• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

Finally got through my latest estate sale haul (North Royalton near the Medina County line) and here's what I ended up finding.

TAPE 1: Partial broadcast of NFL Countdown, 1996 Napa 500, NASCAR Shop Talk and partial broadcast of the final round of the 1996 Energizer Senior Tour Championship taped from ESPN on 11/10/1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 1996 Indy 200 taped from ESPN on 5/19/1996 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 2: The Pagemaster (1994) copied from rental tape; six episodes of Aleene's Creative Living (some partial) taped from TNN in October and November 1992 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 3: Several episodes of The Sewing Connection with Shirley Adams taped from WNEO/WEAO in July 1992 with promos; one full episode and one partial episode of Sewing with Nancy taped from WNEO/WEAO in August 1992 with promos. BASF T-130.

TAPE 4: Dancing with the Stars taped from WEWS on 1/26/2006 with commercials; Dancing with the Stars on WEWS on 1/27/2006 with commercials; pilot episode of America's Ballroom Challenge taped from WVIZ on 2/1/2006 with promos; Dancing with the Stars and Primetime taped from WEWS on 2/2/2006 with commercials (including several news teasers on an investigation into teen nights at the infamous Krobar dance club in North Olmsted, which I remember hearing a lot about from my friends at school during that time). Fuji T-120.

TAPE 5: Korea: The Forgotten War taped from the Discovery Channel in June 1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 1996 Miller 500 and episode of Road Ready taped from TNN on 6/2/1996 with commercials; partial broadcast of Dick Vitale's Slam Bam Jam College Basketball Preview and partial broadcast of Field of Dreams (not the movie but rather a special baseball game between teams formed by Michael Bolton and Barry Bonds) taped from ESPN in November 1994 with commercials. BASF T-130.

TAPE 6: Two episodes of The American Experience taped from WVIZ in May 1997 with promos; partial broadcast of the 1997 Winston 500 taped from TNN on 5/10/1997 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 7: CSI and partial episode of Shark taped from WOIO on 1/11/2007 with commercials; partial episode of Survivor, CSI and partial episode of Shark taped from WOIO on 10/19/2006 with commercials. RCA T-120.

TAPE 8: To Hell and Back (1955), Halls of Montezuma (1951) and partial broadcast of Hell Is for Heroes (1962) taped from AMC on 5/28/1995 with promos. BASF T-130.

TAPE 9: Lost: The Answers, season finale of Lost and most of News Channel 5 on the Nightbeat taped from WEWS on 5/23/2007 with commercials (my mom has a tape of that season finale along with the first few minutes of the local news, but this one has almost the entire newscast). BASF T-130.

TAPE 10: The True Story of the Big Red One taped from the History Channel in February 1999 with commercials (appears to have taped over an original broadcast of an episode of World's Wildest Police Videos, disappointingly); partial broadcast of the 1999 Bud Shootout taped from WOIO on 2/7/1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 1999 First Plus Financial ARCA 200 taped from ESPN on 2/7/1999 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 11: Starts with a performance of the National Anthem by a singer I couldn't identify at the start of an unknown NASCAR race taped from WEWS in October 2008 with a partial Ford commercial afterward, then cuts to about a minute of an unknown telenovela and a partial commercial break taped from Telemundo in October 2008 (during both of these clips, a memory counter from a second VCR can be shown, the counter is moving in the first clip but stationary in the second); partial episode of Dancing with the Stars and Samantha Who taped from WEWS on 4/14/2008 with commercials; Dancing with the Stars, Boston Legal, News Channel 5 on the Nightbeat and most of Nightline taped from WEWS on 4/15/2008 with commercials; partial broadcast of News Channel 5 on the Nightbeat taped from WEWS on 4/25/2007 with commercials; end of Double Jeopardy (1999) copied from rental tape. Sony T-120.

TAPE 12: CSI and partial episode of Shark taped from WOIO on 3/1/2007 with commercials; CSI and partial episode of Shark taped from WOIO on 3/8/2007 with commercials; partial NCAA basketball broadcasts of Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Central Connecticut Blue Devils, Duke Blue Devils vs. VCU Rams and BYU Cougars vs. Xavier Musketeers taped from WOIO on 3/15/2007 with commercials; Grey's Anatomy taped from WEWS on 10/12/2006 with commercials. Panasonic T-120.

TAPE 13: Dancing with the Stars and most of The Bachelor taped from WEWS on 4/9/2007 with commercials; partial episode of CSI taped from WOIO on 2/15/2007 with commercials; partial NCAA basketball broadcasts of Southern Illinois Salukis vs. Kansas Jayhawks, Texas A&M Aggies vs. Memphis Tigers and Pittsburgh Panthers vs. UCLA Bruins taped from WOIO on 3/22/2007 with commercials; end of an episode of Criminal Minds and first segment of CSI: NY taped from WOIO on 3/21/2007 with a partial commercial for FedEx Kinko's; partial episode of Sew Perfect taped from HGTV in July 1998 with commercials. Magnavox T-120.

TAPE 14: Sleepwalkers (1992) taped from the Sci-Fi Channel in September 2003 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

As I said, LOTS more tapes left behind at this house. The shelves on which some of these were found in the living room were so full that some of them were on the top shelf almost to the ceiling, I would have needed a footstool to reach those! Hopefully not all of them were completely taped over with 2000s content like some of the ones I purchased. As you can imagine, the ones I shied away from the most were the ones that were labeled with crafting shows, but you just never know what will turn up once you pop them in. Heck, Tape 1 had titles of three war movies written on the label and Tape 11 had "Double Jeopardy" written and later crossed out on its label, although I did see the very end of that movie at the end of the tape.

As 2022 comes to a close pretty soon, I think it's safe to say I had a pretty good year in terms of the overall content I've found on the tapes I picked up this year. Was introduced to a rather spicy yet obscure soap opera (Valley of the Dolls), found some unexpected programming from distant markets in different parts of the country (Fort Myers, Tampa, Sarasota, Spartanburg and Phoenix) and got a little bit of a sneak peek into the world of C-band satellite wildfeeds (instructional computer videos on the PBS network wildfeed). Learned a little bit of Detroit radio history unearthing the final Detroit Tigers broadcast of sportscasters Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey on WJR on audiocassettes. Some low points as well, including revisiting some bad memories of stay-at-home orders during the start of the COVID pandemic and getting an unexpected look into the sex lives of two complete strangers. What will 2023 bring in terms of these intriguing VHS finds? Only time will tell.
 
Well its finally time for me to mega post all my 2022 finds, some of these tapes I never fully completed checking because of playback issues with the tapes themselves. With 80+ tapes this will take more than a few posts to get through them all, though I do believe I posted the first 12 sometime much earlier this year.

Tape 13
1.2007/10/xx Austin City Limits- Norah Jones (43m partial) (WUNC4?)
2.?
3.?
-Majorly disappointed as this was an old tape stock with markings of 1980s shows but taped over

Tape 14
1.2002/4/30 Bob Hope’s Funniest Outtakes (1h) (WNCN17)
2.2002/4/30 Jay Leno’s 10th Anniversary Special (1h) (WNCN17)
3.2002/5/5 NBC 75th Anniversary Special (WNCN17)
4.?

Tape 15
1.1995/1/7 Cocktail (2h) (USA airing) ends with Super Dave Las Vegas Special TRT 2h3m

Tape 16
1.1991? Ray Charles 50 Years of Music SP (45m) (later Disney Channel reair) TRT 45m

Tape 17
1.1996/9/2x Hanes 500 at Martinsville (6m) (ESPN)
2.1996/6/10 30th Annual TNN Music City News Country Awards SP (1h58m most) (TNN)
3.Random NASCAR race (3m) TRT 2h6m

Tape 18
1.1985/xx/xx Mickey & Beanstalk & Dumbo double feature (TV airing but unsure of date since most but a few commercials were cut though some vintage Toys R Us ads intact)

Tape 19
1.Karate Kickboxing Competition Home Videos (1h8m)
2.20 minutes of dead video as speeds go back and forth between SP and EP glitch?
3.1992/3/16 American Detective (13m partial) (WABC)
4.1992/6/6 USA Up All Night “Super Ninjas” (2h) (USA)
5.1992/6/8 FBI The Untold Stories (20m partial) (WABC)
6.1992/6/8 ABC Monday Night Movie The Color of Money (1st 40m partial) (WABC) TRT 4h46m

Tape 20
1.1995/2/12 The Johnson & Johnson Movie: West Side Story (TBS) (3h15m)
2.1995/2/12 Kissing Tales Sunday Warner Bros cartoons: “Stupid Cupid”, “Zoot Cat”, “Scentimental Over You”, “Bugs Bunny and the 3 Bears”, “Casanovacat”, “Little Rural Riding Hood” (44m)
3.1995/3/9 Journey’s End The Saga of Star Trek The Next Generation (WLFL22) (1h) TRT 5h

Tape 21
1.1990/12/25 Fox Movie: Yours Mine & Ours (WLFL22) (2h17m)
2.1990/12/31 TBS Monday Movie: The Great Escape (TBS) (3h28m) TRT 5h45m

Tape 22
1.1989? Angel Heart (Cinemax) (1h35m most)
2.1989/5/15 NBC Night at the Movies: Roe vs. Wade (WXII12) (1h55m) Network premiere
3.Unknown sexy French film (Cinemax) (15m partial)
4.1988/7 Cinemax promos (5m)
5.1988/7 Joy of Flying (Cinemax) (16m partial) late night sexy stuff TRT 4h6m

Tape 23
1.1995/8/27 ABC Sunday Night Movie: Skylark (reair) (WTVD11) (1h34 most)
2.1995/8/27 WTVD11 11PM News (WTVD11) (30m) TRT 2h3m SP

Tape 24 (unique Camel cigarettes blank tape)
1.Steel Magnolias (rental copy?) (1h55m)
2.1991/1/31 Nashville Now (TNN) (1h28m)
3.1991/1/31 Crook & Chase (TNN) (30m)
4.1991/1/31 On Stage: ? (TNN) (4m) TRT 3h56m

Tape 25
1.1990? ABC World of Discovery: Secret Life of 118 Green St (43m)
-I remember seeing this special in class as a kid, unsure of date with all commercials cut
2.1990/6/23 Movie 5: The Mean Season (WEWS5) (47m partial)
3.1990/6/23 Entertainment This Week (WEWS5) (28m)
4.1989/7/xx Movie 5: That’s Entertainment (WEWS5) (2h27m nearly complete)
-Unsure of exact date but it was around Batman movie premiere
5.1989/7/xx Movie 5: Sherlock Holmes Terror By Night (WEWS5) (26m partial) after #4 TRT 4h52m

Tape 26
1.1992/3/14 ACC Tournament Semifinal Florida St vs UNC (2h17m) (WRAL5) Raycom version
2.1992/3/14 WRAL5 6PM News (22m most) (WRAL5) TRT 2h38m

Tape 27
1.1986/1/28 ABC World News Tonight–Challenger Disaster (57m) (WGHP8)
2.1986/1/28 WGHP8 11PM Newscast–stories on local astronauts on Challenger (WGHP8) (8m)
3.1986/1/28 Nightline–Challenger Disaster (15m partial with some dead screen) (WGHP8)
4.1986/4/13 NBC Sun Movie: Return to Mayberry (1h58m) (WXII12) Network premiere TRT 3h20m

Tape 28
1.1993/2/14 UNC vs Georgia Tech (1h37m) (WABC7) JIP ~15min mark of 1st Half
2.1993/2/21 UNC vs Virginia (1h22m) (WABC7) most commercials cut, missing some action
3.1993/3/17 UNC vs Duke (1h29m) (WABC7) +3m of random rap music videos at end TRT 4h50m

Tape 29
1.1991/3/3 The Summer My Dad Grew Up (1h56m) (WPTF28) TRT 1h56m SP

Tape 30
1.1988? From Hell To Borneo (1h30m most) (WKFT40)
2.1988/10/15 WFMY2 Late Movie “There Is No Business Like Show Business” (2h16m)
3.1988/10/15 WFMY2 11PM News Replay (30m)
4.1988/10/15 WFMY2 Late Movie “You Can’t Take It With You” (12m partial)
5.1988/10/xx National Geographic On Assignment Skipjacks/London Cabbies (WPTF28) (41m most)
6.1988/10/xx Kids Out of Control (WPTF28) (19m partial)
7.1986/7/22 Good Morning America (WTVD11) (21m partial) Jane Seymour/Prince Phillip TRT 5h58m

Tape 31
1.1987/9/3? Oliver Reed morning show interview (9m)
2.1987/9/3 NBC Today Show another Oliver Reed interview + other stuff (46m) (KNBC)
3.1987/9/12 KABC Eyewitness News Sports Weekend (15m)
4.1987/9/12 Fright Night Theater–Spirits of the Dead (2h17m) (KABC)
5.1987? Frontline–Hollywood Dreams
6.1987? Partial syndicated episode of MASH ~20m
7.1987 Partial syndicated episode of Benson (14m)
8.1987 Partial episode of The New Newlywed Show (7m)
9.1987/9/19 Marblehead Manor 1x1 (original pilot episode airing) (30m) (KNBC)
10.1987/9/19 ALF (7m partial)
11.1987/9/26 Marblehead Manor 1x2 (18m partial) (KNBC) TRT 6h10m

Tape 32
1.1995/4/2 Austin City Limits–Lyle Lovett (57m)
2.1995/5/7 “Ghost” (KHOU) (2h25m)
3.1995/2/20 “A Woman of Independent Means Part 2” (KPRC) (34m partial)
4.1995/2/22 “A Woman of Independent Means Part 3” (KPRC (2h)

Tape 33
1.1985/11/24 “Ewoks Battle for Endor” premiere (WTVD) (1h59m)
2.1985/11/28 “The Hobbit” (WLFL22) (1h20m partial) TRT 3h18m

Tape 34
1.Random tapeovers ~4m
2.1987/11/24? Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (22m most)
3.1987? Its Your First Kiss Charlie Brown (10m partial)
4.1995/4? Nightly Business Report + promos (15m partial) (WPBT40)
5.1995/5/xx CNN Moneyline–Oklahoma City Bombing (28m)
6.1987/11/25 As The World Turns (41m most)
7.1987/9/29 WABC7 11PM News (22m most)
8.1987/9/29 WABC7 Late Movie–”Wuthering Heights” 1970 version (2h6m most) TRT 4h31m

Tape 35
1.1990? Donahue–Women discriminated at their jobs (28m partial) (WTVD)
2.1990/5/21 Oprah–Truddi Chase (30m partial) (WTVD)
3.1990/4/27 Dallas 13x25 (56m) (WRAL)
4.1990/4/29 Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie “Caroline?” (1h57m) (WRAL)
5.1990/11/2 Dallas 14x1 (56m) (WRAL)
6.1990? Church Service (1h8m) (Family Channel) TRT 5h54m

Tape 36
1.1997? 2 episodes of Bill Moyers’ Healing and the Mind (2h) (Nebraska Public TV)
2.1997? Wild America–Minnesota Mink (11m partial) TRT 2h11m

Tape 37
1.1996/1/14 Pride & Prejudice Part 1 premiere (A&E) (2h) TRT 2h SP

Tape 38
1.1991/2/1x Young and the Restless (WRAL) (43m most)
2.1991/2/16 All in the Family 20th Anniversary Special (WRAL) (1h16m most) TRT 1h59m SP

Tape 39
1.1984? Return of The Black Stallion (1h43m) (HBO)
2.1984? Champions (1h52m) (HBO)
3.1985? Misty (1h33m) (HBO)
 
Tape 40
1.1988/4/2 Red Man-TNT All American Tractor Pulling Series (25m) (ESPN)
2.1988/4? Red Man-TNT All American Tractor Pulling Series from Birmingham (20m) (ESPN)
3.1988/4? NJ Devils-NY Islanders G1 Pregame (5m partial) (ESPN)
4.1988/4/2 NCAA Hockey Championship St Lawrence vs Lake Superior St (1h8m partial) (ESPN)
5.1988/4? NCAA Women’s Final 4 LA Tech vs Tennessee (4m partial) (ESPN) TRT 2h3m SP

Tape 41
1.1988/3/20-3/22 Portrait of the Soviet Union (4h37m most commercials cut) (TBS)
2.1988/2/8 General Hospital (44m most) (WTVD)
3.1988/2/8 Oprah- Death Penalty & Executions (1h) (WTVD)
4.1988/2/8 Superior Court- AIDS Blood Case (30m) (WTVD)
5.1988/2/8 The People’s Court (10m partial) (WTVD) TRT 6h51m EP

Tape 42
1.1984/6? 20 Minute Workout (WNBC)
2.1984? Morning Stretch with Joanie Greggains (29m) (WABC)
3.1983/3? Absence of Malice (1h20m partial movie with promos) (HBO)
4.1983/3/28 The Thornbirds Part 2 (8m partial) (WABC)
5.1983/3/29 The Thornbirds Part 3 (1h16m partial) (WABC)

Tape 43
1.1983? Uncertain date commercials cut— Amos & Andy Anatomy of a Controversy (45m)
2.1988? The Name of the Rose (2h12m) (HBO)
3.1988? SNL Republican Promary Debate scene (10m)
4.either late 1987 or early 1988— Freud: The Drama of Life Part 2 + Erica Jong interview (1h28m) (A&E)
5.1988? Mrs. Capper’s Birthday (59m) (A&E)
6.1988 A&E Signature— Gloria Steinem interview (30m) looked to be reair from early 80s TRT 6h

Tape 44
1.1990? Eros in America (38m most) (CInemax)
2.1990/6/10 World Cup 1st RD USA vs Czechoslovakia (last 10m) (TNT)
3.1990/6/10 World Cup 1st RD Brazil vs Sweden (1h54m) (TNT)
4.1990/6/11 World Cup 1st RD England vs Ireland (1h59m) (TNT)
5.date unknown— Unknown Frank Sinatra movie (27m partial)
6.date unknown— La Bamba (33m partial) TRT 5h48m

Tape 45
1.1996/11/15 Dallas: JR Returns (1h22m missing some segments most commercials cut) (WRAL5)
-Odd that this was the only thing on the tape even at SP TRT 1h22m

Tape 46
1.1990/4/22 America’s Most Wanted (28m) (WLFL)
2.1990/4/24 The Wonder Years 3x20 “Goodbye” premiere (28m) (WTVD)
3.1990/4/24 Roseanne unknown episode (21m most) (WTVD)
4.1990/2/23 Falcon Crest 9x16 premiere (46m most) (WRAL)
5.1990/2/23 WRAL 11PM News (27m most) (WRAL) TRT 2h29m

Tape 47
1.1990/3/14 4th Annual Soul Train Music Awards (2h7m) (WPIX)
2.1991/4/8 Separate But Equal Part 2 (1h53m) (WGGB) TRT 4h

Tape 48
1.1992? American Music Shop Chet Atkins/Jerry Reed (44m commercials cut) (TNN)
2.1992/9? Dinah Shore A Special Conversation with Tennessee Ernie Ford (54m) (TNN)
3.1992/4/28 Skat Track World Jet Ski Championships (50m) (ESPN)
4.1992/4/28 Outside the Lines: A Whole New Ballgame (7m partial) (ESPN) TRT 2h35m

Tape 49
1.How U Like Me Now (1h3m partial) PPV Movie Channel airing
2.unknown date WNBC News (4m partial)
3.1995? Richard Bey Show: He Used Me For Sex (36m commercials cut most)
4.1995/6/13 Essence Awards Show (1h45m most) (FOX)
5.1995? Random episode of Soul Train (8m partial)
6.1996? Kool & The Gang live performance on Rolanda Talk Show (6m partial)
7.1996/5/4 Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show + Schoolhouse Rock (52m most)
8.1996? Random episode of Soul Train (8m partial) TRT 4h41m

Tape 50
1.1987/6/1x Godzilla On Monster Island (2h) (WGN) TRT 2h SP

Tape 51
1.1996? all 3 episodes of the NOVA Odyssey of Life series (2h38m) (WVIZ25)
2.1988/10/x The New Literacy Introduction to Computers (21m most) (WUNC)
3.1988/10/x The New Literacy Introduction to Computers–Data Storage (30m) (WUNC)
4.1988/10/x The New Literacy Introduction to Computers–Spreadsheets (30m) (WUNC)
5.1988/10? Computerworks–Advanced Spreadsheets and Programming (30m) (WUNC)
6.1988/9/24 Channel 2 Late Movie Death Trap (35m partial) (WFMY2)
7.1988/9/25 WFMY2 11PM News reair (30m)
8.1988/9/25 Channel 2 Late Movie Last Log of the Black Pearl (13m partial) (WFMY2) TRT 5h46m

Tape 52
1.1994/6/26 Martin 2x21 repeat (9m partial) (unknown FOX affiliate)
2.1994/6/25 Gettysburg Part 1 premiere (2h54m missing a few mins) (TNT)
3.1994/6/26 Gettysburg Part 2 premiere (2h30m) (TNT)
4.1994/6/26 Gettysburg Journal (making of) (26m) (TNT) TRT 5h59m

Tape 53
1.1991/1/25 Full House 4x16 “Stephanie Gets Framed” Urkel crossover premiere (29m) (WTVD)
2.1991/1/25 New Kids on The Block at MGM Studios Wildest Dreams (1h) (WTVD)
These made up 75% of TGIF block of that night hosted by Perfect Strangers stars
3.1991/1/26 War in the Gulf: Answers Children’s Questions (1h30m) (WTVD)
This special preempted the last 90 minutes of the Saturday Morning cartoon block
4.1991/1/26 PBA ARC Pinole Open (1h27m missing ending minutes) (WTVD) TRT 4h26m

Tape 54
1. Random home movies (2m)
2.1989? Win, Lose, Draw episode (9m partial)
3.1989? Kate & Allie unknown episode (6m partial)
4.1989/2/6 MacGyver unknown episode (5m partial) (WXYZ)
5.1989/2/6 ABC Mystery Movie Columbo Goes to Guillotine (1h54m no end credits) (WXYZ) TRT 2h15m
Tape found by trash can

Tape 55
1.1984/4? Three Little Words (2h) (WNEW)
2.1984? Laurence Olivier’s King Lear: Mobile Showcase Network (58m partial) TRT 2h59m LP

Tape 56
1.Little Shop of Horrors (1h30m) rental copy
2.The Fly (1h37m) rental copy
3.1987? WKBD 50 Late Movie– Royal Hunt of the Sun (10m partial)
4.1987/7? WXYZ7 11PM Action News (4m partial)
5.1987/7? Nightline- Whites Adopting Black Children (20m partial) (WXYZ)
Tape found by trash can

Tape 57
This tape had a series of taped off Showtime Faerie Tale Theater episodes
1.Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp (45m)
2.1991/x/x Enemy Mine (14m partial) (WLFL22)
3.The Nightingale (52m)
4.The Emperor’s New Clothes (51m)
5.Rip Van Winkle (46m)
6.Hantzel and Gretel (47m)
7.The Princess Who Never Laughed (34m) TRT 4h50m

Tape 58
1.1994/2? Notorious (1h59) (WGN)
2.1994/2? Torn Curtain (2h30m) (WGN)
These 2 movies were part of Hitchcock Suspense Sunday Block Philips CDi ad dates it TRT 4h30m

Tape 59
1.1993/1/31 Super Bowl 27 Dallas vs Buffalo (3h6m) unknown NBC affiliate as all commercials cut
2.1993? Cops-Dallas Fort Worth (20m) unknown FOX affiliate as all commercials cut
3.1993? Cops-Denver (23m) unknown FOX affiliate as all commercials cut
4.1993? Code 3-Natural Disasters (22m) unknown FOX affiliate as all commercials cut
5.1993? Code 3 (22m) unknown FOX affiliate as all commercials cut
6.1993? Jerry Springer Show Eartha Quake and fat women (38m most) (KDFI)
7.1993/2/28 CNN Headline News with Tarrant County TX Report loops (57m) (CNN)
-Lots of reports on Waco and World Trade Center Bombing TRT 6h7m
 
Tape 60
1.1989/11/1 Blondie & Dagwood Second Wedding (30m) (WRAL)
2.1989/11/1 Hagar The Horrible (28m) (WRAL)
3.1988/10/30 Incredible Sunday (22m partial) (WTVD)
4.1988/10/30 Mission Impossible (17m partial) (WTVD)
5.1988? Fall Guy (10m partial) (WLFL)
6.1988? Cutter’s Way (17m partial) (WLFL)
7.1986/9/13 Raging Bull (49m partial) (WRAL)
8.1986/4/19 Scarlet & The Black (5m partial) (WRAL)
9.1986/9/17 Clue: Movies, Murder, Mystery (49m most) (WRAL)
10.1986/9/28 Fawlty Towers (30m (WUNC)
11.1996/4 NCAA Basketball Championship Syracuse vs Kentucky (1h27m) (WRAL)
Taped by my dad and somewhat taped over by me later TRT 5h43m

Tape 61
1.1987/12/14 Motown Merry Christmas (48m) unknown affiliate as commercials cut
2.1987? Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (43m) unknown affiliate as commercials cut
3.1987/2/1 LBJ The Early Years (33m partial) (WMAR) TRT 2h4m SP

Tape 62
1.1994/11/25? Darkwing Duck Christmas (25m most) (WLFL)
2.1994/11/25? A Goof Troop Christmas (59m) (WLFL)
3.1994/12/6? The Bears Who Saved Christmas (27m) (WLFL)
4.1994/12/6? Nick & Noel (27m) (WLFL)
5.1994/11/26 ABC Saturday Morning: Reboot 1x3 (30m), Bump In the Night 1x13 (30m), Tales From the Cryptkeeper (13m partial)
6.1994/11/11 WLFL22 10PM News (5m partial)
7.1994/11/11 Hard Copy (4m partial) (WLFL) TRT 3h41m

Tape 63
1.1992/8/2x Darkwing Duck 1x65 (28m) (WLFL)
2.1992/8/2x Darkwing Duck 2x12 (29m) (WTVD)
3.1992/8/26 Pigskin Classic Texas A&M vs Stanford (3h35m) (WRDC)
4.1992/8/28 Football Friday Season Premiere Episode (23m most) (WRAL)
5.1992/9/7 Goof Troop 1x3 (WLFL)
6.1992/9/7 Darkwing Duck 2x3 (WLFL)
Taped by me in 1992 TRT 5h51m

Tape 64
1.1994/5/x Johnny Quest- Peril of the Reptilians (25m) (Cartoon Network)
2.1994/5/x Johnny Quest- Deadly Junket (26m) (Cartoon Network)
3.1994/5/x Johnny Quest- unknown episode (23m missing opening) (Cartoon Network)
4.1994/5/x Johnny Quest- Arctic Splashdown (27m) (Cartoon Network)
5.1994/5/x Johnny Quest- Riddle of the Gold (20m partial) (Cartoon Network) TRT 2h3m SP

Tape 65
1.1990/6/4 NC People- Bill Vatavuk (31m) (WUNC)
2.1990/6/6 This is America Charlie Brown- Birth of the Constitution (reair) (28m) (WRAL)
3.1990/6/8 Are You Kidding? (27m rare one night special) (WRAL)
4.1990/6/8 or 6/15? Return of the Living Dead 2 (1h52m) (WRAL) Who knew they would air obscure films like this, even as the late movie?
5.1990/6/8 or 6/15? The Bryon Allen Show (10m partial) (WRAL) rare short lived talk show
Taped by dad in 1990 TRT 3h28m

Tape 66
1.1988/2/2x The New Literacy An Introduction to Computers- Processors (31m plus PBS promos) (WUNC)
2.1988/2/2x Computerworks- Spreadsheet (29m) (WUNC)
3.1988/2/2x MASH 2x8 syndicated airing (21m partial) (WRAL)
4.1988/3/6 Young Guns (1956 movie) (1h30m) (WKFT)
5.1988/3/6 Siskel & Ebert reviews for Switching Channels/And God Created Woman/The House on Carroll St/Shy People/The Man Who Saw Tomorrow home video (30m) (WKFT)
6.1988/3/6 Marblehead Manor 1x1 (30m) (WKFT)
7.1988/3/x Geraldo- Fighting Fashion Failure (WRAL) TRT 4h51m

Tape 67
1.1997/5/1x Seinfeld syndicated 7x19 “The Wig Master” (28m) (WRAZ)
2.1997/5/15 Seinfeld 8x22 “The Summer of George” premiere (30m) (WNCN)
3.1997/5/16 Seinfeld syndicated 5x2 “The Puffy Shirt” (29m) (WRAZ)
4.1997/5/19 Seinfeld syndicated 7x18 “The Friar’s Club” (30m) (WRAZ)
5.1997/5/20 Seinfeld syndicated 4x11 “The Contest” (30m ending cut) (WRAZ)
6.1997/5/21 Seinfeld syndicated 7x23 (30m ending cut) (WRAZ)
7.1997/5/22 Seinfeld syndicated 4x14 (30m ending cut) (WRAZ)
8.1997/5/22 Seinfeld 8x4 repeat (30m) (WNCN)
9.1997/5/23 Seinfeld syndicated unknown episode (4m partial) (WRAZ) TRT 4h5m LP

Tape 68
1.1994/2/xx Winter Olympics Ice Dancing Finals (1h11m) (WRAL) all commercial breaks cut but one
2.1994/2/xx Winter Olympics Ice Skating Individuals (31m) (WRAL) TRT 1h41m SP/EP

Tape 69
1.1989/3/xx My Favorite Year (1982) (1h56m) (CityTV–first Canadian TV find!) TRT 1h56m SP

Tape 70
1.Unknown date and network—Dragnet 1980s movie (last 4 minutes)
2.1989/3? Sweet Liberty (1h37m most) (Global Television Network—2nd Canadian TV find)
3.Unknown date and network—unknown movie (1h18m partial) TRT 2h59m SP/EP

Tape 71
1.1985/12/xx Greatest American Hero syndicated “Pilot” (WPTF)
2.1985/12/xx Miami Vice 1x22 “Evan” rerun (WPTF)
3.1985/12/30 Scarecrow & Mrs. King 3x3 “Over the Limit” (WRAL)
4.1986/1/x Greatest American Hero syndicated 3x8 “Space Rangers” (WPTF)
5.1986/1/x 2 episodes of The Jetsons 2x11 and 1x20 (WLFL)
6.1986/1/x 2 episodes of I Dream of Jeannie (WLFL) TRT 5h55m

Tape 72
1.1989/2/24 Top Flight Boxing 6 bouts including main event Duran vs Barkley (Viewer’s Choice PPV) (2h51m)
2.1990/3/17 Chavez vs Taylor (1h32m) (HBO) many rate this the best bout of the 1990s
3.1990/3/17 One Night Stand– Charles Fleischer (31m including promos) (HBO)
4.1990/3/17 The Kiss (29m partial) (HBO)
5.1990/3/18 America’s Funniest Home Videos–winner baseball player losing pants on fence (24m) TRT 5h46m

Tape 73
1.1992? My Cousin Vinny (Request PPV) (2h3m including promos) TRT 2h3m SP

Tape 74
1.1992/11/18 The Jacksons: An American Dream Part 2 (WABC) (1h58m)
2.1992/11/18 WABC7 11PM News first 5 minutes TRT 2h3m SP

Tape 75
1.1992/1/26 Super Bowl XXVI (WBAL) (4h) complete game with halftime, partial postgame TRT 4h EP

Tape 76
1.1992/4/4 Final 4 Michigan vs Cincinnati (WRAL) (1h23m) most pregame/halftime ends with 14min left
2.1992/4/4 Final 4 Duke vs Indiana (WRAL) (2h22m) includes 23 mins WTVD/WRAL local postgame
3.1992/4/6 NCAA Championship Michigan vs Duke (WRAL) (1h47m) 1st half only, includes 30 mins of local pregame TRT 5h32m

Tape 77
1.1995/12/1 Frosty The Snowman (WNCT) (30m)
2.1995/12/1 Frosty Returns (WNCT) (30m)
3.1995/12/6 A Charlie Brown Christmas (WRAL) (30m)
4.1995/12/6 Mr Willowby’s Christmas Tree (WRAL) (30m) TRT 2h

Tape 78
1.1985/12/3 Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (WRAL) (50m) some commercials cut
2.1985/12/4 Charlie Brown Christmas (WRAL) (26m) one break cut
3.1985/12/4 Twas the Night Before Christmas (WRAL) (22m) all commercials cut
4.1985/12/7 The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (WRAL) (22m) all commercials cut
5.1985/12/7 Frosty The Snowman (WRAL) (24m) all commercials cut
6.1985/12/17 The Life & Adventures (or Times) of Santa Claus (WRAL) (56m)
7.1985/12/22 Mickey’s Christmas Carol (WPTF) (54m)
8.1987/12/16 Muppet Family Christmas (WTVD) (47m) all commercials cut
9.1987/12/21 Claymation Christmas Celebration (WRAL) (28m) TRT 5h29m

Tape 79
1.1997/3/20 Seinfeld 8x8 rerun (WNCN) (29m one minute taped over by hockey)
2.1997/3/20 High Incident (WNCN) (3m of opening of show)
3.1997/3/6 Suddenly Susan 1x14 premiere (WNCN) (27m)
4.1997/3/6 Seinfeld 8x7 rerun (WNCN) (30m)
5.1997/3/6 3rd Rock From the Sun 2x14 rerun (WNCN) (30m)
6.1997/3/6 Prince Street 1x1 pilot (WNCN) (3m of opening of show) TRT 2h3m SP

Tape 80
1.unknown date possible rental copy of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1h48m)
2.1987? The Thing- network TV edit (WRAL) (1h32m) all commercials cut
3.1987? Cat People- network TV edit (Universal Debut Network) (1h33m) all commercials cut TRT 4h53m

Tape 81
1.Mo’ Money-rental copy
2.1993/5/20 Cheers Last Call (22m most) (WRDC)
3.1993/5/20 Cheers 3 part finale (1h38m) (WRDC)
4.1993/5/20 Cheers Pilot episode and Cheers retrospective (35m) (WRDC) this affiliate didnt have local news
5.1993/5/20 Jay Leno Live with Cheers Cast (1h) (WRDC)
6.1993/5/20 Late Night With David Letterman (25m partial) (WRDC)
7.1992/11/19 Primetime Live (18m partial) (WTVD) -American ex pats in Prague story only
8.1992/10/2x Larry King Live- Ross Perot interview (CNN) (22m partial) TRT 6h10m
-I have the same recording of the Cheers Last Call, finale, and pilot episode block from the same affiliate, though this recording actually has the complete Jay Leno show afterwards.

Tape 82
4 movies from The Movie Channel probably from the early 1990s:
1.Soylent Green (1h45m with promos)
2.Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1h48m)
3.Blood Feast (1h1m)
4.Blood Relations (1h29m with promos) TRT 6h3m
 
I love that you found some tapes by the trash can. I wish that would happen to me!
Code 3 isn't easy to find...nor are some of those cartoons, like Reboot. Canadian TV clips seem to me that someone moved from Ontario, as Global was only available in Ontario at that point (it was a network of stations) and hadn't really expanded to AB, BC, etc. Seems like most of the older tapes you found this year came from NYC and Detroit, not from North Carolina. Often, I find the other way around - many 1980s recordings I've found were original Yakima tapings of movies/TV shows. There are exceptions, like the sale back in April where everything was recorded from Seattle stations (couple moved from Tacoma to Yakima in the mid-2000s).

The death penalty doesn't seem like the kind of topic Oprah would cover in later seasons.

Cool find on the Challenger stuff! I still haven't found much from the disaster - you'd think I would find a recording at one of these estate sales in town, as it was such a monumental tragedy.
 
crainbebo said:
The death penalty doesn't seem like the kind of topic Oprah would cover in later seasons.

Cool find on the Challenger stuff! I still haven't found much from the disaster - you'd think I would find a recording at one of these estate sales in town, as it was such a monumental tragedy.
Click to expand...
Oprah until about 1992/1993 was pretty similar to Geraldo, Donahue, or even Maury Povich, some tabloid, some controversy and always trying for a ratings grab. Then for some reason Maury and Jerry Springer went trashy when Oprah went higher brow and focused on pop culture interviews and giving away cars or something similar. Looking back on these episodes I actually prefer the older style Oprah.

I am also surprised I haven't come across more Challenger stuff over the years, or at least as much as I come across Operation Desert Storm stuff.

As for TV affiliates, the biggest contributing factor to the sheer variety of what I find is that the area I live in has a huge population of newcomers, which I define as people who moved here 5 years or less ago. With all the transplants there is bound to be some culling of VHS. On the other side of the coin what I've found from home market affiliates (WRAL, WTVD, WPTF/WRDC, WLFL, WKFT, WUNC) seems to be much older content as I would assume those folks stayed in the same home for longer before downsizing of items.
 
Well, the last finds I listed were not, in fact, my last finds of 2022. I went to an estate sale in Middleburg Heights last Friday and came home with several more tapes.

TAPE 1: Various events from the 1988 Winter Olympics (mostly ice dancing, figure skating and skiing) taped from WEWS on 2/23/1988 with commercials; more ice dancing and figure skating from the 1988 Winter Olympics and partial broadcast of Eyewitness News at 11 taped from WEWS on 2/22/1988 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 2: NBC News of Bill Clinton's inauguration parade, Vicki! episode with guests Charo, Judy Landers and Rhonda Shear and first few minutes of The Maury Povich Show taped from WKYC on 1/20/1993 with commercials; ABC News coverage of Bill Clinton's inauguration parade and partial episode of Oprah joined in progress taped from WEWS on 1/20/1993 with commercials; NBC News coverage of Bill Clinton's inauguration ball and most of Channel 3 News at 11 taped from WKYC on 1/20/1993 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 3: Mother Goose and Grimm, Garfield and Friends, TV8 American Legion Christmas Parade, Inspector Gadget and partial episode of Game Pro taped from WJW on 11/30/1991 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 4: Partial episode of JAG and Celine Dion in Las Vegas: Opening Night Live (CBS concert special hosted by Justin Timberlake) taped from WOIO on 3/25/2003 minus most commercials; partial final episode of Providence (already have this in full) and partial episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit taped from WKYC on 12/20/2002 with commercials; end of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Channel 3 News at 11:00, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and partial broadcast of Last Call with Carson Daly taped from WKYC on December 6-7, 2002 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 5: Dirty Dancing (1987) copied from rental tape complete with Nestle Sweet Dreams commercial, opening previews and ad for the soundtrack at the end; some figure skating coverage from the 1988 Winter Olympics taped from WEWS in February 1988 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 6: Camelot (1967) taped from Cinemax circa 1986, includes a three-minute intermission slide in the middle of the movie. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 7: All of Me (1984) taped from Cinemax circa 1985 (second generation recording); The Nutcracker (BBC special) taped from WVIZ in December 1985, starts with local underwriting credits and a pledge break during the show was cut out (second generation recording); Great Expectations (1946) taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 1985 (second generation recording); partial broadcast of part four of War and Remembrance (ABC miniseries) and partial broadcast of Eyewitness News at 11 taped from WEWS on 11/17/1988 with commercials, recording ends just before the sports segment; partial Cinema 8 presentation of Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) taped from WJW in November 1986 with commercials; partial broadcast of PM Magazine (includes a segment with local radio icon Larry Morrow preparing a dessert) taped from WJW on 10/2/1986 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 8: 62nd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and first few minutes of Super Password taped from WKYC on Thanksgiving 1988 with commercials; partial episode of Muppet Babies, TV8 American Legion Christmas Parade and partial CBS Sports broadcast of Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Miami Hurricanes taped from WJW on 11/26/1988 with commercials. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 9: Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) and Alive (1993) copied from rental tapes; partial broadcast of Monday Night Football (New Orleans Saints vs. San Francisco 49ers) taped from WEWS on 11/22/1993 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 10: Christine (1983) taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 1985; The Park Is Mine (1985) taped from HBO on 10/6/1985; partial broadcast of Cry Rape (1973 CBS made-for-TV movie) and partial broadcast of Making the Grade (1984) taped from Cinemax in October 1985 with promos, intershow includes Max Trax music videos for "She's Waiting" by Eric Clapton and "Sweet, Sweet Baby (I'm Falling)" by Lone Justice. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 11: Two-hour episode of Providence and first couple minutes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit taped from WKYC on 11/24/2000 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 12: 1997 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships and partial broadcast of the final round of the 1997 United Airlines Hawaiian Open taped from WEWS on 2/16/1997 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 13: Partial broadcast of Live on Five taped from WEWS on 11/2/1988 with commercials; clip from Eyewitness News at 6 (Ronald Reagan visits Baldwin Wallace College in Berea) taped from WEWS on 11/2/1988; partial broadcast of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings on location in Cleveland taped from WEWS on 11/2/1988 minus commercials; short clip from Newscenter 8 at 11:00 (Election Day coverage following the election of Bush/Quayle) taped from WJW on 11/8/1988; short clip from Eyewitness News at 11 (Election Day coverage as Bush/Quayle win) taped from WEWS on 11/8/1988; partial episode of Falcon Crest taped from WJW on 10/28/1988 with commercials; partial broadcast of the closing ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics, Channel 3 News at 11 and start of The George Michael Sports Machine taped from WKYC on 10/2/1988 with commercials. Kodak T-120.

TAPE 14: Oprah episode with guest Julio Iglesias and first few minutes of Live on Five taped from WEWS on 12/7/1990 with commercials, rough aerial signal; A Mom for Christmas (NBC Disney Night at the Movies made-for-TV movie) taped from WKYC on 12/17/1990 with commercials; Disney's Christmas on Ice (CBS special) taped from WJW on 12/21/1990 with commercials; Dolly Parton: Christmas at Home (ABC special) taped from WEWS on 12/21/1990 with commercials, rough aerial signal; partial broadcast of the 102nd Tournament of Roses Parade taped from WKYC on 1/1/1991 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 15: Part one of Memories of Midnight (syndicated miniseries) taped from WUAB on 11/25/1991 with commercials; part two of Memories of Midnight and partial broadcast of The Ten O'clock News taped from WUAB on 11/26/1991 with commercials--both of these recordings are blank video signal with staticky audio due to a badly adjusted antenna; Nightline (interviewing disgraced American University president Richard Berendzen) and partial Movie 5 presentation of The Urge to Kill (1989) taped from WEWS on May 23-24, 1990 with commercials; end of Code of Silence (1985) and partial broadcast of Blame It on Rio (1984) taped from Cinemax in April 1986 with commercials. Avanti T-120.

Lot more tapes at this sale that I left behind, a few of which were unmarked. Several more tapes of figure skating and Olympics events as well.

The 80+ tape lot from Strongsville I mentioned the other day is still posted on Facebook Marketplace. It's very tempting, but I'm just not sure if I want to get that many tapes at a time. I saw a listing for a similar lot out of Chippewa Lake that has a combination of retail VHS movies, home-recorded tapes and recorded DVDs. The listing advertises them all as being "movies," so those home-recorded tapes could very easily be nothing more than rental dubs. The Strongsville lot is supposedly all TV recordings though.
 
Scott2013 said:
Crainbebo, it looks like your Archive account is still operable. That's kind of weird that they would take it down and bring it back up. 😕

Oshawott, college was actually where I got my start in the VHS collecting hobby. Not far from Bowling Green State University in Northwest Ohio was the monthly Super Saturday Garage Sale in the multipurpose room of the Woodland Mall as well as the monthly flea market at the Wood County Fairgrounds and I had found tapes at both places. Unfortunately, I didn't have my car with me during my time at BGSU. If I had, I probably would have been able to make it out to some of the nearby municipalities for garage sales, estate sales and flea markets, in addition to Bowling Green. One of the big flea markets in the city of Toledo is Stormin Norman's Flea Market, which, incidentally, is located in the same shopping center as YesFM, the local contemporary Christian radio station. The irony of that is that place has been notorious for selling devices that are often used to smoke marijuana. It may be legal across the state line in Michigan, but not in the Buckeye State yet! I went to that place once in 2015 while on a mini-vacation in nearby Port Clinton and came home with several VHS treasures.
Just for curiosity's sake, I sometimes look on Craigslist and estatesales.net to see what kinds of sales are out in that neck of the woods, and last week, I saw a listing for one just across the state line in Temperance, Michigan, that had a TON of VHS tapes--I'm talking multiple shelves full of them! Toledo being a smaller market than Cleveland, content from that DMA doesn't seem to be as easy to find on YouTube. And let's not rule out the possibility of content from nearby markets as well, such as Columbus, Detroit, Lima and Fort Wayne, the latter two of which are below 100 on the Nielsen scale.
Click to expand...

Would love to see you post your stuff from Toledo from that flea market
 
Nice finds there, chandler and Scoot. Nice to see the Super Bowl XXVI broadcast represented from one of my home markets (I've already got the W*USA copy, and the now-Commanders are once again heavily in the news as numerous buyout offers look to take the franchise ahead of the Snyder days. A while back, you emailed me about trading with me, but perhaps I could take some of those finds into account with you.

With that said, I'm not sure if another lot from Little Rock, the same seller where I purchased two lots of VHS tapes with all the Nashville-area recordings from 1988-89 will arrive by next Saturday, but I've made one more purchase of 17 Beta tapes from him. Most of these recordings look to date from 1986-87 based on the labels, and although these lots look to be a bit more PBS-heavy than last time, I still see commercial TV shows like ABC's Our World, The Tortellis, Perfect Strangers, Head of the Class, St. Elsewhere, Donahue (from that February 1987 Russia week of which I've already got a couple shows), CBS Sunday Morning, and Nightline, as well as the short-lived newsmagazines 1986 (NBC), West 57th (CBS), and a couple of NBC Fast Copy specials. The PBS content looks pretty diverse as well, ranging from Hometime to Great Performances to The Story of English to NOVA to an episode of Austin City Limits to Live From Lincoln Center. Overall, a decent year of finds as mentioned upthread and fairly comparable to 20210, but not quite 2019 or 2020 levels of finds. Early FOX network finds including a bunch of Tracey Ullman Show/early Simpsons episodes, the 1982 Entertainment Tonight episode, the 1985 Jeopardy! show, the premiere of Pee-Wee's Playhouse along with the 1988 Christmas special, a partial Canadian newscast from 1980, an SNL episode from 1985, and some newsmagazine finds were the highlights. The trades were probably more interesting than the finds themselves.
 
The oldest stuff I have are Holiday (Christmas) movies & specials from the early 1990s (Including one that has NOTHING but various specials aired on PBS)

The 2nd oldest is a rebroadcast of NBC's coverage of the JFK Assassination as it happened as broadcast by KBDI 12 (Only the first six hours however as the station had to cut if off to run an astronomy program (which I believe they could've & should've pre-empted that night) & to meet the mandatory (??) sign off time for the night (I checked the following night to see if they resumed it, They didn't)

The 3rd oldest one I have is one I used over & over again to record the various soap operas I watched (This one carried beyond the days of The Big Switch of 1995)

If I can ever get a VCR off Amazon (Have tou seen THE PRICES of those things THESE DAYS?? WOW :eek:), I'll go through them, make MP4s out of them & upload it to my Classic TV channel on YouTube if/as possible :)
 
Last edited:
Finishing the last few holiday tapes for this year. I've had limited time this year, so fewer tapes digitized than last year.
Anyways, 2022 was an interesting year tape-wise.
Highlights...
G.I. Joe reruns on two tapes from KSTU SLC (1988)
the entire rescue of Baby Jessica from KTRK Houston and the Oprah Winfrey episode a few days after
lots of Springfield MO content found on my trip to Idaho in April, plus the record-breaking September 1979 Merv Griffin recording from KHQ (!)
the 15th anniversary of SNL with commercials
new newscast finds from Seattle and Yakima (some dating back to 1984)
my first finds of KOMO's Town Meeting (the late Ken Schram) and Northwest Afternoon
a 1990 block of CBS daytime game shows and soaps from KIMA (including Feud/Wheel which were preempted in a lot of markets for talk shows and syndicated stuff)
Toon Disney Christmas programming from December 2006 - Snowed in at the House of Mouse, Recess, and Yin Yang Yo - rare stuff in any form
the FULL Dream Team Gold Medal Game from 1992, vs. Croatia, with commercials, found in August at a Yakima estate sale - I found another tape of Dream Team games in November at Atomic City Thrift in Richland
a tape of 1986-87 cartoons taped off Tri-Cities stations, including first-run, first-season DuckTales
my first find of John Davidson's Hollywood Squares, a partial episode from March 1989 (KTSP Phoenix), same tape also had my first recording of America's Top 10 with Casey Kasem, off KTVK
 
For those reading this on Christmas Day, the private tracker Cathode Ray Tube is having open signups through today. The reason I bring it up is that if people here are familiar with torrents, the site has a section dedicated to the stuff we collect broadcast recordings, the section is titled "WOC" on their site. Here is the link:

https://www.cathode-ray.tube/users/register​

And remember this expires today, so get in soon!
 
Last night I stumbled upon an eBay seller named red_dog478 who has multiple used blank VHS lots listed on his page. Almost every listing includes a detailed summary of the contents of each tape, some of which include what may potentially be some rarities especially of interest to Northeast Ohio natives like myself. The seller hails from Boise, Idaho, and he does have a little bit of local content from Boise on some of these tapes, but the majority of local content on these tapes appear to be from the Cleveland/Akron/Canton market.
What got my attention the most was a tape of an uncut six-hour overnight aircheck of WAKC in Akron in 1996 during its waning moments as an ABC affiliate and after they had ceased their local news operation. Among the more obscure contents on this one are an episode of a short-lived talk show called The Bradshaw Difference, a broadcast of the local religious program Plus or Minus 60, a USWA Championship Wrestling broadcast and an episode of a hunting program called Charlie West's Outdoor Gazette (never heard of it until now).
Uncut overnight recordings appear to be a dime a dozen in this individual's collection. Other obscure syndicated late-night fare found includes two episodes of Strange Universe on WOIO; a WBNX overnight recording including a broadcast of American Journal in the show's later years, an episode of LAPD: Life on the Beat and a syndicated overnight home shopping broadcast (Shop at Home Network?); a WKYC recording including Fame: LA, Sports News Magazine and Wild Things; and a partial episode of Howard Stern's syndicated TV show on WOIO, which I didn't know even aired in Cleveland. Another tape also has a broadcast of Extra's infamous expose on the authenticity--or rather the lack thereof--of the content of The Jerry Springer Show.
Can you imagine how excited I'd be if this guy had an uncut late night aircheck of WJW from the summer of 1994 with an episode of Valley of the Dolls included in it in one of these lots? Being that almost all of the episodes of that show that are currently available to view online are overdubbed in Russian, that would be the coolest!
Anyway, here's a link to the seller's page.

red_dog478 on eBay

Follow red_dog478 on eBay. Buying, Selling, Collecting on eBay has never been more exciting!
www.ebay.com

If you were to look at the photos of these groups of tapes, you'd be able to see in the background of some of these an Ion VCR2PC VCR/digital converter. This guy who's sitting on potentially lost media has the equipment to put it on YouTube or the Internet Archive himself and isn't doing so!
 
chandler0201 said:
For those reading this on Christmas Day, the private tracker Cathode Ray Tube is having open signups through today. The reason I bring it up is that if people here are familiar with torrents, the site has a section dedicated to the stuff we collect broadcast recordings, the section is titled "WOC" on their site. Here is the link:

https://www.cathode-ray.tube/users/register​

And remember this expires today, so get in soon!
Click to expand...
Anyway I can get in in January? Been busy and I didn't see this until just now.
 
I love his (reddog's) little descriptions of each tape. How boring a show is and how interesting a show is. He sold a lot months ago that had a couple of KLEW Lewiston recordings (CBS theatrical movies edited for TV). Went for way too much, so I had to pass. Finding vintage airchecks from KLEW-3 is about the holy grail for me, at least for the Northwestern United States. It's in the shadow of the Spokane TV market and KREM had an analog translator forever in KLEW's COL regardless. I think they still do in digital.

My holy grail for any U.S. television station aircheck is still KXGN/5 Glendive. Oh, if only to find a complete night of '90s programming with those local commercials, not to mention the late Ed Agre's newscasts and sportscasts.

I am already planning another long spring break trip for 2023. I'm either doing a loop of western Montana starting at Missoula and going up to Kalispell, or going down I-84 to visit the Boise area. Too bad I'm not there tonight for that glowing potato drop on NYE! KTVB will stream it ;-)
 
Well, that Beta lot from that Little Rock seller did come in the other day, but as it turns out, he shipped the wrong box! That said, I offered a deep discount for another box that currently has the same photo as the one I received, and although there wasn't too much commercial content compared to others, there were still a few good finds. I won't provide the entire details, but some of the discoveries include an episode of CBS newsmagazine from 6/4/1986 with commercials off WFTV along with my earliest find of NBC's Meet The Press off WSMV on 8/3/1986 with commercials, including part of the first quarter of the NFL preseason game from London afterwards on the same tape. Another tape included about 25 minutes of promos from The Disney Channel from 4/7/1987, including a few DTV videos, along with a partial episode of Computer Chronicles circa 1987 that involves desktop publishing (it looked really crude back then, but a big leap from those typewritten newsletters), a couple episodes of Smithsonian World from the late 1980s including promos off WDCN and a partial Nightly Business Report newscast from 6/10/1987; the two-hour Nightline "Capital to Capital" special broadcast partially from Moscow off WKRN/ABC in October 1987 with commercials, about three-quarters of an early episode of Geraldo off WGN on 10/8/1987 with commercials along with about half of Oprah Winfrey off WSMV from the same day, a five-minute clip of an episode of The $100,000 Pyramid from 1988 including the second Winner's Circle and closing (remember the zooming 20th Century Fox Television logo?), part of an episode of National Geographic Explorer from 5/9/1988, and my best find, six episodes of Splitting Image off CBC North from November/December 1988, four with the commercials, along with approximately a five-minute segment of a Weather Channel-like local forecast crawl featuring subpolar Canadian cities. Originally airing in Britain, Splitting Image was an Emmy-award winning satire show similar to a Not Necessarily The News and briefly aired on Cinemax in America. Hopefully, I should be receiving the correct box with the matching labels soon as described several posts above.

Good luck to everyone for an adventureous 2023!
 
pannoni1 said:
Well, that Beta lot from that Little Rock seller did come in the other day, but as it turns out, he shipped the wrong box! That said, I offered a deep discount for another box that currently has the same photo as the one I received, and although there wasn't too much commercial content compared to others, there were still a few good finds. I won't provide the entire details, but some of the discoveries include an episode of CBS newsmagazine from 6/4/1986 with commercials off WFTV along with my earliest find of NBC's Meet The Press off WSMV on 8/3/1986 with commercials, including part of the first quarter of the NFL preseason game from London afterwards on the same tape. Another tape included about 25 minutes of promos from The Disney Channel from 4/7/1987, including a few DTV videos, along with a partial episode of Computer Chronicles circa 1987 that involves desktop publishing (it looked really crude back then, but a big leap from those typewritten newsletters), a couple episodes of Smithsonian World from the late 1980s including promos off WDCN and a partial Nightly Business Report newscast from 6/10/1987; the two-hour Nightline "Capital to Capital" special broadcast partially from Moscow off WKRN/ABC in October 1987 with commercials, about three-quarters of an early episode of Geraldo off WGN on 10/8/1987 with commercials along with about half of Oprah Winfrey off WSMV from the same day, a five-minute clip of an episode of The $100,000 Pyramid from 1988 including the second Winner's Circle and closing (remember the zooming 20th Century Fox Television logo?), part of an episode of National Geographic Explorer from 5/9/1988, and my best find, six episodes of Splitting Image off CBC North from November/December 1988, four with the commercials, along with approximately a five-minute segment of a Weather Channel-like local forecast crawl featuring subpolar Canadian cities. Originally airing in Britain, Splitting Image was an Emmy-award winning satire show similar to a Not Necessarily The News and briefly aired on Cinemax in America. Hopefully, I should be receiving the correct box with the matching labels soon as described several posts above.

Good luck to everyone for an adventureous 2023!
Click to expand...

Are you sure it is WFTV and not WCPX?
 
Well, it didn't take long for me to cave into purchasing one of red_dog478's VHS lots. I'm so used to only paying a certain amount per tape for these things in the wild, which is why I don't purchase these from eBay as much as some of you do, so this is a little out of character for me, but I was really attracted to some of the potentially lost media (obscure syndicated programs) that are supposed to be on these. Some of the highlights from this one in particular include an episode of Strange Universe, a broadcast of American Journal from the days when the show was abbreviated "AJ," an episode of LAPD: Life on the Beat (a show that has most recently been spotted in reruns on the network that used to be called Escape, which unfortunately, was never picked up by Spectrum in my area), some Kids WB shows, teen-centric sitcoms like California Dreams and Malibu CA, some music videos on VH1, an episode of Fame: L.A. (ill-fated sequel to Fame), and an episode of The Howard Stern Radio Show (the syndicated one produced by CBS, not the one on E!). Fourteen tapes in all.

Now the question is, once I get through with these, if it's still available on Facebook Marketplace, do I go for that lot from Strongsville with all the news coverage and country music shows and other random stuff? Much larger inventory in that one, so I may or may not be up to that challenge. We shall see.
 
e-wastemanagement's latest box of Beta tapes came in, and this time, they got the labels right with the photos in the description. 10 of the 17 tapes contained commercial recordings that I'm listing below, with the other seven mostly just PBS stuff recorded off WDCN from 1986-87 with a few promos. All tapes were recorded off Nashville stations except for Tape 10, which has stations from Chicagoland. All commercial shows have the ads intact.

TAPE 1: A full, 90-minute newscast of CBS Sunday Morning from 4/26/1987 recorded off WKRN, followed by West 57th, the CBS "yuppie" newsmagazine recorded off WFTV, followed by a Fast Copy news special off WSMV/NBC from 4/28/1987, followed by an episode of Our World off WKRN/ABC on 4/30/1987 focusing on the summer of 1963, followed by part of Nightline off WKRN/ABC on 5/4/1987 with a few commercials. As some people have pointed out, WFTV carried religious programming during the normal Sunday morning programming block, including Billy Graham, despite being the main CBS station for what was then Tennessee's second largest city, with WKRN (ABC) picking up the pre-emption.

TAPE 2: Another episode of CBS Sunday Morning off WKRN on 3/8/1987, followed by an episode of Nature off WDCN/PBS from the same date, then an episode of American Playhouse "Eleanor: In Her Own Words", an Elvis Memories special with narration by George Klein, and a partial episode of another edition of Nature off WDCN from March 1987 with a few promos. Although Sunday Morning's audience tends to be geared towards the over-35 demographic, that episode featured stories on Ashford & Simpson and a story called "A Salute to the Class of '87" that wouldn't be out of place on West 57th, and included Billy Idol's "Mony Mony" as one of the background songs.

TAPE 3: Kicks off with another edition of Our World off WKRN/ABC on 2/5/1987, followed by episodes of Frontline (the California quake episode) and Nova (on reducing airline pilot errors) off WDCN/PBS in February 1987 with a few promos, followed by the first episode of Donahue's Soviet Week off WKRN on 2/9/1987 with commercials, an episode from that week I'm missing, then it wraps up with the first 45 minutes of Nightline off WKRN/ABC on 2/16/1987, which features some rare Soviet TV clips. The Our World episode interestingly focuses on the early months of 1968, the same time period that the first season of The Wonder Years takes place, even if Linda Ellerbee jokingly calls the period "Winds of Change" if a TV show from that time had a working title.

TAPE 4: Begins with Discover: The World of Science (Dinosaur fossils in Nova Scotia) off WDCN/PBS in early January 1987, followed by episodes of the French Chef, Woodwright's Shop, Hometime, and Kathy's Ktichen off WDCN/PBS from 1/10/1987 with some promos, followed by episodes of Perfect Strangers and Head of the Class off WKRN/ABC on 1/21/1987, then a syndicated For Kids Sake special "Remembering Christa" to pay tribute to astronaut/teacher Christa McAuliffee and the first 12 minutes of The Tortellis off WSMV on 1/29/1987. The tribute locally pre-empted Gimme A Break that aired on most other NBC stations that night.

TAPE 5: Starts with the Nature of Things episode on acid rain off WDCN/PBS on 1/2/1987, followed by episodes of Elissa: A Tall Ship For Texas, Nova, Survival, and a 30-minute episode of Austin City Limits off WDCN/PBS on 1/3/1987, followed by the Spiittin' Image special and the first ten minutes of St. Elsewhere off WSMV/NBC on 1/14/1987.

TAPE 6: Another episode of CBS Sunday Morning off WKRN on 12/28/1986, followed by episodes of the Faces of Japan and Lili off WDCN/PBS from the same night, then episodes of Nature, Nature of Things, and part of the Fight For Primetime special involving demographics off WDCN/PBS from 12/29/1986.

TAPE 7: Starts off with another episode of Our World (focusing on October 1938) off WKRN/ABC on 10/30/1986, followed by Managing Our Miracles: Health Care In America, Nova (the Waorani tribe of Ecuadoran Indians), and Great Performances (Wagner, part 2) off WDCN/PBS from early November 1986, followed by the last half or so of another episode of Our World (focusing on 1954) off WKRN/ABC on 11/6/1986.

TAPE 8: Begins with an episode of the Unquiet Library, a special about the music division at the Library of Congress, followed by another episode of Nature off WDCN/PBS in November 1986, followed by the ABC Sunday Movie "Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story" off WKRN on 11/23/1986.

TAPE 9: Begins with an episode of the NBC newsmagazine 1986 about Abu Abbas off WSMV on 6/17/1986, followed by In Search Of The Trojan War off WDCN/PBS from the same night, then another episode of West 57th off WFTV/CBS on 6/18/1986, then it wraps up with the Planet For The Talking and Rainin' In My Heart: A Blues Mosaic documentaries off WDCN/PBS in late June 1986.

TAPE 10: Starts with the three-hour movie Nicholas & Alexandra off WTTW circa May 1986, followed by another NBC Fast Copy special off WMAQ/NBC on 5/17/1986, then it finishes up with an episode of Courage To Care (a Nazi-era documentary about rescuing Jews) off WDCN/PBS circa late May/early June 1986.
 


Back
Top Bottom