WDIO-TV Posts

Video Archive: Minnesota Trivia Tour, 1984

This clip from the WDIO-TV archive is from 40 years ago today — Nov. 28, 1984. It features Duke Skorich asking questions from the then-new Minnesota Trivia Tour game.

Video Archive: Miller Hill Mall Grand Opening in 1973

From the WDIO film archive, raw footage of Miller Hill Mall’s grand opening on July 25, 1973 — 50 years ago today. A crowd is seen gathered in the center court near the Flagg Bros store as Duluth Mayor Ben Boo and other luminaries pull apart the ceremonial ship’s chain.

Video Archive: Students return to Grant Elementary in 1983

On Jan. 6, 1983, Grant Elementary School reopened after a six-month, $1.4 million renovation project. WDIO-TV’s Nancy Taggart has the report.

Media Excavation: WHYZ in the Age of the Seaway

WHYZ was the ABC affiliate in Duluth — I think it would become WDIO? Or did WDIO begin after WHYZ died?

Video Archive: Downtown Duluth, 1972

Gathered here is silent WDIO-TV b-roll footage dated June 20, 1972. Note there was a “Patio Park” at the time, next to A&E Supply — long before anyone had coined the term “parklet.”

Video Archive: Bayfield Apple Festival of 1980

Forty-one years ago, WDIO-TV‘s Liz Wagner filed this report from the Bayfield Apple Festival.

Video Archive: Vietnam Protest in Duluth, 1969

On Oct. 15, 1969, a “Peace March and Moratorium” was held in Duluth to protest the Vietnam War. Participants marched from the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth to the Duluth Civic Center. This clip is raw 16mm film of the event pulled from the WDIO-TV archives.

Video Archive: Desegregating Duluth Schools in 1971

In June of 1971, 50 years ago this month, WDIO reporter Stu Stronach did a series of special reports on the then-ongoing process of desegregating the Duluth public school system. This video is a compilation of those reports.

Video Archive: Grandma’s Marathon of 1979

WDIO-TV assembled these 16mm film clips of raw footage from the third annual Grandma’s Marathon, held on June 23, 1979. British runner Ricky Wilde won the race that year with a time of 2:14:44; he can be seen in some slow-motion footage taken from a vehicle riding alongside him on the racecourse.

Video Archive: Bob Dylan’s childhood home in Hibbing, 1988

WDIO-TV has pulled this relic from its archive to share during Duluth Dylan Fest week. The news clip is from Oct. 10, 1988. Dylan’s boyhood home was on the market at the time. Reporter Leonard Lee went inside the house and into the former bedroom of the music icon where a shrine of sorts had been displayed. Items of note: an autograph from a pre-fame Bobby Zimmerman and a mezuzah shaped like a guitar.

The moments where the video briefly drops out are glitches in the 3/4-inch tape.

Video Archive: Buying Pot in Duluth in 1972

In this 1972 clip from WDIO-TV, reporter Stu Stronach enlists cameraman Mark Ryan to buy an ounce of marijuana on Fourth Avenue West and Superior Street.

Ethan Freel transferred this film to video and added the music.

Video Archive: Attempting to save UMD’s Old Main

During WDIO-TV’s annual March of Dimes Telethon circa 1990, Dennis Anderson introduced a Colder by the Lake Comedy Theatre slide presentation by Bruce Ojard featuring old Duluth buildings as a plea to convince the city to preserve the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Old Main building instead of tearing it down.

The building was destroyed by fire on Feb. 23, 1993.

Video Archive: WDIO-TV Halloween Weather Report

From the haunted film vault comes this 1970s clip featuring WDIO-TV weatherman Jack McKenna, two mice and Dracula. Also featured at the end are anchorman Dennis Anderson and sportscaster Bill Stefl.

Happy Halloween!

WDIO-TV Personalities Circa Early 1970s

Dennis Anderson, anchor
Bill Stefl, sports
Jack McKenna, weather
Jim Schwinn

Summer of ’65: New TV station in the works for Duluth

DNTcover18Aug1965

Fifty years ago — Aug. 18, 1965 — the DNT reports the Duluth Planning Commission will conduct a public hearing on a proposal to grant a special permit to Channel 10, Inc., to operate a television station.