Hi there, my name is Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah spelled OPR-AA, and if you noticed it's 1983.

A 29-year-old Baltimore TV host is angling for a job at WLS, a Chicago TV station.

And this is her demo tape.

And after being in Baltimore for seven years, I'm ready to come to Chicago.

She wants to be the new host of AM Chicago.

That's the daytime talk show on WLS.

But AM Chicago has problems.

It's getting soundly beaten by a national competitor, Phil Donahue.

You know, the guy with the silver hair, the glasses, the mic, he is the king of daytime.

And he's been at it for over a decade.

We were very different.

Nobody's program on television at that time was doing this kind of material.

The new boss at the TV station, his name is Dennis Swanson.

He's just looking for someone different to host AM Chicago.

I said to the people in the station, I said, look, you folks have always tried to find

some male to beat Phil Donahue.

And you're trying to out Donahue Donahue.

Let's consider putting a female there and create a distinct alternative.

So I said, you know, let's bring this Oprah Winfrey in and do an audition.

As I was landing in the city, you know, flying in, this feeling came over me.

And I remembered like tearing up like I'm going to be here.

...