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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

Litchfield garage sale #1 (during Litchfield's community garage sales in July)

TAPE 26: This is now the most recent content I have in my collection(!): Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson taped from WKEF in Dayton on 11/1/2020 with commercials; one partial episode and five full episodes of The Fugitive taped from WHIO-DT2 (MeTV) in Dayton in June 2020 with commercials, all of these episodes were copied from recordings on a terrestrial DVR. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 27: Little Fugitive (1953) taped from AMC in May 1997 with promos; Hard Rock Live episode with Jewel taped from VH1 on 6/1/1997 with commercials; Round 4 of the 1997 AMA Motocross Series and partial broadcast of MW2: Rev It Up taped from ESPN2 in June 1997 with commercials. RCA T-120.

TAPE 28: Millennium taped from WJW in Cleveland on 1/22/1999 with commercials; World Championship Boxing and partial broadcast of Dennis Miller Live taped from HBO on 3/19/1999 with promos; end of Wild Discovery, Sci Trek and partial broadcast of Area 51: The Real Story taped from the Discovery Channel in April 1998 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 29: End of Channel 3 News at 11:00 and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (tribute to Johnny Carson) taped from WKYC on January 24-25, 2005 with commercials; partial episode of American Idol taped from WJW on 1/25/2005 with commercials; partial episode of American Idol and partial episode of House taped from WJW on 3/8/2005 with commercials; American Idol and partial episode of The Simple Life: Interns taped from WJW on 3/9/2005 with commercials; partial episode of American Idol and partial episode of House taped from WJW on 2/1/2005 with commercials; American Idol and partial broadcast of George W. Bush's State of the Union Address taped from WJW on 2/2/2005 with commercials; partial broadcast of part six of Taken (Sci-Fi Channel miniseries) taped from the Sci-Fi Channel on 12/12/2002 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 30: End of a syndicated episode of That '70s Show and America's Next Top Model taped from WUAB on 10/19/2005 with commercials; The Apprentice: Martha Stewart taped from WKYC on 10/19/2005 with commercials; parts three and four of National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth (PBS miniseries) taped from WVIZ on 4/27/2005 with promos in between; American Idol taped from WJW on 5/3/2005 with commercials; partial rebroadcast of the 2004 Century 21 Home Run Derby taped from ESPN2 on 4/23/2005 (my 17th birthday!) with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 31: Contact (1997) taped from unknown pay TV channel circa 1999; two episodes of Behind the Music (Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, respectively) taped from VH1 on 3/28/1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of MotoWorld taped from ESPN2 in March 1999 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 32: Last few minutes of an episode of Deal or No Deal taped from WKYC on 5/22/2006; American Idol taped from WJW on 5/23/2006 with commercials; American Idol season finale taped from WJW on 5/24/2006 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 2005 Honda Superbike Classic and Duhamel: Adrenaline Rush taped from Speed Channel in April 2005 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 33: America's Next Top Model taped from WUAB on 5/10/2006 with commercials (waning days of UPN). Sony T-120.

TAPE 34: Partial broadcast of Live on Five and News Channel 5 at 6:00 taped from WEWS on 7/1/2009 with commercials; partial episode of American Idol and start of Fox 8 News at Ten taped from WJW on 1/16/2007 with commercials; American Idol and start of Fox 8 News at Ten taped from WJW on 1/17/2007 with commercials; partial episode of American Idol taped from WJW on 3/1/2006 with commercials; American Idol taped from WJW on 3/2/2006 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 2005 Gran Premio Alice D'Italia taped from Speed Channel on 6/5/2005 with commercials. Sony T-120.


Litchfield garage sale #2

TAPE 35: Two episodes of CSI, episode of Without a Trace and first few minutes of News Channel 7 at 11:00 taped from WSPA in Spartanburg on Thanksgiving 2002 with commercials. JVC T-120.

TAPE 36: Everybody Loves Raymond, Becker, The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers and first few minutes of News Channel 7 at 11:00 taped from WSPA on 11/26/2001 with commercials. JVC T-120.

TAPE 37: End of Inside Edition and episode of Hawaii (short-lived NBC crime drama series) taped from WYFF in Greenville on 9/29/2004 with commercials. JVC T-120.

TAPE 38: JAG taped from WSPA on 5/20/2003 with commercials; Friends taped from WYFF on 5/22/2003 with commercials; partial episode of CSI: Miami and CSI taped from WSPA on 5/22/2003 with commercials. JVC T-120.

TAPE 39: Modern Marvels, Wrath of God, Boneyard: Where Machines End Their Lives, rebroadcast of Modern Marvels, rebroadcast of Wrath of God and partial Success Express infomercial taped from the History Channel in October 2005 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 40: First two hours of Super Bowl XXXVIII taped from WSPA on 2/1/2004 with commercials. JVC T-120 in SP mode.

TAPE 41: Remainder of Super Bowl XXXVIII complete with the infamous halftime show taped from WSPA on 2/1/2004 with commercials. JVC T-120 in SLP mode.

LOTS more tapes left behind at this sale, including one of the Married with Children episode guest starring Vanna White. I don't know why I didn't pick that one up!
In fact, after I paid the lady for the tapes I did buy, her husband came out of the garage with two plastic bags full of more tapes and offered me a deal for all of them! Given how many I ended up picking up in the weeks and months to come, it might actually be a good thing that I didn't get those, but naturally I'm still curious as to what could have been on them, especially after finding so much content from a distant market down south!

Bonus find from another Litchfield sale--a Memorex audiocassette containing Christmas music recorded from 103.3 WCRF (now known as Moody Radio) in Cleveland. I listened to a small portion of it and it includes some DJ dialogue and at least one top-of-the-hour news update. Will listen to more of that at a later time.


Church rummage sale--Wadsworth, OH

TAPE 42: Several episodes of I Love Lucy taped from TV Land (Fandemonium Marathon) on 1/6/2001 with commercials; partial episode of One Life to Live taped from WEWS on 10/31/2000 with commercials. Kodak T-120.

TAPE 43: Several more episodes of I Love Lucy taped from TV Land's Fandemonium Marathon on 1/6/2001 with commercials. RCA T-120.

Continuing in another post due to the character limit.
 
Garage sale--Parma, OH

TAPE 44: I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special taped from WOIO on 11/11/2001 minus commercials (already have this on another tape with the commercials); The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers taped from WOIO on 11/26/2001 minus commercials (see Litchfield sales); partial episode of All My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital and partial episode of Oprah taped from WEWS on 9/3/2001 with commercials; Port Charles and All My Children taped from WEWS on 9/4/2001 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 45: Partial episode of The Dr. Oz Show taped from WEWS on 2/10/2011 with commercials, briefly interrupted by an ABC News Special Report on the Egyptian Revolution; partial episode of The Dr. Oz Show and partial episode of The View taped from WEWS on 2/11/2011 with commercials, the latter is interrupted by another ABC News Special Report; All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital (all three were reruns as part of ABC Daytime's "Best Weddings of All Time" or something to that effect), Oprah (interviewing the women of The View) and partial broadcast of Live on Five taped from WEWS on 2/11/2011 with commercials, GH is interrupted by another ABC News Special Report with President Obama speaking on Mubarak stepping down; partial broadcast of Live on Five and partial broadcast of News Channel 5 at 6:00 taped from WEWS on 2/7/2011 with commercials; partial episode of All My Children taped from WEWS on 1/4/2011 with commercials. Sony T-120.


Flea market at JB Firestone Memorial Park in Spencer, OH (part of Spencer's community garage sales in August)

TAPE 46: Several episodes of The Lucy Show taped from Comedy Central in September 1991 with commercials, including a promo for the pilot episode of Home Improvement on ABC!; few minutes of Gulf War press conference coverage taped from C-SPAN in 1991. Recoton T-120.


Estate sale--North Royalton, OH

TAPE 47: The Truman Show (1998) copied from rental tape; some coverage of the 1997 Sanremo Music Festival taped from RAI International in February 1997--neat find! Fuji T-160.


Hinckley garage sale #1 of 3 (part of Hinckley's community garage sales in September)

TAPE 48: This was the one I mentioned earlier started with a homemade sex video, a radio nearby could be heard faintly the whole time, my best guess would be they had it on WMMS having heard "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, "About a Girl" by Nirvana and "Amazing" by Aerosmith being played, along with a Serpentini Chevrolet commercial at one point, which I guess gives new meaning to the slogan "American and proud of it!," LOL; afterward, the tape reverts to a partial XFL on NBC broadcast (Las Vegas Outlaws vs. Orlando Rage) taped from WKYC on 3/10/2001, some commercial breaks are intact, others are cut; 2001 Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500, America's Funniest Home Videos (joined in progress), V.I.P. and partial syndicated rerun of The X-Files taped from WJW on 3/11/2001 with commercials. TDK T-160.

A second tape containing The Wedding Planner (2001), but nothing else, was found at the same sale as well.


I found tapes at two other sales in Hinckley as well, both netting me ten tapes each. The second sale included at least three tapes with "Discovery Channel" written on the labeling and one supposedly containing episodes of Dawson's Creek, and the rest seems to be kind of a grab bag. Haven't gotten to any of these yet.


At the third Hinckley sale, I found one tape that contained a wildfeed of instructional videos and programs about computers taped from what appeared to be the C-band satellite wildfeed of PBS circa 1995. Get this--the rest of the tapes at this sale were videos of classes from OPOTA, the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy! All of the tapes at this sale were free for the taking from a Home Depot box outside the house.


And now I have seven more tapes to go through from an estate sale in North Royalton earlier today. One of them is supposed to be the final episode of The Sopranos from 2007. The majority of the ones listed above have not made it to YouTube as of yet. I plan on saving that for when I finally get everything else digitized that I haven't yet.
 
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.
 
Scott2013 said:
TAPE 6: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, NatureWorks, Take a Look, Reading Rainbow, Zoboomafoo, Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat and Zoom taped from WVIZ in Cleveland in February 2002 with promos; partial episode of ER and first few minutes of Channel 3 News at 11:00 taped from WKYC on 1/3/2002 with commercials; partial episode of ER taped from WKYC on 10/4/2001 with commercials; partial broadcast of Dateline NBC taped from WKYC on 4/12/1999 with commercials; Felicity taped from WBNX in Akron on 4/13/1999 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.
Click to expand...
Episodes of Take a Look & Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat are pretty rare & hard to find.
 
I finally got around to looking at the tapes from the other two Hinckley garage sales from September. More goodies here, including some surprises from smaller local stations and distant markets.

Hinckley garage sale #2
TAPE 49: Space Jam (1996) taped from HBO circa 1997; partial episode of The Dennis Miller Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Barney Miller and partial episode of The Odd Couple taped from WOIO on 4/30/1992 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 50: Dawson's Creek season premiere taped from WBNX on 10/4/2000 with commercials; partial broadcast of The World's Greatest Magic (NBC special) taped from WKYC on 11/26/1997 with commercials. JVC T-120.

TAPE 51: Partial broadcast of Short Circuit (1986) taped from USA in December 1988 with commercials; partial overnight rebroadcast of Cleveland Indians vs. Seattle Mariners, the 1997 Cosequin Grand Prix of Palm Beach, Thoroughbred World and partial broadcast of the 1997 High Roller Sunset Lane Shootout taped from SportsChannel Ohio on 7/23/1997 with commercials. Polaroid T-120.

TAPE 52: Parts one and two of Moby Dick (USA miniseries) taped from USA on March 15 and 16, 1998 with commercials; partial episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and partial episode of Dawson's Creek taped from WBNX on 3/17/1998 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 53: Another obscure find from the America One network--Lucky Terror (1936), His Prehistoric Past (1914), Of Human Bondage (1934) and Bob's Busy Day (1942) taped from WAX in Cleveland/WAOH in Akron in 1997 with commercials--was unable to pinpoint an exact date of broadcast on this one, but still an excellent find! Maxell T-120.

TAPE 54: Harvest of Fire (CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame movie) taped from KPHO in Phoenix on 4/21/1996 with commercials; Why Planes Go Down (Fox special) taped from KSAZ in Phoenix on 4/22/1996 with commercials; end of an episode of High Incident taped from KNXV in Phoenix on 4/15/1996 with commercials; episode of The Client taped from KPHO on 4/16/1996 with commercials; partial episode of Spenser: For Hire taped from Lifetime in December 1995 with commercials; partial Seven O'clock Movie presentation of Air America (1990) and start of WGN News at Nine taped from WGN in October 1995 with commercials. Focal T-120.

TAPE 55: Crocodile Hunter's Croc Files, Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls and partial coverage of the 2003 French Open taped from WKYC on 6/7/2003 with commercials. Maxell T-160.

TAPE 56: Partial broadcast of Raising the Mammoth and Walking with Dinosaurs (partial encore presentation follows) taped from the Discovery Channel on April 16-17, 2000 with commercials, already have a recording of this, but this one's in Hi-Fi Stereo sound and has local cable ad inserts from the Buffalo area; partial broadcast of Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (HBO made-for-TV movie) taped from HBO on 3/13/2000. Memorex T-120.

TAPE 57: Partial broadcast of Nightline (Chris Wallace substituting for Ted Koppel), part two of Gone with the Wind (already have both parts of this Movie 5 presentation on another tape), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) and partial episode of Rolonda taped from WEWS on November 24-25, 1994 with commercials; short clip from The Morning Exchange taped from WEWS in November or December 1994; partial broadcast of The Mountain (????), The Sentinel (1977) and The Minority Business Report taped from WEWS in October 1994 with commercials, this recording ends with the first few seconds of an ABC Saturday morning cartoon that I couldn't identify, even though it was going into an early Sunday morning, although I was unable to pinpoint the exact date of broadcast. Unknown brand T-130.

TAPE 58: Partial broadcast of CBS This Morning taped from WJW on 1/17/1990 with commercials; partial episode of Highway to Heaven taped from WKYC on 12/7/1988 minus commercials; partial NBC Sunday Night at the Movies presentation of Back to the Future (1985) taped from WKYC on 11/13/1988 minus commercials; partial broadcast of 20/20 taped from WEWS on 9/5/1997 minus commercials; ABC News coverage of Princess Diana's funeral taped from WEWS on 9/6/1997 (already have much of CNN's coverage of this); partial broadcast of The Dreamer of Oz (NBC made-for-TV movie) taped from WKYC on 12/10/1990 with commercials. Maxell T-120.



Hinckley garage sale #3--this was where they had the Home Depot box full of 3M broadcast-grade VHS tapes for free, many of which were of classes at the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy, but here's one that stood out:
TAPE 59: Lotus 1-2-3 Release 5 Basic Features Learning System and Lotus Ami Pro Learning System (MicroVideo Learning Systems instructional videos/programs) taped from what appears to be a C-band satellite wildfeed, as both parts of each video were separated by color bars, tone and slate with text on screen, date on these slates read April 5, 1995, and each slate mentioned PBS...could this really have been a C-band wildfeed of PBS? I don't think I've ever seen PBS show instructional videos about computer programs, unless some of the member stations were showing those as college telecourses(?)...3M Broadcast T-120.

On many of the tapes from this sale, what got my attention was that several of them had plastic tape over the space where the recording tab had previously been removed, which made me wonder if any of the OPOTA footage had ever been taped over at a later time.

Next step is going to be to look through the ones I got from the estate sale in North Royalton this past Friday.
 
Back out to Tri-Cities last Saturday and almost zero time to put new content on YouTube...but it's coming! Atomic City Thrift (Richland) was open, and I found tapes at the Goodwill Outlet plus a massive estate sale in Kennewick that was to be the highlight of the day trip. It was full of collectible glassware, 100s of LPs and vintage toys.

Atomic City
Tape 1 - 'One Special Night' (1999) taped off KEPR/CBS on 12/6/2000 with commercials and first 2-3 min. of KEPR News at 11 (also have original airing 11/28/99 from KIMA); part of 'Music from Another Room' (1998) taped off Romance Classics in November 2000 with lots of promos and a few commercials; broadcast of It is Written taped off KNDU-25 circa fall 1997; part of Queen (part 2) taped off KEPR/CBS on 9/4/1996 with commercials; part of The Young and the Restless taped off KEPR/CBS on 12/19/1989 with commercials; partial episode of The Cosby Show taped off KEPR-19 circa December 1989 with very few commercials left in. Memorex T-120
Tape 2 - 'Rain Man' (1988) taped off KVEW/ABC on 2/23/1992 with commercials (also have this from KGTV San Diego). Scotch T-120
Tape 3 - 'Stalag 17' (1953) taped off unknown channel, probably AMC; followed by a hodgepodge of TV clips - a few minutes of NBC Nightly News circa 1996 on women's health; part of 'It Happened One Night' (1949) taped off unknown station, taped over by a bonus round clip of Wheel of Fortune taped off KNDU in September 1994 with a few commercials; part of 20/20 taped off KVEW/ABC on 9/30/1994 with commercials; partial broadcast of Jeopardy! taped off KNDU in September 1994 with commercials, may be part of the same recording, Diane v. Martha v. Harry, not in J! Archive; part of the BYU v. Colorado State game taped off VISN on 9/17/1994 with commercials; part of the Miss Teen USA Pageant taped off KEPR/CBS on 8/16/1994 with commercials; ends with part of College Football Preview taped off CNN in August 1994 with commercials. Kodak T-120
Tape 4 - 'Not Just Another Affair' (1982) taped off WeTV on 2/4/2005 with commercials, ends with a brief clip of Two and a Half Men and a brief clip of KEPR NewsWatch at 11 taped 1/15/2004 before the tape runs out, all in SP. Maxell XL HIFI T-120
Tape 5 - One episode of Northern Exposure taped off A&E on 4/27/1998 with commercials; part 1 of Merlin taped off *KNDO/NBC* later that night with commercials...70 miles away and still finding Yakima TV recordings! Afterwards, there's part of 'Caddyshack' (1980) taped off unknown station minus commercials. TDK T-120
Tape 6 - Edited 60-minute version of 'Alice in Wonderland' (1951) taped off KCFW-9 Kalispell MT/ABC on 9/27/1987 with commercials...first find from western MT (Missoula/Kalispell)! Unbranded T-120
Tape 7 - Episodes of Monk and Psych taped off USA Network on 8/17/2007 with commercials; another episode of Psych and partial episode of House taped off USA Network on 8/24/2007 with commercials. Sony T-160 taped over multiple times
Tape 8 - Another 'Dream Team' game from the Barcelona Olympics - USA vs. Brazil, plus coverage of other Olympics events taped off KNDU/NBC on 7/31/1992 with commercials; more coverage of the Olympics taped off KNDU/NBC on 8/1/1992 with commercials. Fuji T-120

Goodwill Outlet
Tape 1 - 'The Old Man and the Sea' (1990) taped off KNDU/NBC on 3/25/1990 with commercials, nearly all GM ads. Nothing afterwards, 2 hrs in EP. Sony ES T-120
Tape 2 - 'Ninja III: The Domination' (1984) taped off KPTV Portland on 3/12/1990 with commercials, blank after 1:55 in LP. Maxell T-120. According to the Tri-City Herald microfilm, KPTV was not carried in Tri-Cities, but was carried in the Hermiston/Boardman area, which is likely where this tape came from. Goodwill of the Columbia has a store in Hermiston.

Estate sale, 714 S Sharron St / Kennewick
Tape 1 - Oprah Winfrey taped off KVEW-42 on 11/2/2006 with commercials (Dr. Oz's weight loss book); part of the Washington State at Oregon State football game taped off FSN Northwest on 10/7/2006 with commercials. Maxell T-120

Some cool finds this season, Scott. Just erase the first bit of that homemade sex tape and convert the early '00s TV stuff at your discretion ;-) At least that hasn't come up yet, knowing I've gone through how many dozens of unmarked/unlabeled tapes?
I have never heard of 'Take a Look' or 'NatureWorks' - were those instructional TV programs? Given that they aired around Sagwa and Reading Rainbow on WVIZ, I'm probably right.
I have the Oprah movie on tape 11, 'Before Women Had Wings.' My recording comes from KXTV/Sacramento.
Tape 17 - early Judge Judy is cool to find as well!
 
crainbebo said:
I have never heard of 'Take a Look' or 'NatureWorks' - were those instructional TV programs? Given that they aired around Sagwa and Reading Rainbow on WVIZ, I'm probably right.
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You are! I am not sure about Natureworks, but Take a Look was a Canadian instructional TV show that was produced by, & originally aired on TVOntario between 1986-1990. PBS TV stations would import educational kids shows from Canada, mostly from TVOntario, & show them alongside their regular kids shows, or in a block of programming usually known as "Instructional Television" alongside shows produced by the Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT) & the Annenburg-CPB Project. There seems to be only one episode, of Take a Look, available online.
 
Now for the tapes I found from the estate sale in North Royalton, as well as one found at another estate sale in the same town just yesterday, thus marking the end of this massive scale backlog.

North Royalton estate sale #1
TAPE 59: Several broadcasts of Book TV taped from C-SPAN2 circa August 2000. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 60: Partial broadcast of Larry King Live with Bill Gates taped from CNN on 1/1/2000 with commercials; partial broadcast of Biography of the Millennium taped from A&E in December 1999 with commercials, including inserts from Ameritech Americast, which I guess was an early example of digital cable back when it was brand new in the late '90s. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 61: Partial broadcast of Roll Bounce (2005), final episode of The Sopranos and partial episode of Big Love taped from HBO on 6/10/2007 with promos; partial episode of Cristina's Court, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Alex and one full episode and one partial episode of Judge Judy taped from WJW on 4/12/2007 with commercials. Sony T-160.

TAPE 62: The Best of Bill Alexander, Jenkins' Art Workshop, Fun with Watercolors, The Gift of Painting, The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross and The Inspiration of Painting taped from WNEO/WEAO in 1994, these programs were separated not by promo blocks but rather by lengthy bumpers showing the afternoon's program lineup; Oprah taped from WEWS in August 1994 with commercials, rough aerial signal throughout and the episode is interrupted twice with severe weather bulletins regarding a tornado warning in Huron County. Gemini T-120.

TAPE 63: Fun with Watercolors taped from WNEO/WEAO circa 1995; partial broadcast of Rick Smith Signature Series taped from ESPN in May 1995 minus most commercials; partial broadcast of the 1995 JCPenney LPGA Skins Game taped from WEWS on 5/28/1995 with commercials; Jenkins' Art Workshop, The Inspiration of Painting and The Joy of Floral Painting with Gary Jenkins taped from WNEO/WEAO in June 1995 with promos; more episodes of The Inspiration of Painting and The Joy of Floral Painting with Gary Jenkins taped from WNEO/WEAO in June 1995 with promos; one last episode of The Inspiration of Painting taped from WNEO/WEAO circa 1995. Maxell T-120.


North Royalton estate sale #2
TAPE 64: NFL on NBC broadcast of Cleveland Browns vs. Pittsburgh Steelers taped from WKYC on 11/20/1988 with commercials; two partial NFL on NBC broadcasts (Cleveland Browns vs. New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos) taped from WKYC on 9/13/1987 with commercials. Panasonic T-120.
 
Scott2013 said:
TAPE 48: This was the one I mentioned earlier started with a homemade sex video, a radio nearby could be heard faintly the whole time, my best guess would be they had it on WMMS having heard "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, "About a Girl" by Nirvana and "Amazing" by Aerosmith being played.
Click to expand...
Given that they were playing during sex, those titles are just too perfect to be a coincidence! I wonder if WMMR had an all-request "triple play" feature and that guy asked for those songs, in that order.
 
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.
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I've been in the hobby since high school, although my very first VHS recording find was in seventh grade when I persuaded my science teacher to give me a couple tapes of Bill Nye (which turned out to be Noggin recordings from 2000-2001).
Where I'm at, I have the most luck for finds at yard sales, and there are a couple auctioneers here that don't throw out tapes. estatesales.net tends to be bone dry in my area since it's so rural
 
Just got checking 16 tapes from another online seller. A mix of hits and (near) misses as you may expect, but still an overall fun hunt.

The duds include two tapes bulk erased, three tapes with movie content taken from rental copies, including one tape taken from kids' releases like Disney Clamshell releases of Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, and Dumbo back during their "cheesy diamond" logo days, albeit with those opening logos scoped.

Tape 1: Starts with the last couple minutes of ABC World News Sunday on a story about the Pokémon craze, followed by Annie (1999) recorded off WTVD/ABC on 11/7/1999 with approximately three-fourths of all commercials intact. SP speed from an unknown brand circa mid-1980s tape stock.

Tape 2: Most of Good Morning America (begins during the first newsbreak at the end of the first half hour), Jenny Jones, and half of a rerun of Rosie O'Donnell recorded off WTVD/ABC on 9/5/1997 with commercials. An ABC news special report for several minutes pre-empts a portion of Jenny Jones to cover the preparations for Princess Diana's funeral. T-60 in EP mode from an unknown brand.

Tape 3: The two-hour third season finale of Beverly Hills 90210 (aka the high school graduation episode) and the first ten minutes of the WNYW 10 O'Clock News off WNYW/FOX on 5/19/1993 with commercials, followed by part of the 1991 rerun of the Garfield Christmas special from 1987 off WCBS with a few commercials, then it jumps ahead with the final evening of the 1994 Winter Olympics including the closing ceremony off WCBS on 2/27/1994 with commercials, about the first ten minutes of the 11 PM News from CBS 2 in NY rounds out the tape. IDEA T-120 in EP.

Tape 4: Getting Fit with Denise Austin and most of Gilead's Bodies in Motion off ESPN on 4/1/1993 with commercials (including some Long Island, NY local inserts), followed by more Denise Austin/Bodies in Motion episodes along with bart of BodyShaping off ESPN on 4/6/1993 with commercials, then it jumps to the Knots Landing Block Party pre-finale special, followed by approximately the first 80 minutes of the Knots Landing series finale off WCBS on 5/13/1993 with commercials, then it jumps over to WNBC from the following Thursday night for the Cheers final episode and the first couple minutes of the late news. This is now my fourth different find for the Cheers finale, having just found the WGAL broadcast not too long ago. I would have preferred the complete KL ending, but this shows that finale season in 1993 was an memorable one, along with the last Wonder Years, Life Goes On, and Saved By The Bell. Scotch T-120 in EP.

Tape 5: Begins with Live with Regis & Kathie Lee off of mothership affiliate WABC on 2/4/1993 with commercials, followed by part of one episode Living Color as well as another full episode of ILC off WNYW/FOX also on 2/4/93 with commercials (both episodes were reruns), followed by most of the Laugh-In 25th Anniversary special off WNBC on 2/7/1993 with ads, then it cuts over for about the last two-thirds of Melrose Place off WNYW/FOX on 2/10/1993 with ads, with the first 20 minutes or so of the WNYW 10 O'Clock News rounding out this tape. T-120 in EP from another economy brand.

Tape 6: Most of Wiseguy (begins at the first commercial break), Knots Landing, and the first eight minutes of the WCBS 11 PM News from 10/29/1987 with commercials, then about half of an episode of Oprah Winfrey circa late 1987 from Texas off presumably WABC with no commercials. Maxell T-120 in EP.

Tape 7: About five hours worth of various cartoons off WNYW, including Rainbow Brite, The Wuzzles, and My Little Pony 'n Friends. Only two commercial breaks were present on one half-hour episode, "The Ghost of Paradie Estate, pt. 2" with the Glo-Friends "Caverns of Mystery" episode following with none of the closing credits found. The recording is from sometime in the 1986-87 season. Gemini T-120 in EP with a 1986 copyright date on the back. The back of the slip case on this tape said "Nichole Tape Mrs. Gala 2nd Grade Statue Liberty Trip, Twin Towers, Nichole Brontosaurs - Play - 1/2 way", which meant that potentially seeing old WTC footage was taped over by these merchandise-driven cartoons.

Tape 8: This isn't broadcast TV stuff, but this 75-minute video from 1990 which I can't find anywhere online is subtitled Tricks of the trade (not the movie starring Cindy Williams and Markie Post), where various chefs from different restaurants nationwide demonstrate their tricks to cooking. A nice find for the foodie aficionados. Another unknown "budget" label in SP.

Three near-misses included games 3 and 4 of the 2002 NHL Eastern Conference Finals recorded off ESPN in May 2002 with commercials, another tape with most of The Christmas Tree (1999) recorded off WTVD/ABC on 12/22/1999 with just a few commercials and a portion of Sister Act recorded off WRDC in 1996 with no commercials, with another being a compilation of children's programming from 1986 or 1987 featuring a couple of Wonderful World of Disney episodes (one new), as well as several episodes of My Little Pony 'n Friends recorded off WNYW with just a single commercial break intact; the real kicker though was that the tape had seen better days, given it was a budget brand without a major label on it. Its another one of those mover people who left downstate NY in the mid-1990s, moved to central NC, then moved back north later on since that's where the seller was based. Incidentally, my last three finds from a seller based out of the NYC tri-state area have all had out-of-market finds, showing the transient nature of that city.

Well now that we're heading into the holidays, its time to press the Santa button once again on my YT accounts.
 
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Went to an estate auction two days ago in my home county near Murray, KY. All that was on the tables that I really wanted was a little Philco-Ford B&W television, which I got for $5 (and it works great), but I also asked if there were any VHS recordings in the estate. The auctioneer said that tapes are usually thrown away, but the daughter of the lady whose estate was being sold led me to a closet in the house where lo, and behold, the closet door had a metal rack on it full of tapes plus several scattered in the closet. Offered $20 and she let me have the tapes. Most of the tapes appear to be 1990s, with the oldest being a Fuji Beridox tape (with one of those hard plastic sleeves) with a recording from 1987 of WRCB (Chattanooga, TN) and the newest (that I saw) being a Days of Our Lives recording from 2007 of WPSD (Paducah, KY). Lots of KET recordings, too (WKMU, Murray-Mayfield, KY), with a Teletubbies/Barney recording on one tape yielding a "K-Kid" station ID. Can't wait to go through all these tapes!
 
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Guess it's time for me to add to the list of great finds:
1. The Jesse Owens Story (1984) and Kids Inc from CBN (1986) airings, Owens aired on WTAF-TV
2. WPIX August 1986 - Jetsons, Eight is Enough, Gimmie A Break

and that's just the tip of the iceberg....
 
Does anyone here ever look on Facebook Marketplace for people selling VHS lots in their neck of the woods? I don't check very often, but I have seen some pop up here and there. Spotted this collection being sold by a gentleman in the Cleveland suburb of Strongsville.

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My thing with this one though is it seems like he has recordings of some events/specials that I already have VHS recordings of, like Bill Clinton's Grand Jury testimony, Princess Diana's funeral and the Jesus miniseries on CBS. But then again there are about 80 tapes total and there are several tapes I see in there that don't have labels, at least on the ends of the cassettes, so I'm sure there are all kinds of other goodies to be found. Given how much he wants for it though, I think this time of year that kind of money would be better spent on Christmas gifts for family members.

And on top of that, I found several more tapes at an estate sale in North Royalton last Friday. The place was fully loaded with these things, from shelves full of tapes in the living room to a few boxes full of them in the garage among other items. The amount of tapes I ended up taking home from this house is just a small portion of how many were there! Still have a few more from this haul to look through, but what I've been finding thus far has largely been a mix of crafting shows (Sewing with Nancy, Aleene's Creative Living, etc.), NASCAR races, war documentaries and Dancing with the Stars. A few duds/rental dubs thrown in as well, including a movie called Tribulation made by a Christian film studio called Cloud Ten Productions, which was the first I've heard of such. Unfortunately, two of the tapes I got won't be viewable anymore because the reels snapped off the spools after rewinding them in my external VHS rewinder. Both were Panasonic T-120s, appear to be '80s stock, although one supposedly has/had the last part of The Last Don on CBS from 1997.

Interestingly enough, on that living room shelf were VHS-C tapes as well. I would imagine those kinds of tapes were primarily used for home video recordings on camcorders, but I saw at least one of them had the labeling crossed out as did a few of the VHS tapes I got, indicating their original recordings had been taped over. Were there special VCRs used for these VHS-C tapes? I know they used to have adapters for playback in standard VHS VCRs because I know my dad used to have one of those.
 
Scott2013 said:
Interestingly enough, on that living room shelf were VHS-C tapes as well. I would imagine those kinds of tapes were primarily used for home video recordings on camcorders, but I saw at least one of them had the labeling crossed out as did a few of the VHS tapes I got, indicating their original recordings had been taped over. Were there special VCRs used for these VHS-C tapes? I know they used to have adapters for playback in standard VHS VCRs because I know my dad used to have one of those.
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Those VHS-C adapters could be modified by sticking adhesive tape over the hole on the front, just like with regular VHS tapes, which would allow recording stuff with a regular VCR on VHS-C tapes. I remember doing this when I wanted to record a TV show but didn't have regular VHS tapes to record on at the moment.
 


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