Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

[crainbebo]

A December 1979 recording with commercials -- awesome! A Fisher tape too, I've never found one of those. I figured it was a RCA VK-250 given the age.
3-4 estate sales this weekend with potential -- might go out for sales for the first time since 9/16. Money's tight, however.

 

[Scott2013]

Here's what I ended up finding on the tapes I bought at the aforementioned estate sale in Hinckley last weekend. The bedroom closet was loaded with these tapes, in VHS storage containers and in a media cabinet, so I ended up leaving many behind. Mostly movie titles written on the labels, lot of '80s-stock tapes.

TAPE 1: A Passage to India (1984 HBO made-for-TV movie) copied from rental tape; partial broadcast of the 1984 CMA Awards taped from WJKW in Cleveland on 10/8/1984 minus commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 2: Rocky (1976) taped from WJKW (CBS Saturday Night Movie) on 4/2/1983 minus commercials; The Sting (1973) taped from WEWS in Cleveland (ABC Sunday Night Movie) on 4/3/1983 minus most commercials (the one commercial break that is on here includes a promo for Larry King when he had a show in syndication); clip from an episode of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman taped from an unknown channel; tape ends with Alabama performing "When We Make Love" on an unknown TV special circa 1984. RCA VK-250 T-120.

TAPE 3: The Sound of Music (1965) taped from WKYC in Cleveland on 12/30/1983 minus commercials; partial episode of Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters taped from WUAB in Cleveland circa 1984 minus commercials; tape ends with a few minutes of an unknown adult movie in scrambled signal. RCA VK-250 T-120.

TAPE 4: Iceman (1984) copied from rental tape; The Breakfast Club (1985) copied from rental tape; partial episode of Santa Barbara taped from WDIV in Detroit on 10/4/1985 with commercials, very poor aerial signal. Laser T-120.

TAPE 5: Supergirl (1984) copied from rental tape; 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) copied from rental tape; partial episode of Work'n with Wood taped from WAKR in Akron sometime in 1985 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 6: Yentl (1983) copied from rental tape; Dune (1984) copied from rental tape; clip from a broadcast of Nightline taped from either WEWS or WAKR on June 14-15, 1985. TDK T-120.

TAPE 7: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Anne Murray's Winter Carnival from Quebec taped from WJKW on 3/30/1984 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 8: College Football Saturday (Pittsburgh Panthers vs. West Virginia Mountaineers) taped from ESPN on 9/30/1989 with commercials; partial NFL on NBC broadcast of Cleveland Browns vs. Denver Broncos taped from WKYC on 10/1/1989 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 9: Urban Cowboy (1980) taped from WKYC circa 1983 minus commercials; various clips from Soul Train taped from WKYC circa 1983; partial episode of That Nashville Music taped from WUAB circa 1983 minus most commercials; partial episode of Hee Haw taped from WUAB circa 1983 minus most commercials; more random clips from Soul Train taped from WKYC circa 1983; partial broadcast of The Silencers (1966) taped from unknown channel circa 1983 minus commercials; partial episode of Wonder Woman taped from WUAB circa 1983 minus most commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 10: Partial broadcast of part four of Amerika (ABC miniseries) taped from WEWS on 2/18/1987 with commercials; parts five and six of Amerika taped from WEWS on February 19 and 20, 1987 with commercials. RCA T-120.

 

[pannoni1]

It looks like I had slightly better luck than you, Scott with my latest VHS hunt, this time out of the Empire State's fifth largest city (not counting those downstate satellites of The Big Apple). I kept 11 tapes out of 20.

TAPE 1: Begins with Inside The NFL off HBO on 9/18/1986 (no promos, but the episode contains an interesting discussion about the then-new instant replay system), followed by a portion of Grease 2 (1982) presumably off HBO circa 1986 with no promos, then it cuts to the fourth quarter of the 17th season finale of Monday Night Football (New England vs. Miami) off WIXT/ABC on 12/22/1986 with no commercials, then back to HBO on 12/27/1986 for the Barbara Streisand: One Voice special with no promos (begins with the "In Space" World Premiere Presentation bumper), then it cuts back to part of the fourth quarter of the 1985 AFC Championship Game off WSTM/NBC on 1/12/1986 with a few commercials. Inside the NFL in SP mode, the rest on EP.

TAPE 2: You don't expect too much with a label reading Bill Cosby "Himself", but there was much more to this. It starts off with a broadcast of the #1 at the time comedy star's 1982 flick off HBO circa spring 1986, then it continues with most of Saturday Night Live off WSTM/NBC on 4/5/1986 with commercials (I recently got from a trading partner a Beta tape with the same broadcast, hosted by Pee-Wee Herman off KNBC, which was complete and also included about 20 minutes of a BET-like music video show, which I'll be converting soon), followed by episodes of Miami Vice off WSTM/NBC on 5/2 and 5/9/1986 with commercials, with the later also containing the WSTM 11 PM News and approximately two-thirds of The Tonight Show afterwards. EP mode.

TAPE 3: Grease (1978) recorded off HBO on 11/9/1986 with about ten minutes of promos after the movie. SP mode.

TAPE 4: The last couple minutes of General Hospital, The Oprah Winfrey Show (the subject is on post-mortem Elvis witnesses), and the first couple minutes of The People's Court off WIXT on 5/20/1987 with commercials. EP mode.

TAPE 5: The network premiere of the NFL on ESPN featuring a preseason game between the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins from 8/16/1987 with no commercials, missing the fourth quarter, followed by a preseason Monday Night Football game between the Dolphins and the Denver Broncos off WIXT/ABC on 8/23/1987 with a few commercials. Currently on YT, only a short clip from that ESPN game has been posted and the uploader doesn't have any other footage from that game, so it will probably end up on the Internet Archive before long. Still, preseason NFL isn't an easy find. EP mode.

TAPE 6: NCAA basketball action between Syracuse and Arizona from Anchorage, AK off ESPN (simulcasted by WIXT) on 11/30/1987 with commercials and halftime, followed by Rocky V (1985) missing the intro and close off an unknown pay-TV network circa 1987. EP mode.

TAPE 7: The 1988 Sugar Bowl between Syracuse and Auburn off WIXT/ABC on New Year's Day 1988 with the only commercials present, ironically, is during the halftime. EP mode. The entire game, bar the commercials and halftime has been posted on YT, but this is still enough of an upgrade worth keeping, especially since there's a local newsbreak during the half.

TAPE 8: This tape doesn't contain any footage recorded off TV, but vintage urban footage and high school sports is always a nice ephemeral find. The tape begins with about 17 minutes of personal-recorded camcorder footage from downtown Pittsburgh on 6/7/1988, including shots from its transit system, followed by a 9th grade formal presentation from three days later, then it wraps up with most of a high school lacrosse game between CNS (not sure what that stands for) and Rome HS from 5/11/1989. SP mode.

TAPE 9: The 1989 Hall Of Fame Bowl between Syracuse and LSU off WSTM/NBC on 1/2/1989 with commercials and halftime. EP mode.

TAPE 10: Begins with the New Kids on the Block Christmas Special off WIXT/ABC on 12/14/1990 with commercials (missing the opening), followed by about the last five minutes of the WIXT 11 PM News from the same night as well as the first few minutes of Inside Edition, then it jumps back to about the last 20 minutes of the WIXT 6 PM News and about the first 20 minutes of ABC World News Saturday from 12/8/1990 with commercials, followed by most of Into The Night With Rick Dees off WIXT/ABC on 12/3/1990 with commercials. EP mode, except for Into The Night which was recorded in SP.

TAPE 11: Most of the first night of coverage of the 1995 World Professional Figure Skating Championships off WSTM/NBC on 1/27/1995 with commercials, followed by more erotic content off Spice from 1995. The tape was snapped at the beginning, so I'll have to begin recording this a couple minutes in. EP mode.

Duds included three more tapes consisting of Spice footage from 1995 or 1996, two in SP mode and another in EP, with the EP tape in dark quality; a Super Bowl XX tape off a Memorex that had poor tape quality that resembled a typical AMPEX tape of the era (very few commercials were present from my search, so that was a pass), Dirty Dancing recorded off HBO in summer 1988 with just a single promo at the start, and the worst dud being a tape with a single episode of 1st and Ten from 1987 with no promos or closing credits, but with the remaining 90% of the rest of the tape being blank. Three near-misses include a second round NCAA basketball tournament game between Rhode Island and Syracuse from 3/19/1988 off WTVH/CBS with very few commercials (a copy of this game is up on YouTube with most of the commercials present), and two Super Bowls (XXI and XXII) that contain only a single intact break, with part of the second half of the game itself from XXI missing, along with the halftime on XXII scoped out. I've already got the full broadcast of XXII with the ads and halftime, along with about half of the ads from my copy of XXI. Its a testimony to how much more commercialized the Big Game.

But then again, hunting through these tapes is like an underground casino, and I'll be making a trip out to Arizona and Las Vegas the following week, so I may be temporarily slowing down my uploads after next weekend.

 

[crainbebo]

Michael, I have a couple of Memorex tapes that clog the heads every time. I wonder if they may have used similar magnetic tape at times. Too bad, because one of them has the '86 Sun Bowl on it, another with Liberty Weekend, and another with a WGN late movie...all will probably have to be baked eventually!! The reason why I skip any and nearly all Ampex tapes at estate sales.

 

[TexasTom]

Michael, I have a couple of Memorex tapes that clog the heads every time. I wonder if they may have used similar magnetic tape at times. Too bad, because one of them has the '86 Sun Bowl on it, another with Liberty Weekend, and another with a WGN late movie...all will probably have to be baked eventually!! The reason why I skip any and nearly all Ampex tapes at estate sales.

I'm not surprised. Memorex was a well-known tape brand thanks to their "is it live or is it Memorex" audio tape campaign in the late seventies...but their videotape was even lousier than their audiotape.

 

[crainbebo]

The irony is that Memorex was supplying much of the videotape that was used by Bell & Howell / Columbia-Paramount to duplicate RCA/Columbia, Paramount, MCA Home Video, and I believe Thorn EMI/HBO releases.

Just about all of my Memorex tapes are fine, it's just those 1986-era stocks that are terrible. And like I said, I skip Ampex tapes - I know what the embossing looks like on the cassette, and I know what the tape box looks like, and I don't have time to bake it for 8 hours just for a few commercials or HBO promos. The exception is my tape of the 1985 Yakima Centennial Parade, which still needs to be digitized, and unfortunately, it's AMPEX.
BASF stock from the '80s are also getting worn-out over time, the oxide is coming off on some of the tapes I've seen lately.

 

[TexasTom]

I have a working VX machine made in 1977 (I have 5 altogether, but only one works close enough to reliably) and it is NOT skip-field, it captures the full frame rate but does produce a large black area at the bottom of the screen which was likely cut off on CRTs. Here is a home video shot in Japan with a color camera processed for 60fps on YouTube, no telling how old it is:

Sanyo V-Cord WAS skip-field in its long-play mode, but not in the faster speed.

It's from a long time ago in the discussion, but a little bit of follow up on my comment about VX being a skip-field system. It turns out that it is David Eduardo to the rescue when it comes to finding where I had read that the VX format is a skip-field system. I had correctly remembered it coming from High Fidelity magazine, specifically, a comparison of several VCRs that ran in that magazine in 1978. I had photocopied it when it originally ran, but over the decades that photocopy had come to be damaged.

Well, it turns out that David's radio history website has a nice selection of scanned copies of High Fidelity that includes the November 1978 issue where the article I saw originally appeared. You can find the page for that magazine here, and just need to scroll to the November 1978 issue. The article starts on page 81, and the text regarding VX being skip-field is on page 88. Even for those who don't care about that rather obscure VCR format, I'd say that the article is well worth reading because it is a great look at the state of the art in home VCRs in 1978 -- a subject that may be of some interest to those who are interested in a thread on old videotapes.

For those who don't want to follow the link, here is the pertinent text on the VX format:


This is also a great spot to insert a commercial for David's radio history website, because there is so much there. Not only can you see a vast collection of old trade magazines like Broadcasting, Billboard, Radio & Records, and TV/Radio Age, but there are also old catalogs, consumer electronics publications, technical journals, and much more. And there's always more to discover.

 

[Scott2013]

The irony is that Memorex was supplying much of the videotape that was used by Bell & Howell / Columbia-Paramount to duplicate RCA/Columbia, Paramount, MCA Home Video, and I believe Thorn EMI/HBO releases.

That reminds me, when I was at Northwood Flea Market a couple of weeks ago, one tape I picked up was a retail copy of Regarding Henry (1991) that had plastic tape placed over the open gap where the recording tab would be. Sure enough, when I rewound it and played it back, the first thing that was on the tape was a few seconds of a nature documentary (unknown title) before it reverted to the opening previews on the retail VHS. For whatever reason, I was expecting the TV footage to take up the entirety of the tape. Not the first time I've found something like that but also not something I see every day. And I could tell the tape of this Paramount VHS release was made by Memorex because of the distinctive grooves in the cassette casing.

 

[crainbebo]

This morning I went to a sale up in Ellensburg along Vantage Hwy that I am now calling one of the biggest and greatest estate sales I have ever seen. In terms of VHS, it breaks a record. NO WAY am I getting all of these tapes, and not even a quarter of them - I cherry-picked quite well through them in the 45 min. that I had...there are VK250s and early Quasars all over the place, 100s of late '80s to early '00s recordings, wooden holders full of VHS, a few of those cabinets with the handles on them FULL of tapes...another 2-3 racks 4-5 rows high full of VHS tapes in just about every room. There had to be 1,000 VHS tapes here, 97% of them home-recorded.
More to come. I only picked up roughly 30 tapes due to space and time. But some of them are ancient VK250s and Quasars.

 

[crainbebo]

Record broken last night.
One of the first tapes I picked up had Charles Kuralt on a CBS News Special Report from *JUNE 12TH, 1979* on the death of John Wayne! There's also a broadcast of 'The Desert Trail', one of his dime-a-dozen Monogram films from the '30s, taped off KREM Spokane on July 13th, 1979 with commercials, and part of 'The Quiet Man' *plus the first 10 minutes of KREM 2 News at 5:30* taped July 12th, 1979!!! This will be digitized very soon - I am so happy to find this, in beautiful quality too.

 

[chandler0201]

Record broken last night.
One of the first tapes I picked up had Charles Kuralt on a CBS News Special Report from *JUNE 12TH, 1979* on the death of John Wayne! There's also a broadcast of 'The Desert Trail', one of his dime-a-dozen Monogram films from the '30s, taped off KREM Spokane on July 13th, 1979 with commercials, and part of 'The Quiet Man' *plus the first 10 minutes of KREM 2 News at 5:30* taped July 12th, 1979!!! This will be digitized very soon - I am so happy to find this, in beautiful quality too.

Great! Would love to see that on Internet Archive sometime soon...

 

[Scott2013]

I still haven't gotten around to uploading the ads from that 1979 Mobil Showcase presentation I found recently, along with most of the other stuff I've found since August, not just because of lack of time but also because I've been finding and looking through additional tapes. Here's what I've managed to find in the last few weeks since my last entry.

Garage sale--Parma Heights, OH
TAPE 1: Home video of a teenage girl documenting a weekend trip with some family members and friends, appears to be recorded in 2004 based on the songs played in certain parts of the video, the most recent being "Tipsy" by J-Kwon; partial broadcast of the final episode of The X-Files taped from WJW on 5/19/2002 with commercials (I already have the full episode taped from KDFW in Dallas). TDK T-120.

TAPE 2: Boy Meets World, Odd Man Out, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Hughleys taped from WEWS on 11/5/1999 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 3: Motocrossed (Disney Channel made-for-TV movie) taped from the Disney Channel on 6/6/2001 with promos; Model Behavior (2000 ABC made-for-TV movie), In a Heartbeat, Zorro and partial episode of The Adventures of Spin and Marty taped from the Disney Channel in June 2001 with promos. Memorex T-120 dating back to the early '90s based on the jumble of recordings at the beginning of the tape.

TAPE 4: The Hughleys, Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Odd Man Out taped from WEWS on 9/24/1999 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 5: Partial broadcast of the 27th Annual People's Choice Awards and partial broadcast of Hometeam 19 News at 11 taped from WOIO on 1/7/2001 with commercials. Memorex T-120.


Estate sale--Akron, OH (just last weekend)
TAPE 6: Dave's World taped from WVPX in November 1998 with commercials; episodes of The Associates and Angie taped from TV Land on 11/28/1998 with commercials (the latter is a rerun of the pilot episode); Diagnosis Murder taped from WVPX in December 1998 with commercials; Grumpy Old Men (1993) taped from WOIO on Thanksgiving 1998 with commercials; partial episode of In the Heat of the Night taped from TNT in November 1998; two episodes of Match Game and start of The Price Is Right taped from WOIO in November 1998 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 7: End of Fear Factor and part two of 10.5 (NBC miniseries) taped from WKYC on 5/3/2004 with commercials; Mail Call and partial episode of The Color of War taped from the History Channel on 5/10/2004 with commercials; partial episode of One Life to Live taped from WEWS in August 2002 with commercials; end of Port Charles, All My Children and partial episode of One Life to Live taped from WEWS on 8/7/2002 with commercials (I already have the full OLTL episode on another tape); partial broadcast of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings taped from WEWS on 5/6/2002 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 8: Partial episode of One Life to Live taped from WEWS in May 2000 with commercials; Frasier, ER and partial broadcast of Channel 3 News at 11 taped from WKYC on 5/4/2000 with commercials; partial broadcast of Masterpiece Theatre (David Copperfield) and partial broadcast of Great American Speeches taped from WVIZ on 4/17/2000 with promos; partial broadcast of The 10 Most Fascinating People of 1994 and partial broadcast of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 12/13/1994 with commercials. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 9: End of Nightline and part one of Gone with the Wind (1939) taped from WEWS on 10/26/1996 with commercials; end of News Channel 5 at 11:00, part two of Gone with the Wind and partial broadcast of The Swiss Conspiracy (1976) taped from WEWS on October 26-27, 1996 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 10: Matlock taped from WBNX in September 1996 with commercials; Braveheart (1995) taped from HBO2 in September 1996 with promos; Savannah and partial broadcast of The Ten O'clock News taped from WUAB on 10/4/1996 with commercials (top story was the Indians in the playoffs). RCA T-120.

Will continue in another post due to character limit.

 

[Scott2013]

TAPE 11: The Wonderful World of Disney presentation of Loch Ness (1996 ABC made-for-TV movie) and start of 20/20 taped from WEWS on 7/11/1999 with commercials; part one of Streets of Laredo (1995 CBS miniseries) and partial broadcast of CBS 19 News at 11 taped from WOIO on 7/11/1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of A Simple Twist of Fate (1994) and partial broadcast of Legends of the Fall (1994) taped from the Movie Channel during a Free Moviethon Weekend in 1996 with promos. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 12: Stolen Memories: Secrets from the Rose Garden (Family Channel made-for-TV movie) and partial broadcast of Hope from Heaven (700 Club special) taped from the Family Channel on 1/7/1996 with commercials; partial episode of America's Funniest Home Videos taped from WEWS on 3/19/1995 with commercials, cable box then switches to WOIO for the final moments of CBS Sports coverage of Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Syracuse Orangemen, then switches to the Family Channel for the remainder of Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love (1991 CBS made-for-TV movie) with commercials; The Nanny, Women of the House, Murphy Brown and Cybill taped from WOIO on 3/20/1995 with commercials; end of Abandoned and Deceived (ABC made-for-TV movie) and partial broadcast of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 3/20/1995 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 13: Partial episode of Murder She Wrote, Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fashion (1991 NBC made-for-TV movie) and most of an episode of Matlock taped from the Hallmark Channel in April 2008 with commercials; partial broadcast of Troy (2004) taped from AMC in December 2007 with commercials; partial broadcast of the Thrifty Car Rental Postgame Report following ABC Sports coverage of Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Penn State Nittany Lions and first round of Wheel of Fortune taped from WEWS on 9/23/2006 with commercials; partial episode of Paul James' Home Grown Cooking, Savoir Faire, The Carol Duvall Show, Sew Perfect, Today at Home and Homewise taped from HGTV on 2/10/2000 with commercials, local ads from the Tampa area are included, including two promos from WFTS. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 14: Something to Talk About (1995) taped from HBO2 in September 1996 with promos; It Runs in the Family (1994) taped from Showtime during a Free Preview Weekend in September 1996 with promos; first couple minutes of a Cinema 19 presentation of Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) taped from WOIO in December 1996 with commercials (evidently this was shown in prime time preempting CBS programming that night); end of Promised Land, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (CBS made-for-TV movie) and start of CBS 19 News at 11 taped from WOIO on 3/11/1997 with commercials; partial episode of Perry Mason taped from WBNX in September 1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of Dateline NBC taped from WKYC on 9/17/1996 with commercials; partial episode of Saban's Samurai Pizza Cats taped from WBNX in September 1996 with commercials. Fuji T-120--disappointingly, it started with a half-second of a promo from WOAC, which I would have rather seen, as recordings from that station have been virtually impossible for me to find.
TAPE 15: First few minutes of The Best Man (1999) taped from Oxygen in April 2008 (starts with a promo for Deion & Pilar during the end credits of the previous movie); Oprah (smart and talented kids), Live on Five and News Channel 5 at 6:00 taped from WEWS on 5/12/2008 with commercials; partial episode of Ugly Betty taped from WEWS on 1/17/2008 with commercials; partial broadcast of The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994 CBS made-for-TV movie) and partial Time Life Music "Flower Power" infomercial taped from WVPX in November 2007 with commercials; partial episode of Ugly Betty taped from WEWS on 11/12/2008 with commercials. Kodak T-120.

TAPE 16: The Wonderful World of Disney presentation of Annie (ABC made-for-TV movie) and start of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire taped from WEWS on 11/7/1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of Private Screenings (June Allyson) taped from TCM on 6/30/1998 with promos; partial broadcast of part three and all of part four of Liberty!: The American Revolution and first few minutes of Charlie Rose taped from WVIZ on November 24-25, 1997 with promos; partial episode of All My Children and partial episode of One Life to Live taped from WEWS on 11/19/1997 with commercials; partial Movie 5 presentation of Quigley Down Under (1990) taped from WEWS in 1997 with commercials; partial episode of General Hospital with guest stars All 4 One taped from WEWS on 5/7/1997 with commercials; partial episode of The Single Guy and partial episode of Seinfeld taped from WKYC on 10/17/1996 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 17: The Wonderful World of Disney presentation of Geppetto (ABC made-for-TV movie) and start of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire taped from WEWS on 5/7/2000 with commercials; partial broadcast of A Holiday Romance (CBS made-for-TV movie) and partial broadcast of CBS 19 News at 11 taped from WOIO on 12/8/1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of My Giant (1998) taped from Showtime during a Free Preview Weekend in March 1999 with promos. TDK T-120.

TAPE 18: The Jane Pauley Show (living and thriving with ADD) and partial episode of The View (Kaley Cuoco is a guest co-host) taped from WEWS on 4/20/2005 with commercials; tape then reverts to home video footage of the first few days of a newborn baby's life in the hospital room with her mother in October 1991--this was recorded in the Atlanta, Georgia area with the mother having mentioned Georgia Physical Therapy (based in Canton, Georgia) and Action News 2 (WSB) being seen and heard in the background in the hospital room in some parts. Memorex T-120.

TAPE 19: Shipwrecked (1990) and first few minutes of WGN News at Nine taped from WGN on 12/30/1997 with commercials, the tape then reverts to the original contents of the prerecorded tape made by a local company called Mirror Image Video, tape label reads "(Name redacted) vs. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company" with the date 5/21/1996 also printed on the label, as is time-stamped on screen during the recording itself, I didn't bother looking through the rest of it. 3M T-120.

 

[crainbebo]

Another record *broken*. I went back up to the Ellensburg house on Wednesday and met up with a family member of the deceased woman. I was able to take another tub worth of tapes as I had very little time to check during the sale. So, that's another 80+ for this estate, I let them toss most of the '90s and later, plus the many tapes that were "(W)TBS triple features". There are already gems - like a full NBC late-night block from 3/29/1999, all the way to 'Later' and half of the NBC All Night Leno repeat, as well as late-night movies from the '80s taped off Seattle and Yakima stations.

One amusing one so far was a show called Cool Million, which aired for 5 episodes on NBC in 1972 with James Farentino. CBS aired one of these episodes as part of their Late Night block in November 1985. It has all the commercials from KIMA. During one of the commercials, I was able to see KNDO's ID and sign-off bumpers floating underneath.

Meanwhile, I pulled out another RCA VK250, with part 7 of Centennial minus commercials (so January 1979), but then it goes blank for a little bit, and hits another recording...this time of the newsmagazine Northwest Gallery, a FULL 60 Minutes and a full episode of All in the Family taped off KREM/CBS Spokane on 2/18/1979 with commercials!!! Great quality recording, too 😲

There are several more VK250s in that tub...is 1978 next? Thank God that I did NOT let my guard down. These could have been sent to the dump and never seen again!!

 

[pannoni1]

Congrats on breaking some personal records there! That Northwest Gallery may be unique given that local newsmagazines, especially in non-major markets from that era are probably lost, and I've never found a 60 Minutes episode before 1985. Nice find Scott to see a couple more complete TGIF blocks, even if the block was on its last legs as many viewers like myself had aged out of it at the time.

I just checked 52 tapes from a Craigslist ad with the pickup location just 15 minutes away. All of the tapes were free, so it was all on house money. More cherries and plums than 7s and Bars, with most of the primetime finds having zapped ads, along with three tapes full of Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry ads from the City Era of Cartoon Network that's going in the sell pile along with some tapes full of syndicated reruns with shows such as Thirtysomething, Northern Exposure, Quantum Leap, among others off stations like Lifetime, USA, TBS, and TNT that's going in the same pile that also contained the zapped shows, among them Boy Meets World, Sabrina: The Teenage Witch, Sisters, Doctor Doctor, as well as first-run episodes of Northern Exposure, a couple of rental duds including a home video copy of The Beatles' Help! along with several tapes of '80s PBS repeats of the '60s detective classic The Avengers, but there were still some keepers out there, some of them featuring a number of kids-oriented commercials. All tapes feature Baltimore stations on them.

TAPE 1: Blue Skies (1946) taped off AMC circa summer 1994 with a few promos, followed by the 1 to 1 biography feature on the band Traffic off VH1 on 8/6/1994 with commercials, followed by two episodes of Sisters off WMAR from October 1994 with no commercials.

TAPE 2: Begins with a David Letterman special from 1994 off WBAL/CBS with no commercials, followed by the one-hour, 100th episode of Seinfeld off WBAL/NBC on 2/2/1995 with commercials, followed by first-run episodes of Sisters, Northern Exposure, and Biography (Steve Allen) from February 1995 with no commercials.

TAPE 3: Starts off with The Who: 30 Years of Maximum R&B special off VH1 on 10/1/1994 with commercials, followed six episodes of Bewitched off TBS from October/November 1994 with some commercials.

TAPE 4: Starts off with the last few minutes of the WMAR 11 PM News, followed by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno off WMAR/NBC on 8/16/1993 with commercials (an encore broadcast of the 5/28/93 episode), then The Odd Couple: Together Again off WBAL/CBS on 9/24/1993 with a few commercials, followed by several first season episodes of Boy Meets World off WJZ/ABC from fall 1993 with no commercials

TAPE 5: Starts with the series finale of Night Court off WMAR/NBC on 5/13/1992 with commercials, followed by the Moody Blues at Red Rocks concert off WMPT/PBS from September 1992 with no promos or pledge breaks, then wraps up with a clip of that same Tonight Show episode from 5/25/1993 featuring The Kinks that I've found in full above. One of my earliest finds tape hunting was that Night Court finale, off WMAQ IIRC, but most of the ads in that copy were zapped. My favorite find, as it turned out, came off of noncommercial TV.

TAPE 6: Kicks off with the M*A*S*H reunion off WBAL/CBS on 11/25/1991 with commercials (missing the closing), followed by most of Quantum Leap off WMAR/NBC on 12/11/1991 with ads, followed by several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show off WNUV from spring 1995 with commercials

TAPE 7: The full trilogy of Muppets movies (The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan) off WBFF on 11/23/1990 with commercials, including a ton of toy/cereal ads. The tape ends with the first few minutes of Gummi Bears, including an intro for The Disney Afternoon.

TAPES 8-11: Six episodes of The Avengers recorded off WMPT with very few promos, followed by a segment of Jack Horkheimer's Star Hustler, with a sign-off on three of the tapes. Three of the tapes were recorded in the fall of 1986, the fourth recorded in February 1988.

TAPE 12: Late Night with David Letterman taped off WMAR/NBC on 12/13/1989 with commercials, followed by A Charlie Brown Christmas taped off WBAL/CBS on 12/22/1988 with no commercials (bah humbug!), followed by part of 48 Hours (the Paul McCartney episode which I've already got) from 1/25/1990 with no ads, then raps up with an episode of Night Court from February 1990 off presumably WMAR/NBC with no ads

TAPE 13: Approximately a dozen episodes of Night Court, mostly syndicated broadcasts off WJZ from April 1989 with some commercials intact, along with one second-run broadcast off WMAR/NBC on 4/19/1989 with commercials

TAPE 14: 11 episodes of The Odd Couple taped off WNUV in fall 1988 with commercials, along with the first half of an episode of All My Children from October 1988 off WJZ/ABC with commercials. The recorder presumably set the wrong channel on the VCR!

TAPE 15: Begins with a rental copy of the Arista Records release of The Kinks: The Videos 1981-1984, followed by two episodes of Shindig from 1964-1965 featuring The Kinks taken from a prerecorded video release, then it cuts to approximately the last half hour of A Night In Casablanca (1946), the SFM Holiday Network presentation recorded off WJZ on 5/16/1987 with a couple commercial breaks, then the recording wraps up with the opening segment of ABC's Wide World Of Sports from the Western States 100. Among the commercials found were two spots for the defunct department store Hutzler's.

TAPE 16: Launches with At The Circus (1939) off WNUV from November 1986 with commercials, followed by ANOTHER copy of The Muppet Movie (1979) recorded off WBFF on 11/28/1986 with commercials. Yep, that's the same film on the same day (Black Friday) on the same channel (45), but a lot of cool toy ads are found on both, including some Lazer Tag knock-offs.

TAPE 17: 5 episodes of the classic '60s series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. off CBN from January 1986 with commercials

TAPE 18: Starts off with Monkey Business (1931), taped off WMAR on 11/25/1985 with commercials, followed by Go West (1940) recorded off WBFF on 3/29/1986 with commercials, followed by Captain Kangaroo off WMPT/PBS from September 1986 with a few promos (a rebroadcast of a 1983 episode), followed by Coconuts (1929) taped off WMAR on 9/27/1986 with commercials and sign-off. I've received a few CK episodes from their CBS airings via trades, but its good to see Mr. Keeshan once again!

TAPE 19: Starts with A Night At The Opera (1935) off WBFF circa 1985 with no commercials, followed by Mr. Belvedere Rings The Bell (1951) off WNUV circa 1985 with no ads (too bad, my oldest find from that station), then it wraps up with Duck Soup (1933), taped off WMAR on 11/18/1985 with commercials and sign-off. Channel 2 in Charm City was still using the 1979-86 peacock on the sign-off found on tape 18 as well as the same rendition of the SSA, but had introduced the new 1986 peacock on the later.

 

[That Random Oshawott]

Went to a local church's yard sale here in Murray, KY last weekend and found a couple blanks. I held one up when I checked out and asked the cashier if she had any like these that were not already laid out for sale. She responded in the affirmative; she had two boxes of blanks with television recordings that she had taped while living in Fayetteville, Arkansas and had been looking to get rid of. So I arranged to go to her residence to pick them up; indeed, she was correct. I've been peeking through some of them and have found recordings from as early as 1985 and from the Tulsa, OK; Springfield, MO; and Fort Smith/Fayetteville, AR markets. Just digitized the first recording in the lot - a recording of the Magical World of Disney NBC airing of "Polly" from November 12, 1989 on KFAA 51 (now KNWA), Rogers, Arkansas; WOC. Can't wait to see what else is in store!

Finished the first box of tapes. The most notable tapes are:

- Maxell T-120, EP. 1 - KHOG, July 8, 1990, The Bourne Identity. 2 - KHOG, July 15, 1990, The Man with the Golden Gun, News Center Nightbeat, all with commercials.

- BASF T-120, EP. KPOM, March 24, 1989, Peter Pan (Mary Martin version), with commercials.

- RCA T-120, EP. 1 - KPOM, July 6, 1986, United States Gymnastics Championships. 2 - KTUL, July 6, 1986, Liberty Weekend closing ceremonies, first bit of evening newscast, all with commercials.

- (No sleeve), EP. KFSM, January 1, 1990, continuous recording containing part of the Cotton Bowl Parade, the full Cotton Bowl, a full Jeopardy episode, and the full "Newspeople Live at Five" newscast, all with commercials.

- RCA T-120, EP. 1 - WTBS, July 11, 1986, Goodwill Games (Boxing, Women's Volleyball). 2 - KFSM, June 25, 1986, The Kraft All-Star Salute to Ford's Theatre. 3 - Three WTBS recordings from June-July 1986 of Perry Mason, one having the 1976 Viacom "V of Doom" logo (filmed, black and white). All with commercials.

The date range for this box was 1985 to 2008. Some AETN recordings and one OETA recording, too.

 

[crainbebo]

More finds from Ellensburg's spectacular estate sale 2 weeks ago include:
'Chisum' (1970) taped off KREM-2's Saturday Star Theatre, 11/24-25/1979 with commercials and sign-off...this has already been posted to the AVTB account on YouTube.
Also a partial episode of The Crosswits taped off KHQ-6 on 9/26/1980 with commercials, plus part of M*A*S*H. The Crosswits, the original version w/ Jack Clark, has not been seen since original airings so this is RARE. Fun game show to watch.
Several more VK-250s to check

Yesterday I went to two estate sales and a garage sale, finding even more tapes. Already finding some late '80s Los Angeles tapings, including two episodes of Wipeout taped off KCBS-2...Peter Tomarken's short-lived game show that aired in late 1988. Full report later.
I'm packed solid with digitizing, so hopefully THAT IS IT for the year!

 

[pannoni1]

The holiday rush may be on and yard/estate sale listings are hitting their seasonal lulls, but that didn't stop me from digging out some more Beta tapes this afternoon. Finds were 50/50 overall out of the 16, with the duds including two tapes that turned out to be a retail copies of Battle Force and Children of a Lesser God without their slip cases. A "bonus" tape, The Jazz Singer (1980), came intact with its original 1981 slip cover from Paramount Video, but sadly isn't worth too much despite being an earlier release. One of the other duds was a syndicated rerun of the first M*A*S*H episode, the M*A*S*H finale with the ads zapped, and most of the second half of Super Bowl XVII with the commercials zapped out (I've got the later two already with the ads intact anyways), with another containing just a few minutes of promos and only the first few minutes of an episode of One Night Stand off HBO on 5/11/1990. The seller was located just outside Rockford, IL which has its own TV market, but all finds were from the Chicago and Fargo markets.

TAPE 1: Two episodes of the WTBS series Portrait Of America, starting with the feature on North Dakota from 8/5/1984 with commercials, followed by the documentary on Washington, DC (sadly, it doesn't showcase much of the "real" city beyond the government buildings and monuments) from 4/6/1986 with commercials. The ND episode is in BII speed, the DC in BIII.

TAPE 2: The nearly complete NFL game between the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings off WMAQ/NBC on 11/20/1994 with commercials and halftime, beginning a couple minutes after kickoff. BIII mode.

TAPE 3: Starts with White Christmas (1954) copied from a rental, followed by most of a rerun of A Christmas Carol (1984), taped off KXJB/CBS on 12/22/1985 with most commercials (mainly for IBM), beginning around 15 minutes into the movie.

TAPE 4: Begins with Crossroads (1986) recorded off Showtime circa early 1987 with no promos, followed by most of Just The Way You Are (1984) along with a children's block of The Elf, Jennifer's Journey (1979 special), and most of The Velveteen Rabbit (narrated by Meryl Streep) taped off Showtime on 2/20/1987 with promos between each show

TAPE 5: Starts with a rental copy of Better Off Dead (1985), followed by Trading Places (1983) taped off KTHI/NBC on 10/5/1986 with commercials

TAPE 6: Stars off with the NBC Sunday Night At The Movies world premiere presentation of Perry Mason and the Case of the Night Murdered Madam, recorded on 10/4/1987 off KTHI with commercials along with the first minute of the 10 PM News, then it jumps to rental copies of about half of Friday The 13th Part II (1981) and all of Friday The 13th, Part III (1982)

TAPE 7: Starts with the Minnesota episode of Portrait Of America off WTBS on 11/2/1986 with commercials, then jumps back for approximately the last hour of part 4 of North and South off WDAZ/NBC on 11/7/1985 with ads, then it cuts to the end of a movie along with about five minutes of promos off Showtime from September 1984

TAPE 8: Begins with the sequel to the Ewoks made-for-TV movie Ewok: The Battle For Ednor off WLS/ABC on 11/23/1985 with commercials (missing the credits), then it jumps ahead to the credits of 60 Minutes, Murder, She Wrote, and the first 15 minutes of Crazy Like A Fox off WBBM/CBS on 12/1/1985 with commercials, then it rounds up with most of Another World and the first half of Santa Barbara off WMAQ/NBC on 11/26/1985 with commercials

There was also another lot of about 60 Beta tapes that I checked a few weeks ago that I purchased do to an abundance of late '70s/early '80s tape stock, but it was mostly a disappointment, with about 90% of the lot being duds, mostly zapped movie airings with a few TV specials, even as far back as 1977! A few finds included most of an episode of The People's Court from 1/30/1985 off WCCO with ads, ads off KITN from May 1985 as taking from an airing of The Stepford Wives, most of a M*A*S*H syndicated rerun off WTCN on 8/2/1982 with some commercials, about the last 10 minutes of an episode of At The Movies with Siskel & Ebert from 12/22/1979 off KTCA, a partial KSTP newscast from 11/9/1979 with some commercials, and most of The Bud Grant Show, a weekly Minnesota Vikings talk and discussion show from 9/12/1978 with no ads. There was also approximately ten minutes of coverage from Senator and former Vice President Humphrey's funeral from January 1978 and a seven-minute clip of a WCCO newscast from 12/17/1982 that I'll be posting shortly.

That's probably it through Christmas, although I do have some time off after the holiday, but if I don't post anymore since then, I can say I still had a respectable amount of finds for 2023, from a bunch of '90s Batman/Superman cartoons with commercials, game show episodes of the '80s Let's Make A Deal, a network rerun of Family Feud from 1984, a couple Win Ben Stein's Money from 1989, a partial rare local Baltimore kids' show from 1985, and an episode of Jeopardy! from 1989, along with lots of rare stuff including a five-hour aircheck of QVC from 1994, a couple hours of BET from 1995, and a 1983 Captain Kangaroo episode from a PBS rerun.

 

[crainbebo]

I still haven't finished the tapes I found in October and early November, but I beat another record. One of the VK250s from Ellensburg had part 9 of Centennial, taped off KHQ/NBC, with about 1/2 of the commercials included, on January 21st, 1979. Absolutely terrific. Another tape had part 3 of From Here to Eternity (the miniseries) taped off KHQ on 2/28/1979 with ALL commercials included!!
Two tapes found at another estate sale in early November have netted Los Angeles content - The Thorn Birds taped off KCOP in February 1987 w/ commercials, and the second tape had The Little Match Girl taped off KNBC on Christmas night 1988 with commercials, along with The Homecoming: A Christmas Story from 12/24/88 off KCBS w/ commercials. After The Little Match Girl, the tape goes back to KCBS and is uninterrupted until the tape runs out: the last few minutes of a Christmas Eve service broadcast nationally by CBS, aforementioned episodes of Wipeout, and part of 'Man Trouble' with commercials...including a classic KNXT-era Late Show open.
Yet another sale that weekend, down in the Ahtanum area SW of Yakima, had several tapes...one has the 2/19/1995 George Michael Sports Machine from KNDO, along with an early Jay Leno (7-15-1992), and two partial SNLs from 1989 and 1990 with commercials. Another tape marked with I Witness Video, the John Forsythe-hosted NBC series with moments captured on tape, another with a MNF game, lots more to come. I am packed solid with tapes and don't have time for a full list.

 

[Jman8606]

The holiday rush may be on and yard/estate sale listings are hitting their seasonal lulls, but that didn't stop me from digging out some more Beta tapes this afternoon. Finds were 50/50 overall out of the 16, with the duds including two tapes that turned out to be a retail copies of Battle Force and Children of a Lesser God without their slip cases. A "bonus" tape, The Jazz Singer (1980), came intact with its original 1981 slip cover from Paramount Video, but sadly isn't worth too much despite being an earlier release. One of the other duds was a syndicated rerun of the first M*A*S*H episode, the M*A*S*H finale with the ads zapped, and most of the second half of Super Bowl XVII with the commercials zapped out (I've got the later two already with the ads intact anyways), with another containing just a few minutes of promos and only the first few minutes of an episode of One Night Stand off HBO on 5/11/1990. The seller was located just outside Rockford, IL which has its own TV market, but all finds were from the Chicago and Fargo markets.

TAPE 1: Two episodes of the WTBS series Portrait Of America, starting with the feature on North Dakota from 8/5/1984 with commercials, followed by the documentary on Washington, DC (sadly, it doesn't showcase much of the "real" city beyond the government buildings and monuments) from 4/6/1986 with commercials. The ND episode is in BII speed, the DC in BIII.

TAPE 2: The nearly complete NFL game between the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings off WMAQ/NBC on 11/20/1994 with commercials and halftime, beginning a couple minutes after kickoff. BIII mode.

TAPE 3: Starts with White Christmas (1954) copied from a rental, followed by most of a rerun of A Christmas Carol (1984), taped off KXJB/CBS on 12/22/1985 with most commercials (mainly for IBM), beginning around 15 minutes into the movie.

TAPE 4: Begins with Crossroads (1986) recorded off Showtime circa early 1987 with no promos, followed by most of Just The Way You Are (1984) along with a children's block of The Elf, Jennifer's Journey (1979 special), and most of The Velveteen Rabbit (narrated by Meryl Streep) taped off Showtime on 2/20/1987 with promos between each show

TAPE 5: Starts with a rental copy of Better Off Dead (1985), followed by Trading Places (1983) taped off KTHI/NBC on 10/5/1986 with commercials

TAPE 6: Stars off with the NBC Sunday Night At The Movies world premiere presentation of Perry Mason and the Case of the Night Murdered Madam, recorded on 10/4/1987 off KTHI with commercials along with the first minute of the 10 PM News, then it jumps to rental copies of about half of Friday The 13th Part II (1981) and all of Friday The 13th, Part III (1982)

TAPE 7: Starts with the Minnesota episode of Portrait Of America off WTBS on 11/2/1986 with commercials, then jumps back for approximately the last hour of part 4 of North and South off WDAZ/NBC on 11/7/1985 with ads, then it cuts to the end of a movie along with about five minutes of promos off Showtime from September 1984

TAPE 8: Begins with the sequel to the Ewoks made-for-TV movie Ewok: The Battle For Ednor off WLS/ABC on 11/23/1985 with commercials (missing the credits), then it jumps ahead to the credits of 60 Minutes, Murder, She Wrote, and the first 15 minutes of Crazy Like A Fox off WBBM/CBS on 12/1/1985 with commercials, then it rounds up with most of Another World and the first half of Santa Barbara off WMAQ/NBC on 11/26/1985 with commercials

There was also another lot of about 60 Beta tapes that I checked a few weeks ago that I purchased do to an abundance of late '70s/early '80s tape stock, but it was mostly a disappointment, with about 90% of the lot being duds, mostly zapped movie airings with a few TV specials, even as far back as 1977! A few finds included most of an episode of The People's Court from 1/30/1985 off WCCO with ads, ads off KITN from May 1985 as taking from an airing of The Stepford Wives, most of a M*A*S*H syndicated rerun off WTCN on 8/2/1982 with some commercials, about the last 10 minutes of an episode of At The Movies with Siskel & Ebert from 12/22/1979 off KTCA, a partial KSTP newscast from 11/9/1979 with some commercials, and most of The Bud Grant Show, a weekly Minnesota Vikings talk and discussion show from 9/12/1978 with no ads. There was also approximately ten minutes of coverage from Senator and former Vice President Humphrey's funeral from January 1978 and a seven-minute clip of a WCCO newscast from 12/17/1982 that I'll be posting shortly.

That's probably it through Christmas, although I do have some time off after the holiday, but if I don't post anymore since then, I can say I still had a respectable amount of finds for 2023, from a bunch of '90s Batman/Superman cartoons with commercials, game show episodes of the '80s Let's Make A Deal, a network rerun of Family Feud from 1984, a couple Win Ben Stein's Money from 1989, a partial rare local Baltimore kids' show from 1985, and an episode of Jeopardy! from 1989, along with lots of rare stuff including a five-hour aircheck of QVC from 1994, a couple hours of BET from 1995, and a 1983 Captain Kangaroo episode from a PBS rerun.

WBSM premiered in 1997