1973 WLS-TV Chicago Weathercast

[Dopestarslove]

Sexy.

[earthweek]

This is Steve. Charlie had much better hair.  As for mine, a lot of it is gone and I don't know who has it now.

[linusvanpelter]

I want Steve Newman's hair.

[speeddammit]

Outstanding! Thanks for posting this blast from the past! I lived in Northwest Indiana, and I remember watching the weather forecasts, Son of Svengoolie, Creature Features, Ray Rayner, Garfield Goose...aaah the memories.

[ghanick]

I think that weatherman was hot. I'd do him in a second

[mypalrocco]

I was only two weeks old on this day...and what a shitty day it was thanks to this crappy weatherman!

[merkury06]

He is using a MagicMarker.

[RetroToledo]

@merkury06 I wonder how much they paid the guy to write up those forecast signs on paper to stick in those panels!

[KinetikPlayground]

Strange the black background, like they're floating in space or something.

[walleyrt69]

WOW A WEATHER MAN THAT ADMITS WHEN HES WRONG! WOW!

[mygaffer]

Good stuff, I watching old TV, it gives you a direct glimpse into what American culture was like decades ago. I wish there was somewhere with a lot footage, I have had trouble finding it.

Anyway, thanks for the upload! You aged fine by the way.

[ChristopherSaindon]

WOW!! This is awesome. I'm a TV weather anchor now; this

is from when I was 3 years old. GREAT post :-)

[BRUC2016]

Those weather guys wore so much hair spray that no hailstone could ever hurt them.

[vividwatch47]

Remember when the television weatherpeople used to mark the weather conditions on a piece of sliding glass?

[DamienCarrass]

I remember when Harry Volkman used to be the weatherman on WGN I think it was before Tom Skilling came on. They'd have these huge white blackboards with all kinds of weather stuff drawn all over them. He'd have his doodle marker and draw arrows going this way and that way. When he finished with one they'd roll in another one, then another with the next few days forecast. Volkman came out to our High School (Hinsdale Central) once and gave an hour long talk about weather etc. Cool guy!!

[shannonm75]

Is this for real? So old-fashioned. Look at the technology we have today. All digital and electronic, not a bunch of poster boards.

[MrSammyReed]

Steve Newman, 1973: The ORIGINAL Jonas Brother!

[MediaWatchDawg]

Is that hair on Newman or a Spartan helmet?

[pme96]

Remember back in 1973 this was all very new! Long hair! Satellite photos from space! Color TV! And a President who turned out to be a paranoid crook.

[gore53]

This was pretty cool to see. A lot of water under the bridge, as we used to say down on lower Wacker. Where did you start your career? I was a DJ in Chicago, but seven years post Watergate... in Chicago through the '80's... @ WMAQ.

[walleyrt69]

He must have been filling in for John Coleman,I distinctly remember John Coleman.Who moved on to way bigger and better things.

[zenbodybuilder]

I remember watching this!! LOL!

[leftfootlouie]

What a time ! with all the modern radar the weather folk still can't predict shit or shine.

[BabyBeastie1]

I cracked up when he spun that big ass screen around. Reminded me of cave man stuff. LOL

[Hippodill]

Haha! A TOTAL unrelevant and depressing intermission u got there!

[lisaannjarrett]

Your hair is stellar. No, seriously.

BTW, my mom graduated h.s. the same year as this forcast and yes, she's from Chicago (Berwyn, to be exact).

[tcbluecollarguy]

OMG...this is just so incredibly primitive looking!

[USAGiant]

Those weather maps are so primative now most high schools in America in 2009 have better weather equipment than this 1973 clip lol.

[ghanick]

I think the weather man is a hottie. I'd do him in a minute

[GVike]

The spinning boards... the magic markers that had to be used... the primitive effects (look at his arm and the orangey shadow which I assume was not part of the plan)... OMFG LMAO!!! I love watching stuff like this!

[nagmat1]

What gets me is he said a high of 97. No heat index, no heat advisory, no giving out free fans or AC units, no Ozone alert, No Global warming. Just go out and enjoy your picnics. That is the best advice for all of us.

[pme96]

@nagmat1 I find it a little hard to 'enjoy' 97 degrees esp with high humidity. But you are right, there is no need to make a big fuss about a little bit of heat as they do today.

[n0gar]

I knew someone would bring up hippies. Where did the hippies get it from? None the less, this particular harido is an example of the worst of the 70s'.

[n0gar]

that is some wild hair! damn, the 70's make many look wild. all these crazy hairdos were inspired by the afro...

[harryanchan]

WOW! Charles Rowe from KREM 2! We get that on Channel 12 and I watch him from time to time! I think he is great today; what's more? He was great then - the fly-diggity hair looks fine to me! Starting at the legendary WLS at 20? That is some accomplishment! LOL.

[HideyoshiJP]

Holy crap. That weatherman's hair is fly-diggity.

[mnmn59]

he looks pretty toasted

[midaran]

hilarious on so many levels! weather man was wrong as hell, handwritten maps and the last thing i expected was him to turn the thing like oldschool vanna white. "im steve newman, dont hold me responsible for this forcast, its 1973 and we just can predict weather, back to you"

[sean2015]

The poster is wrong. 1973 wasn't the year of Watergate. The Watergate break-in occurred the year before, during the '72. ;)

[dugfals60]

You're both right ...the break-in happened in 1972.

The public were not aware until the investigation started

in the summer of 1973.

[boochy115]

Wow. That's old school.

[kub73158]

I remember weather forecasts on ABC (channel 7 in Chicago) with John Coleman.He was pleasant & entertaining.

Still,as evidenced here, meteorology was incredibly primitive and worse,incredibly inaccurate.

[mnmn59]

john coleman came to our grade school..total celibrity  event

[harryanchan]

I love it!!! I would trade today for any day back in those days. Take back the technology and all the problems today and give me back the 70's. Having lived in Kankakee in 1973, I remember WLS-TV well. Even the commercial is awesome! Yeah, announcers such as Jon Landecker, J.J.Jeffrey, and Larry Lujack had some of the best sets of pipes ever. None of the chipmunk voices we hear nowadays. :(

[SEANDI777]

Larry Lujack ftw!

[ctmajka]

Not to mention Dick Biondi and Fred Winston! Chicago Greats!

(Biondi is at 94.7 now I believe...WLS-FM)

[hujass1]

I was born in Chicago back in 1973 and was 4 months old when that forecast aired. Wow..how times have changed.

Good quality on the tape BTW.

[bser3973]

@hujass1  Things haven't changed that much,there still getting it wrong.

[svrandall]

Frank Mathey was introduced at the end of this clip...He is STILL with WLS after all these years!

[ctmajka]

Retro!

[007InMiami]

Love the Star Trek view screen!

One of our local weathermen just retired here in Miami after 30 years, Don Noe. do you know him?

[Gideonoslo1]

Nice commercial. Reminds me of the Patron Saint of Berwyn, St. Paul Federal.

Where's John "the sky is falling" Coleman? No Skylab passes? If you wait about 6 more years and move to Australia, it will land in your yard. Wish this video had the eyewitness news theme song...taken from the movie Cool Hand Luke.

[trainboy94]

I remember you on the news when I was 7 in 2001, you looked better with shorter hair.

[markxxx21]

I Googled these guys, neither on aged well.

[earthweek]

Man, you wound me! We'll see how well you hold up yourself there pal. Charlie and I would still be able to probably whoop your butt if we ever cross paths! :-)

[markxxx21]

@earthweek

I held up really good and I mean I really did.

[markxxx21]

@earthweek

I held up really well, you'd be impressed. Not all people let themselves go to pot.

[walleyrt69]

@markxxx21 yA,BUT yOU WOULD STILL DO EM IN THE aSS!

[gm1990ss]

its anchorman!

[JoeWellington]

Charles Rowe used to crack me up because he always wanted his monitor in front so he could look at himself.

[sdbrownflashnet]

What the heck? LIVE weather radar in 1973? That had to be extremely cutting edge. Even the spin board displays were very far ahead of their time for TV news in 1973.

[MadameLil]

Ahhh, the good old days before computers ruled ...

Nice to see the haircuts are back in fashion! :-D

[krushsister]

Oh heck yeah, Steve Newman's hairstyle can be found these days on the heads of all the hippest indie rock stars. Actually, he looks really cute. Wow. And commercials back then were boring as heck, weren't they? And the "dad" looks old enough to be the "mom"'s dad. Yuck. Anyway, this makes me grateful to have come along when I did, except for Mr. Newman, whose sweet young thing-ness is timeless IMO.

[riotgear1974]

The commercial: I love the slow talking deep-voiceover artists from the 70's. No pressure to buy! The News: Not a big graphics department budget back then, I guess.

[tkaye2]

I miss the deep-voiced announcers speaking softly... definitely a product of the "sensitive '70s" (even though the trend started in the late '60s). So many voice-overs today sound like they were done by guys who never quite made it through puberty.

As for graphics, I'm curious if the set was actually black or was it a chroma-key behind Rowe that was just in black for the transition to weather?

[sky1beam]

Steve Newman was on KGO, KPIX and KRON in the 1980's

[sps242]

Steve, that was priceless..seriously..thank you so much for this treasure that you have shared w/ us.The recording was great..at least from what I have seen..Looks like that the people in LA who remastered or "cleaned it up" did a supurb job! thanks again for sharing! as far as the Bank commercial..what a difference in skyline huh?

[Pgalaga]

that last shot in the bank commercial was interesting. I easily indentified 400 E. Randolph and Lake Point Tower and the Hancock building off to the left..Downtown Chicago is much MUCH different in 2007.

[leshaunfossett]

Hey, Steve, what was the original format of this footage? Is this recording from a 2'' quad tape?

[earthweek]

I kept the 2" quad tape of this broadcast in bad environmental conditions for more than 30 years. (Hot attics, damp barn, basements etc) It was transferred to DVD by a professional dubbing service in Los Angeles back in February 2007, then color corrected by a independent producer friend. I was suprised that there was anything left on the brittle tape,

[midaran]

wow , iwasnt even born yet, but the weatherman ws kinda cute

[sammyreed]

Hey, I think I recognize you!

Were you that guitar player in the "Saturday Night Live" Ashlee blooper?

(Just kidding.)

[ytrewq1994]

Dear Earthweek, I am very perplexed, correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't Chicago at least part of the top ten markets, even back then. How did you get from a small station in Florida to here? And at such a young age. Heck, today to join a big market like this, the station would have to be desperate, following some plan of a sort, or you would need years of experience.

[Herbert7J]

Love that long and groovy hair! Man, I miss those days.

[Noth1ngFaced]

"Now just wait a minute..."

That was hilarious.

[VMkoe]

Only 80 degrees in July? Wow! there is such a thing as global warming! LOL.. i was like 3 when this aired. and i lived in Ransom, near Seneca! thanks!

[Mum2Ana]

Oh wow, as a fellow Chicago Gal, I love seeing Channel 7 news report - technology has come so far in such a sort time... I wish Flahey Flnn and Joel were still on :)

[pocoapoco2]

Isn't Flynn about 2000 years old now?

[Mum2Ana]

LOL! I wish - however, he has long since passed away

[CoffySarai]

Sadly, Flynn passed away in 1983.

[pocoapoco2]

Yes, I vaguely remember the channel 9 newscast back then.

On another note I used to live practically right on salt creek that they mentioned at the end of the clip 1138 S Euclid in Villa Park. I'm way off in San Antonio Texas now. But what a memory jogging coincidence that it was mentioned.

[Donnie2020]

I love the spinning cube. BRING IT BACK!!!!

[amnewsboy]

As posted in the response, I thought we were the only ones with a spinning weather cube. ;-)

[sithcamaro]

wow, this is amazing!

[SenorAnderson]

you can never have too much hair.

[micmac99]

Thanks, Steve for sharing your broadcast career memories with YouTube viewers. I grew up in the Bay Area and remember you from when you were there.

[UNCJerry77]

That "Nationwide Radar" cracked me up.A far cry from Doppler. :)

[Kelski1998]

Damn Frank Mathie has been on Ch. 7 longer than Don Zimmer was in MLB lol

[M1903A1]

That is amazing...since nobody had VCRs back then I never thought something from this era would've survived! The low-tech presentation reminds me a lot of John Coughlin or Harry Volkman at WBBM and the early years of Tom Skilling at WGN. THANK YOU for posting this! (And a double thanks for not cutting the First Federal commercial!)

[saunooke]

reminds me of the movie anchorman

[mokos23]

How did you tape this back in 1973? I thought VCR's didn't exist until 1975? Well, I was -5 yrs old in 73.

[mokos23]

Wow is that the Field Museum in the commercial? Looks so different in 1973!

[earthweek]

The recording was made at WLS on a 2" quad tape. I had it transferred recently to DVD.

[plateshutoverlock]

@mokos23 They did have home video tape recorders (not VHS or Beta) back in 73, though they were very expensive and quite rare

[mbhfromla]

Is that Charles Rowe from KREM 2 and KTTV

[kresblain]

The very same.

[tcidolfan]

YOU WERE 20 YEARS OLD WHEN YOU WORKED AT WLS??? WOW!!! You started out that young, huh??

[news4sfl]

Do you have the intro to This Newscast?

[wmbrown6]

I noticed that the way the "circle 7" jackets looked a bit different from those of WABC-TV's reporters and anchors (darker jacket color, and a bit smaller "circle 7" on the top jacket pocket). I have to ask though: I suppose this was a weekend edition, given the absence of the legendary John Coleman?

[pzaremba]

Awesome! Thanks! I was born in '73. This was awesome. Please post more if you've got it!

[scoutie101]

That weatherguy looks like he's about 18. I like the "shove it to the next screen" trick, not to the mention the Sharpie.

[earthweek]

Thanks for watching the WLS weathercast. I was actually 20 at the time, and it is very painful to watch myself as a little sh** weather boy now at age 55. Check out the KPIX weathercasts from a few years ago to see how that little sh** turned out. Thanks, Steve-Earthweek

[ericcollins81]

look like you could been working at the big 89 wls you wer so young