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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

3 more tapes fully reviewed with many more to go, 2 from a mystery box in the basement, and 1 from a local thrift:

Tape 1: From the basement mystery box, totally unmarked, tape stock looked to be mid 1980s:
-Journey of Natty Gann 1987? Wonderful World of Disney so WTVD11 (11m)
-4 syndicated airings of Fall Guy from September and October 1987 from WLFL22 (dated from Adventures of Beans Baxter and other early FOX programming promos and North Carolina State Fair commercials), episodes include:
5x02 "King of Stuntmen" (55m), 5x17 "I Now Pronounce You Dead" (51m), 4x19 "Rock A Bye Baby" (24m so incomplete), 5x03 "Femme Fatale" 58m) infamously Scott Baio crossdresses in this episode! This tape jogged many memories of Fall Guy as I had a huge crush on Heather Thomas back then and met her at a car show. Weird to think I was still in kindergarten then but whatever.
-Newhart 6x05 "Reading Writing Ratings" original airing from 1987/10/12 WRAL5
-2 more syndicated airings of Fall Guy from October 1987 from WLFL22 5x21 "War on Wheels" (41m) and 5x04 "Fistful of Lire" (19m) I'd guess my dad recorded these episodes then accidentally recorded over some of them with next night's airings
-Ends with the first 11 minutes of a movie airing on FOX "Without a Trace" (also October 1987) WLFL22

Tape 2: Also from the basement, BASF T120 marked World Bowl Orlando Sacramento:
-1992/6/6 World Bowl 2 Sacramento Surge vs Orlando Thunder complete broadcast (3h26m) (USA), looks like taper timed it to 3:30 so it caught the first 3 minutes of USA Up All Night but no more, also the later famous wrestler Goldberg played in this game, making more than a few tackles and was in some closeup shots
-1992/6/6 ESPN Block until the end of the tape dubbed ESPN Hot Summer Nights, which included:
Sportscenter (13m) the early edition with early MLB scores, Bicycling Magazine (24m) focus on Paris race in April 1992, Bud Knee & Skiboarding Competition (30m) this was about as early 1990s as it gets, neon colors, mustaches, and Sea-Doos, America's Horse (1h) news magazine on the quarterhorse had an interview with William Shatner too, Sportscenter (30m complete) late edition with West Coast MLB scores even had a blurb on a young Phil Mickelson winning NCAA Golf Championships, ended with Jimmy Houston Outdoors (4m). They aired the ESPN Your Face promos which I still remember to this day. ESPN programming back in those days was more like their late 1970s beginnings than the ESPN we think of today, less talking heads, and more oddball sports and sports coverage, kind of like the Ocho they do once or twice a year now.

Tape 3: Thrift Store find, unmarked 3M T120 looked to be early to mid 90s tape stock:
-1998/7/24 Beyond Belief Fact or Fiction episode 2x13 (Season 2 finale) WLFL22. Coincidentally this was the last week of WLFL's Fox network affiliation as they would switch to the fledgling WB network.
-2005/2/24 UFO's Seeing Is Believing ABC News Special hosted by Peter Jennings (2h) WTVD11. Interesting that ABC News would devote 2 hours of network time to what many would consider to be a fringe topic.
-1998? really bizarre find as this seemed to be some kind of promo for Fox22 Kids as it had 60 to 90 second snippets of their Kids programming, with the shows: Blossom, Dinosaurs, Family Matters, VR Troopers, Sailor Moon, FOX Clubhouse, Garfield, Power Rangers, Bananas in Pajamas, Littlest Pet Shop, C Bear & Jamal, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, X-Men, Masked Rider, and Bobby's World. I doubt this was recorded from TV as it looped many times, almost as if this was a tape shown at a convention that was recorded with the same 20 minutes of content 10 or 20 times over to fill a 6 hour tape and not require the person running the booth to do much with the VCR but hit play and let it run.
 
chandler0201 said:
-1998? really bizarre find as this seemed to be some kind of promo for Fox22 Kids as it had 60 to 90 second snippets of their Kids programming, with the shows: Blossom, Dinosaurs, Family Matters, VR Troopers, Sailor Moon, FOX Clubhouse, Garfield, Power Rangers, Bananas in Pajamas, Littlest Pet Shop, C Bear & Jamal, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, X-Men, Masked Rider, and Bobby's World. I doubt this was recorded from TV as it looped many times, almost as if this was a tape shown at a convention that was recorded with the same 20 minutes of content 10 or 20 times over to fill a 6 hour tape and not require the person running the booth to do much with the VCR but hit play and let it run.
Click to expand...
Probably a promotional tape shown at a Fox 22 Kids' Club event (if they had a kids club), or perhaps at a local video store, or maybe a locally-owned business targeted towards children, like an arcade? The video stores did loops for movies coming out but they would have been produced by corporate, duplicated on a bunch of decks, and sent to stores by truck. And so did department stores. And I am sure this would have been sometime in spring to summer of '96 that it was recorded, probably to promote the new fall lineup. C. Bear and Jamal was on Fox Kids in 1996-97.
 
@crainbebo, @chandler0201 and @Scott2013 please don't take this post as being disrespectful or demeaining in any way as I truly don't mean it to be, but I'm honestly curious: You have an obvious passion for finding and collecting these older tapes and seeing if you've "struck gold" once you've had the chance to view them, but once that's done, what do you do with them if you don't mind my asking? Do you just archive them for perpetuity and have shelves full of VHS and beta tapes? Do you hope to sell them, based on the content they contain? Do you discard most of what you find, but maintain this hobby with the payoff being when you find something truly rare? Again, no disrespect at all intended, I'm truly curious as to what your end goal is, or what motivates you and keeps firing your passion to seek out more and more tapes to scan through?
 
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I have a system when it comes to 'archiving' and 'selling.'

I usually archive those tapes that have at least 1/3rd of a Yakima newscast on them, no matter the year, up to 2009. Why do I do this? I personally know former KIMA meteorologist Stu Seibel (he's a ham radio operator and part of the W7AQ Yakima ARC), and he pointed out to me that right before he retired from the station, the management threw the whole archives in the dumpsters. Apparently, employees were 'lined up at the dumpsters' to grab tapes and films. This puts me at an advantage. If a tape even has the 'A-block' (top stories, shootings, wildfires, major political developments locally) of the newscast, it may be the only copy left of that broadcast. One-of-a-kind, let's say. I'm in a small market compared to Seattle and L.A. I also keep tapes that have very old Yakima recordings on them (pre-1984), will be keeping the tape that has Steve & Phil Mahre's medal-winning slalom in the Sarajevo Olympics (locals, well-known, and the coverage was taped locally off KAPP w/ commercials to boot), and especially the tape that has the KIMA coverage of the Yakima Centennial Parade in 1985. Probably not many copies of that left.
In addition, when KNDO and KAPP left for Tri-Cities, they (very likely) didn't keep an archive either. This would have been around the recession that they vacated the studios on 24th Ave.

Other tapes I am archiving for now: some of my oldest recordings from MTV (yeah, I know they are worth money, but I want to keep them around), some that have Seattle newscasts (because there may be a place in Seattle that would like to take those in the future), and Yakima recordings that have sign-offs on them (once again, because those recordings aren't in a station archive either).

The ultimate goal? Yesterday, Gov. Inslee announced the end of nearly all COVID restrictions in WA. My plan in the coming months is to put all these newscasts, parades, and local things onto DVDs and donate the footage to the Yakima Valley Museum for a permanent archive. In fact, I would love to expand on their small collection of Yakima TV artifacts. They have the old Uncle Jimmy's Clubhouse 'treasure chest', the old KIMA weather map, and a TV camera, but I know they would appreciate a lot more, especially from KNDO and KAPP. Maybe even expand the exhibit to showcase the historic events that our TV stations covered throughout the decades, that affected the people of the Yakima Valley. An exhibit with my name as one of the 'founders'? I would be very proud of myself for doing such a service. That's my biggest goal with the tapes I find, and why I hope that each sale will pull out a newscast or two, or something else that is local.

About 85% of the tapes end up being sold. If they have three movies on them, I have no reason to keep them after pulling commercials off EXCEPT for putting them on DVD for permanent archive in case (like in March) I lost my accounts, which I did. THANK GOD I have everything archived (except for broken tapes and rental copy junk which all went into my recycling bins after viewing). Same goes with tapes that were just random TV shows - if it was 6 hours of Magnum P.I., it goes to eBay once viewed. BUT, if it has 6 hours of Magnum P.I. and 10 minutes of a KIMA newscast at the end from the mid-1980s, it becomes permanent in the collection.

Most tapes get sold to eBay in lots 'sold as blank.' I remind them that I cannot sell for the content, only as blanks, but I have no way (nor do I really want to) of erasing each and every tape until it's completely blank again. Often I get $30-$40 for lots. I average about 25 to 30 tapes, a few duds thrown in but mostly w/ commercials or pay-TV promos. I never sell rental duds just because they are worth nothing and are in worse quality than the tape itself because of the anti-copy protection. If I see a home-recorded tape that starts with an FBI warning, goes into a movie, and the tape just goes blank at the end instead of TV footage (from the second VCR), it gets recycled immediately.
There have been some tapes sold separately due to nostalgic value. Nickelodeon, MTV/Beavis & Butthead, Simpsons reruns, etc. have been sold separately in the past with varying levels of value. Sometimes $15 for the tape, sometimes $40+. I've seen them go for $150.00+...for one tape.
Now I'm very genuine in what I sell on eBay. Other ah@les sell tapes that were copied from 'torrents' or Archive recordings and then they put them on a blank dud old stock tape to make it look like an original. Notice those sellers who put up the same cartoons over and over. It's not that the buyer failed to purchase and they had to relist it. They have ways of copying the same cartoons and Beavis & Butthead episodes to different tapes. My tapes no matter if they are in lots of 25 or separate...are ALWAYS genuine, purchased from an estate sale, yard sale, or eBay lot FIRST and never copied from a torrent.

I've been doing this for years, and you start to realize how people sell home-recorded tapes and what they will do to sell them. I don't play the 'copy from somewhere else' game and never will.
I also do this because my family grew up in Yakima. My mother lived here from birth until she was 27 (in 1987), then moved back for a year in 1994-95 and again from 2010 onward. My grandparents moved out here in the 1950s. They remember the days of three channels, Jimmy Nolan doing not only a kids' show but also the weather, and the fact that there was no 'channel 35' for years. I have found newscasts dating back to October 1979 - and wouldn't you know it, my family immediately recognized the mullet-haired Hispanic guy doing the news on KAPP - Mike Ramirez. On an ugly blue set, but this was 1979, after all. And a small town. My mom even knew some of the local news folks because she worked at a local bar and once a week they came in after the late news for nachos and cold-tapped beer, often giving her $20 tips. This is what I love about doing this. I may have grown up with the likes of Steve Raible, Dan Lewis and Jean Enersen, but it's more fun to find these Yakima newscasts in my opinion, just because of the small-town quality and family heritage.
 
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Crainebo,
I guess I have another question. Do you run into any problems with the tapes you sell on Ebay over supposed copyright violations like you have on You Tube? The reason I ask is I'm trying to copy the VHS tapes I have to DVD and/or digital files, and may have tapes I want to sell in the future. Thanks!
 
No, because I mark them as "SOLD AS BLANK". This eliminates the chances of violations because the buyer could either watch what was on them, or tape them over, or erase them. I had a buyer once who decided to tape them over once she got them. So it goes either way...
Of course 98% of us buy those eBay lots for the purpose of finding rare TV content.
 
Mikey Radio said:
@crainbebo, @chandler0201 and @Scott2013 please don't take this post as being disrespectful or demeaining in any way as I truly don't mean it to be, but I'm honestly curious: You have an obvious passion for finding and collecting these older tapes and seeing if you've "struck gold" once you've had the chance to view them, but once that's done, what do you do with them if you don't mind my asking? Do you just archive them for perpetuity and have shelves full of VHS and beta tapes? Do you hope to sell them, based on the content they contain? Do you discard most of what you find, but maintain this hobby with the payoff being when you find something truly rare? Again, no disrespect at all intended, I'm truly curious as to what your end goal is, or what motivates you and keeps firing your passion to seek out more and more tapes to scan through?
Click to expand...
I simply make DVDs of the keepers that I find. Including trades, I'm well over the 4000 DVD mark that I hold in USPS Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate boxes that hold a little over 200 each. With the exception of the oldest Beta tape from 1977 that I've ever found, I've sold off the rest. I'm about to list a bunch of lots this weekend if you're interested on eBay. I've had several YouTube channels terminated over the years and even a Dailymotion account, but I always keep a list of what gets a takedown to ensure I don't get a strike again. I currently have over 4500 videos on my three YouTube channels and over 1800 on Dailymotion.

Well, that lot of seven Beta tapes from Atlanta came in on Monday, and although there was some rare content from the late 1970s and early 1980s on a few tapes, very few commercials were found on them, and three of the tapes were complete duds. Of those four tapes, one contained about ten minutes of runoff election coverage off WXIA from August 1980 (no ads during this segment), another contained the Catch A Rising Star 10th Anniversary Special off HBO on 10/19/1982 with a few promos after the special, a third with An Evening With Robin Williams off HBO on 3/16/1983 with a seven-minute promo block afterwards, including a Video Jukebox clip with Bananarama's "He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'", and a fourth consisting of various clips from shows from 1977-78 such as the Midnight Special, Saturday Night Live, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, as well as the occasional partial movie trailer spot including one for Saturday Night Fever or a record spot such as for Heart's Magazine album. The clips mostly featured comedic acts and not bands/singers associated with those. Recorded on a Sony K-60, the expensive cost of blank tape in those days (about $75 in today's dollars) meant that recorders with a budget often just taped bits of pieces. As always, I'll continue hunting until I feel that I've hit a brick wall. I may be slowing down a bit as things reopening, but I'll keep the classics coming.
 
To answer the prior question(s):

I do this as a side hobby as I am already at thrift stores daily for my main business, which is an ecommerce store. As a whole though I've been taping stuff since the 1980s and trading recordings since the 1990s, for decades it was most if not all sports material, but lately its been anything that is old, nostalgic, or rare. Unfortunately I do not find too much stuff from my home market (unless its something my dad taped decades ago that I uncovered) but I do find stuff from the NC Triad from time to time (as its the town the closest Goodwill outlet is in). I enjoy the time machine aspect of an old recording, many times an old commercial will jog a memory or feeling, same with a TV show or special (especially the Halloween or Christmas ones). Some of these triggered memories are of things I haven't thought of in 25 years. Maybe its just how my mind works, but the older you get the more life is in the rearview mirror, and you try to hold onto the best things you remember about the past.

I try to convert VHS to DVD as soon as I can, but I am picky with what I will convert, if its just movies recorded from HBO with no bumpers or previews then it goes into the wait and see box, if its straight up rental copies then I either trash the tape or reuse the tape shells for other broken tapes (I've become adept at tape surgery the past 5 years). Ultimately if there is at least 30-60 minutes of useable material on a tape I will convert it ASAP, if less its more wait and see.

In the long run I have not sold any tapes on Ebay yet minus oddball home movies or found footage tapes. I'm trying to think of the best strategy to list them, either a lot of tapes by decade or year or theme (aka just HBO recorded horror movies, sitcoms, etc). I'd assume it makes more sense to list anything pre 1985 as an individual tape as anything that old is pretty rare.
 
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.
 
chandler0201 said:
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.
Click to expand...
Now you see why I keep the VHS tapes of Yakima newscasts, local specials, and anything that was taped prior to 1984. Even if it was a soap opera w/ commercials. Come 2035, if the Museum tells me "the collection you gave us has broke down", I can make more copies.
I also keep a few rental duds around for those rare times when a tape shell needs fixing. It happens from time to time mostly on cheap tapes.
 
My oldest VHS tape has a “Miami Vice” rerun and the second episode of “Crime Story.” Thanks to imdb, the recording date would have been September 19, 1986. I also have several episodes of the short-lived ABC series “Our World” with Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf. Based on imdb, the oldest one was recorded on Oct. 2, 1986.
 
Tape 1- Scotch EG T120 marked Fright Night Terminator The Evil Men Do
-Fright Night 1h46m HBO airing
-Terminator 1h47m HBO airing
-The Evil Men Do 1h31m HBO airing
-The Seven Magnificent Gladiators 1h6m (incomplete) HBO airing
Definitely neat mix tape of 80s "guy classic" films. I think these were all recorded in 1986 but I could be wrong, HBO airings are better than direct rental copies, but network airings with commercials are preferred unfortunately.

Tape 2- JVC T120 Dynarec (ancient tape stock from research) marked Valley Gwang/Groove Tube
-Inhibitions (Showtime cut of a 70s softcore movie)
-Dirty Harry 37m partial (4 minutes of Showtime promos in between, dates the stuff to around 1989)
-Groove Tube 1h2m mostly complete Showtime airing (unfortunately recorded SP which reduced tape)
-1983 week of April 26th, unsure of exact date but dated to Newsweek issue on Hitler Diary:
"The 60s Music Madness Magic" 49m (WCBS Channel 2) some tapeover from other movies with 3 more minutes in between. I could not find any information on this documentary online. Honestly, its one of the earliest documentaries on the 60s I've EVER seen. Most of the events discussed were less than 15 years old at that point, and one of the "hippies" interviewed said he had to grow up now that he just turned 35, no most hippies are 75+ years old.

Tape 3- Fuji or JVC T120 marked Revenge of the Pink Panther, Teahouse August Moon, Charlie Muffin
-1983/10/12 Charlie Muffin (aka A Deadly Game on IMDB) (WNET) 1h50m obscure British movie perfect for PBS
-1983/10/13 Million Dollar Movie: Teahouse of the August Moon (WOR-9) 2h27m
People seem to have a lot of nostalgia for the Million Dollar Movie bumpers with all the shots of old New York
-1983 October Trail of the Pink Panther HBO airing

Tape 4- Maxell EX T120 basement find marked George Washington Parts 1 & 2 1986 miniseries
-1988/12/25 Disneyworld Very Merry Christmas Parade 1h23m (WTVD11)
-1988 June? Marie: A True Story (WLFL22?) 40m partial
-1986/12/28 Disney Sunday Movie Tiger Town/George Lucas Star Tours ~30m (WTVD11)
Last few minutes of Tiger Town but the Star Tours part was complete. I believe my dad taped this because we were planning on a vacation to Disneyworld for summer 1987.
-Unknown date Potomac River documentary I'm guessing WUNC4 PBS
-1987/1/3 last few minutes of ABC News Weekend and first few minutes of Reflections local show (WTVD11) 6m
-1987 July? Ducking Disaster with Donald Duck 42m mostly complete (WLFL22)
As typical with stuff we recorded, there were many tapeovers and reusing of tapes on our family VCR. Some of it was my fault and I probably got grounded for recording the Disney stuff over stuff my dad originally recorded. Its too bad tapes were so expensive then, I'd guess we would have been taping over stuff less and more of this stuff would be preserved.
 
One more tape, Sony T130 EQ, this one marked Atlanta vs Mets and Far Side, contents:

-1995/12/29 The Bold & The Beautiful (WFMY2) 30m
-1995/10/27 The Young & The Restless (WFMY2) 29m partial
-1994/6/21 NY Mets at Atlanta Braves (TBS) 1h7m Bottom of 3rd to Bottom of 7th unfortunately the rest of the game was taped over, of course this was one of the 2 things marked on the tape label, the other being...
-1994/10/26 Tales from the Far Side (WRAL5) 23m I believe this was the only time CBS aired this animated special, it was later released on VHS only, and that version included some segments not in the original broadcast. I find it interesting that the taper either moved or had access to two different CBS affiliates, I'm guessing WFMY2 was antenna reception and WRAL5 was the actual cable signal. From personal experience I remember as a kid actually getting WFMY2 on an antenna nearly 60 miles away from the source signal, so it was a strong signal for the time.
-1994/10/26 Touched By An Angel "Cassie's Choice" (WRAL5) 54m This was nearly complete, only missing the last segment. The most notable thing about this episode was that Allison Hannigan had a large guest starring role in this, playing a teenage mom to be, quite a different role from how she was typecast in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the American Pie movies.
-1994/6/21 TBS Prime Movie "Cheyenne Autumn" (TBS) 2h40m Believe it or not this was still missing 20 minutes, as that movie is just that long with commercials. I'm guessing the taper just left the tape running through the baseball game until it ran out, but sadly bits and pieces of the game and the TBS block were taped over by the other aforementioned stuff.
-1994/6/21 The Kidnapping of the President (TBS) 38m Quite an obscure film that has both William Shatner and Hal Holbrook in it, an appropriate movie to put in the late night TBS programming hours.
 
After getting my VCR professionally cleaned, here's some more stuff I ended up finding as of late...

Seville, Ohio yard sale last month--found two other tapes from the same sale, which were duds
TAPE 1: Purple Hearts (1984) and Unfaithfully Yours (1984) taped from HBO on 2/24/1985 with promos. Maxell T-120.

The Red Geranium Resale Shop in Parma Heights this past Friday
TAPE 2: Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), Belles on Their Toes (1952) and partial broadcast of AMC in Concert at the Rainbow Room taped from AMC on Mother's Day 1997 with promos. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 3: Three episodes of I Love Lucy taped from Nick at Nite in November 1997 with commercials; episode of Dawson's Creek taped from WBNX on 5/12/1998 with commercials; episode of The Price Is Right (Bill Cullen) and partial episode of Beat the Clock (Bud Collyer) taped from Game Show Network in May 1998 with commercials; partial episode of The Wonder Years taped from Nick at Nite in November 1997 with commercials; Saturday Night Live (hosted by Rudy Giuliani with musical guest Sarah McLachlan) and first few minutes of It's Showtime at the Apollo taped from WKYC on November 22-23, 1997 with commercials; Our Favorite Toys taped from the Discovery Channel in November 1997 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 4: Nine episodes of I Love Lucy taped from Nick at Nite (Block Party Summer) in August 1997 with commercials; partial episode of I Love Lucy taped from WBNX in June 1997 with commercials; episode of I Love Lucy taped from Nick at Nite in June 1997 with commercials; episode of I Love Lucy taped from WBNX in June 1997 with commercials (starts with the end credits of The Andy Griffith Show); partial episode of I Love Lucy taped from Nick at Nite in June 1997 with commercials. RCA T-120.

TAPE 5: Five episodes of I Love Lucy taped from Nick at Nite (Lucy's Birthday Ball) on 8/11/2000 with commercials; six episodes of I Love Lucy taped from Nick at Nite (Block Party Summer) in August 2000 with commercials; partial broadcast of Smythe Cramer TV Open House Preview taped from WUAB in August 2000 with commercials. TDK T-120.
 
More finds from within the last few days.

Garage sale--Litchfield, OH--was part of the annual Litchfield Community Garage Sales, but this was the only one where I found any tapes
TAPE 1: Partial episode of Gilmore Girls and episode of One Tree Hill taped from WBNX on 4/6/2004 with commercials; end of an episode of Gilmore Girls and episode of One Tree Hill taped from WBNX on 4/13/2004 with commercials. Sony T-160.

TAPE 2: Hoosiers (1986) taped from USA circa 1992 minus commercials; Field of Dreams (1989) taped from WJW (CBS Sunday Movie) on 4/5/1992, only the first two commercial breaks are included; end of an episode of Investigative Reports and partial episode of Arts & Entertainment Revue taped from A&E on 10/11/1991 with commercials; partial NFL on NBC broadcast of San Diego Chargers vs. San Francisco 49ers taped from WKYC on 9/8/1991 with commercials, also includes a pre-halftime local news brief. Polaroid T-120.

TAPE 3: The Next Karate Kid (1994) taped from the Disney Channel on 5/20/2000 with promos; A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995) taped from WEWS (Wonderful World of Disney) on 5/28/2000 with commercials; Teen Wolf (1985) taped from WGN in June 2000 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 4: Crocodile Dundee (1986) taped from WEWS (ABC Saturday Night Movie) on 4/27/1991 with commercials; Die Hard (1988) taped from WOIO (Fox Night at the Movies) on 4/29/1991 with commercials; partial Big Chuck and Lil John presentation of The Terminator (1984) taped from WJW in April 1991 with commercials, includes a couple of BC&LJ segments and skits. Focal T-120.

TAPE 5: Back to the Future Part III (1990) taped from WKYC (NBC Movie of the Week) on 11/22/1991 with commercials; partially taped-over broadcast of Back to the Future Part III (again) taped from WKYC (NBC Sunday Night Movie) on 11/17/1991 with commercials. Champion T-120.


Estate sale--Brunswick, OH--two keepers out of five tapes found
TAPE 6: Episode of Wrecks to Riches taped from TLC in May 2006 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 2006 Crown Royal 400 and partial episode of Rescue Me taped from FX on 5/6/2006 with commercials; two episodes of Dharma & Greg taped from FX in May 2006 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 2006 Food City 500 and partial broadcast of Fox 8 News at Six taped from WJW on 3/26/2006 with commercials. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 7: Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story (made-for-TV movie) and partial episode of The Larry Sanders Show taped from HBO on 9/12/1992 with promos. Polaroid T-120.

A third tape I found at that sale would have been a keeper if it was in better condition than it was. It had a NASCAR race on ABC (WEWS) from around September 2008 (couldn't identify which one it was) and at least a partial broadcast of News Channel 5 at 6:00--and possibly some other content as well that I didn't see--but the tape was rather damaged and the audio was quite warbly. It was a Fuji T-120.


Bonus finds/honorable mentions
*Value World--Middleburg Heights, OH
-Burrelle's Information Services VHS of Dr. Phil episode "On the Outs with In-Laws" originally aired on 2/28/2006--was recorded on a Maxell T-60, which, oddly enough, had the recording tab still in place

*Garage sale--Medina, OH
-Two audiocassettes of oldies and standards recorded from an unknown local radio station--many of these recordings start a few seconds into the songs and some feature about a second or so of DJ banter before or after...here in the Northeast Ohio area, the only stations that I know of that played standards were AM 850 WRMR in Cleveland or 1590 WAKR in Akron
 
I've got that 11/17/91 broadcast of Back to the Future III on the same tape as multiple NBC Saturday morning cartoons that were taped November 30th.
The binder I got when I purchased that massive video library last July from an Ellensburg estate sale shows Field of Dreams on tape #390B (recording #2 on tape 390), and Scarlett was on a close number nearby, so my broadcast is from late 1994, not sure if it was CBS or another network.
 
Oh, and almost forgot, last week's VHS finds (Saturday, July 10th). Three sales had tapes, one in Yakima, one in Selah and one in Ellensburg. In Selah, this was part *3* of the clearing out of a lady's house and storage units that were filled to the brim with 1980s and 1990s toys, action figures, teddy bears, and other nostalgic materials. This time around there was a Teddy Ruxpin plus about 10 tapes and books and new outfits in the box, about a dozen Cabbage Patch dolls INCLUDING two of the 'Talking Kids' from the late 1980s (rare and brand new in box!!), vintage Power Rangers action figures, vintage Mickey Mouse and Sesame Street toys, a GI Joe aircraft carrier with all the parts + the box (which goes for hundreds of dollars minimum on eBay), Barbies, and a bunch more Star Wars action figures from the 1990s and early '00s. I kinda wish I had about $200 on me and purchase some of those vintage toys, knowing they were worth a lot more than estate sale prices. I still got a Mork & Mindy lunch box for my mom for $15, she loved watching that show as a teenager. No Thermos however. This was also the same house where I spent $35 on a Coca-Cola gas station/store clock from the '70s that I have restored.
NEXT TIME this house opens again (they have at least 2 more storage units to go through!!!), I am arriving Friday morning, day 1, at 8:00 in the morning, and with $200 or more in hand purchasing dolls and toys. There is mucho $$$ to be made here. Some of the G.I. Joe toys and accessories have gone for $3,000 on eBay in the past 90 days.

Yakima estate sale, near Ahtanum Rd / 64th. Only the second time I've found Louisiana TV, found a little bit in a Baton Rouge-area eBay lot in May 2020. Also, a lot more TBN than I expected. I have no idea when I will get to these (DON'T ASK!), and some of the programs I will likely not even post (like the Adrian Rodgers or Rod Parsley shows, copyright trouble abounds). It was interesting to find the Sister, Sister girls on a Christian talk program, on the other hand...
Tape 1 - Starts with 1 hr and 20 minutes of Praise the Lord taped off TBN circa 1993 or 1994 (SP mode); cutting over to a partial broadcast of "Night Passage" (1957) taped off Superstation TBS on 11/28/1987 with commercials; cuts over to part of a season 2 episode of Oprah Winfrey taped off KAPP-35 in October 1987 with some commercials, some paused to save tape (with Paul Pearsall, discussion on sexual fantasies). This is the oldest episode of Oprah I have ever found. Gemini T-120
Tape 2 - Fatal Addictions (NBC special on people fighting addictions to drugs and liquor) taped off KNDO/NBC on 8/9/1989 minus commercials; National Geographic Special (on the coastal Indians, and another called Those Wonderful Dogs) taped off KYVE/PBS in August 1989; episode of Roseanne taped off KAPP/ABC on 8/22/1989 with commercials; part of American Masters: James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket and start of Something Magical taped off KYVE/PBS on 8/14/1989 with a PSA in between; last bit of 'Missing in Action II' (1986), 'Missing in Action' (1984) and part of 'The Mission' (1986) taped off Cinemax on 3/3/1988 with promos. Master T-120
Tape 3 - 'Uncommon Valor' (1983) taped off KAPP/ABC on 12/29/1990 with commercials; 'Witness' (1985) taped off KIMA/CBS on 1/13/1991 with commercials; ends with Dr. John Bradshaw on Homecoming and first few minutes of GED on TV taped off KYVE/PBS in March 1991 with promos. Gemini T-120
Tape 4 - Star Trek: The Next Generation series finale taped off WNOL-38 New Orleans on 5/23/1994 minus commercials; 'Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey' (1993) taped off Disney Channel on 6/11/1994 with several minutes of promos and free preview material; part of 'Heavy Metal' (1981) taped off TBS sometime in 1993 minus commercials; episode of Highlander: The Series and part of Baywatch taped off WVLA-33 Baton Rouge in November 1993 with commercials...cool out-of-market footage! I haven't had anything from Louisiana since I bought an eBay lot from that area in May 2020. Sony T-120
Tape 5 - 'White Fang' (1991) taped off The Disney Channel in December 1991 with a few minutes of promos; 'In the Nick of Time' (1991) taped off WDSU/NBC on 12/16/1991 with commercials (SP recording and incomplete). Gemini T-120
Tape 6 - Another broadcast of Praise the Lord taped off TBN circa 1997, with guests Tamera and Tia Mowry ('Sister, Sister')! Master T-120
Tape 7 - About 15 minutes of another Praise the Lord broadcast, Adrian Rodgers sermon, and episode of This Week in Bible Prophecy taped off TBN circa 1998; part of Finding Financial Freedom with Jonathan Pond taped off KYVE/PBS in April 1996 with pledge breaks included, hosted by George Ray at KCTS. Master T-120
Tape 8 - Starts with 10 minutes of an episode of Northern Exposure taped off A&E, then cuts to an episode of ER taped off TNT on 11/3/2000 with commercials; and cuts again to part 2 of Voice of the Heart and part of Murphy Brown taped off Lifetime on 11/2/2000 with commercials. Maxell T-120 once marked 'Peter Pan'
Tape 9 - Two more broadcasts of Praise the Lord taped off TBN in 1997 (one includes Jack Hayford of Church on the Way). Master T-120

Selah
Tape 10 - 1991 CMA Awards taped off KCBS/CBS on 9/28/1991 with commercials (SP mode). GoldStar T-120
Tape 11 - *This tape was in that $5 box back in May with all of the Disney/Public domain cartoon tapes, but now they decided to just sell them separately for 25c no matter what. Glad I got this!* Starts with a segment of 20/20 on obesity (circa February 1995); then cuts over an episode of Maury Povich taped off KIMA-29 on 2/6/1995 without commercials (interview with man who gets out of jail and murders an entire family); episode of Oprah Winfrey taped off KAPP-35 on 2/6/1995 with some commercials (makeover tips); clip of Geraldo taped off KAPP-35 on 2/7/1995 with commercials (bad teens); most of an episode of The Other Side taped off KNDO/NBC on 2/8/1995 with commercials (first time finding this rare talk show!); episode of Coach taped off KAPP-35 later that night with commercials (syndicated rerun); All-Star Ultra TV Censored Bloopers with Dick Clark taped off KNDO/NBC on 2/8/1995 with commercials; partial episode of Oprah Winfrey and open to Northwest Now taped off KAPP-35 on 1/31/1995 with commercials; syndicated rerun of Coach taped off KAPP later that night with commercials; episode of Donahue taped off KAPP-35 on 2/1/1995 with commercials (stand-up comedy). Great tape! Scotch T-120

Ellensburg
Tape 12 - About 30 minutes of Oprah Winfrey taped off KING-5 on 11/20/2006 with commercials (cast of Dreamgirls); A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving taped off KOMO/ABC later that night with commercials; part of Teachings of the Tree People: The Work of Bruce Miller and part of French in Action taped off KCTS/PBS in mid-November 2006 with promos (in a very rare example for this late time period, the 1980s WGBH logo pops up at the beginning of FiA!); part of another Oprah Winfrey episode and first several minutes of KING 5 News at 5 (flood coverage) taped off KING-5 on 11/8/2006 with commercials. RCA T-120
 


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