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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

Well, I drove back to Veterans' Warehouse Thrift in Wenatchee yesterday afternoon for what looks to be the last go-around with VHS tapes. I had to be in Quincy (~30 mi E of Wenatchee) anyways for college field experience purposes.
TALK ABOUT ONE LUCKY TRIP! There was an employee throwing home-recorded tapes off the shelf and into a bin to be recycled. However, they allowed me to take whatever tapes I wanted before they cleaned house. I bought 26 more tapes + one HTF storybook animation tape from Troll Associates of the fairy tale The Golden Goose, surplus straight from an elementary school library. 33c each turned out to be $8.58 in blank tapes. There were many tapes found that were not there in late August, i.e., September and October donations. There were numerous instructional videos and absolute junk that I was glad to see thrown out on the other hand. Someone's 50th Anniversary tape. Some girl's quinceanera party. Instructional videos on how to use exercise equipment and various tools. Too bad I didn't stumble across a training video from some department store! Four tapes were unlabeled.

Another note: A *heavy* skew this time towards Seattle, unlike the last trip which was mostly Spokane recordings. Best finds are bolded.

Tape 1 - 'Bambi' (1941) taped off The Disney Channel in the early '90s; 'Jurassic Park' (1993) taped off KING/NBC on 5/7/1995 with commercials. Maxell HGX-Gold T-120
Tape 2 - The second half of 'A Tale of Two Cities' (1980) copied from a rental tape; this is followed by an incredible find albeit partially scoped - 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1982) taped off KIRO/CBS on 2/4/1982 minus commercials during the movie, but includes commercials afterwards and the first 2 minutes of a classic Eyewitness News broadcast at the end! This is now my *oldest* Seattle recording ever! Very old Maxell T-120 originally used by English teachers at Wenatchee High School.
Tape 3 - 'Overboard' (1987) taped off KCPQ-13 in November 1995 with commercials (Dialing for Dollars with Art Pedersen); part of 'Unforgiven' (1992) taped off KOMO/ABC on 2/20/1997 with commercials (already have this from KAPP Yakima); part of 'Move Over, Darling' (1963) taped off The Family Channel circa early 1998, very few ads included; episode of Three's Company, Dennis the Menace (cartoon) and part of Toontown Kids taped off KSTW-11 in November 1997 with commercials...excellent find; ends with my first recordings from CHEK-6 Victoria BC - part of the CTV National News and about 10 minutes of CHEK 6 News taped on 9/23/1996. I would assume the homeowner lived in Clallam or Jefferson County and could receive CHEK on cable in addition to Seattle stations. Polaroid T-120
Tape 4 - 'One Special Victory' (1991) taped off KING/NBC on 12/8/1991 with commercials; 'The Story Lady' (1991) taped off KING/NBC on 12/9/1991 with commercials; The Best Christmas Pageant Ever taped off Lifetime on 12/14/1991 with commercials (with local inserts for TCI Wenatchee); part of 'The Vals' (1983) taped off USA Network's Up All Night early on 11/17/1991 with commercials; part of 'Strangest Dreams: Invasion of the Space Preachers' (1990) taped off USA Network's Up All Night early on 10/19/1991 with commercials. RCA T-120
Tape 5 - 'Call of the Wild' (1993) taped off KIRO/CBS on 4/25/1993 with commercials (a Kraft/General Foods Premier Movie), blank after 2 hours in EP. Scotch T-120
Tape 6 - 'Road House' (1989) and 'Red Dawn' (1984) taped off TBS on 11/9/1993 with commercials (in Hi-Fi); 'Hook' (1992) taped off KXLY/ABC on 12/11/1994 with commercials (via Wenatchee translator K30AJ) - fuzzy OTA quality of course, and not tracked very well, Hifi drops in and out. At the end is about 10 minutes of 'A Night at the Opera' (1935), off unknown channel, but very likely TBS as it was aired the same night as Road House and Red Dawn. Sony T-160
Tape 7 - 'Gulliver's Travels' (1939) taped off KCPQ-13 circa December 1985 with commercials, now my oldest clip from Q13, I meant, Fox 13; 'Sinbad the Sailor' (1947) and 'Captain from Castile' (1947) taped off American Movie Classics circa 1986 (no promos, darn it). Kodak T-120
Tape 8 (UNLABELED) - Episode of Biker Build-Off, Biker Build-Off: The Ultimate Chop, two more episodes of Biker Build-Off, and three late night infomercials (Carlton Sheets, CSN Coins, and a partial infomercial for Ray Reynolds & Associates) taped off Discovery Channel on 4/3-4/2005 with commercials (local ads for Comcast in the Seattle area). TDK T-120
Tape 9 - Begins with a broadcast of Cecelia Bartoli performing opera selections from Vivaldi, taped off Ovation TV in the early 2000s; then cuts to part of 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941) taped off KSTW-11 on 11/5-6/1989 with commercials, and 'Dumbo' (1941) taped off KCPQ-13 on 11/19/1989 with commercials. RCA T-120
Tape 10 (UNLABELED) - Two episodes of General Hospital taped off WABC-7 New York/ABC on 5/17 and 5/18/2000 with commercials; ends with commercial breaks from the end of another General Hospital taped off WABC/ABC in May 2000. Sony T-120 (SP)
Tape 11 - 'Searching for David's Heart' (2004) taped off ABC Family on 11/21/2004 with commercials; partial episode of Dawson's Creek, two episodes of Saved by the Bell, two episodes of The Cosby Show, two episodes of The Steve Harvey Show, and two episodes (1 partial) of The Drew Carey Show taped off TBS in November 2004 with commercials. Maxell T-120
Tape 12 - Only about 10 minutes of content here: a segment of Made in America with John Ratzenberger taped off Travel Channel around 2003 or 2004 with a few commercials. The segment talks about Rodgers Instruments Company in Hillsboro, Oregon. TDK T-120 (SP)
Tape 13 - 'The Gambler Returns: Luck of the Draw' (1991) taped off TBS on 1/4/1995 with commercials; ESPN Boxing Special with Chris Eubank vs. Dan Schommer (for the WBO Super-Middleweight Championship) taped off ESPN in December 1994 with commercials. This was a repeat of the 10/15/94 fight in South Africa. Fuji A/V Pro T-120
Tape 14 - 'Tall Tale' (1995) taped off The Disney Channel in late 1996; 'Breaking Through' (1996) taped off KOMO/ABC on 12/30/1996 with commercials; 'The Face on the Milk Carton' (1995) taped off The Family Channel on 5/4/1997 with commercials. Polaroid T-120
Tape 15 (UNLABELED) - Take 5 to Your Heart, a heart disease-prevention special with Jean Enersen, taped off KING-5 in June 2001 minus commercials; episode of Oprah Winfrey taped off KING-5 in July 2001 with commercials. TDK Hi-Fi T-120 (SP)
Tape 16 - Partial episode of Melrose Place and the first half of the series finale of Married...with Children (darn that it was partial) taped off KCPQ/Fox on 5/5/1997 with commercials; season 1 finale of King of the Hill and half of The X-Files taped off KCPQ/Fox on 5/11/1997 with commercials. Sony T-160 (SP)
Tape 17 - Multiple reruns of Frasier taped off KSTW-11 in September 1999 with some commercials (the label said "Frasier 7" - I had previously found "Frasier 2" in August). TDK T-120

Several duds as well, including one that had an old French softcore porn on it - unlabeled, what are the odds.
 
This was posted by my good friend Rob (robatsea2009) on YouTube, it's a concluding segment from Q13's Dialing for Dollars taped a few years earlier, with Art Pedersen. On my tape, he spent time with the owner of a Seattle pet shop who brought along some interesting animals, including an African pygmy hedgehog. Art also made a $250 winning call to Belfair, and got answering machines twice from other viewers picked from the hat. It will go up on YT soon. Q13...I meant, Fox 13, had a weekday movie until the end of the 1990s, then replaced it with (what else?) trash talk in the name of Jerry Springer, Maury, and (after 2007) Steve Wilkos.
 
I've been slowly going through several new VHS tapes and cassette tapes--two VHS from my mom's friend, several audiocassettes and a VHS from a garage sale in Copley and several VHS tapes from a church rummage sale in Seville. It's been a slow go for me though with life obligations often getting in the way.
As I mentioned though, I did find several audiocassettes containing some unscoped airchecks of local radio stations in Cleveland. Most of the cassettes I got in Copley are largely from 104.9 WZLE (now WCLV) back when it was a contemporary Christian music format.
A couple of weeks ago, at an estate sale in Middleburg Heights, I picked up an audiocassette containing a partial broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show on November 9, 1994 (the day after Election Day, a.k.a. the Republican Revolution) recorded from WWWE (a.k.a. 3WE, now WTAM) mostly unscoped with commercials and local newscasts from Cliff Baechle, who also served as the staff announcer for PBS member station WNEO/WEAO in Alliance and Akron. Included on that cassette was a short promo for Sportsline with Mike Trivisonno, and eerily and sadly enough, he passed away just a week after I found the tape.
I'll detail the rest of my finds from those sales in the near future after I scavenge the ones I haven't searched through yet.
 
pannoni1 said:
Just checked through my latest eBay lot out of Central Illinois. Typical mix of "studs and duds" with some near misses, but some pretty rare mainly 1980s content here!

I'll start with the near-misses and junk. Honorable mentions include a partial first season episode of Murder, She Wrote from late 1984 from the middle of the episode with two commercial breaks (most of the tape was the Ellis Island miniseries that was scoped), the 1988 Seoul Opening and Closing ceremonies with about 95% of the commercials zapped, the Irving Berlin 100th birthday celebration from 1988 with a few commercials, the 1989 George H.W. Bush inaugural gala and most of ABC's coverage of his inauguration with very few commercials, and various coverage of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics (mostly the ceremonies) with a few commercials. The duds included several tapes from the 1988-89 War and Remembrance "superminiseries", a couple tapes of The Thornbirds without commercials, and one tape that included Gone With The Wind copied from a medal. Another tape contained the third Night of 100 Stars special from May 1990 without commercials, but I've already got that with the ads off WPXI from that big 2019 lot with all those Star Searches.

Now for the good stuff, which was about half of the lot overall. Everything was recorded in EP:

Tape 1: 11 hours of The Honeymooners New Year's Marathon off WRSP on New Year's Day 1988 with commercials.

Tape 2: Frank Sinatra: Concert for the Americas (1982) off A&E on 1/24/1988 with commercials, followed by both parts of The Bourne Identity off WAND/ABC in May 1988 with most commercials. I've already got the later off KABC.

Tape 3: The ABC Sunday Movie "Funny Lady" off WAND on Christmas Day 1983 with commercials, followed by the end of WCW wrestling (my earliest snippet, too bad it's just the last couple minutes) along with the TBS Saturday Night Movie "Funny Girl" along with the first 15 minutes of the CNN Headline News off WTBS on New Year's Eve 1983 with commercials

Tape 4: A summer rerun of the CBS Special Movie "Will There Really Be Morning" off WCIA on 7/10/1984 with commercials, followed by a rerun of Thicke of the Night off WRSP in July 1984 with commercials (one of the guests is Ray Parker, Jr, and it mentioned Marvin Gaye's death as a week ago, so it aired around the second week of April), along with two classic episodes of Laugh-In off WGN in July 1984 with commercials, another partial episode of Thicke of the Night, then it cuts back to the last 10 minutes of Capitol and PM Magazine off WCIA on 1/17/1984 with commercials.

Tape 5: Seven mostly complete episodes of The Gong Show (Syndicated run with Chuck Barris from 1978-80) off WUSA in September/October 1987 with one commercial break.

Tape 6: About the last ten minutes of 60 Minutes, part one of George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation, and about three-fourths of Walter Cronkite At Large off WCIA/CBS on 9/21/1986 with commercials, followed by part two of George Washington II off WCIA/CBS from the following night. I've already got two of the three parts of the first miniseries from 1984 off WDVM (now W*USA), but this is a nice addition here.

Tape 7: Funny, You Don't Look 200 off WAND/ABC on 10/12/1987 with commercials, the five remaining hours blank.

Tape 8: 12 mostly complete episodes of the locally produced Jazzfield Illinois from April and May 1990 off of SCAN 17 TV, with a few cable crawls on a couple episodes. Possibly a one-of-a-kind find here!

Tape 9: An Evening of Championship Skating off of WILL/PBS circa 1986 with a few promos at the end. Like tape 7, another mostly wasted one here, but I've never seen this before.

Tape 10: An Evening with Rogers and Hart off WILL/PBS from March 1987 with a few promos after the show, followed by about ten minutes of Nightlife off WICS circa March 1987 with one commercial break.

Tape 11: Most of the 1986 Tournament of Roses Parade off WICS/NBC on New Year's Day 1986, followed by Entertainment Tonight, the WAND 5 PM News, The People's Court, the WAND 6 PM News, ABC World News Tonight, WCIA PM Magazine, and Nightline all from New Year's Day 1986 with commercials. Great tape for the New Year's nerd with all the predictions and summaries of the past year.

Tape 12: Similar to Tape 8, with about a dozen episodes off Jazzfield Illinois mainly from April/May 1991 off SCAN 17 TV with a few cable crawls.

Tape 13: WCIA Newscope at 5, the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, WCIA Channel 3 News at 6, and WCIA PM Magazine from 11/30/1987 with commercials, followed by a little over half of the special "Television Academy Hall of Fame" off WRSP/FOX with commercials from the same night.

Tape 14: About five hours of coverage from the final day of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics off WAND/ABC on 8/12/1984, including the final synchronized swimming event, the Men's Marathon, some highlights, and the closing ceremony. The commercials from about the first hour of coverage are intact, with very few unpaused the rest of the way. I have only the very end of the Men's Marathon, so it's nice to see the full event through the various neighborhoods/communities of the LA Basin.

Tape 15: Starts with the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics without commercials, followed by the last 15 minutes or Lifestyles with Regis Philbin off Lifetime on 6/12/1985 (my oldest find from them!), followed by an episode of We're Cooking Now off WRSP circa June 1985 with commercials, followed by As The World Turns and the first segment of Capitol off WCIA/CBS on 6/13/1985 with commercials.

Tape 16: The Tonight Show (with Joan Rivers subbing for Johnny) and Late Night With David Letterman off WICS/NBC on 6/26/1984 with commercials, followed by Entertainment Tonight off WEEK with commercials from the same night, then the last few minutes of INN from also the same night, followed by a rerun of the Ernie Kovacs special (1982) off Showtime on 6/27/1984 with a few promos after the special, then it cuts to the last 90 minutes of part 9 of the Centennial miniseries off WTBS on 1/18/1984 with commercials.
Click to expand...

Are you sure it is WUSA? And not USA anetwork?
 
Does Robatsea2009 have a lot of hand-me-down tapes from relatives or just starting taping on VHS a long time ago? Based on the Youtube clips there is a lot of late 70s stuff, too bad its just clips and not the whole thing...
 
I think he collects lots and trades. Most of the lots he has found were found locally in the Vancouver area, some of the early '80s stuff he recently posted from Seattle came from a Craigslist free lot that I alerted him to a few years ago. It *was* worth it on the other hand - tons of old Seattle newscasts mixed w/ TV-movies and theatrical movies from local TV, some from KSTW and KCPQ.
 
Jman8606 said:
Are you sure it is WUSA? And not USA anetwork?
Click to expand...
Oops, I meant to say the USA network. That was my first ever find of a game show off that channel where it was a staple of me growing up watching those also-ran shows that I didn't get to see first-run.

That said, my Craigslist lot of over 100 tapes from Yardley, PA has arrived, and while I won't go through all the details, more great Pittsburgh-area goodies were found. If you've been following this thread, I mentioned how in February 2019, I found this guy on Craigslist and noticed how there were a bunch of goodies found in this lot since his dad lived in Pittsburgh and taped lots of great stuff, from The Love Boat, Solid Gold, Star Search, a few primetime shows, specials, a little news, and a bunch of movies of course. While I grabbed up the really good grade-A stuff last time around, lots of decent grade-B stuff were found, and most of the tapes contained commercials. The majority are from the late '80s, but a number of tapes recorded in 1982-83 were found, including the 1982-83 2-hour season premiere of The Love Boat off WTAE/ABC, episodes of Laverne and Shirley and 9 to 5 from March 1983, an episode of ABC Wide World of Sports from 2/5/1983, most of an episode of Real People from June 1982, episodes of ALF and The Hogan Family off WPXI/NBC from 1/23/1989, a first season episode of The Wonder Years from March 1988, several episodes of Cheers off WPXI/NBC from the spring of 1987 (including the season finale), episodes of Webster and The Charmings as well as a rerun of MacGyver off WTAE/ABC from April 1987, several episodes of Designing Women off KDKA/CBS from 1989, the Hee Haw 20th Anniversary Special circa May 1988, an episode of the Morton Downey, Jr. show off WPTT on 8/2/1988, KDKA news specials on a tornado outbreak from June 1985, quite a few figure skating tapes off various stations with various amounts of commercials intact, most of the first Suzanne Sommers special from 2/22/1982 off KDKA/CBS, several episodes of Pittsburgh Today off KDKA from 1984, the Malibu miniseries off WTAE/ABC from January 1983 including a partial WTAE newscast, an episode of Star Search from 1984 that I didn't get from the last lot, a first season episode of Matt Houston from 1982, and several partial episodes of Entertainment Tonight from October 1991, my newest-recorded finds. Some tapes like last time though were moldy, forcing me to manually rewind them, and a few were offered at a discount since they were snapped. It should keep me stocked from Betas through the winter and beyond, even though I'm down to about 50 VHS tapes to go through.
 
Here's a more detailed rundown of the latest content I've found within the last couple weeks or so.

Copley garage sale--also where I picked up the cassette tapes with Cleveland radio recordings I mentioned earlier
TAPE 1: Two-hour episode of Lost taped from WZZM in Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo on 1/21/2009, this was a recording of a playback of the episode from a Comcast DVR and many, but not all, of the commercials were fast-forwarded. Fuji T-120.

Church rummage sale in Seville--many of these were more recent recordings on older stock tapes
TAPE 2: Two and a Half Men taped from WOIO in Cleveland on 10/12/2009 with commercials; The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried taped from WOIO on 10/14/2009 with commercials; 30 Rock taped from WKYC in Cleveland on 10/15/2009 with commercials; Two and a Half Men taped from WOIO on 10/19/2009 with commercials; The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried taped from WOIO on 10/21/2009 with commercials; 30 Rock taped from WKYC on 10/22/2009 with commercials; How I Met Your Mother, Accidentally on Purpose and Two and a Half Men taped from WOIO on 11/2/2009 with commercials; partial episode of Two and a Half Men taped from WOIO on 1/18/2010 with commercials; The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried taped from WOIO on 1/20/2010 with commercials; partial episode of The Bachelorette taped from WEWS in Cleveland in May 2009 with commercials. BASF T-130 ('90s stock).

TAPE 3: True Lies (1994) taped from TBS in August 2008 with commercials; partial episode of America's Got Talent taped from WKYC on 8/5/2008 with commercials; America's Got Talent taped from WKYC on 8/6/2008 with commercials; America's Got Talent taped from WKYC on 8/26/2008 with commercials (the show took a hiatus because of the Olympics). Memorex T-120 ('80s stock).

TAPE 4: Desperate Housewives taped from WEWS on 10/15/2006 with commercials; episodes of Desperate Housewives taped from WEWS on 10/5/2008, 10/12/2008, 10/19/2008 and 11/9/2008 with commercials. TDK T-120 (late '90s stock).

TAPE 5: The Firm (1993) taped from HBO Plus in April 1999 with promos; Night Falls on Manhattan (1996) taped from HBO Plus in April 1999 with promos; The Neighbor (1993) taped from HBO Plus in April 1999 with promos. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 6: Unico in the Island of Magic copied from rental tape; Two and a Half Men and partial episode of The Big Bang Theory taped from WOIO on 2/1/2010 with commercials; The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried taped from WOIO on 2/10/2010 with commercials; Two and a Half Men taped from WOIO on 2/15/2010 with commercials (ended up being a rerun of one of the same episodes on Tape 2); The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried taped from WOIO on 2/17/2010 with commercials; Two and a Half Men taped from WOIO on 3/1/2010 with commercials; The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried taped from WOIO on 3/3/2010 with commercials. Scotch T-120 (late '80s stock).

TAPE 7: Episodes of Desperate Housewives taped from WEWS on 12/2/2007, 1/6/2008, 4/13/2008, 4/20/2008, 4/27/2008 and 5/4/2008 with commercials. TDK T-120.

TAPE 8: Desperate Housewives taped from WEWS on 5/11/2008 with commercials, rough aerial signal; partial season finale of Desperate Housewives taped from WEWS on 5/18/2008 with commercials (evidently they didn't know it was going to be two hours long and only recorded the first hour); American Idol taped from WJW in Cleveland on 5/20/2008 with commercials; partial episode of My Name Is Earl and episode of The Office taped from WKYC on 5/11/2006 with commercials. RCA T-120.

TAPE 9: Episodes of Desperate Housewives taped from WEWS on 11/16/2008, 11/30/2008, 12/7/2008, 1/4/2009, 1/11/2009 and 2/8/2009 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120 (evidently it originally contained a rental-copied recording of a Tae-Bo instructional video).

Still slowly going through the cassettes of radio broadcasts I got from the sale in Copley. Most of them are from 104.9 WZLE (now WCLV) in 1992 when it was a contemporary Christian station, along with a couple of tapes from John Carroll University's 88.7 WUJC (now WJCU) in the '80s (one from 1984 and one from 1988 I believe). Most are unscoped with commercials (or PSAs and promos in the case of WUJC) and news updates from USA Radio Network on WZLE.
In 1999, WZLE dropped the contemporary Christian format in favor of top 40 format WAKS, better known as KISS 104.9. In the Great Northeast Ohio Radio Frequency Swap of 2001, WAKS switched to 96.5 and became 96.5 KISS FM and 104.9 was taken by classical station WCLV, previously on 95.5 where contemporary Christian station WFHM, a.k.a. 95.5 The Fish, is now.
 
Hey everyone,

I know I haven't been active, but I am in the process of unloading a few tapes that I am selling in an auction on eBay.....PM me for more info.
 
Well, between last Saturday and earlier today, I got a whole mess of new tapes to look through. These first few below were found at an estate sale in Copley last Saturday.

TAPE 1: Partial broadcast of ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and partial episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire taped from WEWS on 10/31/2000 with commercials. Kodak T-120.

TAPE 2: Partial episode of American Idol, House and first segment of Fox 8 News at Ten taped from WJW on 5/16/2006 with commercials; partial broadcast of Inside Area 51 taped from the Discovery Channel in March 2006 with commercials. Kodak T-120.

TAPE 3: House taped from WJW on 11/29/2005 with commercials; partial episode of ER taped from WKYC on 10/7/1999 with commercials; ER taped from WKYC on 11/18/1999 with commercials; Judging Amy taped from WOIO on 11/30/1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of part two of Witness to the Mob taped from WKYC on 7/19/1999 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 4: Modern Marvels episode on salt mines taped from the History Channel on 5/19/1999 with commercials, including a couple of local ads from the DC/MD/VA area--second generation recording. Unknown brand T-60 in SP mode.

TAPE 5: Pilot episode of Dilbert taped from WUAB on 1/25/1999 with commercials; The Shawshank Redemption (1994) taped from WOIO (CBS Tuesday Movie) on 1/26/1999 with commercials; NYPD Blue and start of News Channel 5 at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 2/2/1999 with commercials; end of an episode of Friends taped from WKYC on 5/15/1997 with commercials; Seinfeld taped from WKYC on 5/15/1997 with commercials; partial episode of ER taped from WKYC on 2/20/1997 with commercials; partial episode of TopX and partial Super TV broadcast of Malice (1993) taped from TBS Superstation on 12/22/1996 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 6: Deal or No Deal, Bionic Woman and partial episode of Life taped from WKYC on 10/3/2007 with commercials. Kodak T-120.

TAPE 7: World's Funniest Kids Outtakes taped from WJW on 3/9/1997 with commercials; The Story of the Gun taped from A&E in March 1997 with commercials; partial episode of NYPD Blue taped from WEWS on 7/1/1997 with commercials. JVC T-120.

Also last Saturday, all three of the old elementary school buildings in my hometown school district (Highland Local Schools in Medina County) opened to the public one last time for a final walkthrough for alumni, community members and the like. The three elementary schools are now in newer, more modern buildings. I visited my old elementary school building that day and inside the library were a bunch of discarded books and VHS tapes with a sign nearby reading "Discarded items--take what you want." I grabbed several recorded VHS tapes from the library, most of which appeared to be of public TV programs recorded for curriculum purposes. Back in the day, WVIZ aired a block feed of instructional programming for school curriculum purposes in the early morning hours that teachers or school librarians could record for screening in classes as needed, so that gives you an idea of what's more than likely on these tapes. When I was a student there, the school library had recorded tapes of more mainstream PBS Kids shows as Reading Rainbow, Bill Nye the Science Guy and The Magic School Bus that I remember watching many times in some of my classes. No recorded tapes of those shows there, but there were many prerecorded tapes of the latter two shows there (one episode on each tape) that I left behind.
I also got a tape of home video footage of the dedication ceremony of the school's garden that took place on May 14, 1998. Each grade sang a different song under our music teacher's direction as part of the ceremony and I was able to find 10-year-old me among the performing students.

Today I picked up eight tapes (most of them unlabeled) from an estate sale in Parma. Much of what I'm finding thus far appears to be programming from Free Speech TV and UCTV circa 2007 taped from a Dish Network receiver.
 
Sorry for the procrastination as I now have a massive tape check update to share with folks here:

Tape 1
1993/11/12? replay of Holyfield/Bowe Fight 2 (39m last 6 rounds and post match)
1993/11/12? Inside the NFL (59m) this would have been mid November given the Bernie Kosar release date
1993/11/12? REAL SEX 7 (48m) first find of a program on my longer wants list
1993/11/12? HBO Promos with Martin Lawrence bio (11m) TRT 2h39m (basically continuous HBO block)

Tape 2
1994/?/? 1994 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship (unsure of airing date as it was taped and edited to an hour by CBS for a later airing maybe someone could help with air date?) (46m)
1994/8/?? NCAA Football Preview Special (ESPN) (59m) unsure of date as I'm sure it was also reaired multiple times
1994/9/10 College Gameday (from South Bend) (ESPN) (57m) nearly complete
1994/9/10 Stanford at Northwestern (ESPN) (31m) too bad tape ran out TRT 3h21m

Tape 3
1987/9/24 Nashville Now (1h27m) (TNN) guests include Sam Snead and Spanky from Our Gang!
1987 Early October? New Country---Gene Watson (TNN) (26m)
1987? Austin City Limits Randy Travis and Kathy Mattea (unknown PBS affiliate) (56m)
1987? Louisiana Travelogue from unknown channel TRT 3h28m

Tape 4
2009/11/29 end of Minnesota-Chicago and FOX Postgame (WGHP8) (34m) my newest recording yet on 80s tape stock
2009/11/29 Simpsons, Cleveland Show, and half of Family Guy (1h13m) (WGHP8) sadly incomplete Animation Domination
2009/11/2x The Other Sister (TNT) (15m partial) TRT 2h4m SP

Tape 5
1995/11/16 Skates of Gold 3 (WTVD11) (1h6m partial)
1995/11/16 Murder One Chapter 8 (WTVD11) (47m partial) also on my longer wants list TRT 1h55m yet EP for some reason

Tape 6
1989/1/31 Entertainment Tonight (24m most) (WRAL5) Patrick Swayze, 16th Annual AMAs
1989/1/31 Win Lose or Draw (3m first segment) (WRAL5)
1989/1/31 The A Team syndicated airing (WLFL22) (23m)
1989/1/31 NOVA: Strange New Science of Chaos (WUNC4) (56m)
1989/1/30 ABC World News Tonight Steinberg verdict, American Health System (WTVD11) (16m partial)
1989/1/30 Jeopardy (2m) (WTVD11) TRT 2h4m SP and man it looked cleaner than the 2009 recording

Tape 7 (this looks to be 6+ hours straight of daytime classic History Channel: abbreviated HC)
2000/6/10? History of Basketball Greatest Teams (2h) (HC)
2000/6/10? Great Escapes of World War 2 Part 2 (1h) (HC)
2000/6/10? The Great American History Quiz- Pursuit of Happiness (1h) (HC)
2000/6/10? Year By Year 1954 (1h) (HC)
2000/6/10? History Channel Classroom- The Great Depression (1h) (HC)
2000/6/10? Field Trips USA (10m tape runs out) (HC)
 
The NCAA Men's Volleyball championship aired on May 21, 1994, opposite the Preakness on ABC and NBA playoffs on NBC.

That ET episode looks interesting since last year, I received the entire 1989 AMA's with commercials in a trade. At least that Jeopardy! episode is in the J! Archive, and you can check out another peek of it in the 1992 flick Breaking The Rules. I also miss how straightforward The History Channel was back then, and it was my late grandfather's favorite channel at the time.

Scott, although that episode of Wheel is already in circulation (it was a celebrity episode featuring a masqueraded Richard Simmons, Tara Lipinski, and Alex Trebek, a certain user in the coming weeks and months will begin to post much of that season of Wheel somewhere online. You've also found an episode of Brad Rutter's J! run (back when there was an earnings limit) too!

I have a bunch of tapes going off this evening on eBay along with a 1975 episode of TV Dawn To Dusk as well if you're interested.
 
Keep in mind that seller tends to have competitive bidding from my experience (I've only one a single lot from him before, and he lists around once every six months or so). I'd say millermommy3 is your best best if you want to Buy It Now right now without the pressure of potentially paying a high price. One of her lots features stuff like the 1987 CMA Awards, 1988 Winter Olympics, two hour episodes of Mike Hammer and Jack and the Fatman, a couple episodes of 60 Minutes and 20/20 from 1987, Who's The Boss?, and more. Not sure about commercials or pay TV promos, but that seller has a 30-day return policy in case you get a dud lot. The seller is from a part of Virginia who lives one county away from where you may pick up WHSV (ABC) from Harrisonburg or WVIR (NBC) in Charlottesville, and both had an ADI in the 190s around that time, making the local material potentially tough to find (though you may easily just find Richmond or DC content instead if the seller moved). The seller has a few other lots with potential content from as early as 1983 (the M*A*S*H finale), so there's some potential small market gold to be found here, even if they're just commercial breaks from movies with all those local ads!

www.ebay.com

Lot of 12 VHS Tapes 1980's 1987 CMA 1988 Olympics Beverly Hills Cop Used Blanks | eBay

Lot of 12 VHS Tapes 1980's 1987 CMA 1988 Olympics Beverly Hills Cop 60 Minutes Tarzan the Ape Man Rio Lobo Dolly Murder She Wrote Things Are Tough All Over Columbo Stroker Ace A Letter to Three Wives The Natural Police Academy Clint Eastwood Joystick Used Blanks.
www.ebay.com

It looks like one lot from my last auction (around 25 Beta tapes from the 1990s that ended at over $300) had a deadbeat seller, so I'll likely take in much less when I relist it. Hopefully eBay still takes into account deadbeats since I no longer notice the "unpaid item strike" notices anymore.
 
Interesting tape of mixed news stories (nearly all incomplete shows and commercials mostly cut) on the end of the Persian Gulf War that made this one a "Marion Stokes special" so to speak:

All from WTVD11 or WRAL5
1991/2/28 ABC Primetime Live (16m)
1991/2/28 Nightline (39m nearly complete with some commercials)
1991/3/1 Good Morning America (4m)
1991/3/1 ABC World News Tonight (20m)
1991/3/1 CBS Evening News (4m) then back to tail end of ABC World News Tonight
1991/3/1 Nightline (20m)
1991/3/2 ABC World News Tonight (8m)
1991/3/3 Face the Nation (25m)
1991/3/3 60 Minutes (14m)
1991/3/6 ABC World News Tonight (22m)
1991/3/6 ABC News Bush Address to Congress On End of War (47m)
1991/3/6 CBS News Address Analysis (7m)
1991/3/7 ABC World News Tonight (5m)
1991/3/8 Good Morning America plus local coverage of return of troops to Pope AFB (54m)
1991/3/xx 20/20 Margaret Thatcher retrospective and Gulf War stories (26m)
1991/3/10 ABC World News Sunday (3m) TRT 5h20m
 
No new tapes found anywhere since 11/3/21. Probably a good thing, since I am loaded with them.
However, I was able to make my first Bozo Show find, albeit only about 3 minutes' worth, on the WGN tape I found in June with a bunch of Garfield & Friends reruns. Not easy to find him altogether, but even harder out here in Pacific time, where it came on at 5:30 in the morning while most kids were asleep. And no Grand Prize Game in this one.
 
Found some more tapes on Saturday at a liquidation sale of a closed-down thrift store (that took home-recorded VHS tapes) near Yakima's Suntides Golf Course (in between Gleed and West Valley), and an estate sale in Ellensburg. Many duds, but a few keepers:

SunTides sale
Tape 1 - 'Never Say Never Again' (1983) taped off KAPP/ABC in the early 1990s minus commercials; 'Lionheart' (1990) taped off unknown pay-TV channel; 'Fire Birds' (1990) taped off KAPP/ABC on 1/11/1993 minus commercials except for the last break, but also includes about 10 minutes of Northwest NightCast with commercials afterwards. Master T-120
Tape 2 - 'Dr. No' (1962) taped off KAPP/ABC sometime in 1987 minus commercials; 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' (1976) taped off KIMA/CBS on 5/30/1987 with some commercials. SKC T-120
Four other tapes were duds.

Ellensburg sale
Tape 3 - 'Tombstone' (1994) taped off Showtime circa 1995; partial episode of ER taped off KNDO/NBC on 11/17/1994 with commercials; 100 Years of the Hollywood Western taped off KNDO/NBC on 11/25/1994 with commercials. TDK STD T-120
Tape 4 - 'War & Peace' (1956) taped off Turner Classic Movies on 8/10/2004 with Robert Osborne's opening segment and a few bumpers afterwards; 'The Jazz Singer' (1927) and part of 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' (1931) taped off Turner Classic Movies in March 2005 with promos (during the 31 Days of Oscar). Fujifilm T-120
About six other tapes I purchased were movies without commercials and Lawrence Welk reruns off either KCTS or KYVE, all without promos or in-between material. But I did find a home movie of the 1995 CWU Hall of Fame Ceremony where the husband of the couple, a long-time education professor, became a recipient of the HoF.
 


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