Here's a look at "the way it is" on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite as aired over WBBM Channel 2.

Includes:

A&P "Action Prices" with Price & Pride (with voiceover by Jerry Harper)

With Walter nearby, Mort Crim previews upcoming 6pm edition of Channel 2 News, followed by ending credits (accompanied by Dick Marx' theme) (Mort mentions Bill Kurtis' story on Agent Orange which can be seen here:    • WBBM Channel 2  Agent Orange: Vietna...  )

CBS Evening News open (voiceover by Bob Hite)

Leading off with:

Several large unions vote to ratify contract ending coal strike as reported by Barry Serafin, with quotes from United Mine Workers president Arnold Miller; followed by reports from Martha Teichner (in Chesapeake, WV, reporting on Local 1759 vote with president Dave Forms presiding over ballot count) and Bruce Hall (in Norton, VA, where state troopers stood guard for that vote); but mine construction workers still have no contract

Commercials for:

Lite Beer (with The VanArsdale Twins, Tom and Dick, "Former Basketball Stars")

First Alert (with William Conrad, reading a letter from Mr. and Mrs. Edward Helene)

Tom Fenton reports on Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin returning home to find increasing disapproval of his more hardline policies, following unsuccessful meeting in Washington; also featured: Defense Minister Ezer Weizman and opposition leader Shimon Peres)

Marvin Kalb reports on Secretary of State Cyrus Vance denying a report that claims the Carter administration wants Begin removed from office

Syrians stopped from shipping weapons to Palestinians for use in Lebanon

Commercials for:

Geritol

Borden LiteLine Pasteurized Process Cheese Product

Shootout in area south of Paris during attempt to drop off ransom for kidnapped Belgian industrialist ÉdouardJean Empain (he would be released two days later)

Former mayor of Turin, Italy, shot by members of Red Brigades (which kidnapped, and later killed, former Prime Minister Aldo Moro); his condition not serious

Due to flu, Pope Paul VI unable to attend Good Friday Way of the Cross Procession; filling in was Vicar General Ugo Poletti; commemoration of Christ's crucifixion held in Jerusalem

Per Ike Pappas, Pentagon drastically cutting Navy plan to build more ships over next five years

Commercials for:

Wheaties (with Bruce Jenner) "Breakfast of Champions"

Mr. Coffee The Great $5.00 Rebate with Joe DiMaggio

Details on Carter's national urban policy are leaked to press in anticipation of Monday rollout, leading to report from David Culhane in South Bronx, NY; interviews with Meagan Charlop and Ramon Rueda of Peoples Development Corp.

In South Bronx, 26 block stretch of sewers hit with mass explosions; dozen or more injured, 60 families evacuated from homes

FEC finds Ford's 1976 campaign spent $23.5 million, mostly federal funds

HEW admits to hiring less handicapped persons than other federal agencies

Buffalo Bills trade O.J. Simpson to San Francisco 49ers for five draft choices over next three years

Commercials for:

1978 Ford LTD II

Orange Juice with Peggy Fleming, Arthur Fiedler and Linda Harris (voiceover by Peter Thomas)

Supertanker Amoco Cadiz torn in two by heavy seas off coast of Brittany, France, on top of oil spill (more than 220,000 tons at this point) that commenced March 16th and devastated wildlife in area

"On the Road" report from Charles Kuralt from Indian Shores in Florida, where Ralph Heath nurses sick birds back to health from his Sun Coast Sea Beach Sanctuary; various birds and how they got that way are shown

With that, Walter signals the end of another newscast

Commercials for:

Boise Cascade Corporation

Amana Touchmatic II Radarange with Barbara Hale

CBS Evening News closing titles (voiceover by Bob Hite, who previews upcoming Sunday edition of Face the Nation) and ending credits (starting off with list of stations contributing reports for week)

Promo for The Incredible Hulk (voiceover by Bob Hite)

Commercials for:

CelozziEttleson ChevroletElmhurst

OnCor lasagna

Realty World

'Star Wars' station ID (voiceover by Jerry Harper)

This aired on local Chicago TV on Friday, March 24th 1978 during the 5:28pm to 6:00pm timeframe. And that's the way it was.

About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:

The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of offair, 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. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please email [email protected] Thank you for your help!