• 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

Goodwill Outlets are really the only place to find home recorded blanks besides one local thrift store that sells them along with factory duplicated ones for 10/$1.

I've found home recorded tapes from as far back as 1979 in the bins though 99% are VHS, only a handful of Beta.
 
The nearest one is Pasco WA (86 miles) but they are still in phase 1 and can't reopen anything right now. And I'm not heading westward for a while, so Spokane (150 miles away) it is. A shame there isn't one in Yakima. Surely with the two Yakima, one Selah and one Ellensburg location they could have a small outlet store somewhere instead of throwing all the KAPP, KIMA and KNDO-recorded tapes to outlet stores in Olympia and Tacoma to eventually receive their death sentence.
When Pasco goes to Phase 2 I will definitely check out the other Outlet store.

Chandler, do they roll out the carts every hour with different VHS tapes in them? Or is that mostly just for the clothing, toys and linens? Every Goodwill is different and I'll try and make a call to Spokane's outlet later in the month to make sure they 1. still carry VHS in the outlet, and 2. if they roll out new carts every so often even for media items.
 
crainbebo said:
Seriously, do it. People say thrift stores don't accept blank VHS tapes anymore. Apparently this is where they go to die...or get swallowed up by feisty shoppers. And keep in mind, at most of the outlet stores the bins are only out for about 1 hour or less. Then you MUST go back behind the yellow line and wait for the next bin. That first bin will be gone forever, the tapes likely thrown away. There's probably mountains of crap tapes that get thrown out at those places.
Of course now with mask requirements and social distancing, the bins are probably cleaner than ever before...or not.

Wonder if anyone else on this thread (Michael Pannoni?) has ever been into a Goodwill Outlet.
Click to expand...

Do you still have old religious TBN tapes back in the day?
 
Crainbebo,

The 2 Goodwill outlets that I go to most often are 60 and 80 miles from me respectively, and yes, they do roll out carts once an hour or so, but those 2 seem to have sections for clothes, shoes, electronics, and media. That is, it is a long plastic rolling cart of clothes, shoes, electronics, and mixed media. Thus, you will be sifting through books, DVDs, console and computer games, and even vinyl records to get to the VHS tapes. The 60 mile away one actually was nice enough to separate out their CEDs and laserdiscs to the glass case. All media items were .49 each, everything else had variable prices per pound. The 80 mile away one had everything per pound, but with the typical weight of a VHS tape it worked out to be about 2 for $1 with DVDs a bit cheaper.

I've also been to Goodwill outlets in New Jersey and Northern Virginia in my travels, and they operated a bit differently, as everything was a free for all in the bins. I do have a first person view of the New Jersey store in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX0rrTX5vek


crainbebo said:
Chandler, do they roll out the carts every hour with different VHS tapes in them? Or is that mostly just for the clothing, toys and linens? Every Goodwill is different and I'll try and make a call to Spokane's outlet later in the month to make sure they 1. still carry VHS in the outlet, and 2. if they roll out new carts every so often even for media items.
Click to expand...
 
crainbebo said:
Seriously, do it. People say thrift stores don't accept blank VHS tapes anymore. Apparently this is where they go to die...or get swallowed up by feisty shoppers. And keep in mind, at most of the outlet stores the bins are only out for about 1 hour or less. Then you MUST go back behind the yellow line and wait for the next bin. That first bin will be gone forever, the tapes likely thrown away. There's probably mountains of crap tapes that get thrown out at those places.
Of course now with mask requirements and social distancing, the bins are probably cleaner than ever before...or not.

Wonder if anyone else on this thread (Michael Pannoni?) has ever been into a Goodwill Outlet.
Click to expand...

I've been to the closest Goodwill to me many times, but have NEVER seen a blank VHS tape for sale. Locally, I mostly just look for Craigslist since you're pretty much assured that there will be tapes and you just drive over to pick them up. There's also a Salvation Army nearby as well as a local thrift store that I've visited several times, but have only encountered blank tapes (just three) once. My family also owns a house at the Delaware shore, and I just went there last weekend and discovered that a new thrift store opened up pretty close to our vacation home and in past years have been into some of these stores, but out of about five visits, I've only encountered a single VHS blank tape (mostly cartoons from 2004). I find that eBay/Craigslist after all avoids the hassle of driving, and after paying for shipping, you're opening yourself up to many more places which is why I enjoy the various markets of news/local commercials that I come across. I've never called any thrift store directly, but I may do that in the future to ensure if they carry any blank tapes so that I don't have to worry about coming up empty. I usually visit these stores in conjunction with other stores/services/restaurants though for convenience purposes.

I've finished checking the Williamsburg, IN Betas last night, which started from a search last week. I kept approximately 25 out of 50. The rest had either no commercials present, or programming that doesn't really interest me like B-westerns or random snippets of primetime country specials. Oddly, most of the tapes that contained commercials were those recorded from late 1981 to 1983, with the tapes that were recorded from approximately late '83 through 1987 being completely zapped out. It was a shame since a lot of programs listed on the labels were not just without ads, but incomplete as well which is why I've backed out from any other purchases, even though I've kept some. The tapes with double-digit numbers were the best, and this included content recorded off of Dayton, Cincinnati, and even a couple off of Indianapolis stations. Among the finds included the Solid Gold Country special from 8/28/1982 with commercials, the one-episode wonder Graffiti Rock from June 1984 without commercials (very odd since the recorder was a big country music fan and that show presented exactly the opposite of what most country music fans liked at the time), about 70 minutes of the 1986 Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon (various segments and I've already got footage from the same year that I found in that SE MA/RI lot back in 2015, so I'll have to see if I don't have any duplicates), another syndicated New Year's Eve special from 12/31/83 with Guy Lombardo's son hosting (albeit without commercials), as well as a couple country music specials from 1983 with commercials that were produced by Multimedia (of Donahue/Jerry Springer fame), one of which contained a commercial featuring a young Jerry Springer. But then again the other tape that said "Solid Gold", a 1983 episode, only contained a couple snippets of both country songs as well as the closing credits and a few commercials after oddly, and the color was lost on some Sha Na Na episodes. Of all Hee Haw snippets found (about 15 in all), none were with the complete show let alone the commercials.

Still awaiting that 40 VHS lot from Orlando that I previously posted, and it was due to arrive yesterday, but of course Media Mail can often delay it, but I hope to receive it by the weekend. I'll probably not buy much for the rest of the summer to get some tapes and hopefully some outdoor time in now that I'm pretty full in terms of my "inventory limit". If you missed the link, you'll find that the majority contain either "General Hospital" or "All My Children" on the label, with tape 30 mentioning five episodes of GH and one AMC, as well as the highest numbered tape (45) mentioning six episodes of GH, hopefully that means a full tape in EP with commercials. I'll post the results after I receive these and I'll work backwards, starting from 45 down to get that "going back in time" feeling.

Craigslist alert for Scott: https://cleveland.craigslist.org/pho/d/brecksville-bagful-used-pre-recorded/7121445067.html
 
Last edited:
The nearest Goodwill Outlet to you, Michael, is in Linthicum Heights MD and is still closed due to the lockdown. This summer it should be open. Just note - this Outlet is packed solid with clothing and linens, but there are also bins of media and books too.
 
https://keprtv.com/news/local/frank...-1-to-submit-application-for-phase-2-variance
Pasco (Franklin County) could open soon. Also, Benton County applied for phase 2 and could learn by Friday if they get approved. That's Kennewick and Richland, and if approved we could have the thrift stores and estate sales back open in Tri-Cities. Atomic City Thrift is on my hit list, in Richland. Tons of home-recorded VHS on their shelves. Also the Goodwill Outlet is in downtown Pasco and would likely open back up later in the month if this works out...fingers crossed! Spring cleaning donations will go bananas. :)

Of course no paper-thin slim chance of any change in the phases in Yakima. 5000 cases and 100+ deaths, but at least there were only 83 new cases vs. 200+ the previous day. I still think the county opens sometime in July and estate sales/yard sales will slowly yet cautiously return in the 2nd half of the summer. The backlog on those estate liquidators must be half-a-dozen deep right now.
 
I know I've been absent from this site for a while, but I did happen to score a big VHS lot locally about 50 VHS recordings dating from 1985-at least 1997. Of course, some duds were to be expected, but a majority of the tapes were TV mini-series from the three big networks, most of them with commercials. I also uncovered two airings of Little Big Man from TBS in 1989 and 1991 (both with ads, of course), a 1988 airing of Goin' South from WPTT 22 Pittsburgh, a 1991 USA Network airing of Porky's Revenge (with a 10 minute cutdown of Sing a Song of Six Pants, a PD Stooges short added as filler) that was randomly found on an almost dud tape, and a Night Flight airing of some odd midget cowboy western movie from the 1930s. Apparently, whoever recorded these tapes was an avid boxing and sports fan since it seems they were all recorded over with the aforementioned titles.
 
Those Night Flight broadcasts are cool to find. My (late) father was a big fan of USA's Night Flight in the '80s, even wrote fan mail to them. He got reply letters back but sadly those were misplaced in a move. I've only found a partial clip from the syndicated run in 1993, nothing from USA.
Benton and Franklin County look unlikely to move into later phases due to a spike in Coronavirus cases. They and Yakima are the worst counties in the state, and it's mostly farmworkers + some nursing home residents getting it.
 
That Orlando lot has finally come in! Like I said, I'll search in reverse order, though with the number on the label given in parentheses:

TAPE 1 (45): Nice way to start out as I hoped, with 1992 General Hospital galore! Features the 9/17, 9/18 (plus the last ten minutes of All My Children), 9/21, 10/7, 10/8, and just over half f the 10/9 episode along with a couple of ten minute clips from the end of two episodes during that time, all taped off WTSP with commercials. And this should be the newest content on the lot.

TAPE 2 (44): It looks like the theory is working out right, abeit with one small disappointment, but still a very nice tape overall for any classic ABC soap fan. More 1992 episodes of GH from 7/24, 7/29 through 7/31, followed by a scoped Brady Bunch episode without ads, followed by All My Children from 8/10/1992, and finally one more episode of GH from 8/14/1992. All soaps were off WTSP/ABC w/commercials.

TAPE 3 (43): A nice run of five consecutive episodes of GH from May 21 to May 27, 1992, followed by All My Children from 6/3/1992, all off WTSP/ABC with commercials. The tape ends without the first ten minutes of another episode of GH from around June 1992 with a few commercials. There was also the first segment of the Geraldo-hosted Now It Can Be Told, involving the late Robert Reed of The Brady Bunch. This pre-empted Loving in the Tampa Bay market.

TAPE 4 (42): General Hospital from 2/25/1992, followed by the Happy Days Reunion Special from 3/3/92, then episodes of All My Children from 3/20 and 3/31/92 (along with the last five minutes or so of the 3/30 episode), then the 3/30 and part of the 3/27/92 episodes of GH. Once again, all off WTSP/ABC w/commercials!

TAPE 5 (41): Looks like this was out of order in terms of numbering (should have been between 43 and 44, but you know how even many episodic shows air out of production order after all!). In order, GH from 6/5/1992, then both AMC and GH from 6/8/92, followed by AMC from the next day (6/9), then features an eight minute clip of Arsenio Hall featuring Olivia Newton-John from the same night (off WTOG with no commercials),then rounds out with the second half of AMC, a full episode of One Life To Live, then about the first ten minutes of GH from 7/8/1992. WTSP/ABC w/commercials of course.

TAPE 6 (40): Still a bit out of order here (But the older tapes will be coming soon!), but no problem as the classic daytime dramas and ads keep rolling right on! The July 1992 WTSP/ABC daytime feast of soaps continues, wth episodes of General Hospital from 7/9, 7/13, 7/14, and part of 7/16, along with a block from 7/10 featuring about half of AMC, plus full episodes of OLTL and GH.

TAPE 7 (39): Filling the gap between (42) and (43), this round is more All My Children-heavy than the last. Begins with episodes of AMC & GH, followed by a classic episode of The Brady Bunch taped off WTOG with commercials (many kids-oriented), followed another AMC from 4/27/92, then most of an unknown episode of AMC from late April/early May 1992 (no commercials unlike the rest of the tape), then finishes out with most of the 5/8 and all of the 5/11/92 episodes of AMC off WTSP.

TAPE 8 (38): In a continuation from the last tape, a stretch of five consecutive episodes of All My Children from 5/11-5/18/92, followed by a sixth one two days later finishes off a nice evening of searching, filled with ABC daytime/KTSP ad gold. This is just 20% of the lot so far and likely the newest content I'll find.

After watching these, it appears that ABC had a common pattern with its "big three" soaps in terms of how its commercial breaks were presented around this time: The first two were two minutes of national sponsors (usually with an in-show bumper following the opening sequence for the first break), the third break consisting of more nationals followed by a promo (usually for another soap), the fourth consisting of only three national spots instead of four or five for the first two, followed by the midshow bumper, an ABC promo, then a couple local spots, then the second half bumper. The fifth break was two minutes of nationals followed by either one long or two short ABC promos, the sixth similar to the third (but slightly more likely to have a promo for primetime or a special), the seventh break similar to the second, with the closing credits following afterward, and finally, the break in between shows starts with one more ABC promo (usually for a news program or Home), then either local spots to round out the hour. There's usually an ABC News Brief in between OLTL and GH. This adds up to about 18 minutes of ad time per hour. This jumped to 20 minutes a few years later, and then 22 minutes sometime in the '00s.
 
New finds at multiple sales this past weekend.

Garage sale--Parma Heights
TAPE 1: The Tigger Movie (2000) copied from rental tape; The Tangerine Bear: Home in Time for Christmas (2000) copied from rental tape, afterward it cuts to a partial unknown Travel Channel program taped in December 2000 with a few commercials. JVC T-160.


Estate sale #1--Richfield--two keepers out of three tapes found
TAPE 2: Two-hour season finale of Ugly Betty taped from WEWS on 5/21/2009 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 3: The French Revolution taped from the History Channel on 1/17/2005 with commercials. Fuji T-120.


Estate sale #2--Richfield--two keepers out of four tapes found
TAPE 4: About an hour of home video footage of a family Christmas gathering taped on 12/25/1988; partial broadcast of the 1987 AFC Championship (one of the darkest days in Cleveland sports history), Babe Winkelman's Good Fishing joined in progress and partial episode of Champions: The World's Greatest Athletes taped from WKYC on 1/11/1987 with commercials. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 5: Partial broadcast of CNN Future Watch, breaking news coverage on the surrender of John DuPont and start of Science & Technology Week taped from CNN on 1/28/1996 with a few commercials. Kodak T-120.

I did go to the Goodwill Outlet store in Akron last week, but the only VHS tapes I spotted in any of the bins there were retail tapes.
 
Thanks for the short report from Akron. I once talked with the manager at a Yakima area Goodwill when I applied for a job once. They told me the tapes that didn't sell or couldn't sell (i.e. home recorded) went to the Outlets in Olympia and Tacoma. Apparently Tacoma doesn't sell them anymore, but I'm not sure about Olympia. Spokane has just one outlet so I'm sure they still get any and every type of VHS tape outside of obvious XXX content. I will not make a trip to Spokane until at least July 1, but I will be heading out Thursday on a day trip, looping around Ephrata & Moses Lake which are in Phase 2, and there are multiple thrift stores to visit.
 
Part two of the Orlando eBay lot (actually Tampa Bay to be technical based on the finds so far):

NOTE: All finds are off KTSP/ABC with commercials unless otherwise noted.

TAPE 9 (37): All My Children, One Life To Live, and General Hospital from 2/7/1992, followed by just AMC and GH from 2/21/1992, and finally, only GH from 2/24/1992. I've already got that OLTL episode from a previous find back in 2015 off of WLS. This marks the first time that I've ever found two of the same episode for any given soap, and still happen to have the tape that contains the WLS copy, from a limited edition All My Soaps VHS, including the cover.

TAPE 10 (36): MTV 10 from 11/27/1991 with some commercials, followed by episodes of GH from 1/29 and 1/31/1992, followed by both AMC and GH from 2/6/1992, then it cuts to most of AMC from 1/16/92, and finally about the first 15 minutes of GH from early 1992. There's even an EBS test before one of the episodes as well.

TAPE 11 (35): Both parts of Dynasty: The Reunion without commercials, followed by All My Children from 11/11/1991 with commercials. This tape was recorded in LP mode unlike the first ten tapes, which were recorded in EP.

TAPE 12 (34): Episodes of AMC from 10/4/1991 and 10/22/1991, followed by Oprah Winfrey from 10/17/1991 (cast of Dynasty), followed by General Hospital from 10/15/1991, and then finally just over five minutes worth of footage from the KTSP 6 O'Clock News from 9/30/1991. Also recorded in LP mode.

TAPE 13 (33): GH from 11/11/1991, followed by both AMC & GH from 11/12/1991, followed by Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video, then Knots Landing off WTVT/CBS on 11/21/91, and finally half of another GH from November 1991. Black or White, Knots Landing and the partial General Hospital were EP recorded, the remainder in LP.

TAPE 14 (32): AMC from 5/8/1991, followed by the two hour season finale of Knots Landing off WTVT/CBS from the same day, followed by most of The Best of Disney: 50 Years of Magic, part II without commercials, followed by a rerun of Supergirl off WTSP/ABC on 6/22/1991 with commercials, followed by a little over half of GH from 7/2/1991 without commercials.

TAPE 15 (29): AMC from 12/7/1990, followed by the last 2/3 of The Tonight Show (Jay Leno hosting) on 12/12/1990 off WFLA/NBC, followed by episodes of AMC from 12/12, 12/10, part of the 12/11, and 12/13/90, followed by Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer of WTVT/CBS on 12/15/1990. This is now the fourth different year of Rudolph that I've now found (1979, 1985, and 1993).

TAPE 16 (28): The 12th season premiere of Knots Landing from 9/13/1990 off WTVT/CBS, followed by AMC and GH on 9/18/1990, then the ABC special An Evening With Friends of the Environment from the following night, then rounds out with the full 10/18/90 and about two-thirds of the 10/5/90 episodes of GH.

TAPE 17 (26): A classic episode of The Brady Bunch off WFTS on 5/24/1990, followed by GH from the same day, then another pairing of classic Brady Bunch and GH from the following day, then the NBC Sunday Night At The Movies feature presentation of Gremlins off WFLA on 6/14/1990 (I've already farmed out the commercials from WRC), then concludes with most of AMC from June 1990 with just a few commercials.

I'm still not yet at the halfway mark yet, and as you can see, there's a lot of cool content that I've found just in these first two days, and you can easily see that by the time I get to the last tape how much more "80s" the vibe feels in comparison with the 1992 tapes that I've checked, likely due to the fact that commercials from the late 1980s themselves (the 1987 Excedrin PM, 1988 FiberCon and Centrum to name a few) start to make an appearance.
 
Here's Round 3 from the same lot (once again, all with commercials of WTSP/ABC unless noted):

TAPE 18 (25): All My Children from 6/28/1990 followed by the 17th Daytime Emmy Awards (I've already got this ceremony off KVIA), followed by General Hospital from 7/20/1990, and then episodes of AMC from 8/6 and 9/4/1990.

TAPE 19 (24): GH from 3/16/1990, followed by about half of another episode of GH from shortly afterwards, then two classic episodes of The Brady Bunch off WFLA from circa April 1990, then two episodes of Knots Landing from 5/10 and 5/17/1990 (the 11th season finale) off WTVT/CBS, then two more classic episodes of The Brady Bunch off WFLA from May 1990, and finally about 15 minutes of General Hospital from April 1990 with a few commercials.

TAPE 20 (23): Episodes of GH from 3/5, 3/8, and 3/9/1990, followed by the unannounced finale of the short-lived The Bradys off WTVT/CBS on 3/9/1990, then another episode of GH from 3/12/1990, and finally, Knots Landing from 3/15/1990 off WTVT/CBS.

TAPE 21 (22): The two-hour premiere of The Bradys from 2/9/1990 off WTVT/CBS, then an OG episode of The Brady Bunch off WFTS from around the same week, then Knots Landing off WTVT/CBS on 2/15/1990, followed by another OG Brady Bunch off WFTS from presumably 2/15/ or 2/16/1990, then another episode of The Bradys off WTVT/CBS from 2/16/1990, and finally another episode of Knots Landing off WTVT/CBS.

TAPE 22 (31): Sorry for searching out of order, but the trend continues for the most part, although this tape was the most zapped so far, but like pizza/ice cream, it still tastes pretty good. Starts with Knots Landing off WTVT/CBS on 4/25/1991, followed by most of WTSP's Murphy In The Morning from 4/26/1991 without commercials (most notable for featuring a young Kelly Ripa), followed by both All My Children and General Hospital from the same day (with commercials of course), then another AMC/GH episode from 4/29/1991; the AMC was complete with ads, but GH contained only one commercial break. The tape concludes without about half of The Best of Disney: 50 Years of Magic without commercials.

TAPE 23 (30): One more tape that I forget to check earlier, but more of the same great soaps! Somewhat out of order though in terms of episode appearances, plus there's a couple mini-surprises, including the first cable content from this lot. Starts with General Hospital from 2/7/1991, followed by another GH from the previous day, then a scoped GH (no ads) from an unknown date, then the last 15 minutes of the 1991 Soap Opera Awards with a few commercials, then another GH from 2/4/1991, then both All My Children and Gen. Hospital from the following day, then the tape closes out with the last several minutes of Mousercise and the first few minutes of Let's Go! of the Disney Channel in December 1990 with some promos in between the shows.

TAPE 24 (21): We're back in "reverse order" once again, leading things off with another pair of AMC and GH from 2/6/1990. Next, part of the Pat Sajak Show off WTVT/CBS on 2/8/1990 without commercials, featuring the cast of The Bradys, followed by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz behind the scenes special hosted by Angela Lansbury on 2/20/1990 off WTVT/CBS without commercials (I've already got this special along with the ensuing movie off KREM with the ads), then a short clip from WTVT's late news from the same night about The Wizard of Oz's golden anniversary. Then we round things out with a trio of Knots Landing episodes off WTVT/CBS: first from 3/1/1990, then most of the 2/1/1990 episode (Starting about ten minutes), and finally the 2/8/90 episode, of which I've already scored a WHDH
copy from the big 2015 MA/RI Beatles lot.

TAPE 25 (20): Shattered Dream, the CBS Sunday Movie recorded off WTVT on 5/13/1990, followed by the 17th Annual American Music Awards off ABC/WTSP without commercials, then All My Children from 1/30/1990 with commercials, and finally about 3/4th's of General Hospital from early 1990 with commercials.

TAPE 26 (19): Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve '90, followed by a classic episode of The Brady Bunch off WFTS in early January 1990 (including another EBS test), then the 20th Anniversary episode of All My Children on 1/5/1990 (where the new theme and intro debut!), then episodes of Knots Landing off WTVT/CBS on 1/18 and 1/25/1990 (I've already got the 1/18 episode), followed by All My Children and the first 15 minutes of General Hospital on 1/29/1990.

TAPE 27 (18): I was hoping to fully cross into the '80s at this point, but not quite yet as I discovered that this was the first tape was was "necrobumped", and this revealed that the recorder had made a move from the Tampa Bay area to Orlando during the mid-90s. Begins with a pair of General Hospitals from 11/27 and 11/28/1995 off WFTV/ABC, followed by both All My Children and GH from 11/29/1995 also off WFTV, followed by another GH on 12/1/1995 off WFTV, then it cuts back to most of the 1/30/1990 episode of GH off WTSP. The recording ends with about 15 minutes of an unknown movie off Showtime circa 1989. The label indicated Halloween/Christmas specials as well as a rerun of A Very Brady Christmas from presumably late 1989.

TAPE 28 (16): A classic episode of Wonder Woman off of WDCA in August/September 1989, followed by Peaceable Kingdom off WTVT/CBS on 9/27/1989, followed by episodes of All My Children from 8/15, 9/22, 9/25, and 9/27/1989 (the 8/15 episode has only some commercials, whereas the others are w/o/c). Finally, about half of an episode of General Hospital from around the same time follows. At last, we've crossed into the "Goldberg" decade with some yellow book era AMC episodes!

Will try to wrap things up tomorrow with the last 12 tapes.
 
pannoni1 said:
It's Round 2 with that eBay seller from Ashville, NY which featured the same ten black & silver Sony L-500 tapes. Another nine out of ten to add, including my oldest complete local newscast find!

Tape 1: The Buddy Holly Story followed by about eight minutes of promos taped off HBO in June 1979, including a Video Jukebox segment featuring a John Travolta clone with lots of NYC aerial shots featured.
Tape 2: I'm not a huge country music fan, but for the classic country fan, this find is hard to beat. Starts off with most of the TNN Video PM Top 10 Countdown from early 1991 without commercials, then cuts to about 90 minutes of TNN Video PM and the first 20 minutes or so of TNN's American Music Shop from just before Christmas 1990 with commercials (Dwight Yoakam is tonights guest), then cuts to to about the last 20 minutes of The Young Riders off WRTV in December 1990 with a couple commercial breaks
Tape 3: Part of the incentive to purchase this lot, with ALF labeled on the front, it certainly delivered. Consists of six original broadcast episodes (one repeat) from Season 1 with commercials (some credits are full, some partial): 11/10/1986, 3/16/1987, 3/23/87, 4/6/87, 4/20/87 (a rerun of the 11/17/86 episode), and 5/4/87. The tape begins with the Hollywood Squares bonus round prior to the first episode, and I'm certainly delighted to find these since the R1 DVDs have the syndie edits.
Tape 4: About three-fourths of a syndicated rerun of The Sonny & Cher Hour taped off KTVK around the spring of 1982 with commercials (poor video quality at times though), followed by a rebroadcast of the 1980 Steve Marin: Comedy Is Not Pretty off KPNX on 1/23/1982 with commercials
Tape 5: Nearly 20 minutes from the Dick Clark and a Cast of Thousands special from 9/6/1978 without commercials (presumably off KPNX), followed by about the last half of a rerun of a Just For Laughs special from the summer of 1978 (includes an "NBSeeUs" promo) off KPNX with commercials, rest of the tape consists of a movie taped off a premium cable channel or rental without commercials
Tape 6: Begins with about the first 20 minutes of The Terminator 2: Judgement Day copied off a rental (includes previews), then cuts with a jumble of recordings including part of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air intro, the Weather Channel, and the 1990 Billboard Music Awards intro for a minute, before joining in during Lisa Stansfield's performance of "All Around The World" and continues for about the last 90 minutes of the special, taped off WXIN on 12/10/1990 with commercials (cuts off just before the credits)
Tape 7: Consists mainly of a movie copied off of a rental (can't recall at this time), but at the end of the tape, it features the first two segments of the KPNX 10 O'Clock News on 11/3/1979 with a commercial break
Tape 8: The Bee Gees Special, the KPNX 10 PM News, and the first couple minutes of an NBC News special report on the Iran-Hostage Crisis taped off KPNX on 11/21/1979 with commercials (another network would later do something similar and make Ted Koppel a household name)
Tape 9: Begins during the credits of Family Feud, followed by the CBS special SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back (hosted by Skywalker himself), M*A*S*H, and most of WKRP In Cincinnati, off KOOL on 9/22/1980 with commercials, then cuts to about five minutes of a certain NBC soap from around the summer of 1980 with one commercial break. The video quality is not the best at times though during the WKRP portion, and tape itself seems a little brittle.

The tenth tape unfortunately featured a zapped airing of American Graffiti from NBC's Big Event taped in February 1979, followed by part of a movie taped off HBO or a rental.

I may consider hopping aboard the "reaction" trend, since I've just placed an order for a third round with similar tape stock. Frankly, I'm not too impressed with the late '90s/'00s finds that some people react about, since those came at the tail end of the VCR era when the Internet was taking off to change the world like TV did 40-50 years prior. You didn't have those catchy commercial jingles like you had in the '70s, '80s, and early '90s.
Click to expand...


Does that Family Feud episode have the dreaded V of Doom?
 
And now the grand finale for what's turned out to be the best lot of the year so far for me. Once again, everything is off WTSP/ABC with commercials unless otherwise noted. More out of market finds that ironically turns out to be my home market!

TAPE 29 (14): Four more classic ABC/WTSP soaps from the same week, beginning with both General Hospital (GH) and All My Children (AMC) from 6/27/1989 (oddly taped out of order), then the 6/26 and 6/28/89 episodes of GH followed. Recorded in LP speed.

TAPE 30 (13): The Bionic Showdown, taped off NBC/WFLA on 4/30/1989 without commercials, followed by AMC from 5/8/1989, then the unannounced series finale of Dynasty from 5/11/1989, then GH 10/26/1989 (some nice Halloween costumes in this ep.), and finally about 15 minutes of GH from 1989 with a couple commercial breaks. The TV movie and AMC episode are LP, the rest in EP.

TAPE 31 (12): The tape with "dance videos" was a bit of a letdown, since like so many tapes with "videos "or "music videos" on it, it was just a random sampling of videos off MTV, VH1, and Night Tracks for about 90 minutes. This also took up about 3/4's the tape and was in SP speed, and of course its easy to get virtually any video in your pocket anywhere. It was mostly a mix of synthpop, dance-pop, and freestyle videos from the late '80s (including that Rick Astley song!). Following is about half of an episode of General Hospital from 1989 with some commercials, then it jumps ahead for about 3/4th's of Knots landing from 4/3/1991 off WTVT/CBS with commercials.

TAPE 32 (11): Begins with just over an hour of randomly assorted music videos taped off MTV and VH1 circa January 1988 without commercials, bumpers, or VJ breaks (beginning with another Rick Roll!), then it cuts to the closing of Jeopardy! and The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman off WMAR/NBC on 1/29/1988 with commercials, minus the closing, then it wraps up with about an hour of more random music videos without any ads, VJs, or bumpers. LP mode. The Jeopardy! episode is in the Archive BTW.

TAPE 33 (8): Gone With The Wind (1939), recorded off WINK/CBS in January 1987 without ads, followed about three-fourths of Dynasty taped off WEVU on 1/14/1987 with commercials, including a short promo for the short-lived game show Strike It Rich. To bad it was taped in SP as even LP would have been enough to fit the remaining portion of the episode. GTTW was taped in EP.

TAPE 34 (6): No ads were in this tape, but soaps from this vintage are certainly worth preserving if the episodes are clear enough to identify by simply the voiceover promos during the credits, except for the Dynasty episodes which are on DVD. Begins with Dynasty from 12/3/1986, followed by AMCs from 12/5 and 12/8/86, then the 3rd Annual Soap Opera Awards off WOR from the same night, then AMC, Capitol, and GH from 12/9/1986, and finally, another Dynasty from 12/10/86. Considering a certain trader collects a number of soaps except for AMC along with the hard to find Capitol being present despite the lack of ads, I kept this one. It's also my first ever find of an episode of Capitol. That year's soap opera awards does exist in full with commercials on YT surprisingly, so I may pass on recording that. Still, it shows how cramming 8 1/2 hours worth of stuff onto one tape will require being a "pro" at pausing, and in a smaller market where the pay is low, even more of a necessity for the non-rich.

TAPE 35 (5): Foul Play (1978), taped off WFTX on 11/4/1986 with commercials, followed by King Kong (1933) off Superstation WTBS on 11/6/1986 with commercials, then a little over half of The Amityville Horror (1978) off WTOG with a few commercial breaks, including a commercial for WXRL Classic Rock 97.9 FM that featured a song that was barely out of recurrent rotation at the time on Top 40: Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark"! Nice to see some 1986 content from what was then the #107 market.

TAPE 36 (3): Friday The 13th (1980), taped off USA on 2/17/1986 with most commercials, followed by Friday The 13th, Part 3 (1982) also off USA from five days later w/commercials, followed by most of General Hospital from 5/11/1986 with just one promo for the TV movie Convicted that night, followed by most of another GH circa May 1986 with one commercial break. The 5/11/86 GH was taped over for about ten minutes by the rerun of the first season finale of The Colbys.

TAPE 37 (2): The seventh season premiere of Dynasty and the second season premiere of Colbys off WEVU/ABC on 9/24/1986 with the commercial break between the two sister soaps as well as most of them within The Colbys intact. Unfortunately, the video quality was poor at times. This is followed by "Grinched" (i.e. no commercials) airings of How The Grinch Stole Christmas and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas from 12/17/1986, but Santa Claus comes to the rescue with more Dynasty, off WEVU also on 12/17/1986 with most commercials, as well as General Hospital from Christmas Day '86, also off WEVU with most commercials. A bit more "heartbreaking" is one more episode of GH from 2/13/1987 without ads. All EP recorded except for the first GH episode.

TAPE 28 (1): Two pairs of AMC and GH from March 1991 off WTSP, followed by the last 20 minutes of the Season 5 finale of Dynasty off WEVU/ABC on 5/15/1985 with one commercial break, followed by a scoped airing of the following year's season finale of Dynasty. The '91 soaps possibly taped over a 1985 Wizard of Oz airing on off CBS as well as an airing of Splash.

Two duds were Tape (9) (four episodes of Dynasty, an episode of GH, and The Colbys taped in January/February 1987 with not ONE commercial left intact (presumably off WEVU), and too bad since if the recorded used EP (except for the second episode of Dynasty) instead of LP for this tape, there would be room for those ads), Tape (7), which consisted of two episodes of Dynasty and one episode of GH that were 100% ad free, followed by over two hours of random videos off MTV around New Year's 1986/1987.

Still, I give this lot an A- overall, due to the high concentration of classic soaps and even a couple of small market commercial blocks from the '80s. The inevitable pausing out of more shows from the early tapes along with some typical quality issues does dock the score a small bit, but this is still my best lot of the year so far.

I didn't see any V of Doom on that Family Feud episode IIRC.
 
Just finished going through the last tape from 13 I picked up at three different thrift stores in Ephrata, WA. Ephrata is in Spokane DMA, and about 51 miles ENE of Ellensburg. All stores are open at phase 2 albeit the majority (even those without blank tapes) require face coverings as we recover from the pandemic. Three different TV markets represented in the Ephrata finds, but not surprisingly nothing from Yakima or Tri-Cities. Wish I could have found some newscasts or soaps/game shows/cartoons on these tapes but oh well. I'll take 2 minutes of HBO promos over any rental dud. There were two duds, both were pay-TV with no promos - no tapes were rental bootlegs thank goodness!

Thrift Store #1 - Ephrata Thrift, 1206 Basin St SW. Local recordings found from both Spokane and Portland OR.
Tape 1 - 'Lethal Weapon 3' (1992) and first couple minutes of Def Comedy Jam taped off HBO on 5/14/1993 with promos; partial broadcast of Switched at Birth part 1 taped off KHQ/NBC on 8/23/1992 with commercials (repeat broadcast compared to the original I found from KNDO a few years back); part 2 of Switched at Birth taped off KHQ/NBC on 8/24/1992 with commercials; premiere of Covington Cross taped off KXLY/ABC on 8/25/1992 with commercials; and ends with a partial episode of The Commish taped off KXLY/ABC in August 1992 with commercials. Laser T-120
Tape 2 - 'Fatal Attraction' (1987) taped off The Movie Channel circa 1990; 'Tequila Sunrise' (1988) taped off unknown pay-TV channel; 'Major League' (1987) taped off HBO on 4/17/1990 with promos. Polaroid T-120
Tape 3 - 'Turner & Hooch' (1988) and 'An Innocent Man' (1989) taped off unknown pay-TV channels; 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946) taped off AMC in December 1990 with promos; start of 'Donor' (1990) taped off KOIN/CBS on 12/9/1990 with a few commercials. Kodak T-120
Tape 4 - 'Driving Miss Daisy' (1989) and 'War of the Roses' (1989) taped off HBO on 3/11/1991 with several minutes of Free Preview content before and after; 'The Fabulous Baker Boys' (1989) taped off HBO on 3/12/1991 with some Free Preview content as well. Fuji T-120
Tape 5 - 'Big' (1988) taped off The Movie Channel circa 1989 with a couple of promos before and several after; 'Kiss Me Goodbye' (1982) taped off unknown pay-TV channel; 'Twins' (1988) taped off The Movie Channel in December 1989 with a few minutes of promos after the movie. Fuji T-120
Tape 6 - Parts I and II of 'It' (1990) taped off KATU/ABC on 11/18 and 11/20/1990 with commercials; 'Storm & Sorrow' (1990) and a partial episode of The Tracey Ullman Show taped off Lifetime on 11/22/1990 with most commercials, including local cable inserts for the Portland area (at least one break seemed to be pulled out). Fuji T-120
Tape 7 - About 3 hours of static, followed by a partial broadcast of the Overlake Christian Church Christmas Concert taped off KSTW-11 in December 1988 (likely 12/24 or 12/25) with a few commercials afterwards; partial broadcast of the St. Ivel Christmas Gala taped off unknown station around Christmas 1988 without commercials. Maxell HGX T-120

Thrift Store #2 - Ephrata Senior Center Thrift Store, 604 Basin St NW (a little north of town)
Tape 8 - 'The Fighting Sullivans' (1944), 'I Want You' (1952), 'Behind the Rising Sun' (1943), broadcast of Backstage and start of 'Call Me Mister' (1951) taped off AMC on 8/20-21/1998 with Bob Dorian's intro segment before the first movie, and many promos after that. Sony T-120
Tape 9 - 'Red River' (1948) taped off TNT on 9/19/1995 with commercials, including local inserts from Sammons Communications in Ephrata; part of 'Ride Beyond Vengeance' (1966) taped off Cinemax on 9/5/1995 with promos; part of 'Broken Trust' (1995) taped off TNT on 8/6/1995 with commercials. The first few minutes of tape have been through hell and back - mangled to the point of no video OR audio. Have noted this on the box for when I sell this to eBay later in the summer. MGM T-120
Tape 10 - 'The Pied Piper' (1990) taped off KIRO/CBS sometime in 1991 minus commercials; 'Assault & Matrimony' (1987) taped off presumed KING/NBC on 7/6/1992 minus commercials; episode of Roseanne taped off KOMO/ABC on 7/7/1992 with commercials; part of 'White Fang' (1991) taped off KIRO/CBS on 1/4/1992 with commercials; partial episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation taped off KCPQ-13 on 3/21/1992 with commercials. Chrome Master T-120

Thrift Store #3 - Quality 2nd Hand, 1454 Basin St NW
Tape 11 - 'Born Yesterday' (1950) and 'Dead Reckoning' (1947) taped off TNT on 10/24/1991 with commercials including Puget Sound-area inserts; 'Dear Wife' (1949) taped off unknown channel commercial-free (likely AMC) circa 1991. Fuji T-120

I also picked up a couple genuine movies while at the stores, including one at a thrift store in Moses Lake, a Disney movie I've never heard of before called 'Sammy the Way-Out Seal'. It was a 1962 Wonderful World of Disney movie starring Robert Culp and a young Ann Jillian. No previews on the tape, just the FBI warnings, WDHV logo and right into the feature.
 
Went to a few sales this afternoon, but no luck finding any new tapes. Just one of the sales I went to had VHS tapes and they were all retail copies of movies. No plans on going to any tomorrow either because the forecast is calling for thunderstorms.

For those of you who are familiar with Reddit, that site has a community devoted entirely to the VHS medium. I've known what Reddit was for quite a while, but I just started my account a few days ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/VHS/
 
One tape found at a yard sale west of Cle Elum yesterday. The Memorex tape had an episode of Oprah Winfrey taped off KING 5 Seattle sometime in March 1993 with commercials, and after 1 hour it went blank. Not much of a find but at least it had the commercials intact, including several news promos and teasers.

This lot of tapes in Coos Bay OR is up to $62.00 and climbing. All kinds of goodies, including Simpsons, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, tons of horror movies, classic TV shows, some classic movies as well. Go get 'em Pannoni! This one is now above my budget - and I'm sure there's rare stuff from KCBY Coos Bay hiding on these tapes. I asked the seller about commercials and he checked a few and found commercials on about half of the programs, locally-taped.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-Of-47-...2508184:g:RAcAAOSwBAFe-S3K&LH_ItemCondition=4
 
Speaking of Ebay lots I noticed there are some lots of RCA VK250s that have been used. For those not in the know, VK250s were one of the first, if not THE FIRST brand of blank VHS tapes. If the tapes were not taped over multiple times odds are the content will be from the late 70s to mid 80s. I did try contacting the seller about content but no response so far.
 


Back
Top Bottom