Here's the full broadcast of the 11pm edition of Eyewitness News on WBZ Channel 4 in Boston, MA, recorded on Umatic tape and anchored by Jack Williams and Gail Harris, in the wake of the massive blizzard that hit the city on February 6th and 7th and dumped up to 30 inches of snow.
Includes:
Promo for The Mike Douglas Show with co-host Linda Lavin (voiceover by Mike Douglas)
Jack and Gail preview coming newscast
Commercials for:
Emery Air Freight
McDonald's Quarter Pounder
Station ID - "We're 4 Boston"
News open (with RCA TK-46 in shot)
- Looting reported (34 arrested to that point) and coastal flooding, Army troops from Fort Devens in Revere, President Carter declares entire region a Federal disaster area, power outages in several areas
- Attempts to clear runway of Logan Airport for Army troops, Ron Brinn of Massport speaks of situation
- Jerry Liddell at NBC Communications Center with updates on road conditions, and interview with Gov. Mike Dukakis about arrival of Army troops to help movement and rescue efforts
- Dept. of Public Works just beginning effort to clear streets, will take several days
- Meterologist Bruce Schwoegler says worst of storm is over
- Residents along coast including Revere being evacuated
- 53 thus far arrested on looting charges, worst in Roxbury, Dorchester and South End
- Western area likewise impassable
- Restaurant/bar/museum at Peter Stuyvesant on harbor side sinks
- 2/3 in Hull experiencing flooding, heavy flooding along White Horse Beach in Plymouth
- Travelers' advisory in New Hampshire and Maine due to coastal flooding and beach erosion
- Cape Cod also affected by high winds, Outermost House washed away
- Two Winchester boys die of carbon monoxide poisoning while inside car to keep warm
- 3-alarm fire burning in Lawrence
- MBTA says service will be very slow, a list of those lines still running is shown, but no buses or commuter rail, and a list of snow shovelers and where
- Massachusetts Electric Utilities says power has mostly been restored in areas hit by outages
- Lists of emergency info and special snow centers
- Rhode Island hit worst by storms, also reports on the situations in Connecticut and New York City, and all up and down Eastern Seaboard
- Full financial impact of storm yet to be determined
Commercials for:
New Homemade Soup Starter
General Electric Great Annual Red Tag Sale (ends March 5th)
Jones Minute Breakfast Links
La Choy Oriental Vegetables
Theatrical trailer for "Coma"
- Bruce has another weather report, warning of another storm starting Saturday, but insists worst of this is over
Commercials for:
Buick Regal (with homemaker Lydia P. Rice, personnel analyst G. Scott Schoppert, Jr., homemaker Debra Magruder, electronic technician Peter Ozzello, and businessman Shawn Walker)
Hostess Breakfast Bake Shop
SunSensor lenses
Sports (whatever there were) with Len Berman (later a fixture of WNBC Channel 4 in New York):
- Celtics on 4-game winning streak, beating Pacers in Indianapolis as reported by Johnny Most
- Followed by other NBA and NHL scores
- In college basketball, UMass at Rutgers, Fairfield at Army, Brown at Yale and Rhode Island at St. John's all cancelled due to snows, Notre Dame at Holy Cross postponed
- Highlights of Harvard v. Northeastern hockey game, coaches speak but only one - B.U.'s Jack Parker - is identified on screen
- 100 fans and employees all at Boston Garden previous night as Buffalo beats Bruins
- Jerry Liddell with update on how Army troops from Fort Devens are moving after being stranded on 128 en route to 1A into Revere - and advice not to drive tomorrow
Encapsulation of situation on the ground before newscast ends
Station ID / promo for Action 4
First four seconds of opening of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson before recording ends
"It's 11pm. Do you know where your package is?"
This aired on local Boston TV on Tuesday, February 7th 1978 during the 10:59pm to 11:30pm timeframe.
This footage was donated to The Museum of Classic Chicago Television as part of The Steve Albert 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. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: tapes@fuzzy.tv 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 tapes@fuzzy.tv Thank you for your help!
