Blizzard of '77 WBEN-TV Complete Newscast 1/31/77 

I always love the retro commercials on these old, and historical news casts. They're just as entertaining.

You know you're from Buffalo or living in Buffalo when elderly people and middle aged people bring up this storm EVERY time you see them, even in the middle of July lol.

I miss the old days. I was 12 and living in the Kensington- Bailey area on Highgate Ave. in Buffalo at the time of the Blizzard of '77. This posting brings back good memories of life in the USA then. For instance the News cast back then was easy going and informative. The News always seemed to reflect common people's struggles. It wasn't the gossip, illusions, and general bullshit that we see today on the "News." And notice how the commercial breaks only have two commercials- not 6!

I love this! Would love to see more 1970s newscasts like this.

I like all the 70's retro broadcasts . Memories of growing up in the 70's. Better in my memories. Thank You.

I'll never forget this time in my life....I directed the newscast above and played the Ground Hog in the bit with Kevin...those were great and fun times in Buffalo

Man, haven't seen a Super Duper commercial in a long, long time, just seeing some of those old ads makes me feel things I haven't in a decades, real nostalgia, triggers lots of memories.

Oh, the commercials back then! Sooo much better then the commercials now!

i lived threw the blizzard of 77 and in 78 i moved to florida but i will never forget that storm - everyone pulled together and helped if it was possible - was borned there and glad i was still there for the blizzard of 77 - 37 years later and it seems like yesterday - proud to be from Buffalo - Kathy Kester

I was 15 and was hiking in the woods with some friends when the storm hit. We were lost and trying to find our way back holding on to the back of the person in front. Ice formed a mask on my face that actually blocked the wind. A neighbor and his dog found us and got us home.

I should be sleeping...but I'm watching this. damn you, youtube

This is world class! Kevin O'Connell mentioned at the end of the weather segment that "today's Groundhog Day." This newscast is from Wednesday, February 2, 1977.

Not long afterwards, WBEN-TV changed call letters to WIVB-TV ("IV" is the roman numeral for four; "B" means Buffalo).

When we get snow like this on Buffalo...its FUN! I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else.I dont want to deal with hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes. When I see all the havoc that stuff causes...snow really isnt that bad!

I remember living at Delaware and Amherst in an apartment with my Mom. It seemed like I didn't have school for like two weeks!

Thanks for keeping the ads in here too! 69 cents for a cup of joe & a danish??? And I worked for Super Duper while I was in high school.

Fantastic to watch...right down to the commercials - thanks for posting this!!

People really digging in and helping others, it was a whole different world back then.

This was just awesome. The commercials, groundhog's day segment and disco over the weather is so funny.

I was 17 and living in Toronto at the time. Snowfall here wasn't nearly as bad and life went on pretty much as usual. I remember thinking of the poor devils in Buffalo and wishing I could do something to help them.

Man, I was 10 and lived in North Tonawanda. My Dad got stranded at work, it is better than being stranded on the thruway.

I'll never forget that blizzard. Tops of cars is all you saw. They called it a freak storm in how the pressures met. Kevin, was so thin and hair so thick..how time changes you. Your Host restaurant I remember. Gee 69cents for tea n Danish. Super Duper grocery stores. Gee time passes so fast.

As a kid from Belfast Northern Ireland, I spent my summers with a family from Buffalo, they told me about this storm. Years later as a volunteer in Israel I worked with a U.S volunteer who was an engineer in the army who was sent to help with the clear up in Buffalo. Small world.

Amazing blast from the past! Local news was great back then, especially in the smaller markets, and great mix of local and national ads. Love that Super Duper! I was 13 and a freshman in high school in an Alleghany County town near Arcade during the blizzard. We were more or less snowbound, so probably watched this broadcast live.

Wow, normal TV reporting. The news isn't about the news casters. The ads are awsome. I miss seeing real advertising that makes you laugh and doesn't leave you feeling depressed. Now days it is all about life insurance, health care, finding a place for mom, medication that if you are dead you need to call this #, political left or right, bickering between broadcasters and politicians, etc. You got the idea. Life was better back then. I lived in Kadoka, So. Dakota during this storm. We had our own snow problems at that time too. But not as bad as NY and Boston. Love this blast from the past.💞🌬❄☃️🥰☃️❄🌬💞

This old vid is great I can't lie I miss back in the days things were so original

I live in Rochester, I remember this as well as some more blizzards in buffalo as well as my own hometown of Rochester, thanks for posting..brings back memories

I do remember like it was yesterday... I was 17 and we had to get groceries up to my grandmothers on Bailey Avenue... next to Jerry Gradl's car lot...2417 Bailey... I was driving the car with my mother and as we usually did, went down the first side street and around the corner to be pointing the car in the correct direction to park in front of the car lot. Only problem was ruts in the sidestreet...and someone coming towards us head on. We got stuck, so bad...cars frame got stuck on ice and we had to call Dad to bring my brothers to get us out before the curfew started at midnight!! They came, we walked to groceries up to my grandmother and got out of Buffalo just before midnight!! That was rough. Earlier in the week, when the storm started, we had to go and pick up my brother from work at Goodyear. The wind chill at the time was 50 below!!!! You just dont forget that...

November 11th 2019 watching!💪

Thank you so much for the memories and the commercials.Whenever I'm feeling down, "call me weird"I watch this video and in no time,everything is alright.

Broke out my bell bottoms to get 'groovy' to the "Weather with a Beat!" Yeah!

22:14 is an interesting list of forecasts. One of the most astonishing features of January 1977 was that Anchorage averaged 2.7˚F warmer than Atlanta for the month - although Anchorage is twice as far from the equator!

Wow, sure does bring back memories. Gotta love the frig magnets used for the high and low pressures on weather board. Can still remember everyone getting together to shovel our street out in S. Buffalo. A time when everyone knew who their neighbors were and not just a pic on a social page. "Danny moves your fanny in the morning"

Love the vintage commercials!! :D Was living in WNY during that storm. Man, it was COLD!

Kevin O'Connell, future game show host. Now a weatherman in Buffalo again

Chuck Lampkin was an excellent jazz drummer before he became a newsman. He passed away in 2003.

I was 12 at the time. Remember it well. Had just moved to Clinton str. (Kaisertownfrom) from Sattler Ave. (Schiller Park).Relatives with Snowmobiles had to bring us food. Thanks for the memories.

Born near Fredonia, I spent the first 20 years of my life there, experiencing the 77' blizzard before I came out to sunny California later that year - I never looked back and never came back. It was a miserable and demoralizing existence.

Originally from Niagara Falls, but have lived in the Florida panhandle (Pensacola first, Panama City now) since retiring from the Navy in 1988. When this storm occurred was stationed at one of US Naval Hospital Subic Bay Philippines Branch Medical Clinic and my parents sent me clippings from the Niagara Gazette of the storm and I showed them to local Philippine Nationals that I worked with and they had a hard time believing what they saw.

OMG...Chuck Healy! Super Duper!

I really enjoyed this video. Lots of fun to remember the old days.

This video is priceless! Love it. Sure brought back some memories. I was in high school when all this happened. Thanks for the memories!!

Great post! I remember the blizzard from here in Ohio, but wow, did Buffalo get socked! And the commercials were just the cherry on top!

Pick ax snow removal brings back fond memories of being a boy in 1903. Thank you to whom uploaded this. Enjoyed watching

thanks Steve for posting this- great memory

This is what you call a Real gem of a newscast.

the Blizzard of '77 made national news, made people think Buffalo was in Alaska

Well, that was for sure a trip down memory lane. Having lived through the blizzard of 77 (Yes it really was the worst storm in the past century) during which I was entombed in my Mother in Law's house for five days until the snow was finally shoveled clear of the doors and the roads made passable once again. The wind, which was brutal, smashed the flakes of snow so hard together that the stuff was like concrete. Very hard to dig through and very heavy. But watching this video was like a trip back in time. Those polyester suits that were so cool at the time look absolutely ridiculous now as do the haircuts and long sideburns that were the fashion of the time. Ah yes, the 70's! Thank God they are long behind us. But it was sure nice to see a Super Duper commercial once again and with Joey to boot! That alone made my day. Thanks for posting.

i went through this storm. my friends and i were the only ones outside, no cops, no city workers. when we wanted to get out of the storm we went to the sheraton foxhead, as storm evacuees lol

I remember this storm!! We lived in Clarence and had a long driveway out in the country. Shoveled for days. Snowed in for 7 days. No school, no work. It was like the end of the world. My dad was an electrician and couldn't get home until the next day. He spent the night in a fire station. He was brought home on a snowmobile. We were so worried about him. We had drifts up to the roof of the house. Almost the whole house was buried in snow. -50 degrees (below 0). It was brutal. I got married in May and in September moved to Florida. Couldn't handle anymore of that snow and below 0 temperatures. Most of my family stayed living up there till this day. Don't know how they do it. Thanks for this video. Brings back memories.

wow I grew up down in Bradford and we had all the Buffalo stations on our cable system this brings back memories! Thanks for sharing. That was one crazy blizzard i remember even we got some time off school i believe.

I remember it well.....I was in my early 20's....living on Buffalo's west side.

It's interesting that when they did the nationwide temperatures on the weather report at around 22 minutes one of the warmer cities was Anchorage Alaska at 42 degrees.

Thank you for posting this! I am from Virginia and was 12 years old when this blizzard hit and this was huge news here. What a walk down memory lane. I also appreciate you left in the commercials!!! Too cool!!! This was the most enjoyable video I have watched in a while.

Watching this from my warm apartment in Houston on Christmas Eve 2019.

I saw my Aunt's House! Watching this during a 115° heat wave in Houston. Anything to cool down!

1978 was some snow storm , I'll never forget it 🤲🏾

Love the commercials

Love it! the commercials add so much too it too!

I remember the blizzard of 77 and it was so much snow you couldn't even hardly go outside because there was no way to get around the people in Buffalo were so helpful and so kind to one another and I wish that that would always be a part of Buffalo buffalo is a good City and I love buffalo in spite of all the negativity that has been said about Buffalo we are the city of good neighbors God bless Buffalo

great, really brings back memories. was 11 and snowed in in amherst at the time. Love the commercials.

Just found the name of the song at 22:10 is "Bring it On Up" by The Love Unlimited Orchestra. I should have known it was the one and only, Barry White! He's the Man!!

I was seven years old when this storm hit and remember it very well lots of memories

This is awesome! I lived in a small(small small) town called millers between barker and lyndonville and went to barker central school. My mom came and got us when she saw the snow start and thank goodness because most of the other kids were stuck in school for days...Thanks Mom!

I was born right in the middle of the Blizzard of '77, I remember Super Duper I all ways got stuck going there as a child with my mother, I miss the old days.

I have never heard of Chuck Lampkin or the other guy for that matter. When this happened I was living in Atlanta. I called my parents in Amherst and they were fine but dad did have a rough time coming home. I did a Google search on Lampkin and found out that he was a jazz drummer for Dizzy! The obit that I found stated that he died Feb 10 but it does not give a year. Thanks for posting this video.

This a great find! I remember those "Super Duper" ads. I was an "Irv" viewer back then...but I DO remember `ol Chuck, the "weather with a beat" and of course Kevin! (great hair). These old "computer-free" newscasts look so dated! Oh...I also recognize the guy with the short afro hair on the Nationwide ad. He had a small role in the 1973 thriller "Sisters" w/Margot Kidder.

Love the music at 22:10... Made me get up and dance!!!

Wow, the picture is so clear! Nice

love the weathercast

26:48 - Wow! The earliest of the Nationwide Insurance commercials. And with the same famous slogan intact as of today.

Lived in Chautauqua County then. Drove through the first night of the blizzard from Buffalo. Barely made it following a tractor trailer to the Dunkirk exit.

We went to a Zappa concert at the Auditorium that night. We were about the only ones there. OMG, look at the size of lapels on those suits!!

Love the funny commercials!

A great stroll down memory lane..... I was 18 yrs old.....

I was 19 and working downtown when it hit. Never did I thought I would make it home. 14 minute drive took three hours, but made it home.

Ah, Kevin O'Connell. How young you were. Nobody can call the crazy Buffalo weather like that guy.

This was also viewed in Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara and the Golden Horseshoe!

Good to see old commercials

"Snow battle!" This is wonderful.

I remember this like it was yesterday.

I love the sports coverage

I remember this! I had a black and white tv! I remember a state of emergency being declared in Buffalo. I couldn’t go to work. I worked as a cashier at a grocery store called super duper. I used all my sick time throughout the beginning of the storm until the state of emergency was lifted.

Oh thank heaven for 77'...

I was a senior at Albion High School and didn't see my parents for a week. Ah, the good old days before climate change! Haven't seen a storm even close to this since the ice storm in 91' or ... snow & wind like that in decades.

There was so much snow, some of it was loaded onto an empty 100 car coal train just to get rid of it, then the train was driven to Florida, parked on a siding with the hatches underneath open and allowed to thaw.

The commercials and music sets are HILARIOUS!! Made for satire. I grew up in Buffalo during the 70's and 80's. What a blast from the past.

I was 13 then & grew up on South Park Ave. in South Buffalo, N.Y. I remember the National Guard was called in & loved watching the big wheel loaders & dump trucks removing the snow in front of our house. The snow was so high we used those red plastic snow sleds & sledded down from the top of our 2 car garage! That was a lot of fun.

Wow--Mr. Healy (26:16)-mentioned the Buffalo Braves NBA team---this was before they moved first to San Diego to become the Clippers--and ultimately to Los Angeles---always felt that Buffalo could have supported the Braves but the Sabres and Caninus took most of the best dates at the old Aud and left what was left to the Braves

yes I remember. took me 3 hrs to get home from work and a week stuck in the house.

In 1977, I was in the Third Grade and living in suburban Toronto. We had a nasty snowstorm in our neck of the woods, and we had a few snow days because the roads weren't passable. Fortunately, we kids made the best of a bad situation.

I lived through this blizzard. My mom was stranded with my baby sister away the house for three days. Brother & I stayed home alone no power no parents 3 days

i love that martial law gets declared when it snows in buffalo

I was 12-and living in Omaha, Nebraska-which was ALSO hit by a large amount of snow!

Sad the Buffalo Braves didn't last in Buffalo and now exist as the LA Clippers-the Braves drew well at the old War Memorial Auditorium but had to compete with the Buffalo Sabres for arena time and the Sabres got the best dates leaving the Braves with whatever was left---this affected attendance and the Braves simply couldn't compete

I was 5. My dad had just started working for the Co of Erie downtown & got stuck there! Had to spend the night sheltering in a church. Got home early afternoon the next day after he spent the AM helping people dig their cars out on the street where they were all stranded. My mother went out to shovel our front walk, came back inside to check on us & her shovel got stolen!

I was 3 years old in buffalo. only thing I remember is shitting my diaper.... a lot

Awesome

Super Duper!! Joey!! Memories. I lived on Mt. Hope Rd Sanborn.

Wow, Buffalo felt like a major city back then...even an NBA team!