Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

[chandler0201]

Tape 5 from lot:

1) Every 2 Seconds! this was a locally produced (Texas) crime documentary, I'd guess from 1981 or 1982 based on hairstyles and clothes, could find nothing online on it
2) 20/20 episode from 1982 (I think so based on TV spots for Tootsie and other films in theaters), had a story by Geraldo Rivera, and another on the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor relationships, its rare to find old intact 20/20 episodes from what I have seen.
3) Some local news magazine, clipped story so could not tell name of it
4) March 19, 1983 WBC World Welterweight Championship from ABC Wide World of Sports (WWOS) McCrory vs Jones. Included most of the WWOS broadcast including promos for next day programming and sports news breaks on skiing.
5) Small clip of March 19, 1983 newscast from WFAA News 8 before tape ended

 

[chandler0201]

Tape 6:

1) ABC did a boxing tripleheader on November 30, 1979! (sure don't find much from pre 1980!) and most of the 3 fights were recorded on this:
Antuofermo vs Hagler for World Middleweight Championship, oddly enough 10 minutes of this were taped over by home movies with a date stamp of April 1989
Johnson vs Galindez (complete)
Leonard vs Benitez (missing last few rounds as tape stopped, inexplicably) I say that because 4 hour recording options were available in 1979, total running time of 2:36

Tape 7:

This one should have a broader appeal, 3 Made for TV movies, 2 complete, one only first 1/2, all dates are from IMDB airing information:

1) November 15, 1981 "The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid" (KXAS 5 Dallas NBC)
This was from the Project Peacock Series (I believe it was made for TV kid friendly movies in primetime), and was NEVER released on home video, and I can't find it anywhere online, plus less than 40 votes on IMDB. Others from the Project Peacock Series were released on home video, including The Electric Grandmother, but not this one. This was a 1 hour movie based on the famous Coke Super Bowl commercial with Joe Greene from a few years before. Starred Greene and Henry Thomas, less than a year from his E.T. fame.

2) November 29, 1981 "Sizzle" (ABC Sunday Night Movie)
Made for TV movie produced by Aaron Spelling which was a vehicle for then hot Loni Anderson. Decent "mobster movie" but a bit thin plot wise. This was only released on VHS in the mid 1980s and is way out of print.

3) December 1, 1981 "Marva Collins Story" (CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame Series) 2nd half missing
Never knew Hallmark Hall of Fame went back this far. 2nd half was missing as the maximum 4 hour running time of a tape back in those days expired. Early role for Morgan Freeman. This was later released on DVD, so its the least rare of the group.

 

[chandler0201]

Tape 8:

October 16, 1986: Twining vs Breland, Triplett vs English (partial of USA Sports fight night)
October 31, 1981: Bumphus vs Rodriguez (NBC)
November 1, 1981: "Death of a Centerfold-The Dorothy Stratten Story" (NBC TV Movie Premiere), nearly complete. This story would be remade a few years later as "Star 80". Interestingly, this starred Jamie Lee Curtis, and was released a few days after Halloween 2.
November 1, 1981: KXAS 5 Action News, 16 minutes of the 30 minute newscast. News then was as grim as it is now, but the meterology equipment has improved substantially.

Tape 9:
August 1984?: CNN coverage of press speeches by Jesse Jackson and Mario Cuomo, I assume this was during the 1984 Democratic Convention
August 1984: Freeman Reports, interviews with Jesse Jackson and Walter Williams, plus some CNN newsbreaks. These two events are the oldest CNN footage I've seen so far.
Lots of weird channel surfing for the next 30 minutes of the tape, between CNN, CSPAN, and 1984 Summer Olympics coverage on ABC
March 1, 1982: Bruxton vs Fletcher (NBC)
March 7, 1982: Hagler vs Lee (ABC)
March 13, 1982: Parker vs Hamsho (NBC)
tape ended with a few minutes of the 4th quarter of the 1982 Pro Bowl (ABC)

 

[crainbebo]

BTW, did these people love to use their 'pause' button to death on commercials, or did they leave them in? The news footage is hard to find...good finds!

 

[danderson6500]

The soap operas today look somewhat different than the soaps from two or three decades ago- quicker scenes and a few more outdoor scenes.

A couple of things that you never see anymore on network TV: When the announcer mentions a commercial sponsor, and they show a slide(!) of the sponsor's product. No video, just a slide. Worth noting that KABC and KNBC in Los Angeles were actually putting up brief PSA's on slides during some of their newscasts as late as the mid 1980's. I recall that on the original CBS This Morning, after they did their last cut-in for local weather (around 8:55 in the morning), they would then show a slide of Dan Rather, with the CBS Evening News logo, while Harry Smith or Paula Zahn would say what was coming up that night. This was going on as late as the early 1980's.

As late as 1988, I recall that ABC, during coverage of one of the League Championship Series in Major League Baseball, would actually have the play-by-play guy say they were pausing for station identification at the top of the hour, mention that people were watching the ABC television network, and then give the local station a few seconds for a VO ID.

Speaking of sports, there are some sports events and other programs dating back to the 1980's at this link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/172015369723?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

When i was a kid, i remember Jay Stewart doing that; you'd see a slide of let's say Shasta while Stewart mentioned the product.

As late as 1993, ABC was still doing the pauses for station identification at the top of the hour during college football games. They never did it on MNF or any of their other sports shows.

 

[chandler0201]

BTW, did these people love to use their 'pause' button to death on commercials, or did they leave them in? The news footage is hard to find...good finds!

Luckily, it looked like most of these were "timer recordings" aka they left it to record for 2 to 3 hour blocks, so all commercials were intact. Lots of 1979-1983 era advertising and some local ads from the Dallas/Forth Worth area as that is where all of these were from.

I've posted some of the more interesting single commercials on my youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/chandler0201

At some point in the future I will get around to converting whole blocks, some of these late 70s-early 80s commercials look unique to Youtube.

 

[Scott2013]

Three tapes found today, one at a yard sale a few blocks from me and two at a rummage sale at the local VFW Hall.

TAPE 1: Episodes of Loving and All My Children taped from WEWS in Cleveland on 12/29/1994 with commercials; partially taped-over recording of The Land Before Time (1988) copied from rental tape

TAPE 2: A Christmas Carol (1984 CBS made-for-TV movie) and most of Newscenter 8 at 11:00 with Tim Taylor and Robin Swoboda taped from WJW in Cleveland on 12/23/1986 with commercials; last 10-15 minutes of an unknown Richard Pryor stand-up special taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 1986; partial episodes of The Cosby Show and Family Ties taped from WKYC on 2/20/1986 with commercials, weak audio. There appears to be a little bit more afterward that I didn't bother to look at due to the worsening quality of the tape.

TAPE 3: Babe (1995) taped from Starz circa 1996; clips from an episode of Rosie O'Donnell (N Sync performance of "Pop" and interview) taped from WINK in Fort Myers on 6/5/2001 minus commercials

At the yard sale where I found the first tape, there was also what appeared to be an instructional videotape about car parts for Buick models that had a recording tab in place and was inside a Kodak T-120 blank tape sleeve. Knowing what happened with the Land Before Time tape, I probably should have picked that one up on the chance the instructional video might have been taped over with some other TV programming. The label on this other tape was typewritten.

 

[CTListener]

Three tapes found today, one at a yard sale a few blocks from me and two at a rummage sale at the local VFW Hall.

TAPE 1: Episodes of Loving and All My Children taped from WEWS in Cleveland on 12/29/1994 with commercials; partially taped-over recording of The Land Before Time (1988) copied from rental tape

TAPE 2: A Christmas Carol (1984 CBS made-for-TV movie) and most of Newscenter 8 at 11:00 with Tim Taylor and Robin Swoboda taped from WJW in Cleveland on 12/23/1986 with commercials; last 10-15 minutes of an unknown Richard Pryor stand-up special taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 1986; partial episodes of The Cosby Show and Family Ties taped from WKYC on 2/20/1986 with commercials, weak audio. There appears to be a little bit more afterward that I didn't bother to look at due to the worsening quality of the tape.

TAPE 3: Babe (1995) taped from Starz circa 1996; clips from an episode of Rosie O'Donnell (N Sync performance of "Pop" and interview) taped from WINK in Fort Myers on 6/5/2001 minus commercials

At the yard sale where I found the first tape, there was also what appeared to be an instructional videotape about car parts for Buick models that had a recording tab in place and was inside a Kodak T-120 blank tape sleeve. Knowing what happened with the Land Before Time tape, I probably should have picked that one up on the chance the instructional video might have been taped over with some other TV programming. The label on this other tape was typewritten.

No offense, but I'd rather watch those old fights on chandler's tapes -- commercials or no commercials -- than any of this stuff!

 

[danderson6500]

There was one thing i was glad i taped over once, and that was the awful Giants-Bills game from 1987(during the players strike).

 

[CTListener]

There was one thing i was glad i taped over once, and that was the awful Giants-Bills game from 1987(during the players strike).

I taped a Red Sox strikebreakers game from 1995 spring training and taped it over after watching it once. Now I wish I'd saved it as an artifact, because I've never seen one posted on YouTube or anywhere else -- and I have a feeling MLB will never make any of those games available on its own YouTube channel or on demand.

 

[crainbebo]

Went to an estate sale in Selah, WA yesterday and found seven more keepers, out of 10 found. Two turned out to be erased.
Tape 1 - 'The Woman in Red' (1984) and 'The Graduate' (1967) taped off KSTW/11 in April 1993 with commercials; partial episode of Murder, She Wrote taped off USA in April 1993; episode of Empty Nest taped off KNDO/NBC 4/24/1993 with commercials; partial broadcast of the K-Mart Greater Greensboro Open (final round) taped off KIMA/CBS 4/25/1993 with commercials; last 5-10 minutes of Empire of the Air taped off KYVE/PBS in March 1993 with several minutes of promos - TDK EHG T-120
Tape 2 - 'Big' (1988) taped off HBO in March 1990; 'Clara's Heart' (1988) and 'Cocoon: The Return' (1988) taped off HBO 3/12/1990 with promos; ends with about 15 minutes of a Lawrence Welk Christmas special taped off KYVE/PBS in December 1989 with a pledge break following. Scotch T-120
Tape 3 - Episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire taped off KAPP/ABC 9/14/2000 with commercials, rest of tape is blank. TDK EHG T-120
Tape 4 - 'City of Angels' (1998) taped off HBO in April 1999 with promos (but they were all muted!); partial coverage of an Italian soccer match taped off Fox Sports World in March 1999 with commercials - VERY rare footage to find! Fox Sports World later turned into Fox Soccer and is now the current FXX. TDK HS T-120
Tape 5 - Episode of The Statler Bros. Show taped off TNN in June 1995 with commercials; AFI's Tribute to Steven Spielberg taped off A&E in June 1995 with commercials; another Statler Bros. taped off TNN around the same time with commercials; Barbara Mandrell: Steppin' Out (concert) taped off TNN in June 1995 with commercials; one more Statler Bros. Show taped off TNN with commercials; ends with about 5 minutes of Home Improvement taped in 1994 or 1995, in SP mode. Maxell XL-HIFI T-120
Tape 6 - Episode of Major Dad taped off KIMA/CBS 11/13/1989 with commercials; several hours of The Discovery Channel taped 11/14/1989 with commercials follows. This includes an episodes of Rendezvous, Survival!, The Great Escape, Discovery Showcase: Alaska Turns 30, Beyond 2000 and Ski New England. Ends with a partial broadcast of the Isuzu Kapalua International (third-round) taped off ESPN 11/10/1989 with commercials
Tape 7 - Episode of Biography taped off A&E 12/9/1999 with commercials (Regis Philbin); Mariah Carey's Homecoming Special taped off KCYU-LP/Fox 12/14/1999 with commercials; complete broadcast of KNDO Live at Six taped 12/19/1999 with commercials; episodes of Gimme Shelter! and Your New House taped off Discovery Channel in December 1999 with commercials; episode of Wild On taped off E! in December 1999 with commercials; partial episode of Everybody Loves Raymond taped off KIMA/CBS in March 1998 with one commercial break; episode of Home Improvement taped off KAPP/ABC 3/17/1998 with commercials; episode of Seinfeld taped off KNDO/NBC 3/18/1998 with commercials; episode of The Statler Bros. Show taped off TNN in March 1998 with commercials; ends with a partial episode of Beyond Reality taped off KCYU-LP/Fox in February 1998 with commercials. Sony T-160.

An eighth tape included a very cool home movie - a spring music program from Summitview Elementary in Yakima, held in May 1990. I believe it was the 1st grade class that performed. The woman who passed away taught for over 20 years at Summitview.

 

[Scott2013]

Went to an estate sale in Selah, WA yesterday and found seven more keepers, out of 10 found. Two turned out to be erased.
Tape 1 - 'The Woman in Red' (1984) and 'The Graduate' (1967) taped off KSTW/11 in April 1993 with commercials; partial episode of Murder, She Wrote taped off USA in April 1993; episode of Empty Nest taped off KNDO/NBC 4/24/1993 with commercials; partial broadcast of the K-Mart Greater Greensboro Open (final round) taped off KIMA/CBS 4/25/1993 with commercials; last 5-10 minutes of Empire of the Air taped off KYVE/PBS in March 1993 with several minutes of promos - TDK EHG T-120
Tape 2 - 'Big' (1988) taped off HBO in March 1990; 'Clara's Heart' (1988) and 'Cocoon: The Return' (1988) taped off HBO 3/12/1990 with promos; ends with about 15 minutes of a Lawrence Welk Christmas special taped off KYVE/PBS in December 1989 with a pledge break following. Scotch T-120
Tape 3 - Episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire taped off KAPP/ABC 9/14/2000 with commercials, rest of tape is blank. TDK EHG T-120
Tape 4 - 'City of Angels' (1998) taped off HBO in April 1999 with promos (but they were all muted!); partial coverage of an Italian soccer match taped off Fox Sports World in March 1999 with commercials - VERY rare footage to find! Fox Sports World later turned into Fox Soccer and is now the current FXX. TDK HS T-120
Tape 5 - Episode of The Statler Bros. Show taped off TNN in June 1995 with commercials; AFI's Tribute to Steven Spielberg taped off A&E in June 1995 with commercials; another Statler Bros. taped off TNN around the same time with commercials; Barbara Mandrell: Steppin' Out (concert) taped off TNN in June 1995 with commercials; one more Statler Bros. Show taped off TNN with commercials; ends with about 5 minutes of Home Improvement taped in 1994 or 1995, in SP mode. Maxell XL-HIFI T-120
Tape 6 - Episode of Major Dad taped off KIMA/CBS 11/13/1989 with commercials; several hours of The Discovery Channel taped 11/14/1989 with commercials follows. This includes an episodes of Rendezvous, Survival!, The Great Escape, Discovery Showcase: Alaska Turns 30, Beyond 2000 and Ski New England. Ends with a partial broadcast of the Isuzu Kapalua International (third-round) taped off ESPN 11/10/1989 with commercials
Tape 7 - Episode of Biography taped off A&E 12/9/1999 with commercials (Regis Philbin); Mariah Carey's Homecoming Special taped off KCYU-LP/Fox 12/14/1999 with commercials; complete broadcast of KNDO Live at Six taped 12/19/1999 with commercials; episodes of Gimme Shelter! and Your New House taped off Discovery Channel in December 1999 with commercials; episode of Wild On taped off E! in December 1999 with commercials; partial episode of Everybody Loves Raymond taped off KIMA/CBS in March 1998 with one commercial break; episode of Home Improvement taped off KAPP/ABC 3/17/1998 with commercials; episode of Seinfeld taped off KNDO/NBC 3/18/1998 with commercials; episode of The Statler Bros. Show taped off TNN in March 1998 with commercials; ends with a partial episode of Beyond Reality taped off KCYU-LP/Fox in February 1998 with commercials. Sony T-160.

An eighth tape included a very cool home movie - a spring music program from Summitview Elementary in Yakima, held in May 1990. I believe it was the 1st grade class that performed. The woman who passed away taught for over 20 years at Summitview.

I recorded that Biography episode on Regis Philbin, but unfortunately, I cut out the commercials when I taped it. Alex Trebek hosted that episode as part of Game Show Week. Other subjects of episodes that week were Bob Barker, Vanna White, Monty Hall and Merv Griffin.

 

[chandler0201]

I taped a Red Sox strikebreakers game from 1995 spring training and taped it over after watching it once. Now I wish I'd saved it as an artifact, because I've never seen one posted on YouTube or anywhere else -- and I have a feeling MLB will never make any of those games available on its own YouTube channel or on demand.

Yeah MLB only really posts milestone games (3000th hit, 500th homer, no hitters, perfect games, etc.) as well as historically important World Series or playoffs games.

Spring Training games are hard to find for any team and any year. I've gone through hundreds of tapes and I only found one Spring Training game, and it was a relatively common opener with the Yankees playing the Braves in the early 1990s.

People are getting a lot better at posting MLB stuff on Youtube, especially the relatively rare regular season games. So far MLB has not been as aggressive at takedowns as the NFL has been.

 

[hamster]

Somewhat related to this thread but yesterday I was watching on You Tube "Disc-O-Ten". A teenage dance show from 1967 by WAVY-TV 10 in Norfolk, Virginia. I imagine if I were to call up WAVY and ask them for a copy of Disc-O-Ten i would get the line that they don't have a copy and since VCRs weren't around in 1967 how on earth someone is able to upload that on You Tube ??

 

[filmwritr4]

Has anyone here managed to find tapes recorded off New Orleans stations? I'm hoping to find any vintage newscasts, or even network/syndicated shows with local commercials. I grew up in that market.

 

[Scott2013]

Well, I just got back from a short family vacation in Niagara Falls, New York. By a stroke of luck, one day we were there, we spotted and stopped at a garage sale where I picked up two tapes. Not much in the way of commercial TV though. One tape contained broadcasts of Ask the Pastor and The Doctor and the Word taped from WNYB in Buffalo on 1/5/1995 with intershows between programs. At the time, WNYB was located on Channel 49, which now belongs to WNYO, a MyNetworkTV affiliate. WNYB carried religious programs from TCT and TBN at that time. WNYB is now on Channel 26 and is still an affiliate of TCT. After the WNYB recordings, the tape reverts to a partially taped-over broadcast of Sammy Davis Jr. 60th Anniversary Celebration (ABC special) taped from WKBW in Buffalo on 2/4/1990 minus commercials. The second tape I got had Samson and Delilah (1949) copied from a rental tape.

 

[crainbebo]

I took the week off last week, and yesterday I visited an estate sale in Yakima where I found some VHS tapes. Not a lot of interesting things in said house, just normal estate sale stuff. The tapes had good content nevertheless.
Tape 1 - 'Oliver Twist' (1948) taped off Showtime circa late 1986; 'Enemy Mine' (1985) taped off Showtime circa 1985; SportsCenter clip and ESPN Lightweight Championship: Gonzalez vs. Santana taped off ESPN Christmas Eve 1986 with commercials. Polaroid T-120
Tape 2 - Most of part 1 of 'Roses Are For The Rich' (again! I've found tapes with at least one of the parts on THREE separate occasions now...) taped off KIMA/CBS 5/17/1987 with commercials, but unlike the other tape I have of pt 1, this also includes the CBS Sunday Night News and about 10 minutes of Carson's Comedy Classics before the tape runs out. Polaroid T-120 in SP mode
Tape 3 - Starts with a home movie, then cuts to about a half hour of static before it cuts again to about an hour of the Houston Knights pilot (CBS Special Movie) and about 20 minutes of KIMA NewsBeat at 11 taped off KIMA/CBS 3/11/1987 with commercials. Polaroid T-120 in SP mode
Tape 4 - 'Miracle in the Wilderness' taped off TNT 12/1/1991 with commercials (local Spokane ads inserted); 'You're Never Too Young' (1955) taped off AMC in December 1991 with promos; 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation' (1985) taped off KXLY-4 Spokane/ABC 12/6/1992 with commercials (already have this taped off KCTZ Bozeman on a Beta tape). Maxell EX T-120.

 

[Scott2013]

No luck at any of the yard sales I went to yesterday or today. Quite a few of the sales I went to today had a lot of retail tapes and a few had blank tapes still sealed in their original packaging, but no used blanks to be found.

I may head back up to the Litchfield Flea Market outside of Medina tomorrow. Most of the time I end up finding something there, although it kind of depends on which vendors are selling what on any given weekend. Most of the vendors at this place are outdoors setting up tables with merchandise outside of their vehicles and I usually find different vendors outside each time I'm there, but there are also a few more permanent vendors inside two buildings, as well as a few people selling items in storage units. Last time I was there, one of the indoor vendors had several used blank tapes for sale. One of the three tapes I bought from her had episodes of Days of Our Lives taped in 1998, while the two others I bought had movies taped from premium cable channels. I also spotted and bought from a few outdoor vendors selling tapes there last time as well.

And just down the street from there is a little thrift store called the Indoor Yard Sale. Only time I had any luck there though was in February when I found tapes containing Winds of the Wasteland on AMC, a "Headlines" segment of a Tonight Show broadcast from 2000, My Cousin Vinny on FX, a Cleveland Cavaliers game on SportsChannel Ohio in 1993 (now Fox Sports Ohio), the 1992 National City Triathlon of Champions on WKYC and both parts of the 2004 USA miniseries Spartacus.

 

[crainbebo]

Two more tapes found today at another estate sale in Yakima. The other six had movies and 'North and South' minus commercials.
Tape 1 - 'Big Jake' (1971) taped off TBS 1/11/1991 with some commercials (others paused out); 'West of the Divide' (1934) taped off KYVE-47 Yakima circa January 1991; partial episode of Singer & Sons (sitcom that only lasted 4 episodes) and partial episode of Dear John taped off KNDO/NBC 6/13/1990 with commercials
Tape 2 - 'In Old California' (1942) taped off TBS 3/21/1991 with commercials; 'McQ' (1974) and 'Donovan's Reef' (1963) taped off unknown channels minus commercials; partial episode of The Flintstones and Tom & Jerry's Funhouse taped off TBS 3/22/1991 with commercials

 

[Scott2013]

Some pretty good finds from eight tapes I bought at the Litchfield Flea Market yesterday morning. Most of the vendors I bought from had even more tapes that I could have bought if I had more money and if some of them were in better condition. Here's what I did find.

Indoor vendor #1:
TAPE 1: First 15 minutes of Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets vs. Mount Union Purple Raiders (college basketball) taped from WBNX in Akron in January 1988 with a few commercials (mostly just has the commentators' introduction, coach interviews and first couple minutes of the actual game); Field of Dreams (1989) taped from USA circa 1996 minus commercials; partial recording of The Color Purple (1985) taped from unknown pay TV channel sometime in the late 1980s, about three minutes of this is taped over with a partial commercial break from WOIO in Cleveland that was shown during In Cold Blood (CBS made-for-TV movie) on 11/24/1996. Laser T-120.

TAPE 2: 2 hour and 10 minute aircheck of WJW in Cleveland taped on 12/11/2001--most of an episode of 24, Fox 8 News at 10:00 with Tim Taylor and Stacey Bell (fill-in for Wilma Smith) and episode of The Drew Carey Show ("Drew's Dance Party Special") with commercials. BASF T-130--originally had Pretty Woman (1990) and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) on it.

There were a few other tapes in the box I found these in in this booth. All were labeled with movie titles, but given what I found on this vendor's tapes before, some of them could have very easily been taped over with other content.


Indoor vendor #2:
TAPE 3: Sadat (1983 miniseries) taped from Showtime on October 12 and 13, 1992; Lord of the Lions: Adamson of Africa (1989) taped from the Disney Channel circa 1993; tape ends with a short random clip of an Oprah episode presumably taped from WEWS in Cleveland circa 1993. Kodak T-120.

A few more used blanks were found in this vendor's booth as well, but most had mold in them. The only clean one there was a compilation of documentaries on Princess Diana taped a year after her death, including Dateline NBC and A&E Biography broadcasts from 8/30/1998, which I already have on another tape with commercials from both shows. Another tape, an older BASF T-160 from the early '90s, was labeled with several news documentary programs, including a 20/20 documentary special on the Sam Sheppard trial.

Outdoor vendor #1:
TAPE 4: Top Gun (1986) taped from WUAB in Cleveland (Eight O'clock Movie) circa 1991 or 1992 minus commercials, shown UNCUT; partially taped-over showing of Invasion U.S.A. taped from unknown Cleveland TV station in May 1988 with one commercial break; Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) taped from WKYC in Cleveland (NBC Movie of the Week) on 5/20/1988 minus commercials; The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) taped from WOIO (Cinema Nineteen) in May 1988, some commercial breaks included, but most were cut out; partially taped-over broadcast of Praise the Lord taped from WDLI in Canton sometime in 1986 with a short intershow afterward. TDK T-120.

TAPE 5: Big Chuck and Lil John movie presentation of Nowhere to Hide (1987) taped from WJW on 4/20/1996 with commercials and Big Chuck and Lil John skits and intermissions during the movie, Dick Goddard interrupts programming twice with updates on a tornado watch; partially taped-over episode of Matt Waters and first few minutes of an episode of American Gothic taped from WOIO on 1/17/1996 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 6: Episodes of La Femme Nikita, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, another episode of La Femme Nikita and partial Mojave Convertible Eyewear infomercial taped from USA on January 16-17, 2000 with commercials, including local ads from Armstrong Cable in Ashland, Ohio. RCA T-120.

Bonus find: Maxell UR 60 audiocassette labeled "WTOF 98 Gospel Music." Haven't listened to this one yet. WTOF is a Christian radio station in Bay Minette, Alabama on the frequency 1110 AM (perhaps "98" refers to the year it was recorded?) This vendor had boxes of audiocassettes, including several home-recorded with religious sermons and gospel music. A few of these were Jimmy Swaggart sermons, including one labeled "Jimmy Swaggart on TV." Wondering if I should have picked this one up as well.

This vendor also had a lot more used blank VHS tapes, mostly containing movies and a couple more containing La Femme Nikita episodes. Given what I've found from this guy, perhaps the rest of these were taped from local stations or basic cable channels rather than premium cable channels.

Outdoor vendor #2:
TAPE 7: It Started in Naples (1960) and partial showing of Touch of Evil (1958) taped from AMC circa 1996 with promos before both movies. TDK T-120.

TAPE 8: Most of it is home video footage of clips of various pee-wee football games at Ranger Stadium at North Ridgeville High School; partially taped-over Cinema Nineteen presentation of The Love Bug (1968) taped from WOIO in February 1989 with commercials. Orchid Super Visual T-120.

Yet another vendor was selling even more tapes inside two large tubs, but I didn't pick any of those up because many of them were moldy. One tape contained the movies Braveheart (1995) and Eraser (1996) and another was labeled "VH1 Hip-Hop Honors 2008," the latter of which was missing its tape guard. There were a bunch more, but like I said, most of them were pretty beaten up.

Lastly, this Saturday is the Hinckley Community Garage Sale. Usually more than 100 homes in this small town participate in this event, which also includes a flea market in the parking lot of the local elementary school and a rummage sale at the local Catholic church. My best year in finding tapes at these sales was 2013, which was the first year I went.