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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

Looks like both of the Holden lots treated you well. No question that the footage from the C-band satellite channels is pretty hard to find.

While on a family road trip in the Warren, Ohio area this past weekend, we stopped by Treasures Flea Market in nearby Niles, where I found a LOT of tapes. Most of the local content was from the Youngstown market, but a few tapes had footage from surprisingly distant locations.

TAPE 1: Maximum Overdrive (1986) taped from Fearnet, unknown year (had to have been between 2010 and 2014 since that's how long the network existed); partial broadcast of News 12 Midday and first couple minutes of The Bold and the Beautiful taped from KEYC in Mankato in December 2007 with commercials

TAPE 2: The Pooch and the Pauper (ABC Wonderful World of Disney movie) taped from WYTV in Youngstown in July 2000 with commercials; The Amazing Panda Adventure (1995) copied from retail tape; Donkey Kong: The Legend of the Crystal Coconut (1997) copied from retail tape, after the tape ends, we see a couple minutes of a broadcast of 27 First News at 5:00 (WKBN in Youngstown) circa summer 2000 fed from the second VCR used to copy the movie; end of an episode of Digimon, episodes of S Club 7, Big Wolf on Campus, and partial episode of The Hi-Fi Room taped from Fox Family in July 2000 with commercials

TAPE 3: City of Angels (1998) copied from retail tape, after the tape ends, we see the last few minutes of an episode of The Victory Garden and a couple of promos from WGCU in Fort Myers circa 2000, again fed from the second VCR used to copy the movie

TAPE 4: Sinbad's Summer Jam 3 taped from HBO in 1997; Sinbad's Summer Jam '70s Soul Music Festival taped from HBO in 1997; partial broadcast of Hits from the Street, episode of Linc's, episode of Comicview, broadcast of BET Live, and partial broadcast of BET News taped from BET on 10/10/2000 with commercials

TAPE 5: In the Line of Duty: The Price of Vengeance (NBC made-for-TV movie) taped from WFMJ in Youngstown on 1/23/1994 minus commercials; To My Daughter with Love (NBC made-for-TV movie) taped from WKYC in Cleveland on 1/24/1994 with commercials

TAPE 6: Disappointingly, all that was on this tape was a couple minutes of a broadcast of 21 News Midday Report (WFMJ) in August 2008. The rest of the tape was completely blank. Kind of wish the VCR would have kept recording WFMJ for the rest of the tape. If so, it would have recorded the rest of the newscast, Days of Our Lives, Judge Judy (back to back), Ellen, Dr. Phil, and Oprah.

TAPE 7: James Taylor Live By Request rebroadcast taped from A&E in August 1997 with commercials; Balto (1995) taped from the Disney Channel circa August 1997; Nova episode "Monster of the Milky Way" taped from WNIT in South Bend on 10/31/2006 with promos afterward leading up to the start of Frontline World before the tape runs out--this was recorded in SP speed, while everything else on the tape was in SLP speed

TAPE 8: The Christmas Box (1995) and partial episode of M*A*S*H taped from Hallmark Channel in December 2003 with commercials

TAPE 9: White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf (1994) taped from Disney Channel Free Preview Weekend circa 1995

TAPE 10: Smoky (1946) taped from Cinemax circa 1997

TAPE 11: Five episodes of Justice League Unlimited taped from Boomerang circa 2004 minus commercials

TAPE 12: Alien (1979) taped from USA circa 1995 minus commercials

TAPE 13: The President's Man: A Line in the Sand (2000 CBS made-for-TV movie) taped from WKBN on 1/20/2002 with commercials; President Bush's State of the Union Address (NBC News coverage with Tom Brokaw) taped from WFMJ on 1/29/2002 with a few commercials at the end before the Democratic response; most of a broadcast of Dateline NBC shown after the speech taped from WFMJ on 1/29/2002 with commercials; opening ceremony of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games taped from WFMJ on 2/8/2002 with commercials

TAPE 14: NBC News coverage of George W. Bush speech taped from WFMJ on 3/11/2002; The Early Show segment with Mark McEwen touring the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library with the former president taped from WKBN on 3/12/2002; 27 First News This Morning news brief with Dave Sess and meteorologist Rich Morgan and first few minutes of an episode of Sally Jessy Raphael ("My Child Vanished Without a Trace!") taped from WKBN on 3/12/2002 with a few commercials; CBS Evening News with Dan Rather Eye on America segment taped from WKBN on 3/14/2002; partial weekend broadcast of Today taped from WFMJ on 3/30/2002 with commercials; Dateline NBC special broadcast "Inside the Carrier Stennis" taped from WFMJ on 4/16/2002 minus commercials; CBS News Sunday Morning segment taped from WKBN in April 2002; short final segment of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings taped from WYTV in April 2002

TAPE 15: Six-hour aircheck of WYTV on 5/27/1997: End of an episode of Caryl & Marilyn: Real Friends, 1997 Indianapolis 500, episode of General Hospital joined in progress, episode of The Rosie O'Donnell Show (Penny Marshall, Bill Engvall, and the cast of Titanic [the Broadway musical]), and syndicated episodes of Roseanne and Home Improvement, all with commercials
 
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Well, you can use Tape #6 as a blank cassette to record your shows...
Odd that you found Fort Myers, FL, and Mankato, MN content at a flea market in Youngstown, Ohio. Especially that KEYC is the only station in Mankato.
Great find on the 1997 Indy 500. I have the '91 Indy 500 and part of the '87 Indy 500 (both taped from KAPP Yakima) with commercials.

I did hear a rumor that I will be receiving some prerecorded/blank tapes from a friend of a friend. Her father recorded a ton of stuff off the TV. Not sure when I will acquire the tapes, but whatever this is, it will be a Yakima TV grab bag. Maybe with commercials, maybe not.
 
crainbebo said:
Well, you can use Tape #6 as a blank cassette to record your shows...
Odd that you found Fort Myers, FL, and Mankato, MN content at a flea market in Youngstown, Ohio. Especially that KEYC is the only station in Mankato.
Great find on the 1997 Indy 500. I have the '91 Indy 500 and part of the '87 Indy 500 (both taped from KAPP Yakima) with commercials.

I did hear a rumor that I will be receiving some prerecorded/blank tapes from a friend of a friend. Her father recorded a ton of stuff off the TV. Not sure when I will acquire the tapes, but whatever this is, it will be a Yakima TV grab bag. Maybe with commercials, maybe not.
Click to expand...

And I have part of the 2007 Indy 500 taped from WSIL in Harrisburg, Illinois with commercials. I found that tape while on vacation three years ago. Most of the race got taped over by other programming later on though, specifically the 2009 Bojangles Darlington Southern 500 on KBSI in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

At the start of the tape with Maximum Overdrive and the KEYC newscast was about a second of a taped-over recording of an episode of The Price Is Right. I definitely would have been more interested in that than the Fearnet footage!
 
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Went to a bunch of yard sales today and found a couple of tapes at one sale. There were five in total, but three were just home videos and had no other content on them...the tapes were not marked. The other four sales had no movies, not to mention home-recorded content.

Tape 1 - About two hours of C-SPAN footage from June 11th, 1993; most of it consists of a hearing on accessing papers of former Supreme Court Justices
Tape 2 - KIMA News at 5PM, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and KIMA News at 6PM taped off KIMA-29 Yakima on 2/19/2003 with commercials; first few minutes of a Spin City episode taped off KAPP/ABC in 1999 with a couple of ads before the tape goes blank

Tape 2 was a good find nevertheless. This was the first Saturday of the year for my yard sales visits.
 
Nah...the hearing was taped during the day as it was live.
Those other tapes that were home videos were an elementary Christmas concert (circa 1992), a bunch of camera video and shoots for and from YCTV (local community access channel in Yakima) in 1992, and another with a Yakima Tribal seminar at the Yakima Convention Center around the same time.
No labels on any of those. Why people don't label their tapes...I don't know. And if they were labeled, I wouldn't even bother with them.
The church rummage sale is coming in about two weeks...the same one where I found a tape with a mashup of 1997 KIMA/cable TV content. Plus other sales later on.
 
I was able to "save" a broken tape (no tape guard) from going to the garbage w/ my DIY skills. After opening the screws on a dud tape, and using a different cartridge for the tape itself, I was able to pull out a "tape 41" from the 2nd Holden lot. What's on it?
- "Iron Eagle" (1986) taped from WGN-9 Chicago on 11/10/1988 with commercials. This also includes an Illinois Lottery drawing. Will post these commercials soon.
Also has "Iron Eagle II" (1988) but not sure which station - haven't looked up yet. Probably a pay-TV channel or PPV based on how new the movie was at the time.

Went to two estate sales yesterday where I found ZERO VHS tapes. But I was able to substitute it with a cookbook, and an unopened box of Easter Bunny Solo cups for 25c. Rummage sale is next week at the local church, which I hope will have a ton of recorded tapes.
As for the "friend of a friend"'s lot, by next week I should have an answer if the tapes are still around. Her stepdad was a VCR junkie and has at least a few boxes of recorded tapes. I have NO idea if these are just movies copied off rentals, or if this is a plethora of 1980s-1990s Yakima TV. I'm hoping for the latter...the more rare footage I find from this market, the better. Bonus points for local newscasts, soap operas, talk shows, game shows, cartoons or rare primetime shows not on DVD.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Is it just me, or have these tapes pretty much disappeared from thrift stores at this point?
Have the Copyright Storm Troopers gotten to them?
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Could be a conscious choice by the thrifts not to take them anymore because they can't sell them except to folks like crainbebo, and how many of THEM are there? :) There used to be quite a few CRT monitors in my local Goodwill, then one day they were all gone. I asked and was told Goodwill no longer accepted them. Supply and demand, the guy said, they were taking up room and not moving out the doors.
 
Blanks just go to eBay/Craigslist nowadays. Those lots get a lot of buyers...some of the older lots w/ commercials will get $50+. You can also find them at the occasional garage/yard/estate sale.
BTW I received a ton of rental movies today from the friend of a friend - think I was misunderstood when I meant "recorded tapes". There are also BLANK tapes but the box didn't have any since a few of them were home videos he wanted to keep.
 
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FreddyE1977 said:
Is it just me, or have these tapes pretty much disappeared from thrift stores at this point?
Have the Copyright Storm Troopers gotten to them?
Click to expand...

The recorded tapes, yes, it seems like it. I had found a few of them at thrift stores recently, albeit once in a great while. The most recent case was when I found three used blanks at the local Salvation Army Family Store, which had episodes of Murphy Brown, Married with Children, China Beach and the 1997 Miss Universe Pageant, among some other contents.

There's one family-run thrift store in Bowling Green, Ohio, that I picked up quite a few used blanks from a couple years ago when I was visiting that area with my family. It seemed like there were still a few blanks left on the shelves that I didn't pick up, and I bought about six of them or so.

As for retail tapes, I still see a good amount of them at Goodwill and Salvation Army, but not surprisingly, not as many of those as DVDs.
 
I'll see blank cassettes sometimes. Sometimes I also see blank/recorded CD's at thrift stores. Our local stores are still loaded with VHS tapes (all retail), there used to be a local thrift store in Union Gap (now closed) that had a few recorded VHS tapes.
 
Went to my local church's rummage sale today (which I have gotten recorded tapes two years in a row here). OK finds, picked up four tapes.

Tape 1 - "The Wild One" (1953) and "My Fair Lady" (1964) taped off Cinemax on 11/28/1989 with promos between the two movies
Tape 2 - most of "A Mother's Justice" (1991 TV-Movie) taped off KING-5 Seattle/NBC on 11/25/1991 with commercials; part of "Steel Magnolias" (1989), all of "Top Gun" (1988) and part of "Rain Man" (1988), all taped off unknown pay-TV channels, no promos/commercials/bumpers.
Tape 3 - "Forever Young" (1992) taped off HBO in February 1994 with about two minutes of promos before the movie. Was supposed to have "Folks" (1992) as well with Tom Selleck, but it wasn't on the tape.
Tape 4 - "The Karate Kid" (1984) taped off KNDO-23 Yakima/NBC on 3/2/1987 with commercials; "Stagecoach" (1986) taped off CBS (presumed KIMA) on 4/11/1987 minus ads

-crainbebo
 
Bunch of Denver stuff from the mid to late 80s including...

*The 1988 debut of KTVD channel 20 including a newscast which was nothing more than a shot of the Denver skyline with the audio coming from KOA radio.
*The John Elway Show...KMGH
*Several Blinky Fun Cluub shows from KWGN
*a 1989 promo for KDVR making a big deal that they don't air news.
*several KCNC newscasts when they called themselves "News 4 Colorado"

oh yes the commercials...
ads for the original Elitch Gardens amusement park, Paxton Mills doing mornings on then "Majic 100" ( Now Mix 100 ), Cub Foods when they were in Denver, May D&F department stores, Fashion Bar, Dave Cook sporting goods, the "new" KOOL 105, Hatchs Book Shop, Southglenn Mall plus an ad for the local King Soopers grocery store chain done in Spanish.
 
That was around the time when Denver stations started being uplinked to satellite for out-of-market viewers. They were on Satcom C1 for a long time in the 1990s.
 
crainbebo said:
That was around the time when Denver stations started being uplinked to satellite for out-of-market viewers. They were on Satcom C1 for a long time in the 1990s.
Click to expand...


True. Wasn't this called the Denver Five or something like it ?? Looking back I don't think KDVR was available though I could be wrong. I am pretty sure though that KTVD channel 20 was not available to those outside of Colorado and maybe Wyoming. Now KWGN, KCNC, KRMA, KMGH and KUSA most certainly were available on satellite to out of market viewers in those days.
 
CTListener said:
Could be a conscious choice by the thrifts not to take them anymore because they can't sell them except to folks like crainbebo, and how many of THEM are there? :) There used to be quite a few CRT monitors in my local Goodwill, then one day they were all gone. I asked and was told Goodwill no longer accepted them. Supply and demand, the guy said, they were taking up room and not moving out the doors.
Click to expand...

I have gotten rid of half a dozen CRT's over the past year by just sitting them out on the front driveway wall with FREE marked on them. They last less than one day.
 
I bought my first VCR in the very early 80's and bought two VHS blank reels ($18 apiece) at the same time. I can't identify those now but along the way, and at about the same time, I bought two Three Stooges tapes. They have been watched at least 100 times (by my sister's kids) since then and are still viewable. I also have a complete VHS collection of Log Cabin's Little Rascals bought about the same time. Most of these have never been opened.
 


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