Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Here's the complete broadcast of the 10pm edition of NewsCenter5 on WMAQ Channel 5, anchored by Mike Jackson and Linda Yu, with news mostly concerning the Iranian hostages and their hopefully imminent return.

Includes:

Tail end of station ID / promo for the following day’s NBC Monday Night at the Movies (a repeat of "When Hell Was in Session")

NewsCenter5 open, with items:

- Day 443 of hostage crisis, with report from Bernard Kalb, and preview of interviews to come

- Intense negotiations between U.S. diplomats and Algerian intermediaries

- Preview of what hostages, when released, will go through at Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden, West Germany, then the schedule when they come home

- How the release of Iranian assets will be handled

- Paul Hogan speaks in Francesville, IN with hostage Rick Kupke's parents Art and Eleanor, then interviews them in the studio

- Tom Kozinowski in Homer, IL, with parents of hostage Paul Lewis

- Rich Samuels in Wisconsin with hostage Kevin Hermening's father Richard

- James Michael Lopez' parents attend church in Globe, AZ

- Bruce German's mother tends bar in Wilkes-Barre, PA

- Ex-hostage Richard Queen's parents say remaining 52 should be greeted with celebration

Commercials for:
Amoco Lead-Free Gasoline
United Airlines Sunbird to Florida (with Paul Winchell? as talking animated alligator)
Super Bowl Memories (sponsor billboard voiceover by Ed Grennan) - Super Bowl X, Pittsburgh vs. Dallas (voiceover by John Facenda?)
1981 Datsun Pickup

- DePaul University Middle East expert Cherif Bassiouni speaks with Linda about hostage situation

- Terry Burhans weather forecast

Commercials for:
Lincoln-Mercury 12% APR - through February 7th
Red Lobster restaurants
Hertz Rent-a-Car (with O.J. Simpson)
Pacific Stereo - 1 Cent Sale (ends January 31st)

Other news:

- Bonnie Haines reports on rape and robbery suspect Kenneth Gholston, 24, surrendering at NewsCenter5 studios

Sports with Duane Dow:

- DePaul Blue Demons win their 15th straight, followed by other college basketball scores and then those of the NBA

- Black Hawks defeat Nordiques in Quebec, followed by other NHL scores

- Bjorn Borg wins tennis tournament in New York, and in indoor soccer Sting win and Horizons lose, and Hustle win

- Carol Marin reports from Washington, DC on day's events in hostage negotiations, and how it threatens to put a damper on Reagan inauguration (Channel 5 had to settle for taped report, they couldn't get her live)

- An encapsulation of the hostage drama, before the newscast closes (with voiceover promo for noon newscast with Jorie Lueloff and Jerry Taft by Ed Grennan)

Station ID / "Save Energy" PSA (voiceover by Ed Grennan)

Bonus: Announcement that regularly scheduled program (NBC Late Night Movie, on one-week delay) will be seen a half-hour from now (voiceover by Mac McGarry?)

First 9 minutes of NBC News Special Report, "Hostages: The Final Hours," anchored by Roger Mudd (opening voiceover by Mac McGarry?) and with reports from Judy Woodruff at the White House, Jim Bittermann in Algiers, and Bernard Kalb at the State Department

First 10 seconds of cold medicine commercial (with cold sufferer Dorothy Jackson) before recording ends

This aired on local Chicago TV on Sunday, January 18th 1981 (Day 443 of the Iranian hostage crisis) during the 10pm to 10:39pm 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!