WTOP Election Night 1972

[lessick23]

And that was Warner Wolf pictured with Gordon Peterson and Max Robinson in the WTOP news promo at the end of this video.

[FRSFreeStatePlus]

Richard Nixon had a dream opponent in George McGovern for his reelection in 1972

[CoffySarai]

Max Robinson was so handsome. RIP, dear brother.

[70sman4ever]

Cronkite is MY IDOL!!! Long live the 70s and my uncle Walt!

[FRSFreeState]

No mystery about President Nixon getting Reelected in 1972

[evpsareallaroundus]

I agree Nixon was a good President .

[Mystic0157]

and James J. Kilpatrick, later famous for his Point CounterPoint with Shana Alexander on 60 minutes (spoofed riotously on SNL--"Jane, you ignorant slut."

[standinstann]

what an eyesore of a set!

[dcbandnerd]

So much for the Solid South for the Democrats. Great video here.

[tyrese3745]

At 1:44, the music comes from the "Make Me Smile Medley", performed by Chicago.

[GFI888]

This is great material. You'd expect a station has all of this in its archives, yet it feels amazingly rare to see. Thanks for posting.

[MIKESOWELL]

DNSKansas, Watergate, although still seen as a minor caper at the time, actually cut into Nixon's victory. He got 60.68 percent of the vote to McGovern's 37.53 percent. It has been estimated that without Watergate Nixon may have got as much as 64 percent of the vote, which would have been unheard of for a Presidential Election.

[framptonorchablis]

@MIKESOWELL Watergate didn't break until a year AFTER Nixon was reelected. Jesus Christ.

[MIKESOWELL]

@framptonorchablis Study up buddy. Watergate happened on June 17, 1972. Now yes Watergate didn't start to affect Nixon personally until around March of 1973 but it was a minor story for much of 1972, because it was seen as to some who may not have been Nixon fans a reason not to vote for him because it seemed to them that he had some corrupted members on his lower staff.

[Fenderkicksass]

Anyone wanta see my solid south?

[NewMadrid01]

this is so cool. i wish election coverages were like this today

[KitFistoPwns]

Go Nixon :D

[Mrbaltimore2001]

It's weird how Nixon spent years trying to become president, and then when he gets it...his second term turns out to be corrupt.

[dcbandnerd]

What a shame. His paranoia got the best of him. He could have been something great. Just another sad story in history.

[Womansexy1]

Funny cartoon with the elephant and donkey.

(I know for whom these two animals stand for.)

[mfeltes]

Spong? Lord, what an unfortunate name.

[frc1968]

In 1966, Spong was personally recruited by LBJ to mount a primary challenge against 20-year incumbent Senator A. Willis Robertson. Johnson was angered at Robertson's opposition to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. Robertson was defeated in one of the biggest upsets in Virginia political history and breezed to victory in November. Spong's primary victory marked the beginning of the end of the Byrd Organization's long dominance of Virginia politics.

[sdfeinstein]

And Scott, the Republican who defeated Spong was later voted the dumbest member of the US Congress...Quite an honor!!!

[gaguy1967]

no coattails for Nixon, he took all the RNC money for himself

[dcbandnerd]

To be fair, Nixon had a fairly successful first term. The sh*t didn't hit the fan until his second term, which seems to happen a lot with our presidents.

[glory789]

How dumb can America be. They reelected a crook in a landslide.

[gurney50]

Well they didn't know he was a crook and despite being a crook he was actually a good president.

[MrMatteNWk]

Hey, Kerry got 48% so I wouldn't say it was a landslide... ;)

[DNSKansas]

And McGovern would have been any better? Yeah, right. Shame was, Nixon would have won easily if he hadn't taken part in the dirty tricks.

[threeby8887]

Dig that Ford Motor Company promo: "Ford--No Unhappy Owners."

That's probably because they were trying to kill them all back then.

[wmbrown6]

Also, if you look towards the end, you can see the General Electric PE-250 camera which WTOP used from c.1966-67 well into the early part of its run as WDVM.

[stevenson52]

Hey McGovern is behind us in the polls by close to 30% percent. LETS BUG THE DNC...come on guys...it's gonna be good...I PROMISE!!!!

[Thesouthman]

Obama'08 Obama'08 Obama'08

[Thesouthman]

Obama'08 Obama'08 Obama'08

[wmbrown6]

I.I.N.M., the CBS announcer on the national coverage was Stuart Metz.

[JohnMichaels20]

i wonder if bugging the DNC helped hixon that nite

[gaguy1967]

no, that was the irony of watergate

[jontheprez]

If you listen carefully to the end of the WTOP music intro, you can hear what sounds like a snippet from Chicago's "Make Me Smile" song. Let me know if you noticed that too.

[Chisox74]

That is indeed Chicago's "Make Me Smile" in the clip.

[wmbrown6]

Actually, it was the opening moments of the final song in their "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" suite, called "Now More Than Ever." (I have the original LP in question.)

[Chisox74]

You're right.Was that from Chicago II? I remember hearing the whole thing on the radio a few months back.

[CaptainPaintball]

Yes, it is.

[wmbrown6]

The 45 version of "Make Me Smile" (Columbia 4S-45127, 1970) consisted of edited snippets of that song plus the ending chorus and the last notes of the "Now More Than Ever" coda.

[DCTeenDanceTV]

Was that David French sitting at the desk to the left of Max and Gordon? I guess he got snipped out of this clip.

[USAGiant]

Wow. A Young Max Robinson who in 1979 became the first Afro-American Anchor of a major national newscast in 1978. Though he was only a co-anchor behind now legendary Peter Jennings and Frank Reyonalds. Robinson died in the 1990's from AIDS.

[DCTeenDanceTV]

R.I.P. Max Robinson (5/1/39--12/20/88) First African American network anchor in US as Chicago based co-anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight" 1978-1983. Born in Richmond, VA, his TV career began in 1959 at WTOV-TV, Portsmouth, VA, reading the news off-camera behind a station logo slide. One night, he removed the slide, and was fired. At DC's WRC-TV4, he won 6 journalism awards in 3 years. In 1969, Robinson joined WTOP-TV9 Eyewitness News, teaming with Gordon Peterson for 9 years. (See: Wikipedia.)

[WVECSpirit]

Could that be a foreshadowing of the 9 logog from their "The One and Only" period?

[wmbrown6]

Probably.  But the same font was used for both CBS's "Campaign '72" logo and WTOP's "9" logo in their "The One and Only" period.

[videonut33]

Yep.

[CrabCityKidsTV]

The voice-over announcer for the WTOP local drop-ins and the trailing station ID was none other than Don Richards.