Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's the first seven minutes of the broadcast of an edition of the public affairs series Common Ground on WBBM Channel 2, as hosted by Warner Saunders.
Includes:
Station ID / promo for THE 10 O'Clock News (with Walter Jacobson in China) (voiceover by Jerry Harper)
Show open (voiceover by Jerry Harper - music by ??), with preview of following items:
- A look at "Zoot Suit," the first Chicano/Hispanic play ever produced on Broadway and whether it'll make Chicago
- "Who Killed Karen Silkwood?"
- Aaron Gold of the Chicago Tribune about who's the hottest news property in town (this was as WBBM was about to overtake WLS Channel 7 as the Number One news station)
- Counselors who treat those battling alcoholism
Commercials for:
Illinois Bell Phone Center Store - "Phones for Anyone You Care About"
Jack Loftus Ford of Willowbrook
Community Stores (fashions for moms) - "For Mother's Day" (featuring generations of 4 women - the youngest daughter, the mother, the grandmother, and the great-grandmother) (voiceover by Al Parker)
Record offer for "Winners" from Ronco (heard on here are "Copacabana (At the Copa)" by Barry Manilow, "Time Passages" by Al Stewart, "Don't Cry Out Loud" by Melissa Manchester, "More Than a Feeling" by Boston, "Sharing the Night Together" by Dr. Hook, and "Every 1's a Winner" by Hot Chocolate - and 12 others not heard) - and all for only $5.99 (tape $7.99) (main voiceover by ??) (available at Osco Drug, Woolworth/Woolco, Montgomery Ward, The Treasury, Ribordy Drugs, Musicland and Sears, as voiceover by Jerry Harper notes)
Warner's first interview is with Blackstone Theatre manager and Shubert Organization representative Stanley Hilton, Chicago Latino cultural promoter Al Bonilia and Luron Productions president Hector Perez, about "Zoot Suit" (which was about the 1942 "Sleepy Lagoon" murder trial of Henry Reyna and his 38th Street gang, the ensuing Zoot Suit riots of 1943, and the culture of hatred against the Chicano community that existed in Los Angeles where this took place - or as Warner calls it, the "Pachuco image," named after the allegorial character El Pachuco who embodied the Chicano subculture of the time); he promotes a coming special about this time in history produced by sister station KNXT Channel 2 (now KCBS-TV) in Los Angeles, that will air next May 19th, followed by clips featuring excerpts of the play and comments from its playwright, Luis Valdez, and writer/filmmaker Louis R. Torres; this recording ends midway through the clip shown (so we never get to hear what his guests have to say)
This aired on local Chicago TV early Sunday, May 13th 1979 during the 12:55am to 1:02am timeframe.
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 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!
Here's the first seven minutes of the broadcast of an edition of the public affairs series Common Ground on WBBM Channel 2, as hosted by Warner Saunders.
Includes:
Station ID / promo for THE 10 O'Clock News (with Walter Jacobson in China) (voiceover by Jerry Harper)
Show open (voiceover by Jerry Harper - music by ??), with preview of following items:
- A look at "Zoot Suit," the first Chicano/Hispanic play ever produced on Broadway and whether it'll make Chicago
- "Who Killed Karen Silkwood?"
- Aaron Gold of the Chicago Tribune about who's the hottest news property in town (this was as WBBM was about to overtake WLS Channel 7 as the Number One news station)
- Counselors who treat those battling alcoholism
Commercials for:
Illinois Bell Phone Center Store - "Phones for Anyone You Care About"
Jack Loftus Ford of Willowbrook
Community Stores (fashions for moms) - "For Mother's Day" (featuring generations of 4 women - the youngest daughter, the mother, the grandmother, and the great-grandmother) (voiceover by Al Parker)
Record offer for "Winners" from Ronco (heard on here are "Copacabana (At the Copa)" by Barry Manilow, "Time Passages" by Al Stewart, "Don't Cry Out Loud" by Melissa Manchester, "More Than a Feeling" by Boston, "Sharing the Night Together" by Dr. Hook, and "Every 1's a Winner" by Hot Chocolate - and 12 others not heard) - and all for only $5.99 (tape $7.99) (main voiceover by ??) (available at Osco Drug, Woolworth/Woolco, Montgomery Ward, The Treasury, Ribordy Drugs, Musicland and Sears, as voiceover by Jerry Harper notes)
Warner's first interview is with Blackstone Theatre manager and Shubert Organization representative Stanley Hilton, Chicago Latino cultural promoter Al Bonilia and Luron Productions president Hector Perez, about "Zoot Suit" (which was about the 1942 "Sleepy Lagoon" murder trial of Henry Reyna and his 38th Street gang, the ensuing Zoot Suit riots of 1943, and the culture of hatred against the Chicano community that existed in Los Angeles where this took place - or as Warner calls it, the "Pachuco image," named after the allegorial character El Pachuco who embodied the Chicano subculture of the time); he promotes a coming special about this time in history produced by sister station KNXT Channel 2 (now KCBS-TV) in Los Angeles, that will air next May 19th, followed by clips featuring excerpts of the play and comments from its playwright, Luis Valdez, and writer/filmmaker Louis R. Torres; this recording ends midway through the clip shown (so we never get to hear what his guests have to say)
This aired on local Chicago TV early Sunday, May 13th 1979 during the 12:55am to 1:02am timeframe.
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 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!
