• 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

I myself won that particular lot that Bradley45 posted. It was pretty much exactly as described on the labels, along with a few surprises mixed in. I kept 20 out of the 23 described, with the other three being passed since I pretty much contain similar recordings based on what's on them. For example, for one of the passed tapes with the 3/31/1985 airing of "You Only Live Twice", I've already got the ads off WABC. But regarding some of the surprises/unmentioned, in roughly chronological order by airing (all with commercials unless as noted, with TAPE 1 being on the upper left of the photo and TAPE 23 on the lower right):

TAPE 2: Most of this block is taken up from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on 5/7-5/8/1983 off KMGH, not 3/8/83 as the label indicates. A rebroadcast of the 10 PM newscast is also featured, and the sign-off ends during the "final blessing". Some stations divided up LoA into two parts when airing this Oscar winner.

TAPE 3: The time devoted to ABC soaps was about a half hour less than shown, but it still ended up in three nearly complete episodes of Ryan's Hope from October of 1984 off WCJB/ABC, with the "part of CBS primetime" off WJXT on 11/30/1984 being the last 40 minutes of a Dallas episode. Surprises included two episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series off Nickelodeon circa 1985 with the middle commercial break intact, as well as about 20 minutes of WWF Wrestling off TBS from 1984 with a couple commercial breaks.

TAPE 4: The "KTLA 1984" label is actually a broadcast of Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) from 10/27/1985.

TAPE 8: Containing Challenger disaster coverage as you may expect, the nearly two hours worth of coverage was mixed between the afternoon following the launch as well as the day after, lasting nearly two hours long. The big surprise was about a ten-minute clip of a daytime episode of Sale of The Century from 1/29/1986 off WSJU, beginning at the start and ending after the second Instant Bargain during the second segment. It's possible that this episode may be lost given the number of episodes that BUZZR/Freemantle posses of this show. The tape then rounds out with most of the 28th Grammy Awards, without commercials. I've already got a copy of this special anyways.

TAPE 10: The "Jaws" and "First Blood" airings are pretty self-explanatory, but the tape ends with about a 15-minute clip of CBS Nightwatch following about the last ten minutes of Night Heat and The Blade Master off WTVT on 3/28/1986, with much of the Nightwatch clip from MLB Spring Training.

TAPE 11: Although the tape label mentions "Superfriends", they turned out to be branded as "Galactic Guardians", and this tape contained the episodes "Brainchild" and "The Seeds of Doom" off WCJB/ABC from around August of 1986 with commercials (the first episode missing the credits), followed by WTLV's reunion special of The Skipper Ed Show from March 1987.

TAPE 12: Probably my biggest trigger in purchasing this lot, this tape certainly delivered by offering a nice mix of primetime and of course, MTV. The tape starts out with most of a rerun of Moonlighting from 6/2/1987 off KABC (I've already got the original broadcast copy of this episode that aired on April Fool's Day 1986), followed by about two-thirds of Spenser: For Hire from the same night, a rerun of an episode that previously aired on Valentine's Day 1987, then it cuts over to the last 20 minutes of a rerun of part one of the NBC miniseries "The Long Hot Summer" (still the same night), followed by the KNBC 11 O'Clock News (lots of stories on the primary elections for LA as well as the Lakers-Celtics in the NBA Finals), then it cuts back to about the last half of Family Ties and a full episode of Cheers off KNBC on 5/14/1987 (the latter being the first rerun following the Sam & Diane finale), then it winds up with about an hour of MTV (VJ: Mark Goodman) from 4/24/1987 with commercials.

TAPE 13: A trio of network primetime movie broadcasts from each of the Big Three in Tampa: The Survivors (1984) on 10/15/1987 off WTSP/ABC, the world premiere of Conspiracy of Love on 10/18/1987 off WTVT/CBS, and Oh God! You Devil (1984) off WXFL/NBC on 11/2/1987.

TAPE 15: The Scared Straight: Ten Years Later rerun (originally aired in 1987) was actually from 10/9/1989, not 1988 as the label says. Towards the end of the tape, the video jumps to a partial episode of Nightline and a complete episode of The Morton Downey, Jr. Show off KABC from March 1989.

TAPE 19: The Dallas episode is indeed complete, from 3/30/1990 off WJXT/CBS, followed by The Pat Sajak Show from the same night with Rush Limbaugh as guest host (CBS was definitely desperate for ratings, as Sajak's show was about to land on Bankrupt), followed by an episode of The Flash from 11/22/1990 off WJXT as well, followed by a classic episode of Bridget Loves Bernie from 1972 off WAWS from sometime in 1991, followed by an episode of The Simpsons (I've already got this same one off KNDL) and part of Drexel's Class off WAWS on 10/10/1991.

TAPE 21: The Crimetime After Primetime feature is an episode of Dark Justice from April of 1992 with commercials

TAPE 23: The KCBS/KABC tape features an episode of Chicago Hope off KCBS along with (interestingly, a channel hop) over to KABC for the 11 O'Clock News along with the start of The Late Show with David Letterman back on KCBS on 1/8/1996, followed by an episode of Oprah Winfrey off KABC on 1/12/1996.

Overall, a higher than expected amount of surprises with a nice mixture of content to be found.
 
Last edited:
Good news and bad news. Good news is I picked up a Betamax VCR with a tape inside it at an estate sale in Medina this morning. It's a Sears SR-1000 Beta VCR dating back to 1983, a top-loader the estate sale company priced at only $10. Bad news is when I tried to play the tape that was in it (a Sony L-750), the machine ate the tape (pulled the tape out of the cassette). Tried to play it twice and did the same thing both times. So unfortunately, my first Betamax purchase turned out to be nothing more than a lemon.
As we all know, Beta VCRs are getting harder and harder to find, but hopefully next time I do spot one of these, it'll be a front-loader rather than a top-loader since the front-loaders aren't as heavy. Would be cool if I could find a Sony SuperBeta VCR since those are Hi-Fi units. Unfortunately, like VHS VCRs and tapes, Beta VCRs tend to be priced higher on eBay than they do at estate sales and the like. Hopefully one day I'll find one that'll actually work properly.
 
Scott,
Those Sears and Sanyo Beta VCRs eat tapes because of bad belts. After 35+ years, they become dry and brittle, eating tapes in the process. That's why I avoid any Sears/Sanyo Beta models, and only go with Sony.
It's also not easy to find belt kits nowadays as they have been discontinued.
 
crainbebo said:
Scott,
Those Sears and Sanyo Beta VCRs eat tapes because of bad belts. After 35+ years, they become dry and brittle, eating tapes in the process. That's why I avoid any Sears/Sanyo Beta models, and only go with Sony.
It's also not easy to find belt kits nowadays as they have been discontinued.
Click to expand...

I have a Sanyo VCR/DVD and the VCR part stopped working! My aunt wants to get a VCR because she has a bunch of home movies of her children. The VCRs I had in the past and they were all VCR/DVD players ate tapes.
 
pannoni1 said:
I myself won that particular lot that Bradley45 posted. It was pretty much exactly as described on the labels, along with a few surprises mixed in. I kept 20 out of the 23 described, with the other three being passed since I pretty much contain similar recordings based on what's on them. For example, for one of the passed tapes with the 3/31/1985 airing of "You Only Live Twice", I've already got the ads off WABC. But regarding some of the surprises/unmentioned, in roughly chronological order by airing (all with commercials unless as noted, with TAPE 1 being on the upper left of the photo and TAPE 23 on the lower right):

TAPE 2: Most of this block is taken up from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on 5/7-5/8/1983 off KMGH, not 3/8/83 as the label indicates. A rebroadcast of the 10 PM newscast is also featured, and the sign-off ends during the "final blessing". Some stations divided up LoA into two parts when airing this Oscar winner.

TAPE 3: The time devoted to ABC soaps was about a half hour less than shown, but it still ended up in three nearly complete episodes of Ryan's Hope from October of 1984 off WCJB/ABC, with the "part of CBS primetime" off WJXT on 11/30/1984 being the last 40 minutes of a Dallas episode. Surprises included two episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series off Nickelodeon circa 1985 with the middle commercial break intact, as well as about 20 minutes of WWF Wrestling off TBS from 1984 with a couple commercial breaks.

TAPE 4: The "KTLA 1984" label is actually a broadcast of Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) from 10/27/1985.

TAPE 8: Containing Challenger disaster coverage as you may expect, the nearly two hours worth of coverage was mixed between the afternoon following the launch as well as the day after, lasting nearly two hours long. The big surprise was about a ten-minute clip of a daytime episode of Sale of The Century from 1/29/1986 off WSJU, beginning at the start and ending after the second Instant Bargain during the second segment. It's possible that this episode may be lost given the number of episodes that BUZZR/Freemantle posses of this show. The tape then rounds out with most of the 28th Grammy Awards, without commercials. I've already got a copy of this special anyways.

TAPE 10: The "Jaws" and "First Blood" airings are pretty self-explanatory, but the tape ends with about a 15-minute clip of CBS Nightwatch following about the last ten minutes of Night Heat and The Blade Master off WTVT on 3/28/1986, with much of the Nightwatch clip from MLB Spring Training.

TAPE 11: Although the tape label mentions "Superfriends", they turned out to be branded as "Galactic Guardians", and this tape contained the episodes "Brainchild" and "The Seeds of Doom" off WCJB/ABC from around August of 1986 with commercials (the first episode missing the credits), followed by WTLV's reunion special of The Skipper Ed Show from March 1987.

TAPE 12: Probably my biggest trigger in purchasing this lot, this tape certainly delivered by offering a nice mix of primetime and of course, MTV. The tape starts out with most of a rerun of Moonlighting from 6/2/1987 off KABC (I've already got the original broadcast copy of this episode that aired on April Fool's Day 1986), followed by about two-thirds of Spenser: For Hire from the same night, a rerun of an episode that previously aired on Valentine's Day 1987, then it cuts over to the last 20 minutes of a rerun of part one of the NBC miniseries "The Long Hot Summer" (still the same night), followed by the KNBC 11 O'Clock News (lots of stories on the primary elections for LA as well as the Lakers-Celtics in the NBA Finals), then it cuts back to about the last half of Family Ties and a full episode of Cheers off KNBC on 5/14/1987 (the latter being the first rerun following the Sam & Diane finale), then it winds up with about an hour of MTV (VJ: Mark Goodman) from 4/24/1987 with commercials.

TAPE 13: A trio of network primetime movie broadcasts from each of the Big Three in Tampa: The Survivors (1984) on 10/15/1987 off WTSP/ABC, the world premiere of Conspiracy of Love on 10/18/1987 off WTVT/CBS, and Oh God! You Devil (1984) off WXFL/NBC on 11/2/1987.

TAPE 15: The Scared Straight: Ten Years Later rerun (originally aired in 1987) was actually from 10/9/1989, not 1988 as the label says. Towards the end of the tape, the video jumps to a partial episode of Nightline and a complete episode of The Morton Downey, Jr. Show off KABC from March 1989.

TAPE 19: The Dallas episode is indeed complete, from 3/30/1990 off WJXT/CBS, followed by The Pat Sajak Show from the same night with Rush Limbaugh as guest host (CBS was definitely desperate for ratings, as Sajak's show was about to land on Bankrupt), followed by an episode of The Flash from 11/22/1990 off WJXT as well, followed by a classic episode of Bridget Loves Bernie from 1972 off WAWS from sometime in 1991, followed by an episode of The Simpsons (I've already got this same one off KNDL) and part of Drexel's Class off WAWS on 10/10/1991.

TAPE 21: The Crimetime After Primetime feature is an episode of Dark Justice from April of 1992 with commercials

TAPE 23: The KCBS/KABC tape features an episode of Chicago Hope off KCBS along with (interestingly, a channel hop) over to KABC for the 11 O'Clock News along with the start of The Late Show with David Letterman back on KCBS on 1/8/1996, followed by an episode of Oprah Winfrey off KABC on 1/12/1996.

Overall, a higher than expected amount of surprises with a nice mixture of content to be found.
Click to expand...
Congrats, how did you get the info on the sources @pannoni1 ?
 
That 1992 Crimetime After Primetime Dark Justice find is pretty impressive. I don't think you can even find the whole show anywhere online (lacks an official DVD release) so thats a unique find for sure.
 
It's been two years now since I last purchased any VHS lots from eBay, but here's a listing I'm tempted to pounce on. 36 tapes based in Lake Elsinore, California, outside of Los Angeles. The photos seen in the listing include a couple of screenshots from a couple of the tapes showing that the few the seller tested at random are still holding out well.
Although L.A. is the market that serves the location where these are based, one tape label reads "ESPN - Red Bluff." Red Bluff is a small town outside of Redding, California, which is a much smaller market on the Nielsen scale, so that makes me wonder if any content from the local stations in Redding might be found on these. My guess is one of the Red Bluff Union High School Spartans' playoff games must have gotten some national coverage at some point. Any thoughts on whether or not I should go for this one?
www.ebay.com

Lot of 36 Used T-120/160 VHS Tapes - SOLD AS BLANK | eBay

Issues with condition will typically be highlighted with close-up shots.
www.ebay.com

As far as what I already have in terms of L.A. TV recordings, I have content from KCBS, KNBC, KTLA, KABC, KTTV and KCET, so bonus points if I find anything from KHJ/KCAL, KCOP, KVCR, KOCE, KDOC (home of Hot Seat with Wally George, which would later be nationally televised on the long-forgotten Channel America network) or KLCS.

Speaking of L.A. nostalgia, one YouTuber in San Bernardino has gained a great amount of attention with his uploads of his own personal home movies going as far back as the '80s. His name is Gilbert Arciniega and his channel gained a large boost in subscribers during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 due to the nostalgic value of his videos. His channel currently has more than 53,000 subscribers.
 
Have no interest in buying tapes right now. This winter is more busier than last quarter. I'm focusing on selling, selling, selling. With over a half-dozen tubs full of tapes not digitized yet, and 6 months before I'm done with college, I want to sell some of the piles before the estate sales and rummage sales start back up again. The more tapes I get rid of, the better.
 
Came across a lot of 5 wrestling tapes recorded in the late 1980s and 1990 on Philly stations.

Tape 1: NWA Pro Wrestling, WWF Wrestling Challenge, WWF Superstars of Wrestling and World Wide Wrestling all recorded off WGBS-TV, WTAF-TV (soon to be WTXF-TV the following week) and WPHL-TV respectively on 5/28/88. Tape also contains episodes of Ohara and Spenser: For Hire recorded off WPVI-TV the same day.
Tape 2: Same programs, same stations, all recorded on 9/17/88. Tape also contained a science program on PBS recorded off WHYY-TV sometime in either 1993 or 1994 but I didn't check to see what was on the tape after the wrestling shows.
Tape 3: WWF Wrestling Challenge, WWF Superstars of Wrestling and NWA World Wide Wrestling all recorded off WTXF-TV and WPHL-TV respectively on 2/11/89. Tape also contains episodes of A Man Called Hawk and Murphy's Law recorded off WPVI-TV the same day.
Tape 4: WWF Wrestling Challenge (first 8-10 minutes were recorded over), WWF Superstars of Wrestling, World Wide Wrestling and WWF Wrestling Spotlight recorded off WTXF-TV and WPHL-TV respectively on 1/20/90.
Tape 5: 3 episodes each of WWF Wrestling Challenge and WWF Superstars of Wrestling, recorded off WTXF-TV on 6/8/91, 6/15/91 and 6/29/91

All tapes contain the original commercials.
 
And you'd think I was spending this time just selling selling selling. Four tapes (+ 2 S-VHS tapes to be inventoried later) found Saturday at the first estate sale of the year, about 1 1/2 miles away from where I live in Ellensburg. HUGE LaserDisc collection as well, over 150 discs including many Disney classics, westerns, action films like the Lethal Weapon's, The Fugitive, and Clear & Present Danger, even National Lampoon's Animal House...FIRST printing from MCA DiscoVision, which I did pick up. I still get a kick out of the gigantic size of the discs. Before DVDs came out, this was considered 'high-quality' home theater.

Tape 1 - Part 2 of Ken Burns' Lewis & Clark taped off KYVE/PBS on 11/5/1997, includes at least 10 minutes of promos after the program. RCA SHG T-120 that originally had Gunga Din on it.
Tape 2 - Episode of All My Children taped off KAPP/ABC on 12/18/2003 with commercials; episode of Line of Fire taped off KAPP/ABC on 12/16/2003 with commercials (short-lived crime drama only lasting 11 episodes). TDK EHG T-120
Tape 3 - Broadcast of KIRO 7 Eyewitness News at Noon taped in February 2000 with commercials (on the released cockpit recordings from Alaska Airlines Flight 261). The signal is pretty distorted at times, either a bad VCR connection or poor-quality off-air signal. Goes blank at the 30 minute mark. Maxell P/I Plus T-60.
Tape 4 - Episode of NYPD Blue taped off KAPP/ABC on 3/30/2004 with commercials; episode of All My Children taped off KAPP/ABC on 9/10/1998 with commercials; another episode of All My Children taped off KAPP/ABC on 9/11/1998 with the last few minutes of an ABC News Special Report on the Clinton testimony and commercials included; last 20 minutes of The Last Don II (part 2) taped off KIMA/CBS on 5/4/1998 with commercials (already have this in full, plus part 1). TDK EHG T-120

I did sell 30 tapes on eBay so there's that at least!
 
Just received a large lot of tapes from a seller who lived in the far SW corner of Virginia near the Tennessee border. There weren't too many really old '80s recordings on this lot which you may expect given that the culture there tends to feel about a decade behind the times compared to the large markets, but I still end up finding lots of '90s stuff off of the "Tri-Cities" stations (WCYB, WJHL, and WKPT, in the #87 ADI market at the time and the smallest of TN's five main markets. Lots of beauty pageants, some magic specials, a few movies, as well as some talk shows were found. About 60% of the tapes were 21st century recordings that I pass up (hoping Gen Z will buy), since I prefer to keep 1999 and older stuff, I'm passing on the 21st century recordings in this lot, which mostly comprise of Dancing With The Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, Fear Factor, some Victoria's Secret fashion specials, Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve 2006, and even a couple tapes with Pittsburgh Steelers (ewwww) NFL games from the mid-2010s. One of those recordings turned out to be the NEWEST VHS recording I've ever found: the Steelers-Broncos game from December 20, 2015 off. The oldest recorded find in this lot was the 1989 Miss USA pageant, but that was one of the few pageants with the ads zapped out. The same tape did yield two more pageants with commercials intact however: The 1989 Miss Universe Pageant recorded off WJHL/CBS on 5/23/1989 with commercials. That same tape also yielded my first ever state pageant find: the Miss Tennessee Pageant, taped off WJHL on 6/24/1989 with commercials. Currently, only the portion with Dolly Parton's appearance is up on YT (along with surprisingly, the 1986 and 1988 pageants). Several episodes of Vicki! from 1994 off WKPT, an rerun of Donahue recorded on 5/28/1991 off WJHL, part of the 1996 US vs. The World friendly ice skating competition off WCYB/NBC with commercials, part of the 1992 Supermodel of the World competition with ads, the 1991 Elle MacPherson swimwear special off WCYB on 5/17/1991, the network TV premiere of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark off WCYB/NBC on 7/5/1991 with ads, the Ten Commandments off WKPT/ABC on 3/24/1991 with tons of commercials, and most of the Stephen King mini-series "The Stand" off WKPT/ABC in May 1994 with commercials. Not much luck though in terms of newscasts (just a few minutes at most), primetime comedy/drama, or cartoons/game shows outside of a couple brief snippets lasting just a few seconds. The biggest disappointment in terms of label finds were four tapes that said "Star Search" on the side, with the years stating 89, 90, 91, 92, and 93 on them. As it terms out, they were all just clips from the TV Spokesmodel competitions, with the judging results mostly cut off (let alone any commercials or other portions of the show). I've already got the Spokesmodel clips from SS '89-'91 from the first of the Pittsburgh lots I've mentioned previously, although the '92-'93 stuff is still new to me, so I'll keep those, even if more complete episodes will have to wait awhile. But I've now got pretty much every one of the "Big 4" pageants from 1989-1999 (Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe, save for 1997 for the later three) now, with a good number of other Miss Americas from the '70s/'80s that I have as well.
 
I found a collection of about 150 VHS tapes (all of off-air recordings) at a yard sale last summer in a town in Western Kentucky that is in the Paducah/Cape Girardeau/Harrisburg market. It contains my oldest recording - a December 1983 recording from the ABC station WSIL with a couple episodes of the drama "Lottery!". The commercials are intact.
The collection had been made by the father of the man who had the collection at his yard sale. About 50 to 60 of them are recordings from December 1983 to 1991 that mostly have intact commercial breaks. The rest of them are from 1991 to 1996 and have much fewer commercial breaks, but still have yielded some. The 1980s tapes have recordings from the Big Three stations of the market plus others from KBSI (a independent station until 1986 when it became a Fox affiliate), WTBS, WGN, CBN, and KET (WKMU). The 1990s tapes with commercials are mainly of TNT.
More recently, last week, I picked up a collection of late 1990s-early 2000s NASCAR races at an antique mall in the same town in Western Kentucky. The commercial breaks on the recordings seem to be intact, for the most part, and there appear to be a few recordings from the aforementioned local market.
 
Last edited:
Welcome aboard! Good to see you are also into archiving classic television recordings. That 'Lottery!' series is very hard to find, it only ran 17 episodes before it was canceled in June 1984. Ben Murphy, one of the stars, was also in Alias Smith & Jones, which I have about 10-15 episodes taped off '80s CBN reruns, buried in one of the tubs.
I assume most of the tapes consisted of old movies or popular TV shows of the time - no cartoons, game shows, talk shows, newscasts, soaps? In terms of 'yard' sales where a resident sells off things they don't need, I don't recall seeing that many tapes at any that I've been to. One estate sale in 2020 netted around 400 tapes or so, and it was right here in Ellensburg to boot! Been s-l-o-w-l-y selling them.
 
That Random Oshawott, You should definitely try to digitize and upload the episodes of Lottery! as its still a mostly lost series, there are even only a few episodes of it up on TV Vault, certainly only a fraction of the 17 aired.

I agree with others here, I tend to cringe when I pop in an unmarked tape and its post 2000 TV content, but I've been lucky from time to time and found much, much older stuff further in on the tape, sometimes a gap as much as 15 years! I'll admit, I've been slow in my tape updates lately, but a few weekends snowed and iced in and I have caught up to some extent, here are the first 12 of the year:

Tape 1
1.Best of Eddie Murphy SNL (rental copy) (1h18m)
2.1990/7/18 FOX Night at the Movies Revenge of the Nerds 2 (1h52) (WLFL22)
-Has a cool FOX new shows promo at end
3.7m of random static
4.Hanna Barbera TV Music Videos (21m) (rental copy?)
5.1989? Parent Trap 2 (repeat airing) (1h9m partial) (WTVD11) nearly all commercials cut
6.1987/2/19 NCSU at Duke (22m last 10 minutes of game) (ESPN)
7.1987/2/7 NCSU at Louisville (31m last 9 minutes of game) (WPTF28)
8.1987/2/5 WRAL 11PM News (14m last half) (WRAL5)
9.1987/2/5 MASH syndicated episode (15m) (WRAL5)
10.1987? Duke at UVA (6m) (ESPN) TRT 6h15m

Tape 2
1.Forrest Gump (HBO airing) (2h20m)
2.1997/1/6? The Net (HBO airing) (1h5m partial) TRT 3h25m

Tape 3
1.What About Bob (1h42m)
2.Showtime Free Preview Weekend Promos (22m)
3.Terminator 2 (2h16m) 1-3 were on Showtime 1992/11/14
4.1992/11/11 Home Improvement 2x08 original airing (15m partial) (WTVD11)
5.1992/11/15 Portrait of a King (53m) (ESPN) aired on day of Richard Petty’s retirement race
6. ??? Live Aid Mick Jagger/Tina Turner duet (10m) TRT 5h39m

Tape 4
1.1993/7/2x Making of Star Wars (1h) (SciFi Channel)
2.1993/7/2x Making of Empire Strikes Back (59m) (SciFi Channel)
3.1997/7/xx Earth’s Fury: Floods (1h) (TLC)
4.1997/7/xx Earth’s Fury: Lightning (1h) (TLC)
5.1997/12/xx Wonders of Weather Deadly Forces (30m) (TLC)
6.1997/11/xx Science Frontiers: Lightning (1h) (TLC)
7.199x? Catastrophes Caught on Tape: Cheating Death (FOX)

Tape 5
1.1980s? Critical Condition (30m partial) (HBO airing?)
2.1980s? St Louis Blues movie (13m) (WJZTV13)
3.1988/2/xx Shaka Zulu (1h35m) (WBPF45) most commercials cut TRT 2h17m

Tape 6
1.1997/5/xx History of Rock n Roll Episode 3 (1h) (TLC)
2.1997/5/xx History of Rock n Roll Episode 5 (1h) (TLC)
3.1995/1/xx Fugitive (20m partial) (HBO Free Weekend Preview)
4.1994/11/15 Scarlett Part 2 (1h39 most) (WRAL5)
5.1988? Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (4m) (WRAL5)
6.1988/11/22 JFK A Time Remembered (56m) (WUNC4)
7.1988/11/22 JFK That Day in November NBC News (47m) (WPTF28) most commercials cut
8.1988? Frontline South Chicago Gangs (22m partial) (WUNC4) TRT 6h9m

Tape 7
1.Twins (1h50m) (rental tape copy)
2.Band Together (3m) (WTVD11) unknown date
3.1989/5/23 Garfield’s Babes and Bullets (26m) (WRAL5)
4.1989/5/23 This Is America Charlie Brown Music Heroes of America (30m) (WRAL5)
5.1984/12/xx Elvis One Night With You (57m) (HBO) edit of 1968 Elvis Comeback Special
6.1984 HBO Promos (4m)
7.1984? Showtime Music Videos and promos (2m)
8.1984? Tubby the Tuba (4m partial) (Showtime) TRT 4h1m

Tape 8
1.1994/1/16 In the Best of Families Part 1 (1h54m) (WRAL5)
2.1994/1/18 In the Best of Families Part 2 (1h58m) (WRAL5)
3.1994/1/24 My Name Is Kate ABC Monday Night Movie (1h58m) (WTVD11)
-Very young Ryan Reynolds in this film TRT 5h49m

Tape 9
1.Flight of the Navigator (rental tape copy) (1h30m)
2.Cat From Outer Space (rental tape copy) (1h43m)
3.1987/8/16 Memories of the King block of movies–Love Me Tender (1h37m) (WGN) commercials cut
4.1985/3/23 Peanuts The Great Houdini SP (19m partial) (WTVD11) rare pre affiliate switchover find!
5.1984/11/20 CBS Tuesday Movie For Love Or Money (8m partial) (WTVD11) TRT 5h17m

Tape 10
1.1986/12/28 NBC Sunday Night at the Movies- Sound of Music (2h24m) (WPTF28) commercials cut
2.The Wizard of Oz (rental tape copy) (1h41m)
3.1986? Ken Burns America Statue of Liberty (56m) (WUNC4)
4.1988/11/21 ABC Nightline JFK Assassination Anniversary (22m) (WTVD11) TRT 5h24m

Tape 11
1.1988/12/24 A Rock n Roll Christmas (47m) (WLFL22) commercials cut
2.2003/11/5 37th Country Music Association Awards (3h) (WRAL5)
3.1989/8/xx Summer Magic (46m partial) (Disney Channel Fall Preview) TRT 4h34m

Tape 12
1.1991/1/1x Yo MTV Raps Public Enemy, Vanilla Ice videos start of Totally Pauly (17m) (MTV)
2.1987/4/5 NBC Sunday Night Movie- Trading Places (2h12m) (WPTF28)
3.1991/2/17 The Very Best of The Ed Sullivan Show (1h59m) (WRAL5)
4.2002/5/6 Honeymooners 50th Anniversary Celebration (1h) (WRAL5)
5.1987? Friday Night Videos SP (10m partial) mostly Dan Hedaya host segments (WPTF28)
6.1986? Friday Night Videos SP (4m partial) Head of the Class host segments (WPTF28) TRT 5h48m
 
chandler0201 said:
That Random Oshawott, You should definitely try to digitize and upload the episodes of Lottery! as its still a mostly lost series, there are even only a few episodes of it up on TV Vault, certainly only a fraction of the 17 aired.

I agree with others here, I tend to cringe when I pop in an unmarked tape and its post 2000 TV content, but I've been lucky from time to time and found much, much older stuff further in on the tape, sometimes a gap as much as 15 years! I'll admit, I've been slow in my tape updates lately, but a few weekends snowed and iced in and I have caught up to some extent, here are the first 12 of the year:

Tape 1
1.Best of Eddie Murphy SNL (rental copy) (1h18m)
2.1990/7/18 FOX Night at the Movies Revenge of the Nerds 2 (1h52) (WLFL22)
-Has a cool FOX new shows promo at end
3.7m of random static
4.Hanna Barbera TV Music Videos (21m) (rental copy?)
5.1989? Parent Trap 2 (repeat airing) (1h9m partial) (WTVD11) nearly all commercials cut
6.1987/2/19 NCSU at Duke (22m last 10 minutes of game) (ESPN)
7.1987/2/7 NCSU at Louisville (31m last 9 minutes of game) (WPTF28)
8.1987/2/5 WRAL 11PM News (14m last half) (WRAL5)
9.1987/2/5 MASH syndicated episode (15m) (WRAL5)
10.1987? Duke at UVA (6m) (ESPN) TRT 6h15m

Tape 2
1.Forrest Gump (HBO airing) (2h20m)
2.1997/1/6? The Net (HBO airing) (1h5m partial) TRT 3h25m

Tape 3
1.What About Bob (1h42m)
2.Showtime Free Preview Weekend Promos (22m)
3.Terminator 2 (2h16m) 1-3 were on Showtime 1992/11/14
4.1992/11/11 Home Improvement 2x08 original airing (15m partial) (WTVD11)
5.1992/11/15 Portrait of a King (53m) (ESPN) aired on day of Richard Petty’s retirement race
6. ??? Live Aid Mick Jagger/Tina Turner duet (10m) TRT 5h39m

Tape 4
1.1993/7/2x Making of Star Wars (1h) (SciFi Channel)
2.1993/7/2x Making of Empire Strikes Back (59m) (SciFi Channel)
3.1997/7/xx Earth’s Fury: Floods (1h) (TLC)
4.1997/7/xx Earth’s Fury: Lightning (1h) (TLC)
5.1997/12/xx Wonders of Weather Deadly Forces (30m) (TLC)
6.1997/11/xx Science Frontiers: Lightning (1h) (TLC)
7.199x? Catastrophes Caught on Tape: Cheating Death (FOX)

Tape 5
1.1980s? Critical Condition (30m partial) (HBO airing?)
2.1980s? St Louis Blues movie (13m) (WJZTV13)
3.1988/2/xx Shaka Zulu (1h35m) (WBPF45) most commercials cut TRT 2h17m

Tape 6
1.1997/5/xx History of Rock n Roll Episode 3 (1h) (TLC)
2.1997/5/xx History of Rock n Roll Episode 5 (1h) (TLC)
3.1995/1/xx Fugitive (20m partial) (HBO Free Weekend Preview)
4.1994/11/15 Scarlett Part 2 (1h39 most) (WRAL5)
5.1988? Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (4m) (WRAL5)
6.1988/11/22 JFK A Time Remembered (56m) (WUNC4)
7.1988/11/22 JFK That Day in November NBC News (47m) (WPTF28) most commercials cut
8.1988? Frontline South Chicago Gangs (22m partial) (WUNC4) TRT 6h9m

Tape 7
1.Twins (1h50m) (rental tape copy)
2.Band Together (3m) (WTVD11) unknown date
3.1989/5/23 Garfield’s Babes and Bullets (26m) (WRAL5)
4.1989/5/23 This Is America Charlie Brown Music Heroes of America (30m) (WRAL5)
5.1984/12/xx Elvis One Night With You (57m) (HBO) edit of 1968 Elvis Comeback Special
6.1984 HBO Promos (4m)
7.1984? Showtime Music Videos and promos (2m)
8.1984? Tubby the Tuba (4m partial) (Showtime) TRT 4h1m

Tape 8
1.1994/1/16 In the Best of Families Part 1 (1h54m) (WRAL5)
2.1994/1/18 In the Best of Families Part 2 (1h58m) (WRAL5)
3.1994/1/24 My Name Is Kate ABC Monday Night Movie (1h58m) (WTVD11)
-Very young Ryan Reynolds in this film TRT 5h49m

Tape 9
1.Flight of the Navigator (rental tape copy) (1h30m)
2.Cat From Outer Space (rental tape copy) (1h43m)
3.1987/8/16 Memories of the King block of movies–Love Me Tender (1h37m) (WGN) commercials cut
4.1985/3/23 Peanuts The Great Houdini SP (19m partial) (WTVD11) rare pre affiliate switchover find!
5.1984/11/20 CBS Tuesday Movie For Love Or Money (8m partial) (WTVD11) TRT 5h17m

Tape 10
1.1986/12/28 NBC Sunday Night at the Movies- Sound of Music (2h24m) (WPTF28) commercials cut
2.The Wizard of Oz (rental tape copy) (1h41m)
3.1986? Ken Burns America Statue of Liberty (56m) (WUNC4)
4.1988/11/21 ABC Nightline JFK Assassination Anniversary (22m) (WTVD11) TRT 5h24m

Tape 11
1.1988/12/24 A Rock n Roll Christmas (47m) (WLFL22) commercials cut
2.2003/11/5 37th Country Music Association Awards (3h) (WRAL5)
3.1989/8/xx Summer Magic (46m partial) (Disney Channel Fall Preview) TRT 4h34m

Tape 12
1.1991/1/1x Yo MTV Raps Public Enemy, Vanilla Ice videos start of Totally Pauly (17m) (MTV)
2.1987/4/5 NBC Sunday Night Movie- Trading Places (2h12m) (WPTF28)
3.1991/2/17 The Very Best of The Ed Sullivan Show (1h59m) (WRAL5)
4.2002/5/6 Honeymooners 50th Anniversary Celebration (1h) (WRAL5)
5.1987? Friday Night Videos SP (10m partial) mostly Dan Hedaya host segments (WPTF28)
6.1986? Friday Night Videos SP (4m partial) Head of the Class host segments (WPTF28) TRT 5h48m
Click to expand...

IMO, Friday Night Videos jumped the shark when they brought in guest hosts.
 
crainbebo said:
Welcome aboard! Good to see you are also into archiving classic television recordings. That 'Lottery!' series is very hard to find, it only ran 17 episodes before it was canceled in June 1984. Ben Murphy, one of the stars, was also in Alias Smith & Jones, which I have about 10-15 episodes taped off '80s CBN reruns, buried in one of the tubs.
I assume most of the tapes consisted of old movies or popular TV shows of the time - no cartoons, game shows, talk shows, newscasts, soaps? In terms of 'yard' sales where a resident sells off things they don't need, I don't recall seeing that many tapes at any that I've been to. One estate sale in 2020 netted around 400 tapes or so, and it was right here in Ellensburg to boot! Been s-l-o-w-l-y selling them.
Click to expand...
Most of the recordings are of old movies, celebrity TV specials (like those of Bob Hope), and dramas (especially "Arthur Hailey's Hotel" and "Highway to Heaven"). However, I have found a few newscasts from WPSD, with the oldest being from early 1984, and I have found two recordings of cartoons. One is of the HB cartoon "Laff-A-Lympics" and of "The Ewoks" from a Saturday morning recording from WSIL from mid-summer 1986, and the other is of "Kissyfur" from WPSD from July 1986. I have about 20 tapes left in this collection to look through and digitize.
I'll also digitize those "Lottery!" episodes later on and upload them to the Internet Archive.
I should also mention that I found a recording from 2004 from the CBS station WBBM a few weeks ago. Which wouldn't be anything particularly special, if it weren't for the fact that I found the tape on the side of a highway in Mayfield, Kentucky, among a pile of shattered VHS tapes that were likely discarded debris from the recent tornado.
 
Beverly died years ago as I recall. I believe her house caved in and she was killed by the impact. And this was after her tape collection was thrown out to the junkyard.
Hey, at least she was taping airchecks from local radio stations - that's a reason why I rarely buy old recorded cassette tapes, because 95% of them are dubbed from CDs or LPs. Rarely do you find an actual C-60 or C-90 that has an hour or more of top 40 music taped off an FM station in the '80s, commercials, DJ chatter and all. The best cassette find I've made were two that had recordings from KIXI-880, Seattle's adult standards station, taped in 1988 and 1998, w/ commercials to boot. Still need to post them. Much of the music back then was 1940s to early 1960s.
 


Back
Top Bottom