Predictions of 1985

New Years Day is usually a slow news day. Some of the year end summaries were presented during the newscasts, but in this case, ABC took a different take. A Smithsonian exhibition in Chicago showed what life was thought to be like in 1985 (from a 1930's-50's perspective). Here a fascinating look, taken from a segment broadcast on 1-1-85.



Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year !!!

1985 Rockin' Eve

Dick Clark was a fixture of New Year's Eve from the 70's through the mid 2000's. The original format were live shots of Dick in Times Square, juxtaposed with a taped Hollywood segment. Other shows tried to emulate his style (including MTV), but there could never be another substitute for the real McCoy. Here is the countdown to 1985 as it was broadcast live.

Year in Review

The end of the year is a busy time for the vistavuelounge video recorders. In years past, nearly all of the networks, along with CNN and MSNBC presented year end specials. Lately, they are few and far between. Most networks would broadcast a short capsulated year end summary at the tail end of the last newscast of the year. Here is a last segment from ABC news which was shown on 12-31-84.

Merry Christmas !

Another yule log on the fire

Judging by the number of views on youtube, vistavuelounge's yule log video is becoming a favorite. Some have posted requests for the show in it's entirety (around two hours). Due to youtube time constraints (along with copyright restrictions), I am presenting only two short segments. Here is part two of the WPIX Yule Log that was broadcast on Christmas Eve over twenty five years ago.

Christmas on the radio

Around this time every year, some of the New York FM radio stations start playing Christmas music around the clock. Years before they went to the "Jack" format, WCBS-FM played a great selection of classic pop and rock Christmas tunes. They even had a short jingle (presented here), mentioning nearly all of the DJs on air that year. After a short hiatus, WCBS station management came back to their senses and put the oldies music back where it belongs (and put the "Jack" music on their HD2 channel). I found this segment on an old cassette tape labeled Christmas Eve, 1985.

Foward Into the Future

The Air Force awarded Grumman a contract to construct two prototypes. Grumman assigned design number 712 to this new configuration, and began the detailed design work. It was conjectural whether this FSW would ever go into production. Just in case, though, Grumman designed hard points into the wing in order to hang various stores. Here is a concept drawing from 1979.



Both Rockwell and Grumman ran competitive advertisements in Aviation Week and Flight International. At this point in time, preliminary design was in an advanced stage.



The X-29A appeared at the Paris Air Show in 1985 as a static display. This ad appeared in Flight International.