It might have dirty video heads.
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Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have
- Thread starter Stanislav
- Start date
Maybe your composite video cable is shot. Have you tried fiddling around with it to see if that's the problem? Does the TV show static (dirty heads?) Sony Betas are far better than Sanyo because the belts last forever. My SL-3030 is still running strong after 5 years of owning it ($67 eBay purchase in winter 2018) and dozens of Beta tapes passing through it.
No static on screen, just a blank video signal. I'm wondering if maybe I should use a different set of AV cables, I'll see if I have any more. Audio appears to be fine. In fact, a couple of the tapes I tested with it were recorded in Hi-Fi stereo sound. I know there's one that has commercials on it for sure, which is the 1984 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. The unit didn't come with a remote though, which will make navigating around these Beta tapes a little more taxing, especially since I have to hold the button down in order to rewind or fast forward tapes in playback mode.
Lots of VHS finds yesterday as well between two estate sales in Seven Hills and one in Bath Township (LeBron's old stomping grounds just outside of Akron). One of the VHS tapes has a broadcast of the movie Woodstock (1970) as it aired on WNEO/WEAO in 1994. Rather unusual broadcast, as the nudity in the film was presented uncensored, but the profanity in it was censored, with the exception of the on-screen subtitles from Country Joe and the Fish's Vietnam song performance that had the F-word in it.
Lots of VHS finds yesterday as well between two estate sales in Seven Hills and one in Bath Township (LeBron's old stomping grounds just outside of Akron). One of the VHS tapes has a broadcast of the movie Woodstock (1970) as it aired on WNEO/WEAO in 1994. Rather unusual broadcast, as the nudity in the film was presented uncensored, but the profanity in it was censored, with the exception of the on-screen subtitles from Country Joe and the Fish's Vietnam song performance that had the F-word in it.
The Beta VCR I'm sure has those weird counters that go up to 4 digits (like 2250, 2750, etc.) This website will help you convert the four-digit counter to the time of the tape:
Loads of VHS finds this weekend at the Yakima Genealogy Society Yard Sale and in Zillah at the City-Wide Yard Sale. All but 1 tape found at an estate cleanout in town that was part of the sale. Nearly 100 homes participating. It was nice to skip the ones with clothes, baby clothes, worn-out Nike shoes and toys with teeth marks on them.
Some phenomenal stuff found. Cartoon Network from the '90s (Smurfs, Snorks, etc.), classic Y&R and ATWT from 1986, Super Bowl XXI with the entire halftime and all commercials (off KIRO 7 Seattle), a vintage WBZ-4 Boston Eyewitness News broadcast from 1986 with Liz Walker...a first for me and a surprise in this rural eastern WA market, and some San Francisco TV finds...including 1984 Garfield and Charlie Brown specials from KPIX!! Full update later.
Loads of VHS finds this weekend at the Yakima Genealogy Society Yard Sale and in Zillah at the City-Wide Yard Sale. All but 1 tape found at an estate cleanout in town that was part of the sale. Nearly 100 homes participating. It was nice to skip the ones with clothes, baby clothes, worn-out Nike shoes and toys with teeth marks on them.
Some phenomenal stuff found. Cartoon Network from the '90s (Smurfs, Snorks, etc.), classic Y&R and ATWT from 1986, Super Bowl XXI with the entire halftime and all commercials (off KIRO 7 Seattle), a vintage WBZ-4 Boston Eyewitness News broadcast from 1986 with Liz Walker...a first for me and a surprise in this rural eastern WA market, and some San Francisco TV finds...including 1984 Garfield and Charlie Brown specials from KPIX!! Full update later.
Well, I tried using another set of AV cables to connect the Beta VCR to my DVD recorder but got the same result. Worst case scenario is I may have to take this unit to the repair shop I've gotten my past VHS VCRs repaired at before, but at the same time I'm afraid to do that because I don't know how much that's going to set me back.
Another flaw with this SuperBeta is the tape won't always eject when commanded. The tape may eject halfway and then go back in one or two times before it finally comes out. I don't know how I failed to mention this before, but at the same time, the bigger problem is not getting a picture.
Another flaw with this SuperBeta is the tape won't always eject when commanded. The tape may eject halfway and then go back in one or two times before it finally comes out. I don't know how I failed to mention this before, but at the same time, the bigger problem is not getting a picture.
While I try to figure out what to do with this Betamax VCR, here's what I ended up finding on the VHS tapes I got this past weekend.
Estate sale #1--Seven Hills, OH (the one where I got the SuperBeta and Beta tapes as well)
TAPE 1: The Snowman (1982) taped from Showtime in December 1991; Madeline's Christmas taped from the Family Channel in December 1991 with commercials; Little Ears: The Velveteen Rabbit (1984) taped from Showtime circa 1991. Kodak T-120.
Picked up two other VHS tapes from this sale, both of which were duds. Lot of other VHS tapes there that I didn't pick up, just about all of which had movie titles on the labels, many of which I suspect are rental copies like the other two I found (except for the aforementioned Woodstock movie on WNEO/WEAO). The Beta tapes I picked up look more promising once I figure out what's going on with this Beta VCR.
A DirecTV DVR was spotted at this house as well. Probably could have picked that up too if I had more money on me. I did pick a good day to get the SuperBeta though since everything was half price on the last day of the sale.
Estate sale #2--Seven Hills, OH
TAPE 2: Four episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess taped from WUAB on 3/31/1996, 4/7/1996, 4/29/1996 and 5/6/1996 respectively, with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.
TAPE 3: The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen (made-for-TV movie) taped from the Sci-Fi Channel on 9/30/1995 with commercials; partial episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine taped from WUAB on 10/7/1995 with commercials, then cuts to a few minutes of cable box channel surfing, during much of which time we see Game 4 of the 1995 National League Division Series on WEWS (or WAKC?) and The Ten O'clock News on WUAB, along with some much shorter clips (end of Touched by an Angel on WOIO, Cops rerun on WBNX, Prevue Channel, Cinemax promo, etc.); partial broadcast of AWF Warriors of Wrestling and start of Gimme a Break taped from WAKC on 7/19/1995 with commercials; partial broadcast of USWA Championship Wrestling and partial episode of Gimme a Break taped from WAKC on 7/11/1995 with commercials. Zenith T-120.
TAPE 4: 1996 NCAA Women's Basketball National Championship and partial broadcast of Sunday Night Baseball (Chicago White Sox vs. Seattle Mariners) taped from ESPN on 3/31/1996 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.
TAPE 5: Partial broadcast of WCW Saturday Night taped from TBS Superstation on 10/4/1997 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.
Left a few other home-recorded tapes behind at this sale. I think there were at least a couple more wrestling tapes in that mix and at least one that appeared to be a home movie.
Estate sale #3--Bath Township, OH
TAPE 6: A Painted House (2003 Hallmark Hall of Fame movie) and partial broadcast of Action News at 11 taped from WOIO on 4/27/2003 with commercials, quick glimpse at the Time Warner Digital Cable program guide before the tape goes blank during the first commercial break of the newscast. TDK T-160.
TAPE 7: Three parts of Christmas Castles (HGTV miniseries) and partial episode of Surprise Gardener taped from HGTV in December 1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 1997 Grand Prix of Brazil taped from ESPN2 on 3/30/1997 with commercials; end of Fire Birds (1990), Buffy the Vampire Slayer and partial episode of Babylon 5 taped from WUAB on 3/30/1997 with commercials (WUAB was a dual affiliate of UPN and The WB at that time, hence why Buffy was preempted to a Saturday afternoon, mix in the station's Cavaliers and Indians coverage and you've got yourself a prime time programming mess). Maxell T-120.
Here's a sale later in the week that looks promising.
www.estatesales.net
Estate sale #1--Seven Hills, OH (the one where I got the SuperBeta and Beta tapes as well)
TAPE 1: The Snowman (1982) taped from Showtime in December 1991; Madeline's Christmas taped from the Family Channel in December 1991 with commercials; Little Ears: The Velveteen Rabbit (1984) taped from Showtime circa 1991. Kodak T-120.
Picked up two other VHS tapes from this sale, both of which were duds. Lot of other VHS tapes there that I didn't pick up, just about all of which had movie titles on the labels, many of which I suspect are rental copies like the other two I found (except for the aforementioned Woodstock movie on WNEO/WEAO). The Beta tapes I picked up look more promising once I figure out what's going on with this Beta VCR.
A DirecTV DVR was spotted at this house as well. Probably could have picked that up too if I had more money on me. I did pick a good day to get the SuperBeta though since everything was half price on the last day of the sale.
Estate sale #2--Seven Hills, OH
TAPE 2: Four episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess taped from WUAB on 3/31/1996, 4/7/1996, 4/29/1996 and 5/6/1996 respectively, with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.
TAPE 3: The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen (made-for-TV movie) taped from the Sci-Fi Channel on 9/30/1995 with commercials; partial episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine taped from WUAB on 10/7/1995 with commercials, then cuts to a few minutes of cable box channel surfing, during much of which time we see Game 4 of the 1995 National League Division Series on WEWS (or WAKC?) and The Ten O'clock News on WUAB, along with some much shorter clips (end of Touched by an Angel on WOIO, Cops rerun on WBNX, Prevue Channel, Cinemax promo, etc.); partial broadcast of AWF Warriors of Wrestling and start of Gimme a Break taped from WAKC on 7/19/1995 with commercials; partial broadcast of USWA Championship Wrestling and partial episode of Gimme a Break taped from WAKC on 7/11/1995 with commercials. Zenith T-120.
TAPE 4: 1996 NCAA Women's Basketball National Championship and partial broadcast of Sunday Night Baseball (Chicago White Sox vs. Seattle Mariners) taped from ESPN on 3/31/1996 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.
TAPE 5: Partial broadcast of WCW Saturday Night taped from TBS Superstation on 10/4/1997 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.
Left a few other home-recorded tapes behind at this sale. I think there were at least a couple more wrestling tapes in that mix and at least one that appeared to be a home movie.
Estate sale #3--Bath Township, OH
TAPE 6: A Painted House (2003 Hallmark Hall of Fame movie) and partial broadcast of Action News at 11 taped from WOIO on 4/27/2003 with commercials, quick glimpse at the Time Warner Digital Cable program guide before the tape goes blank during the first commercial break of the newscast. TDK T-160.
TAPE 7: Three parts of Christmas Castles (HGTV miniseries) and partial episode of Surprise Gardener taped from HGTV in December 1999 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 1997 Grand Prix of Brazil taped from ESPN2 on 3/30/1997 with commercials; end of Fire Birds (1990), Buffy the Vampire Slayer and partial episode of Babylon 5 taped from WUAB on 3/30/1997 with commercials (WUAB was a dual affiliate of UPN and The WB at that time, hence why Buffy was preempted to a Saturday afternoon, mix in the station's Cavaliers and Indians coverage and you've got yourself a prime time programming mess). Maxell T-120.
Here's a sale later in the week that looks promising.
Vintage Estate Sale Brunswick Ohio starts on 4/27/2023
View information about this sale in Brunswick, OH. The sale starts Thursday, April 27 and runs through Saturday, April 29. It is being run by Dusty Jane's Estate Liquidation.
www.estatesales.net
I wonder why it took WBNX almost 2 years to become a WB affiliate?
Well, I ended up getting duped on that estate sale in Brunswick I linked the other day. Walking through the house, it looked like much of the furniture and other larger items had already been cleared out of the house, including the tapes on that one shelf in the picture I saw in the listing. No finds elsewhere this week either. That's fine with me in this case though because I still have a pretty large backlog of content yet to be uploaded, including some of the tapes I got on eBay from our friend in Idaho, the one who wrote and published a book listing many of his VHS finds. Speaking of whom, it's becoming apparent that the contents of his tapes have been making their rounds elsewhere on YouTube. I've been seeing "VHS Commercial Freak" and "Retro Commercials 1990s" uploading ads from tapes I remember being described on some of his past eBay listings.
When UPN and WB first debuted in 1995, they were only broadcasting a couple of nights a week, so WUAB channel 43 had enough room to carry both.
As both networks expanded, it became clear that UPN was the priority, as 43 aired it on schedule, and the WB was crammed in on weekends.
Thus eventually in 1997, WB scooted over to channel 55, giving them a home to call their own.
Went to a massive yard sale yesterday of a family who buys out storage units and estate cleanouts. Mixed with the 100s of books, housewares, car parts, etc. from these storages, were two 50gal. storage totes full of VHS tapes, 90% home-recorded. I'd say 250+! I picked up ONLY 15 or so, don't worry. This person must have recorded from her VCR as often as turning on her TV and watching it. Labels are a mess of scratched-out stuff and 2000s programs on top of them, for the most part. But there is great stuff - later TGIF sitcoms (Hope & Faith, Life with Bonnie), episodes of Pyramid with Donny Osmond, PBR bull riding, a July 2000 episode of Nightline, I Witness Video with John Forsythe, two tapes marked with Cops (early '90s Memorex, so it should be older first-run), Totally Hidden Video (!), some various Hallmark and TV-movies, etc. Some are also marked with newscasts. A good 1/3rd of those tapes were marked with televangelists, so I skipped those. 6 hours worth of Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Charles Stanley, and Jack Van Impe on some of the tapes.
Have looked at a few of these and noticed that the 2000s content was Yakima-taped, and the '90s tapes are from Tri-Cities (KEPR, KNDU, KVEW, K66BW, and cable networks). Cool! Some tapes have a lot of scoped recordings but have some gems at the end. One tape had several sitcoms, Y&R, and a Hindenburg documentary without commercials, but there were 20 minutes of As the World Turns at the end with commercials, the 2/28/92 episode from KEPR.
I plan to consolidate a good chunk of my collection on the other hand. Remember the Ellensburg estate sale during Covid that had 500+ tapes? I still have 75% of them, and they are taking up way too much room in storage. I plan on going through the binder list of tapes and movies, and sending the tapes that solely have TBS/TNT/FAM recordings to eBay unsearched. My priority is to find broadcast TV content, not cable. I have enough TNT recordings to where I could probably watch for 6 months straight and never have a repeat.
Have looked at a few of these and noticed that the 2000s content was Yakima-taped, and the '90s tapes are from Tri-Cities (KEPR, KNDU, KVEW, K66BW, and cable networks). Cool! Some tapes have a lot of scoped recordings but have some gems at the end. One tape had several sitcoms, Y&R, and a Hindenburg documentary without commercials, but there were 20 minutes of As the World Turns at the end with commercials, the 2/28/92 episode from KEPR.
I plan to consolidate a good chunk of my collection on the other hand. Remember the Ellensburg estate sale during Covid that had 500+ tapes? I still have 75% of them, and they are taking up way too much room in storage. I plan on going through the binder list of tapes and movies, and sending the tapes that solely have TBS/TNT/FAM recordings to eBay unsearched. My priority is to find broadcast TV content, not cable. I have enough TNT recordings to where I could probably watch for 6 months straight and never have a repeat.
Looks like I've got good news and bad news to report involving my latest two lots. I'll start with the good news first, which comes courtesy of my latest eBay purchase out of a seller who lives just 40 minutes from me. It was a rookie seller, so with the relative proximity, the risk of a lost shipment was presumably less. The seller states that there would be more lots coming in the future, and this easily makes sense as there are tapes with label stickers in the 200s and 300s on the back. 15 tapes came from this lot; seven were keepers, two were "sell pile" items that I'll use as "unsearched" on eBay that consists of the Lifetime movie Gone In A Heartbeat from September 2005 with commercials, another with three pay cable/rental movies and an incomplete episode of Brooklyn South of WJZ/CBS sometime during the 1997-98 season with a few commercials (most scoped), and the other six were the usual rental/pay TV duds. A couple tapes had some out-of-market finds, appropriately from NYC and Nashville given Baltimore's "border city" status between the Northeast and the South, and somewhat oddly given this occurrence, no finds from DC stations. If there are any future lots from him/her, I may try to negotiate with local pickups where I can choose my tapes, although I won't get my hopes up.
NOTE: Everything was recorded in EP mode.
TAPE 1: Freshman Dorm off WBAL/CBS on 8/26/1992 with commercials (missing the intro and closing), followed by two episodes of Days of our Lives (DOOL) off WMAR/NBC from just before Labor Day 1992, the first episode has most commercials missing; the second is complete with commercials, "Out Of Annie's Past", the USA original movie from 3/18/1995 with commercials, followed by the fourth season finale of Friends from 5/7/1998 off WBAL/NBC with commercials (I've already got this off the same station that was taped by my mom or sister growing up), then wraps up with ER from 5/7/1998 with just a few commercials, another episode I've already got with the ads, so I won't bother with this one. The quality on the DOOL episodes is somewhat snowy, but passable.
TAPE 2: Begins with the CBS Sunday Movie premiere presentation of A Christmas Romance off WBAL on 12/18/1994 with commercials, including one for WBAL's return to NBC two weeks later, then jumps ahead a few years to episodes of DOOL and Another World off WBAL/NBC on 11/24/1997 with commercials, then goes back for episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Models, Inc. off WBFF/FOX on 12/21/1994 with commercials.
TAPE 3: Starts out with Rush (1991) taped off a rental, then continues on with an episode of DOOL off WBAL/NBC on 10/18/1996 with commercials, then continues with an episode of Baywatch Nights, the spin-off of the parent series also starring David Hasselhoff off WBAL on 10/19/1996 with commercials, then flips over to WJZ/CBS from the same evening with Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, then goes back to WBAL later that same night with The Profiler and about the first 20 minutes of the WBAL 11 PM News, with all aforementioned shows with the commercials intact. The nicest surprise in this lot given that these shows weren't found on the label except for that movie.
TAPE 4: Kicks off with General Hospital off WABC on 1/27/1999 with commercials, then continues with another episode of GH off WMAR/ABC on 12/19/1996 with commercials, then continues on with High Incident also off WMAR/ABC from the same day with most of the commercials missing, continues with ER from also that same night off WBAL/ER with unfortunately the Grinch pruning out most of the ads, then wraps up with The X-Files Movie off a rental. Notably, this was a Luskin's T-120, from the same regional electronic chain that had gone out of business before relaunching as The Big Screen Store around the time this tape was purchased. No ads for either were found in this lot based on what I've seen so far.
TAPE 5: Begins with Friends off WBAL/NBC on 5/1/1997 with commercials, then changes over to channel 45 for New York Undercover off WBFF/FOX from the same evening, then jumps back to channel 11 for ER from once again that same night (with similar video quality problems to those 1992 DOOL episodes unfortunately), followed by the seventh season finale of Beverly Hills, 90210 off WBFF/FOX on 5/22/1997 with commercials (I've already got this off another station, so this is another "farm the local spots" one), then wraps up with an episode of Big Easy from June 1997 off USA with a few commercials.
TAPE 6: Ever find a tape with full episodes of soaps from the early, mid, and late '90s on the same tape? I haven't before, until this one. This begins with DOOL off WMAR/NBC on 1/15/1992, followed by the closing of the WBAL midday news with its short-lived graphics and music package, along with episodes of DOOL and Another World from 9/13/1995 (the closing news story incidentally was about the World Chess Championships inside the former WTC in NYC), then continues with another couplet of DOOL/Another World from 5/21/1998 off WBAL/NBC, then despite airing just a day later, wraps up with General Hospital off WKRN/ABC, talk about driving ten hours just to record one of your favorite soaps! All episodes have the commercials intact.
TAPE 7: Starts with an episode of Pacific Blue from 2/27/2000 off USA with no commercials, then continues with General Hospital off WABC on 5/29/2000 with commercials, then continues on with Dawson's Creek off WNUV/WB on 4/28/1999 with commercials, followed by a late episode of Another World off WBAL/NBC on 5/5/1999 with ads, then wraps up with another episode of Dawson's Creek from the same day as the Another World episode, also off WNUV.
The bad news is that there was a listing for free VHS tapes on Craigslist from another seller, and the photos include a cabinet full of tapes, about 70% blank and around 30% retail, with over 50 blanks in all. One tape has a label indicating "Daily Soaps 11/96", and another with "Basketball" written on the side, although it appears the vast majority of labels visible contain movies, which could easily be more duds as in the first lot. There appears to be more '80s tape stock as well compared to the '90s/early '00s stock from this eBay lot I just received. I originally emailed the seller on Sunday afternoon just two hours after s/he listed it, then missed out on a text about an hour later, assuming that the tapes would be available for pickup. Unfortunately, I forgot receive the text back stating that the tapes would be available today for curbside pickup, and then the day after, messaged that I would have been available tomorrow (yesterday) after work. I then alternated with texts and phone calls hourly until around 3 PM, received a text stating "Hello. I have 9 missed calls and 4 text messages from you which is beyond excessive and a bit creepy. I've scheduled another pickup. If that falls through, I'll let you know. Please don't call/text again." I've mercifully stopped since then, and although the listing is still up on Craigslist as of this post. The seller lives in a questionable neighborhood too regarding safety. I'm not holding my breath, especially considering I'll be going away to Florida next week for a mixture of fun (Disney World for four nights) and family (an uncle and cousins near Melbourne, FL). No Craigslist lots are in the vicinity, so I'll just be taking a break to enjoy some sun 'n fun.
NOTE: Everything was recorded in EP mode.
TAPE 1: Freshman Dorm off WBAL/CBS on 8/26/1992 with commercials (missing the intro and closing), followed by two episodes of Days of our Lives (DOOL) off WMAR/NBC from just before Labor Day 1992, the first episode has most commercials missing; the second is complete with commercials, "Out Of Annie's Past", the USA original movie from 3/18/1995 with commercials, followed by the fourth season finale of Friends from 5/7/1998 off WBAL/NBC with commercials (I've already got this off the same station that was taped by my mom or sister growing up), then wraps up with ER from 5/7/1998 with just a few commercials, another episode I've already got with the ads, so I won't bother with this one. The quality on the DOOL episodes is somewhat snowy, but passable.
TAPE 2: Begins with the CBS Sunday Movie premiere presentation of A Christmas Romance off WBAL on 12/18/1994 with commercials, including one for WBAL's return to NBC two weeks later, then jumps ahead a few years to episodes of DOOL and Another World off WBAL/NBC on 11/24/1997 with commercials, then goes back for episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Models, Inc. off WBFF/FOX on 12/21/1994 with commercials.
TAPE 3: Starts out with Rush (1991) taped off a rental, then continues on with an episode of DOOL off WBAL/NBC on 10/18/1996 with commercials, then continues with an episode of Baywatch Nights, the spin-off of the parent series also starring David Hasselhoff off WBAL on 10/19/1996 with commercials, then flips over to WJZ/CBS from the same evening with Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, then goes back to WBAL later that same night with The Profiler and about the first 20 minutes of the WBAL 11 PM News, with all aforementioned shows with the commercials intact. The nicest surprise in this lot given that these shows weren't found on the label except for that movie.
TAPE 4: Kicks off with General Hospital off WABC on 1/27/1999 with commercials, then continues with another episode of GH off WMAR/ABC on 12/19/1996 with commercials, then continues on with High Incident also off WMAR/ABC from the same day with most of the commercials missing, continues with ER from also that same night off WBAL/ER with unfortunately the Grinch pruning out most of the ads, then wraps up with The X-Files Movie off a rental. Notably, this was a Luskin's T-120, from the same regional electronic chain that had gone out of business before relaunching as The Big Screen Store around the time this tape was purchased. No ads for either were found in this lot based on what I've seen so far.
TAPE 5: Begins with Friends off WBAL/NBC on 5/1/1997 with commercials, then changes over to channel 45 for New York Undercover off WBFF/FOX from the same evening, then jumps back to channel 11 for ER from once again that same night (with similar video quality problems to those 1992 DOOL episodes unfortunately), followed by the seventh season finale of Beverly Hills, 90210 off WBFF/FOX on 5/22/1997 with commercials (I've already got this off another station, so this is another "farm the local spots" one), then wraps up with an episode of Big Easy from June 1997 off USA with a few commercials.
TAPE 6: Ever find a tape with full episodes of soaps from the early, mid, and late '90s on the same tape? I haven't before, until this one. This begins with DOOL off WMAR/NBC on 1/15/1992, followed by the closing of the WBAL midday news with its short-lived graphics and music package, along with episodes of DOOL and Another World from 9/13/1995 (the closing news story incidentally was about the World Chess Championships inside the former WTC in NYC), then continues with another couplet of DOOL/Another World from 5/21/1998 off WBAL/NBC, then despite airing just a day later, wraps up with General Hospital off WKRN/ABC, talk about driving ten hours just to record one of your favorite soaps! All episodes have the commercials intact.
TAPE 7: Starts with an episode of Pacific Blue from 2/27/2000 off USA with no commercials, then continues with General Hospital off WABC on 5/29/2000 with commercials, then continues on with Dawson's Creek off WNUV/WB on 4/28/1999 with commercials, followed by a late episode of Another World off WBAL/NBC on 5/5/1999 with ads, then wraps up with another episode of Dawson's Creek from the same day as the Another World episode, also off WNUV.
The bad news is that there was a listing for free VHS tapes on Craigslist from another seller, and the photos include a cabinet full of tapes, about 70% blank and around 30% retail, with over 50 blanks in all. One tape has a label indicating "Daily Soaps 11/96", and another with "Basketball" written on the side, although it appears the vast majority of labels visible contain movies, which could easily be more duds as in the first lot. There appears to be more '80s tape stock as well compared to the '90s/early '00s stock from this eBay lot I just received. I originally emailed the seller on Sunday afternoon just two hours after s/he listed it, then missed out on a text about an hour later, assuming that the tapes would be available for pickup. Unfortunately, I forgot receive the text back stating that the tapes would be available today for curbside pickup, and then the day after, messaged that I would have been available tomorrow (yesterday) after work. I then alternated with texts and phone calls hourly until around 3 PM, received a text stating "Hello. I have 9 missed calls and 4 text messages from you which is beyond excessive and a bit creepy. I've scheduled another pickup. If that falls through, I'll let you know. Please don't call/text again." I've mercifully stopped since then, and although the listing is still up on Craigslist as of this post. The seller lives in a questionable neighborhood too regarding safety. I'm not holding my breath, especially considering I'll be going away to Florida next week for a mixture of fun (Disney World for four nights) and family (an uncle and cousins near Melbourne, FL). No Craigslist lots are in the vicinity, so I'll just be taking a break to enjoy some sun 'n fun.
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This reminds me of a Craigslist lot that has been posted for a while in northwest Montana. It was also posted on OfferUp. Tons of home-recorded tapes, for $1 a tape. I planned to stop by this residence as I was traveling through on my trip about a month ago. She never emailed me back, even after more than one reply. She probably thought I was spam, even though I said I would be traveling through 'on the 5th, during the early afternoon hours'.
Anyways, swing and a miss there, but I scored some great recordings from that trip regardless. Missoula newscasts from the '90s are being posted soon to YouTube.
Anyways, swing and a miss there, but I scored some great recordings from that trip regardless. Missoula newscasts from the '90s are being posted soon to YouTube.
Cool find on Freshman Dorm! That was a short lived "summer replacement" series and yet another latter day attempt to revive the primetime soap opera genre after Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place became hits. From what I could tell from online research Freshman Dorm only had 5 episodes, and I do have those, but if I recall correctly they are missing commercials so that would be an upgrade on that one episode, and I'm willing to do a swap on those if you are interested.
Gosh that is too bad! Orlando is a very rare market to get content on youtube. I would love to see more of Orlando having lived there from 1988-1990 and 1996-1999. And my father lived there for many years. WREYtube has a bunch of tapes from his grandparents some in the rare to very rare category with game shows, newscasts etc . but he has not updated his paste since 2014.
My latest finds from last week came from an estate sale in Parma. The homeowner owned an auto body shop in that city and was also an auto tech instructor at Valley Forge High School. Quite a bit of other old media there besides VHS tapes, as there were several reel-to-reel tapes for sale, along with a reel-to-reel tape player. There were also two Betamax VCRs for sale, one of them being a top-loader and the other being a Sony SuperBeta similar to the one I picked up a couple of weeks ago from an estate sale in Seven Hills. Speaking of which, still no luck getting a picture on my TV screen when I played a Beta tape in that unit, so I ended up bringing it in for repair (provided they can find out what's wrong with it) and hoping it doesn't cost me an arm and a leg.
I picked up seven VHS tapes (four keepers) from the Parma sale and left a few behind.
TAPE 1: One full episode and one partial episode of Travel Channel Secrets taped from the Travel Channel in February 2003 with commercials. Maxell T-120.
TAPE 2: David Blaine: Street Magic taped from WEWS on 5/19/1997 with commercials (I have a recording of a 2002 rebroadcast of it on TLC, but this is the original ABC broadcast); partial broadcast of Fox 8 News at 8AM taped from WJW on 1/7/1997 with commercials, includes a couple minutes of live coverage of the announcements of the year's Grammy nominees. Maxell T-120.
TAPE 3: Maxine's Christmas Carol, The Glory of Christmas and Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Spectacular taped from DirecTV Direct Ticket in December 2000 with promos. TDK T-120.
TAPE 4: Two-hour season premiere of The West Wing taped from WKYC on 10/4/2000 with commercials, evidently this taped over a boat race on ESPN from 1991 based on the labeling. Scotch T-120.
Duds included two home videos and a recording of This Is Garth Brooks (NBC concert special on 1/17/1992) on WKYC minus commercials--already have that recorded from KNBC in Los Angeles with commercials.
A rummage sale at a senior center in Parma yesterday (Friday 5/12) yielded a few audiocassettes containing music recorded from local Cleveland/Akron radio stations in the early '90s. Thus far I've found recordings from WMJI, WRMR and WDOK. For the most part, the recorder did a good job of cutting out the DJ banter and commercials between songs with a couple of exceptions, thus how I was able to identify the stations. Mostly oldies and soft rock recorded on these tapes, with one noticeable outlier being "Shut Up and Kiss Me" by Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Speaking of Cleveland radio, earlier today I made a trip out to Annika's Event Center in Grafton for this event. As advertised in the article, John Gorman and Ed "Flash" Ferenc were there signing autographs and interacting with the public. I ended up buying a WMMS pennant and a WMMS bumper sticker.
www.cleveland.com
I picked up seven VHS tapes (four keepers) from the Parma sale and left a few behind.
TAPE 1: One full episode and one partial episode of Travel Channel Secrets taped from the Travel Channel in February 2003 with commercials. Maxell T-120.
TAPE 2: David Blaine: Street Magic taped from WEWS on 5/19/1997 with commercials (I have a recording of a 2002 rebroadcast of it on TLC, but this is the original ABC broadcast); partial broadcast of Fox 8 News at 8AM taped from WJW on 1/7/1997 with commercials, includes a couple minutes of live coverage of the announcements of the year's Grammy nominees. Maxell T-120.
TAPE 3: Maxine's Christmas Carol, The Glory of Christmas and Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Spectacular taped from DirecTV Direct Ticket in December 2000 with promos. TDK T-120.
TAPE 4: Two-hour season premiere of The West Wing taped from WKYC on 10/4/2000 with commercials, evidently this taped over a boat race on ESPN from 1991 based on the labeling. Scotch T-120.
Duds included two home videos and a recording of This Is Garth Brooks (NBC concert special on 1/17/1992) on WKYC minus commercials--already have that recorded from KNBC in Los Angeles with commercials.
A rummage sale at a senior center in Parma yesterday (Friday 5/12) yielded a few audiocassettes containing music recorded from local Cleveland/Akron radio stations in the early '90s. Thus far I've found recordings from WMJI, WRMR and WDOK. For the most part, the recorder did a good job of cutting out the DJ banter and commercials between songs with a couple of exceptions, thus how I was able to identify the stations. Mostly oldies and soft rock recorded on these tapes, with one noticeable outlier being "Shut Up and Kiss Me" by Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Speaking of Cleveland radio, earlier today I made a trip out to Annika's Event Center in Grafton for this event. As advertised in the article, John Gorman and Ed "Flash" Ferenc were there signing autographs and interacting with the public. I ended up buying a WMMS pennant and a WMMS bumper sticker.
Buzzard Rock ‘n’ Roll Market will give WMMS fans a chance to load up on classic memorabilia
David Helton, creator of the original WMMS Buzzard mascot, and will join other CLE rock and radio personalities in Grafton on Saturday at the Buzzard Rock 'n' Roll Market. They will talk to fans of the legendary Cleveland rock radio station and sell off a treasure trove of WMMS memorabilia.
Anyone have any interest in this Baltimore VHS lot?
Well, it turns out the problem with my SuperBeta was nothing more than the absence of a coaxial cable, as opposed to standard AV cables, connecting the unit to my DVD recorder. Good thing I didn't have to pay anything other than the $10 diagnostic fee up front. Still have a couple more Beta tapes to go through, but unfortunately, not as many recordings with commercials as I thought I'd find on these.
I don't directly hock my YouTube channels on here very often, but at the risk of having unrealistic expectations, there are a few amusing clips from my VHS collection in particular that I've cherry-picked into short-form videos that I thought would have gone viral and been overloaded with comments by now. Here's what I'm talking about.
On Inauguration Day of 1993, the late great Dick Feagler uttered a phrase that many never would have known existed in the days before social media or before the Internet in and of itself for that matter. Unfortunately, this one's black and white because of poor terrestrial reception of WKYC.
And because there are few things more cringey than middle-aged white people imitating rappers, as we saw more recently with WLBT's Barbie Bassett, long-time WJW anchor Bill Martin opted to end the station's morning show's coverage of the 1997 Grammy nomination announcements by rapping a Coolio song--rather badly at that because he couldn't even get the lyrics right.
This last one's my favorite of the three. One can only wonder why one of the background monitors in the WEWS newsroom was tuned to a scrambled Pay-Per-View channel broadcasting who knows what (although we all probably have an idea of what) during a live shot on a 1998 newscast. Could be the handiwork of a college intern pulling a practical joke. Hopefully newsroom anchor Ted Henry wasn't the one looking at that!
I don't directly hock my YouTube channels on here very often, but at the risk of having unrealistic expectations, there are a few amusing clips from my VHS collection in particular that I've cherry-picked into short-form videos that I thought would have gone viral and been overloaded with comments by now. Here's what I'm talking about.
On Inauguration Day of 1993, the late great Dick Feagler uttered a phrase that many never would have known existed in the days before social media or before the Internet in and of itself for that matter. Unfortunately, this one's black and white because of poor terrestrial reception of WKYC.
And because there are few things more cringey than middle-aged white people imitating rappers, as we saw more recently with WLBT's Barbie Bassett, long-time WJW anchor Bill Martin opted to end the station's morning show's coverage of the 1997 Grammy nomination announcements by rapping a Coolio song--rather badly at that because he couldn't even get the lyrics right.
This last one's my favorite of the three. One can only wonder why one of the background monitors in the WEWS newsroom was tuned to a scrambled Pay-Per-View channel broadcasting who knows what (although we all probably have an idea of what) during a live shot on a 1998 newscast. Could be the handiwork of a college intern pulling a practical joke. Hopefully newsroom anchor Ted Henry wasn't the one looking at that!
Well, I went through the nine Betamax tapes (five keepers) I got from the same estate sale in Seven Hills as the Beta VCR itself. Unfortunately, the tape that I suspect had the most commercials, the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, broke off the reel after I rewound it to the beginning. I'll have to see if I can fix that. I've done that before with VHS tapes, but not with Beta tapes. Outside of that, seems like there were an awful lot of paused-out commercial breaks in this batch.
TAPE 1: Night of 100 Stars II (ABC special) taped from WEWS on 3/10/1985 minus most commercials, just about all of the breaks that were included were partial; partial broadcast of Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (NBC made-for-TV movie) taped from WKYC on 2/17/1985 with commercials. Scotch L-750.
TAPE 2: Rolling Stone Magazine's 20 Years of Rock N Roll (ABC special) taped from WEWS on 11/24/1987 with commercials; Deceptions (1990 Showtime made-for-TV movie) copied from rental tape; partial broadcast of the 1987 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade taped from WKYC on Thanksgiving 1987 minus most commercials; partial recording of Sex Appeal (1986) copied from rental tape; partial recording of Jake Speed (1986) copied from rental tape. TDK L-750.
TAPE 3: Partial broadcast of 60 Minutes: The Entertainers taped from WJW on 7/24/1992 minus most commercials; Hook (1991) copied from rental tape. Sony L-750.
TAPE 4: Around the World in 80 Days (1956) taped from Cinemax circa 1985, includes an intermission slide in the middle of the movie; ABC's Wide World of Sports 30th Anniversary Special taped from WEWS on 4/28/1991 minus most commercials. Maxell L-750.
TAPE 5: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer taped from WJW on 12/9/1986 minus commercials; Mickey's Christmas Carol taped from WKYC on 12/15/1986 minus most commercials; The Invisible Man (1933) taped from WUAB circa 1987 minus commercials, plus it was a Superhost presentation, so it would have been nice to see the Superhost skits with Marty Sullivan; Cinderella (1950) copied from rental tape, opening previews are included, showing that it was taped from the 1988 print. Fuji L-750.
No new finds at any of the sales I stopped by this weekend. And then, there's this guy who fared much better, and that would be an understatement.
TAPE 1: Night of 100 Stars II (ABC special) taped from WEWS on 3/10/1985 minus most commercials, just about all of the breaks that were included were partial; partial broadcast of Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (NBC made-for-TV movie) taped from WKYC on 2/17/1985 with commercials. Scotch L-750.
TAPE 2: Rolling Stone Magazine's 20 Years of Rock N Roll (ABC special) taped from WEWS on 11/24/1987 with commercials; Deceptions (1990 Showtime made-for-TV movie) copied from rental tape; partial broadcast of the 1987 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade taped from WKYC on Thanksgiving 1987 minus most commercials; partial recording of Sex Appeal (1986) copied from rental tape; partial recording of Jake Speed (1986) copied from rental tape. TDK L-750.
TAPE 3: Partial broadcast of 60 Minutes: The Entertainers taped from WJW on 7/24/1992 minus most commercials; Hook (1991) copied from rental tape. Sony L-750.
TAPE 4: Around the World in 80 Days (1956) taped from Cinemax circa 1985, includes an intermission slide in the middle of the movie; ABC's Wide World of Sports 30th Anniversary Special taped from WEWS on 4/28/1991 minus most commercials. Maxell L-750.
TAPE 5: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer taped from WJW on 12/9/1986 minus commercials; Mickey's Christmas Carol taped from WKYC on 12/15/1986 minus most commercials; The Invisible Man (1933) taped from WUAB circa 1987 minus commercials, plus it was a Superhost presentation, so it would have been nice to see the Superhost skits with Marty Sullivan; Cinderella (1950) copied from rental tape, opening previews are included, showing that it was taped from the 1988 print. Fuji L-750.
No new finds at any of the sales I stopped by this weekend. And then, there's this guy who fared much better, and that would be an understatement.
There's still a thrift store out there with about 3,000 VHS tapes in their basement? Even Veterans Warehouse wasn't THAT great! None of the thrift stores I stopped at in Montana had that many, either.
I should try to have an updated list up in the next few days from the last few weeks of sales. I also purchased a small 8-tape eBay lot from Florence, Montana a couple of weeks ago (15 mi S of Missoula) that had more great Missoula and Spokane TV finds...even Liberty Weekend coverage.
In addition, I have compiled a list of 60-70 tapes from that 2020 Ellensburg lot that are going to be sold unsearched - for the most part it's only WTBS/TBS, TNT and FAM classic movie recordings, with commercials, but I don't have time to digitize and go through these. Lots of John Wayne and Randolph Scott movies, James Stewart films, Rockford Files reruns from A&E, etc. that are not worth my time.
I should try to have an updated list up in the next few days from the last few weeks of sales. I also purchased a small 8-tape eBay lot from Florence, Montana a couple of weeks ago (15 mi S of Missoula) that had more great Missoula and Spokane TV finds...even Liberty Weekend coverage.
In addition, I have compiled a list of 60-70 tapes from that 2020 Ellensburg lot that are going to be sold unsearched - for the most part it's only WTBS/TBS, TNT and FAM classic movie recordings, with commercials, but I don't have time to digitize and go through these. Lots of John Wayne and Randolph Scott movies, James Stewart films, Rockford Files reruns from A&E, etc. that are not worth my time.
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