eyes looks so unrecognizable .

[@ARC1300]

such a shame about the young lady. its very unlikely, but I do hope there can be some closure to the Joanna Lopez missing persons case.

[@snr_gbe]

this is gonna replace my memories of the vietnam war edit: HOLY SHIT ITS MICHAEL JORDAN 1:20

[@mrsuns10]

It ain’t me

[@ericdanielsbenavidez5867]

I think this child most definitely existed. Hate to say it but the reason this wasn't put with the other missing people was she was improvished and had no family so they just put it at the end like that with very little info and a VERY unnerving photo...it Wouldn't be the late 80s without traumatizing you completely out of no where. Let me add thier was already something off...going on throughout the broadcast. When i was a child i'd became accustomed to this which is why I'd stay up ALL nignt because you'd see something VERY disturbing ONLY late at night. I figure this was done deliberately and intentionally. They wanted to make sure you wouldn't forget this child's picture. By picking the most grainy unnerving unsettling one where you can't hardly see any features. Than knowing it stayed like that in dead silence all night the first time it aired....truly horrifying...

[@lucasechenique39]

I searched this up after having a bug in my ear about it, and I was just waiting for it to pop up in the middle of the video. The meditation segment was probably when I was the most stressed

[@evi1aa]

Honestly same lmao the meditation part was, just a hard no.

[@mariabunn]

I came here from BlameItOnJorge

[@MoonshineTheDragThing]

Me too.

[@casey864]

Small world, me too. 👋

[@AytomiX]

Same

[@spongebobisracistq]

ayy

[@Vic_T_234]

Me too

[@mayhare9754]

The Joanna Lopez thing looks like it was pulled straight from an analog horror series. Crazy to think that people watching the channel that day were actually met with something like this out of the blue.

[@moogyboy6]

I think what happened is that the normal sign-off routine (color bars, test pattern, whatever) wasn't working that night, the WMAQ engineer needed some kind of static image as a backup, and found a random missing person slide in a file drawer to use; alternatively the station's in-house graphic artist might have quickly mocked up a fake slide using maybe his wife's or mother's photo. Seriously. The woman doesn't look at all like a typical 1980s character to my eyes; the hairstyle, blouse, and glasses are straight out of the early '70s. Anyway if this slide was in fact a boilerplate I'd be curious if it was used other times (besides this and the 1991 clip) and no one caught it.

[@jamesporter1144]

No, that wasn't the case. What a lot of people commenting don't realize is that the whole "missing children" thing was a major concern in the eighties. WMAQ was doing its part by showing these photos during their off-hours. I remember the station making a big deal out of this back then. It wasn't the only time, either. They did this every night. I distinctly remember dozing off during David Letterman's show, with the light still on in my bedroom, and when I woke up, there was a distorted B&W image of a missing girl staring right back at me. Disorienting? Yes. But then it was likely meant to be.

[@algodelatvargentina4392]

That was the Call For solidarity of the Search For Missing Persons Of Canal 7 Argentina in 2003 when El kairos del Padre Farinello ended

[@may292]

Aca tambien hicieron algo parecido?

[@nervo7a]

That low quality picture and the lack of sound made me tear up. It’s so… unnerving.

[@Steve_005]

This doesn't scare me this makes me sad. The absolute lack of information, like when she was last seen, height or something. Maybe she never was found, and ppl thinks this is creppy, this is sad

[@ofacid3439]

I'm trying to convince myself that was a kind of a test template.

[@20035079]

that picture of joanna lopez gives me the creeps!

[@JoeyHudson-vn7dd]

6:47 Imagine waking up late one night, after snoozing through the late show... JUST TO SEE THIS...

[@aeroblu2002]

This is way scarier than any analog horror I've ever seen

[@tylerd1297]

It looked so much like analogue horror I didn't fully believe it was real until the recent evidence came out

[@LateNightWendigo]

Because most analog horror is made by try-hards who don't understand that less can be more

[@eldenlord4690]

The switch has an unsettling vibe

[@rockabillylaker]

Imagine falling asleep with the tv on, wake up a few hours later to this shit. Nope...

[@TrueGoonerr]

The automatic cut from the anthem to this is very very unsettling

[@alexanderishmaels9049]

This is eerily reminiscent of Selene Delgado

[@nalabear97]

Only part is this is genuinely REAL. From what I heard Canal 5 even comfirmed that the whole Selene Delgado thing was a marketing stunt