Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

[Scott2013]

Forgot to post these finds from the Litchfield Flea Market from the weekend before last.
TAPE 1: Doctor Zhivago (1965) taped from TCM circa 1999; most of The River (1984) and partial broadcast of Cold Sassy Tree (1989 made-for-TV movie) taped from TNT on January 14-15, 1999 with commercials; partial episode of The Waltons taped from TNN in January 1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of Live on Five, News Channel 5 at 6:00, ABC World News Tonight (Charles Gibson substitutes for the late Peter Jennings, includes a rather eerie feature on Osama bin Laden less than three years before 9/11 happened) and most of Wheel of Fortune (missing the goodbye segment and credits at the end) taped from WEWS on 12/24/1998 with commercials. TDK T-160.

TAPE 2: Parts one and two of Seasons of Love (CBS miniseries) taped from WOIO on March 7 and 9, 1999 minus commercials; Rachel and the Stranger (1948), episode of Cartoon Alley and partial broadcast of The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) taped from TCM in March 2006 with promos. RCA T-120.

Also went to the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds Flea Market where I found two audiocassettes supposedly containing oldies recorded from WJAS in Pittsburgh. Haven't listened to either of them yet.

 

[VideoTreasures]

Also as a warning to the other archivists on the board, when you transfer to DVD, MAKE SURE YOU SAVE YOUR ISO FILES OR AT LEAST AN MP4 OF EVERYTHING AS BACKUP! I say this because I've been dealing with DVD-R and DVD+R discs since 2005 or earlier, and they fail the older they get, some started failing at the 10 year mark, and many others around 15 years. Ironically, our analog tapes will probably outlive this optical media, especially burned optical media.

That's what I do. DVD-R discs do not last forever and are getting more and more expensive. When I convert everything, it's always in XP (for 60-minute programs or two half-hour shows) and SP (for mostly movie broadcasts and specials, sometimes I divide the broadcast by two discs, if whatever movie/special runs longer than two hours).

 

[chandler0201]

Some more random pulls from tape boxes:

Tape 1 nothing marked on labels but hard to read post it note with Bermuda Triangle on it, BASF T120 stock
This appears to be a "set it and forget it" taping from 6 straight hours of TBS programming:
1992/10/23 Beyond the Bermuda Triangle (1h30m)
1992/10/23 Satan's Triangle (1h30m) both of these were 1970s Movie of the Week TV movies, the latter pretty good actually
1992/10/23 The Bermuda Triangle (2h) dubious documentary in the vein of the "In Search Of" series
1992/10/24 Killer Party (1h11m partial) TBS Nite Movies finally some non HBO horror movie love

Tape 2 marked The Sacketts in pencil late 80s Maxell EX T120 stock
1989/12/16 The Sacketts Part 1 (WTVD11) Million Dollar Movie (this was usually the 1130PM movie then) (1h56m)
1989/12/17 WTVD11 11PM News (5m partial just sports report)
1989/12/17 The Sacketts Part 2 (WTVD11) (1h55m)
1989/12/18 Crimestoppers 800 (WTVD11) (30m) QUITE THE RARE SHOW HERE! From what I can tell it was some sort of lower budget clone of America's Most Wanted, given it was syndicated and it aired at 1:30AM EST on an early Monday morning.
1989/12/18 ABC News Weekend Report (WTVD11) (15m) reair of the prior day report
1989/12/18 WTVD11 11PM News (30m) reair of the same broadcast already on this tape but this time complete
1989/12/18 WTVD11 Sign off (2m) apparently they used the Blue Angels Air Force theme
Rest was static I guess taper left it going until it rewound to the beginning

Tape 3 marked Arsenio Hall/MC Hammer
This one was a strange mashup of what I would guess early 90s TV clips from my local markets:
-Arsenio Hall rap (5m)
-Mike Tyson Interview on Evander Holyfield match (2m) from ABC Wide World of Sports
-MC Hammer performance (3m)
-Showtime at the Apollo Amateur Night standup hosted by Sinbad (21m)
-Yet another MC Hammer performance (4m) Total Running Time of only 35m

Tape 4 marked Linda Rondstadt with Tax marked through
1989? Linda Rondstadt Whats New in Concert (1h) (KPBS San Diego) recorded at SP
1989/3/5 Day One (last hour of 3 hour movie) (KFMB8)
1989/2/27 Morton Downey Jr Show (KGTV10) (1h2m with a promo for the sneak peek of Coach) topic was the KKK and racism
-I was excited to find this one as this was one of those shows that my parents DID NOT let me watch as a kid. By 1989 this show was syndicated all across the country, mostly on independent stations like WKFT40 locally for me, but this actually made it to the San Diego ABC affiliate. From what I can tell this particular episode is NOT on Youtube, though a surprisingly large number are. Hindsight being 20/20, this show would be considered an influence on the Jerry Springer show, but the main difference being Morton Downey Jr was more in the vein of Andrew Dice Clay or Sam Kinison.
1989/2/27 Love Connection (6m partial) (KGTV10) sadly this ended early as the first contents were recorded in SP but the rest EP

Tape 5 unmarked Maxell tape stock
1992/6/23 "Red Heat" CBS Tuesday Movie Special (WFMY2) (1h57m) some of the salty language network edits were hilarious
1992/6/23 WFMY2 11PM News (30m)
1992/6/23 Newhart syndicated unknown episode (30m)
1992/6/24 Crimetime After Primetime (5m) intro of an episode of Forever Knight
1992? "Dances with Wolves (3h) Showtime airing
1992? Showtime promos from Free Preview Weekend which I assume prior movie recording came from (7m)

 

[anotherguyTN]

Also as a warning to the other archivists on the board, when you transfer to DVD, MAKE SURE YOU SAVE YOUR ISO FILES OR AT LEAST AN MP4 OF EVERYTHING AS BACKUP! I say this because I've been dealing with DVD-R and DVD+R discs since 2005 or earlier, and they fail the older they get, some started failing at the 10 year mark, and many others around 15 years. Ironically, our analog tapes will probably outlive this optical media, especially burned optical media.

I don't know why I missed this post earlier I've been in the process of transferring my VHS tapes to DVD, usually direct recording VCR to DVD recorder. But it sounds like I'd be better off transferring to MP4 and keep the tapes. Thanks for the info.

 

[Mauro1515]

Some more random pulls from tape boxes:

Tape 1 nothing marked on labels but hard to read post it note with Bermuda Triangle on it, BASF T120 stock
This appears to be a "set it and forget it" taping from 6 straight hours of TBS programming:
1992/10/23 Beyond the Bermuda Triangle (1h30m)
1992/10/23 Satan's Triangle (1h30m) both of these were 1970s Movie of the Week TV movies, the latter pretty good actually
1992/10/23 The Bermuda Triangle (2h) dubious documentary in the vein of the "In Search Of" series
1992/10/24 Killer Party (1h11m partial) TBS Nite Movies finally some non HBO horror movie love

Tape 2 marked The Sacketts in pencil late 80s Maxell EX T120 stock
1989/12/16 The Sacketts Part 1 (WTVD11) Million Dollar Movie (this was usually the 1130PM movie then) (1h56m)
1989/12/17 WTVD11 11PM News (5m partial just sports report)
1989/12/17 The Sacketts Part 2 (WTVD11) (1h55m)
1989/12/18 Crimestoppers 800 (WTVD11) (30m) QUITE THE RARE SHOW HERE! From what I can tell it was some sort of lower budget clone of America's Most Wanted, given it was syndicated and it aired at 1:30AM EST on an early Monday morning.
1989/12/18 ABC News Weekend Report (WTVD11) (15m) reair of the prior day report
1989/12/18 WTVD11 11PM News (30m) reair of the same broadcast already on this tape but this time complete
1989/12/18 WTVD11 Sign off (2m) apparently they used the Blue Angels Air Force theme
Rest was static I guess taper left it going until it rewound to the beginning

Tape 3 marked Arsenio Hall/MC Hammer
This one was a strange mashup of what I would guess early 90s TV clips from my local markets:
-Arsenio Hall rap (5m)
-Mike Tyson Interview on Evander Holyfield match (2m) from ABC Wide World of Sports
-MC Hammer performance (3m)
-Showtime at the Apollo Amateur Night standup hosted by Sinbad (21m)
-Yet another MC Hammer performance (4m) Total Running Time of only 35m

Tape 4 marked Linda Rondstadt with Tax marked through
1989? Linda Rondstadt Whats New in Concert (1h) (KPBS San Diego) recorded at SP
1989/3/5 Day One (last hour of 3 hour movie) (KFMB8)
1989/2/27 Morton Downey Jr Show (KGTV10) (1h2m with a promo for the sneak peek of Coach) topic was the KKK and racism
-I was excited to find this one as this was one of those shows that my parents DID NOT let me watch as a kid. By 1989 this show was syndicated all across the country, mostly on independent stations like WKFT40 locally for me, but this actually made it to the San Diego ABC affiliate. From what I can tell this particular episode is NOT on Youtube, though a surprisingly large number are. Hindsight being 20/20, this show would be considered an influence on the Jerry Springer show, but the main difference being Morton Downey Jr was more in the vein of Andrew Dice Clay or Sam Kinison.
1989/2/27 Love Connection (6m partial) (KGTV10) sadly this ended early as the first contents were recorded in SP but the rest EP

Tape 5 unmarked Maxell tape stock
1992/6/23 "Red Heat" CBS Tuesday Movie Special (WFMY2) (1h57m) some of the salty language network edits were hilarious
1992/6/23 WFMY2 11PM News (30m)
1992/6/23 Newhart syndicated unknown episode (30m)
1992/6/24 Crimetime After Primetime (5m) intro of an episode of Forever Knight
1992? "Dances with Wolves (3h) Showtime airing
1992? Showtime promos from Free Preview Weekend which I assume prior movie recording came from (7m)

The 1989 Linda Ronstadt Concert on KPBS San Diego was actually called "Linda Ronstadt with the Nelson Riddle Orcehestra", and it first aired as part of the station's August 1989 Membership Campaign because the station actually aired a Linda Ronstadt Canciones de Mi Padre on Great Performances on March 3, 1989!!

 

[chandler0201]

4 more from the endless bin:

Tape 1 marked The Brain unbranded 80s tape, the same one that some urban outfitters turned into a shoe design
-1987 Fall? 3 episodes of the WNET produced series The Brain (1983) hosted by George Page (WUNC TV4) (2h55m)
I'm not certain from IMDB research how many episodes this series had, but the 3 I saw were quite good.

Tape 2 marked Wise Guy #1 1980s Scotch T120
I was hoping it would be some first run episodes of this hard to find 80s classic and it was indeed (though the summer reair)
-1988/7/6 Wiseguy 1x5 (or 1x4 depending on sources) The Birthday Surprise (WFMY2) (1h)
-1988/7/13 Wiseguy 1x6 One on One (WFMY2) (1h)
-1988/7/27 Wiseguy 1x7 The Prodigal Son (WFMY2) (58m)
-1988/8/3 Wiseguy 1x8 A Deal, A Deal (WFMY2) (46m only one with commercials cut)
-1988/8/10 Wiseguy 1x9 and 1x10 (WFMY2) (1h58m) TRT-5h42m
This one curiously got the CBS Special bumper, though it was just 2 regular episodes back to back. One thing I found interesting about this show is that even though it was numbered like traditional TV "seasons" it actually was a series of self contained story arcs (somewhat similar to Doctor Who), this one was 10 episodes long. Famously, Kevin Spacey starred in the following story arc.

Tape 3 unmarked unknown late 80s T120 tape
This thing starts with a bizarre copied from commercial tape that had a ton of clips about lead paint and lead poisoning from various local TV news stations across the country, as well as how to videos on lead paint removal (2h5m total). Unfortunately this copied over some potentially good stuff, like
-1989/5/14 NBC Sunday Night Movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off (WPTF28) (13m partial) Network Premiere no less
-1990/11/22 WTVD11 530PM News (6m) and 1990/11/22 WTVD 6PM News (30m) then back to
-1989/5/14 NBC Sunday Night Movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off (WPTF28) (12m last part)
TRT- 3h9m

Tape 4 marked Twins
-Twins (either rental copy or tightly edited HBO airing) (1h45m)
-1990/1/7 Drug Wars The Camarena Story Part 1 (1h40m)
-1990/1/7 NBC News Special Report on Camarena Murder (15m)
Odd that NBC inserted 15 minutes of news reports on the actual crime the miniseries was dramatizing, on each night. I guess it was a good way to stretch a 2 part miniseries into 3 parts. Also, why give away the ending only 1 of 3 parts in?!?!?!?!?
-1990/1/7 WPTF28 11PM News (21m partial)
This is the latest (and most complete) WPTF28 News broadcast I could find anywhere, even online. As it is, within 18 months WPTF28 would fire nearly its entire news staff and totally stop producing anything more than 1 minute newsbreaks for the remainder of its NBC affiliate contract. For years they filled the 6 and 11PM timeslots with syndicated sitcoms as lead ins to NBC network programming.
-1990/1/8 Drug Wars The Camarena Story Part 2 (1h43m)
-1990/1/8 NBC News Special Report Mexican Drug War (14m)
-1990/1/8 WPTF28 11PM News (8m partial) TRT-6h9m

 

[crainbebo]

I don't have those Wiseguy episodes, but I do have a bunch of them from 1988-89, including a few where Jerry Lewis had a guest role. I also have the whole Camarena Story miniseries taped off KING-5 in Seattle. It was one of the last network programs not SyndEx'ed on Ellensburg's cable system. Within a week or two, Seattle stations went down the lineup to the 20s, and half of the shows got blacked out.

I checked more of those Wenatchee tapes and I was able to find game 4 of the '92 Eastern Conference NBA Semifinals on a tape marked 'Boston Celtics' and Larry Bird. KTVB Boise airing w/ commercials, Celtics vs. Cavaliers. AWESOME! Looks like it taped over 2 or 3 other recordings so I will check the rest later. Also found a complete episode of KING 5's Evening Magazine from 1989 or 1990, with Brian Tracy and Penny LeGate. Both of them would be replaced by John Curley later in the decade. I will have to make regular stops (every 3-4 months) at this place. They rarely throw any tapes out. The basement is full of store-bought and home-recorded VHS tapes. The worker told me that they've had so many donations of VHS tapes (several thousand) that they had to throw a bunch out because they didn't have the space for all of them...and yet, there are still stockpiles waiting to be priced and placed on the shelf apparently. They also had to send a bunch of VHS tapes to their Kennewick location (which does not take home-recorded tapes). I wouldn't be surprised if there were Beta tapes hiding in the back.
The electronics area was so jampacked with equipment that they are waiting for other things to sell before putting more out! Tons of speakers, computer equipment, DVD players, cell phone accessories, etc. Boxes of old headphones and wires of all sorts were behind the employees-only gate, waiting to be tested and either thrown out or put on the shelf. One I saw was full of those old blue Telex headphones with the 1/4" plug, that every kid used when they listened to books on tape.

Chandler, this is the thrift store you'd fall in love with. It may not be Goodwill Outlet, but the adventure downstairs was just like it, IMO.

 

[Jman8606]

I don't have those Wiseguy episodes, but I do have a bunch of them from 1988-89, including a few where Jerry Lewis had a guest role. I also have the whole Camarena Story miniseries taped off KING-5 in Seattle. It was one of the last network programs not SyndEx'ed on Ellensburg's cable system. Within a week or two, Seattle stations went down the lineup to the 20s, and half of the shows got blacked out.

I checked more of those Wenatchee tapes and I was able to find game 4 of the '92 Eastern Conference NBA Semifinals on a tape marked 'Boston Celtics' and Larry Bird. KTVB Boise airing w/ commercials, Celtics vs. Cavaliers. AWESOME! Looks like it taped over 2 or 3 other recordings so I will check the rest later. Also found a complete episode of KING 5's Evening Magazine from 1989 or 1990, with Brian Tracy and Penny LeGate. Both of them would be replaced by John Curley later in the decade. I will have to make regular stops (every 3-4 months) at this place. They rarely throw any tapes out. The basement is full of store-bought and home-recorded VHS tapes. The worker told me that they've had so many donations of VHS tapes (several thousand) that they had to throw a bunch out because they didn't have the space for all of them...and yet, there are still stockpiles waiting to be priced and placed on the shelf apparently. They also had to send a bunch of VHS tapes to their Kennewick location (which does not take home-recorded tapes). I wouldn't be surprised if there were Beta tapes hiding in the back.
The electronics area was so jampacked with equipment that they are waiting for other things to sell before putting more out! Tons of speakers, computer equipment, DVD players, cell phone accessories, etc. Boxes of old headphones and wires of all sorts were behind the employees-only gate, waiting to be tested and either thrown out or put on the shelf. One I saw was full of those old blue Telex headphones with the 1/4" plug, that every kid used when they listened to books on tape.

Chandler, this is the thrift store you'd fall in love with. It may not be Goodwill Outlet, but the adventure downstairs was just like it, IMO.

And will more likely find Home recorded tapes than ANY goodwill atore!

 

[crainbebo]

Yesterday I found one tape at an estate sale in South Cle Elum, 25 mi W of Ellensburg. Contents:

Episodes of Landscape Smart, Gardening by the Yard and part of This Old House Classics taped off HGTV in March 2001 with commercials; episodes of Decorating & Design, Design and Crafts, Gardening & Landscaping and Photography taped off DIY Network on 3/16/2001 with some commercials (very early recording from them); after some scanning on the Dish Network box, the tape stops on a partial episode of Hey Arnold! and part of Rugrats taped off Nickelodeon (East feed) with commercials; another partial episode of Gardening by the Yard taped off HGTV on 4/1/2001 with commercials; episode of Decorating & Design taped off DIY Network in April 2001 with some commercials. TDK Revue T-120

So, a little Nickelodeon...but not enough :-(

Meanwhile, I went through some tapes from last month's estate sales. I found two tapes at a sale near 40th and Lincoln last month in Yakima. They were big Lawrence Welk fans and most of the 20+ tapes were marked 'Welk' with specific air dates where the tape started at. I picked up a couple only expecting lots of Welk and lots of bubbles, and maybe a few KYVE promos or local segments. Was I wrong or what!

Tape 1 - Andre Rieu: The North America I Love concert taped off KYVE/PBS on 3/5/1998; most of This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts and Happy Days rerun taped off KAPP/ABC on 3/1/1998 with commercials; a few minutes of an infomercial for The Great North American Slimdown with Larry North taped off unknown Yakima station; partial broadcast of 60 Minutes taped off KIMA/CBS on 8/31/1997 with commercials (aftermath of Princess Diana's death); most of News 23 NBC First at Five and NBC Nightly News (which includes a tribute to James Stewart) taped off KNDO/NBC on 7/2/1997 with commercials. Scotch PHG T-160
Tape 2 - Part of the New Reformation Dixieland Band special taped off KYVE/PBS on 12/12/1996 with a pledge break following (includes former KNDO news anchor Jim Lewis!); NBC Nightly News taped off KNDO/NBC earlier that night with commercials, then flips over to KYVE/PBS for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer with promos; a couple minutes of an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy follow (taped off KYVE); next is part of another NewsHour with Jim Lehrer taped off KYVE/PBS on Thanksgiving 1996; ends with two hours' worth of coverage from the 1996 Election with Jim Lehrer and the NewsHour team, taped off KYVE/PBS on 11/5/1996. Includes the speech by a re-elected President Clinton and a conceding Bob Dole. Scotch PHG T-160

I plan on going back to Wenatchee in October or early November and try my luck again on any new tapes that get donated to Veterans Warehouse. But being busy with fall quarter, my time is limited. I did find a KHQ recording of The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (part II) from 2/9/87 on one of the tapes I hadn't finished, w/ lots of commercials.

 

[Jman8606]

For those of you who live in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore areas, there is a VHS screening series called "Playback the Tape" that holds regular screening events surrounding vintage TV programs, commercials and the like. I found out about this program when I found this article on the website of radio station WTOP...
It’s time to rewind with Playback the Tape | WTOP

And there's more information about it on its official website...
playbackthetape VHS screening series + other unique events and worthy content

These events would be pretty cool for me to go to, if only I didn't live so far away from D.C. And since they're always accepting submissions of donated tapes, it would be interesting to know how many of my VHS finds would be usable in any of their screening events.

I wonder if it is still going on. Their FB page and their website bave npt been updated since 2017.

 

[chandler0201]

I wonder if it is still going on. Their FB page and their website bave npt been updated since 2017.

I get the sense something like this is not profitable after the pandemic and in today's world where you have multiple Youtubers that do "VHS Live" events where they allegedly play unmarked blank tapes for the first time and make humorous comments about it.

As for This Old House, I was happy to find many of the early seasons from the late 70s to mid 80s online, I guess PBS is finally upping their game at arching their old shows, many I thought were lost forever.

 

[VideoTreasures]

Does anyone happen to have any NBC airings or USA Network broadcasts of the three Problem Child movies? Commercials are preferable.

 

[crainbebo]

I don't think so. Problem Child was not a film that people taped off TV often just because it was panned so badly by critics.

 

[Scott2013]

Well, this past weekend was pretty full in terms of new VHS finds. Six sent to me by my mom's friend who has slowly be sending me tapes from his collection and six found at the annual Hinckley community garage sales this past Saturday.

Mom's friend's collection:
TAPE 1: Partial episode of Bones and episode of Reunion taped from WJW on 9/16/2005 with commercials (both were encore presentations of the pilot episodes); partial episode of The Amazing Race and partial episode of Poker Royale: Comedians vs. Poker Pros taped from GSN on 9/26/2005 with commercials. TDK T-120 ('90s stock--had the first few seconds of TNT's intro to part one of Shogun from 1994 at the very beginning).

TAPE 2: Most of Maybe...Maybe Not (1994) and partial broadcast of Criminal Hearts (1996) taped from Cinemax in summer 1997 with promos. Kodak T-120.

TAPE 3: Partial broadcast of Inside Edition, two-hour season finale of The Amazing Race and partial season finale of CSI: NY taped from WOIO on 5/17/2006 with commercials; partial episode of The Apprentice (rather surprising finding this in this guy's collection knowing how much he hates Trump) and partial broadcast of Dennis Miller taped from CNBC in February 2005 with commercials; partial episode of The Apprentice and broadcast of Dennis Miller (complete this time) taped from CNBC in February 2005 with commercials. Randix T-120.

TAPE 4: Part two of Shogun (1980 miniseries) taped from TNT on 4/17/1994 with commercials. Memorex T-120.

TAPE 5: Part three of Shogun taped from TNT on 4/17/1994 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 6: Kitty (1945), Golden Earrings (1947) and The Lost Weekend (1945) taped from AMC on 11/17/1991 with promos. Unknown brand T-120.


Brunswick garage sale (just barely in the next town over from Hinckley)
TAPE 7: Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976) taped from Cinemax circa 1998 with promos. Fuji T-120.


Hinckley garage sale #1
TAPE 8: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Practice, News Channel 5 at 11, Toyota Sports Sunday, Movie 5 presentation of Deadly Pursuits (1996), Proactiv infomercial, Progenis infomercial and partial broadcast of ABC World News Now taped from WEWS on November 14-15, 1999 with commercials. TDK T-120.


Hinckley garage sale #2--this one was actually at the childhood home of a friend of mine from my high school class--incidentally, I didn't see him when I was there, but I did see his wife there, who also graduated in our class, so it was nice catching up with her
TAPE 9: Partial broadcast of the 1995 Kids' Choice Awards, episode of Ren & Stimpy and partial episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark taped from Nickelodeon on 5/20/1995 with commercials; partial episode of Oprah (Oprah's 40th birthday episode) taped from WEWS on 1/31/1994 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 10: Partial broadcast of Arena Football (Grand Rapids Rampage vs. Milwaukee Mustangs) taped from TNN in April 2000 with commercials--black-and-white video and ear-splitting static audio throughout, my best guess would be a problem with the cable box. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 11: Batman (1989) taped from WJW (CBS Tuesday Movie) on 8/17/1993 with commercials. Memorex T-120.

TAPE 12: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (ABC made-for-TV movie) taped from WEWS on 10/30/1993 with commercials, part of this is taped over with a few minutes of the 1996 Die Hard 500 taped from WOIO on 7/28/1996 with commercials, that recording starts shortly after Dale Earnhardt's crash; partial ABC Afterschool Special (Love Hurts) and partial broadcast of Live on Five taped from WEWS on 9/16/1993 with commercials. Memorex T-120.

At another sale in Hinckley, I noticed a couple of rather interesting looking unmarked videocassettes, one of which was a red T-30 and had the words "Fox 8 Cleveland" engrained in the tape guard, the other had the words "Premium T-120" engrained in the tape guard. When I approached the homeowner with them, she said she had to check with her husband to make sure they weren't personal/family tapes that they wanted to hold onto, and apparently they were, so of course, she didn't sell them to me. I'm guessing maybe this family was featured on a Fox 8 News (WJW) package on at least one of those two tapes.

Speaking of Hinckley, there's one family I always see holding a garage sale each year during these community sales. In particular, this couple are the parents of another friend of mine from my high school class, who is now a professor at (The) Ohio State University. When this girl and I were in high school, we used to hang out quite a bit on weekends and such, so I had the chance to get to know her and her parents pretty well. I can remember a couple of conversations we had where she brought up her parents having recorded tapes of Three Stooges shorts on WBNX in the '90s with the commercials included. She had even mentioned that when she saw the tapes all those years later she got a kick out of seeing the old commercials. I have a feeling they no longer have those tapes though. I wouldn't be surprised if her folks had any tapes of original broadcasts of The O.C. around the house at some point because she was a fan of that show when it was on the air.

 

[JeeperOne]

What's the oldest still viewable off-air (not commercial) VHS or Betamax tape you own?

I have a VHS tape of news coverage of Reagan's shooting in March 1981 (I didn't tape it myself, but got it in a trade). Transferred to DVD-R some time ago, but the original still plays just fine after 25 years. I'm sure at least a few of you have something even older, even if you've long since copied it to other media.

I have some old tapes of various Holiday cartoons, movies & other specials from the EARLY 1990s that are complete

I may also have one tape that I used to record all my soap operas (What can I say?? I'm a guy who's a soap fan) from the same era too. IF IT STILL EXISTS, it would have an episode of…

✔️ The Bold & The Beautiful (From 10:30 AM on KMGH 7, then the CBS affiliate here in Denver (Who, until The Big Switch, aired the soap on a one day delay)

✔️ The Young & The Restless (From 11:00 AM on KMGH 7)

✔️ As The World Turns (From 1:00 PM on KMGH 7)

✔️ Guiding Light (Ftom 2:00 PM on MMGH 7)

✔️ Days Of Our Lives (From 3:00 PM on KCNC 4, then the NBC O&O here in Denver)

I think I also have one that has my soap opera lineup like this from the mid 1990s that was AFTER the Big Switch…

✔️ The Young & The Restless (From 11:00 AM on KCNC 4, now a CBS O&O)

✔️ All My Children (From 12:00 PM on KMGH 7, now the ABC affiliate here in Denver (This would be THE ONLY ABC soap I would watch & record)

✔️ The Bold & The Beautiful (From 12:30 PM on KCNC 4 (I stopped watching & recording this once AMC moved into the 12:00 PM slot on KMGH 7 (AMC had been buried in the 11:00 graveyard hour with Y&R on KCNC 4 (And KMGH 7 itself before that when AMC was on KUSA 9) & syndicated fare on KWGN 2, KTVD 20 & KDVR 31 here in Denver

Still with me or have I LOST you in the confused maze of Daytime TV in Denver? 🤣😂

✔️ As The World Turns (From 1:00 PM on KCNC 4)

✔️ Guiding Light (From 2:00 PM on KCNC 4)

✔️ Another World (From 2:00 PM on KUSA 9, now the NBC affiliate here in Denver (After GL became UNWATCHABLE))

✔️ Days Of Our Lives (Ftom 3:00 PM on KUSA 9 (Which has since moved to 2:00 PM after AW was cancelled by NBC)

I wish there was a way to put those in MP4 format as I'd put them on Hard Drives & watch them with the Xbox. That would be cool if I could DO THAT 😎

Pat

 

[crainbebo]

You can! Get yourself one of those Roxio capture boxes and "record" away to the computer...then convert it down to MP4. However, a majority of the soaps get pulled down by the copyright folks on YT, so I have quit posting soaps there. Archive seems to be OK......for now.
Sales don't look interesting this weekend (whatever estate sales are in the Yakima area seem to just have store-bought films), so I'm taking a break to get more tapes digitized and sent away to the eBay assembly line.

 

[Jman8606]

I have some old tapes of various Holiday cartoons, movies & other specials from the EARLY 1990s that are complete

I may also have one tape that I used to record all my soap operas (What can I say?? I'm a guy who's a soap fan) from the same era too. IF IT STILL EXISTS, it would have an episode of…

✔️ The Bold & The Beautiful (From 10:30 AM on KMGH 7, then the CBS affiliate here in Denver (Who, until The Big Switch, aired the soap on a one day delay)

✔️ The Young & The Restless (From 11:00 AM on KMGH 7)

✔️ As The World Turns (From 1:00 PM on KMGH 7)

✔️ Guiding Light (Ftom 2:00 PM on MMGH 7)

✔️ Days Of Our Lives (From 3:00 PM on KCNC 4, then the NBC O&O here in Denver)

I think I also have one that has my soap opera lineup like this from the mid 1990s that was AFTER the Big Switch…

✔️ The Young & The Restless (From 11:00 AM on KCNC 4, now a CBS O&O)

✔️ All My Children (From 12:00 PM on KMGH 7, now the ABC affiliate here in Denver (This would be THE ONLY ABC soap I would watch & record)

✔️ The Bold & The Beautiful (From 12:30 PM on KCNC 4 (I stopped watching & recording this once AMC moved into the 12:00 PM slot on KMGH 7 (AMC had been buried in the 11:00 graveyard hour with Y&R on KCNC 4 (And KMGH 7 itself before that when AMC was on KUSA 9) & syndicated fare on KWGN 2, KTVD 20 & KDVR 31 here in Denver

Still with me or have I LOST you in the confused maze of Daytime TV in Denver? 🤣😂

✔️ As The World Turns (From 1:00 PM on KCNC 4)

✔️ Guiding Light (From 2:00 PM on KCNC 4)

✔️ Another World (From 2:00 PM on KUSA 9, now the NBC affiliate here in Denver (After GL became UNWATCHABLE))

✔️ Days Of Our Lives (Ftom 3:00 PM on KUSA 9 (Which has since moved to 2:00 PM after AW was cancelled by NBC)

I wish there was a way to put those in MP4 format as I'd put them on Hard Drives & watch them with the Xbox. That would be cool if I could DO THAT 😎

Pat

What time was The Price is Right?

 

[chandler0201]

Interesting coincidence that the oldest tape topic was brought up, as I found the OLDEST find from a thrift store just this week (based on date recorded vs date found), it also set a few more personal records for me, the OLDEST local market taping (WRAL5) and the oldest continuous broadcast taping (1981 and 6 hours, I didn't even know VHS could record as much as 6 hours in 1981 but I digress) so here it is:

July 29, 1981- Royal Wedding Princess Diana and Prince Charles ABC News Good Morning America Special
-Complete 6 hour broadcast! The vintage Scotch brand tape stock plays pretty well for 40 years old. Back then WRAL5 was an ABC affiliate and would switch to CBS in 1986. Unfortunately, it looks like WRAL5 sold mostly local ad spots for this broadcast, so not too many national commercials, and the local spots that played were run nearly every commercial break, so some of the car dealership ads ran over a dozen times each. One of the ABC Network promos was for the short lived game show hosted by Dick Clark, Krypton Factor, which would premiere a week later. The Good Morning America segments were hosted by David Hartman who has actually my neighbor since he moved here over a decade ago, so funny personal coincidence as well.

 

[Scott2013]

More finds, this time from a barn sale this past Friday at a property I had been to twice before in North Royalton. At each one of the sales I had been to there, I had found some tapes, and this was no exception. Four keepers out of six tapes found and I left a lot more behind. Last time I went to this place, I ended up picking up more duds than keepers, but this time ended up being the opposite result.

TAPE 1: Partial broadcasts of parts three and four of Backstairs at the White House (1979 NBC miniseries) taped from WKYC on August 26 and 28, 1980 minus most commercials--one full break and two partial breaks are included--not the oldest content in my overall collection, but it is the oldest content I've found from this particular local station. TDK T-120 entirely in SP mode.

TAPE 2: The Offence (1973) taped from WKYC (Channel 3 Theatre) in March 1994 with commercials; Best Picture Show syndicated presentation of The Boy Who Had Everything (1985) and first couple minutes of Newhart taped from WJW in November 1994 with commercials (early days of the station as a Fox affiliate). Scotch T-120.

TAPE 3: Bad Santa (2003) taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 2004(?); partial broadcast of Warden of Red Rock (2001 Showtime made-for-TV movie) taped from the Hallmark Channel on 12/20/2003 with commercials, also has a couple minutes of flipping through the program guide on an old digital cable box with rather primitive-looking graphics; partial broadcast of The Samurai taped from the History Channel in December 2003 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 4: Parts one and two of Andersonville (TNT miniseries) taped from TNT on March 3 and 4, 1996 with commercials; partial episode of General Hospital and partial episode of Oprah taped from WEWS on 3/1/1996 with commercials, bad quality throughout this part likely due to dirty VCR heads at the time of the recording; partial episode of Tiny Toon Adventures and partial episode of Looney Tunes taped from Nickelodeon on 11/8/1995 with commercials, then the cable box flips over to the last few minutes of Live on Five and most of News Channel 5 at 6:00 taped from WEWS on 11/8/1995 with commercials. TDK T-120.

 

[crainbebo]

Doesn't it feel disappointing when you go to many estate sales and get skunked, only to find out that one of the estate sales threw out all the VHS tapes before the sale began, claiming that no one would buy them? That's what happened to me in Yakima over the weekend, one sale that was on top of the Scenic Drive hill had over 200 tapes meticulously labeled and in high quality. Every one of them got sent to the dump before the sale happened. It wasn't because of copyright issues, they thought no one would purchase them (uh, there's one person that could have)! Yikes...
The deceased homeowner also had several VCRs in a cabinet that was hand-built! He had several home theater systems in that same place, lots of high-quality stuff.

Other than that, no tapes at several other sales, but I found the original plush Couch Potato for $2 at another sale. I guess that's what I am when I go through tapes. A couch potato staring at a computer screen and occasionally peering over to my VCR's time counter.
I'll be making another trip up to Wenatchee later this month before it starts snowing at Blewett Pass. At least there's one place in town that stocks pre-recorded blanks, and they still have tons of donations in the back to be sorted...I can't believe how packed that store is.