Instant Nostalgia With This Providence News Broadcast From 1986

These days, you hear a lot of people saying how they don’t want the news anymore because they can’t deal with all the bad news being delivered. They’ll often lament at how they can’t remember the world being so bad 30 or 40 years ago.

Well, this complete newscast from WLNE6 in Providence that was uploaded to YouTube by EWJxn Media Archives proves there was plenty of bad news to be found on April 18, 1986.

Back then, what later became ABC6 was still the Providence CBS affiliate. The news broadcast was anchored by Dave Layman and Ann Conway and Dave Layman, and according to TVTango.com, aired after CBS’s Friday night lineup of a repeat of Magnum, P.I. at 8 p.m. and a new two-hour episode of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

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When it came to New Bedford coverage, the biggest story out of the Whaling City that night was that Twin Services, a mini-bus company that shuttled more than 1,500 seniors in New Bedford from nursing homes out into the community, was losing funding from the city and likely to go out of business.

Another story of note was was that Gene Travis, who already was facing charges for the murder of a Coventry woman, was charged with the murder of a Fall River woman. Travis later escaped from prison a decade later, but was captured 12 hours after he broke free. He once chillingly declared to authorities, “A human life doesn’t mean too much to me.”

Some of the national stories of the day included an American killed in retaliation of airstrikes over Libya, an update on the Challenger explosion,

ABC6 sports great Ken Bell was out that night, so fill-in Walt Perkins reported on Bruce Hurst’s big night as the Red Sox beat the White Sox 2-1 to improve to 5-5 on the season. Of course, that season would end with the Red Sox in the World Series and the ball rolling through Bill Buckner’s legs.

John Ghiorse, the legendary meteorologist, was on hand to give the forecast, which earned a “10” on his famous Ghiorse Factor scale.

There are so many truly ‘80s moments, from the newscast’s opening titles to the Mass Lottery commercial with the upbeat jingle; you’ve got to wonder if any of those winners still have any of that money left today.

If you want to feel a little nostalgic for what life was like 36 years ago, give it a watch.