In rememberance of midterm elections past, here’s the ending moments of ABC News’ coverage, as aired over WLS Channel 7, of The ’78 Vote (helmed by Frank Reynolds – a Chicago connection, as he had been with Channel 7 in the early 1960’s during its days as WBKB), followed by the start of Eyewitness News local election coverage anchored by Fahey Flynn and Joel Daly. This was another wonderful EOTF, or “end of tape find” that was mostly recorded over but this segment survived at the end of a 3/4″ Umatic tape.
(TECHNICAL NOTE: The supers of election results on the national coverage were set in 28 and 18 point CBS News 36 as from Vidifont, an early CG system.)
Includes:
Joining in progress Senate results, including projected winner J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA)
Next is look at Governor’s races, with 12 projected Democrat winners and 10 projected Republican winners (among a total of 36 races – notice while Democrat is colored deep blue, Republican is colored light yellow!); listed are Joseph E. Brennan (D-ME), Harry Hughes (D-MD), William Milliken (R-MI), Charles Thone (R-NE), Meldrim Thomson Jr. (R-NH; he ended up losing to Democrat Hugh Gallen), Hugh Carey (D-NY), George Nigh (D-OK), Richard Thornburgh (R-PA), John Garrahy (D-RI), Richard Riley (D-SC), Bill Janklow (D-SD), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Richard A. Snelling (R-VT), Lee S. Dreyfus (D-WI), Fob James (D-AL), Bruce Babbitt (D-AZ), Bill Clinton (D-AR), Richard Lamm (D-CO), Ella Grasso (D-CT), Bob Graham (D-FL) and George Busbee (D-GA)
With that, Frank signals the end of network coverage for 30 minutes to allow for local news.
Fahey previews news items including a GM recall and election results for “Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and the nation”
Commercial: Wendy’s Double hamburgers
Commercial: The First National Bank of Chicago (am I nuts or does the guy in this look exactly like Norman Mark?)
Commercial: Pentax ME 35mm camera
Station ID with Eyewitness News team (voiceover by Al Parker)
Photos of winners of local area races as Fahey teases election results
Opening with special theme music – John Coleman and Hugh Hill at the other desk (voiceover by Al Parker)
Fahey and Joel open program, with Fahey announcing winners as James Thompson (as Governor), Ed Scott (as Congressman), Alan Dixon (as Secretary of State) and Richard Elrod (as Cook County Sheriff), Charles Percy pulling ahead in the Senate race, and IL-10 up in the air between John Porter and Abner Mikva (the latter ended up winning)
Joel mentions James Thompson’s win as Governor, noting it was the biggest victory since Otto Kerner’s 1966 win over Charles Percy; Thompson speaks at his HQ where John Drury reported on the big night (tape cuts out in middle of Thompson’s victory speech)
This aired on local Chicago TV on Tuesday, November 7th 1978 during roughly the 9:56pm to 10:02pm timeframe.
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