Oldest Extant Off-Air VHS/Beta Tape You Have

[pannoni1]

As "rainy day" insurance, I just checked out my latest lot of Beta tapes off eBay. The seller is from a community in the Tampa Bay area that's best known to me for being home to a hotel and spa that has been offered on some game shows back in the late '80s/early '90s. Speaking of which, there were a couple game show finds and more. As you may expect from the seller who mentioned about having some heart surgery (get well!), the seller turned out to be a transplant, with all of the recordings coming off of Milwaukee stations. It speaks volumes about how much more relevant even just a few decades ago the Great Lakes region was before all of the big sunbelt growth. Everything that was recorded off commercial tv contained the ads intact, with one notable exception. The only cable finds as is often the case was off HBO.

TAPE 1: Wall $treet Week off WMVS/PBS on 2/2/1990, followed by Hunter off WTMJ/NBC on 2/3/1990, then it moves on with Murder, She Wrote off WITI on 2/4/1990, then it cuts to about the final 85 minutes of the Sugar Bowl between Miami and Alabama on New Year's Day 1990 off WISN/ABC, then the tape finishes off with a portion of Bill Cosby: Himself off presumably HBO circa 1989.

TAPE 2: Parts three and five of North and South: Book II off WISN/ABC on 5/27 and 6/10/1989, followed by the last 20 minutes of The Tribute, The Test, the Triumph post-Seoul Olympics off WTMJ/NBC on 10/4/1988, then ends with approximately a third of an episode of Santa Barbara from August 1987 off WTMJ/NBC. Note that those Civil War-themed miniseries broadcasts were aired over the course of six Saturdays for their 1989 rebroadcasts, compared to their May 1986 airings which aired closer together as is more typical for a miniseries. I've got the original broadcasts for most of Book II already.

TAPE 3: Begins with the sixth and final installment of North and South, Book II off WISC/ABC on 6/17/1989, followed by the Paris episode of Santa Barbara off WTMJ/NBC on 5/10/1989, then it continues with about the last half of Family Feud (beginning during the Double round question), Jeopardy!, and the first several minutes of the WTMJ 5 PM News on 4/24/1989 with commercials. Oprah Winfrey aired between the soaps and the late afternoon syndicated game shows at the time on Milwaukee's channel 4.

TAPE 4: Mikhail Baryshnikov's The Nutcracker (1977) off WMVS/PBS on 12/3/1989 with a pledge break at the end along with the first several minutes of Remembering Dorothy Lamour, then it jumps to about the last ten minutes of Days of our Lives (DOOL) off WTMJ/NBC on 11/28/1989, then it continues with another 15-minute clip of DOOL from sometime in November 1989, then continues with most of another episode of DOOL from 11/29/1989, then finishes off with DOOL from 11/30/1989, which was interrupted for about ten minutes by NBC for a George Bush White House press conference ahead of his meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev in Malta.

TAPE 5: Begins with Wall $treet Week off WMVS/PBS on 10/6/1989 along with the first few minutes of Washington Week in Review, then it jumps to a partial episode of Santa Barbara from October 1989 off WTMJ/NBC, followed by Marquette Warrior Basketball: The Kevin O'Neill Show off WISN on 1/19/1990, then it wraps up with about half of Another World, Santa Barbara, and about two-thirds of Oprah Winfrey off WMTJ/NBC on 7/21/1989. This tape has been frequently recorded to the point that there are occasional video dropouts, so I'll likely won't be getting much from the early portion of this tape, where you typically find the most re-recording "wear".

TAPE 6: Parts two and three of the 1985 miniseries North and South taken from their reruns off WISN/ABC on 10/19 and 10/20/1988 (the later night ending after the two hour mark, with the rest found on the following tape), followed by about 20 minutes of promos off HBO on 12/23/1987, then it wraps up with a ten-minute snippet from an NBA Playoff game from May 1987 with a few commercials.

TAPE 7: Begins with part one of North and South off WISN/ABC on 10/18/1988, then jumps to the last hour of part three of the same miniseries (used as writers' strike filler) from 10/20/1988, then it jumps to about the last 15 minutes of Calgary Winter Olympics coverage off WISN/ABC on 2/24/1988, then jumps over to part of a movie and a few minutes of promos off HBO on 7/28/1987.

TAPE 8: Part four of the encore presentation of North and South off WISN/ABC on 10/22/1988, then jumps back to the Men's Free Skate final from the same Winter Olympics as the last tape from 2/20/1988 off WISN/ABC, then jumps for about ten minutes of footage from that night's WISN late news, then wraps up with most of the late night recap of the Games from the same night.

TAPE 9: Starts with The Nutcracker: A Fantasy (1983) off HBO circa December 1987, then wraps up the encore presentation of North and South off WISN/ABC on 10/23/1988, then includes part of the "Best of 1985" episode of Sneak Previews off WMVS/PBS circa December 1985, then jumps ahead to about two-thirds of Wall $treet Week also off WMVS/PBS from 3/14/1986, then cuts back with the back half of another Wall $treet Week episode off WMVS/PBS from 1985, with Louis Rukeyser on his vacation at the time.

TAPE 10: Kicks off with Wall $treet Week off WMVS/PBS on 1/26/1990 (missing the closing), then continues with Hunter off WTMJ/NBC on 1/27/1990, then continues with the ABC Monday Night Movie premiere presentation of Rich Men, Single Women off WISN on 1/29/1990, then jumps back for the last few minutes of part four of North and South, Book II from its original presentation on 5/7/1986 off WISN/ABC with one commercial break, then it cuts back to the last few minutes of Love Connection and most of the All-New Let's Make A Deal (the tape ends right before the Big Deal's door is revealed) from early October 1985 off WMTJ (no later than 10/10 based on a promo and also that Chuck Woolery mentions "see you tomorrow"). As far as I know, I don't think any episodes of the mid-80s LMAD version exists with original broadcast commercials intact along with the "Big Deal is coming up" bumper during the middle of the commercial break before the Big Deal.

TAPE 11: Starts with the ABC Movie Special presentation of Dr. No (1962) off WISN on 5/3/1985, then continues with about the first 70 minutes of Friday Night Videos off WTMJ/NBC on 5/10/1985 (the featured artist for this week is Tom Petty), then jumps to about the last 30 minutes of the premiere of the short-lived series The Last Precinct off WTMJ/NBC on 1/26/1986 with only one partial commercial break intact, then jumps back for about half of the overnight rebroadcast of the WTMJ 10 PM news from 5/10/1985.

 

[chandler0201]

This puts me up to date as of an hour ago. Tape finds are starting to dry up, I'm down to only 1 or 2 thrift stores that still carry them, even the local Goodwill outlets stopped putting them out. At least the few places that still put them out are either .10 each or totally free.

Tape 98
1.11 episodes of Under The Umbrella Tree (Disney Channel) circa 1992?
2.1 episode of Adventures in Wonderland (Disney Channel)
3.Some kids Presidential Inaguration Special (all presumably from Disney Channel) TRT 6h7m

Tape 99
1.1993? Christmas With Vince Gill (TNN) (1h6m) commercials cut
2.1993? Little House on the Prairie Christmas Episode (WSLS) (44m) commercials cut
3.1993/12/28 Snow and snow sledding home movies TRT 2h4m

Tape 100
1.1991/11/12 Pete’s Dragon (WJPR) (1h44m) some commercials cut
2.1991? Barney & Friends (WBRA) (29m) TRT 2h13m

Tape 101
1.1994/2/7 Sally- Teen Racism Pt 1 (WTVD) (59m)
2.1994/2/8 Sally- Teen Racism Pt 2 (WTVD) (55m most)
3.1994/2/8 Home Show (WTVD) (8m partial)
4.1992/9/4 Scared Silent: Ending and Exposing Child Abuse Oprah Special (WRAL) (37m partial)
5.1992/10/3 Vice President’s Debate (WTVD) (SP 1h partial) TRT 3h38m

Tape 102
1.1992? To Sleep With Anger (HBO?) (1h36 most)
2.1992/1/18 CBS Saturday Movie Fatal Attraction (WRAL) (2h27m)
3.1991/6/2 NBA Finals Game 2 (WPTF) (33m partial end of 3rd period to end of game) TRT 4h36m

Tape 103
1.1994/12/xx Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory (A&E) (51m missing open)
2.1995/1/xx Law & Order 1x6 (A&E) (1h)
3.1995/1/xx A&E Biography- The Rockefellers (13m partial) TRT 2h4m SP

Tape 104
1.1992/1/4 White Fang (WBBM) (1h53m)
2.1992/1/4 USA Up All Night Complete Block- H.O.T.S. and Summer School Teachers (3h57m)
-Rare Barry Sobel hosted block, not even listed on IMDB FIRST USA UP ALL NIGHT BLOCK FIND!
3.1992/1991? partial music video, Beverly Hillbillies end, Twilight Zone start (WSBK, KTVT) TRT 6h9m

Tape 105
1.1986/3/27 Cosby Show 2x8 repeat (WPTF) (25m some commercials cut)
2.1986/4/10 Cosby Show 2x23 (WPTF) commercials cut
3.Family Ties 4x23 unknown date (WPTF) commercials cut
4.Cheers 4x26 unknown date (WPTF) commercials cut
5.Cosby Show 2x9 partial (WPTF) commercials cut TRT 2h2m SP

Tape 106
1.Batman (rental copy)
2.1989/12/24 ABC Sunday Night Movie- Tootsie (WXYZ) (2h28m)
-Has a lot of great Christmas promos from the ABC shows of the time, I wish they did that now
3.1990? Live with Regis and Kathie Lee (WJBK) (45m most)
-Unsure of date but it had a preview of March 1990 Inside Sports swimsuit issue and Bill Cosby
4.1990? House Party with Steve Doocy (WJBK) (52m most)
-Unsure of date but from what I can tell this rare syndicated morning show only aired in 1990 TRT 6h10m

Tape 107
1.1988/9/25 Presidential Debate (WXII) (1h42m) with local pre-show and post-show
2.1988/9/25 CBS News Coverage of Debate (WFMY) (12m) commercials cut TRT 1h54m LP

Tape 108
1.1988/3/7 and 1988/3/9 Windmills of the Gods Part 1 and 2 (WRAL) (3h52m)
2.1988/2/24 Guiding Light (WRAL) (52m most) this starts a nearly 2.5 hour afternoon block from 3-5:30PM EST
3.1988/2/24 Small Wonder 3x13 (WRAL) (30m)
4.1988/2/24 Webster 5x2 (WRAL) (30m)
5.1988/2/24 Sanford & Son 5x7 (WRAL) (30m)
6.1988/2/24 Andy Griffith Show partial (WRAL) TRT ~6h30m

 

[Scott2013]

Well, I could very easily be in the midst of another VHS overload. For the last week, I've been going through a large haul of VHS tapes I purchased at an estate sale in Middleburg Heights last Friday, and on top of that, I picked up eight more from a garage sale in Medina yesterday! What's more, there's an estate sale in Parma I'm planning on going to today that looks pretty promising based on the photos I saw on the online listing. And then tomorrow is Richfield's community garage sales. Thus far from the Middleburg Heights lot, I've found a lot of news and political programming (Larry King Live, C-SPAN broadcasts, etc.) and documentaries from PBS, the Discovery Channel and the History Channel from the late '90s and 2000s among other things. Who knows what the next couple of days will bring?

For anyone in the Columbus area who may be reading this, I found a listing for this estate sale going on today through Sunday. With as many vintage, professional-scale electronics as are in this house, one can't help but wonder if the owner worked in television or radio throughout the course of his or her life. There are reel-to-reel tape recorders, professional-grade VCRs, broadcast-quality Quad tapes and all kinds of other neat things here!

Vintage Electronic Lover's Dream! (Vinyls,... starts on 6/2/2023

View information about this sale in Columbus, OH. The sale starts Friday, June 2 and runs through Sunday, June 4. It is being run by Sale By Holly.

www.estatesales.net

 

[crainbebo]

That's why I am selling some tapes unsearched and undigitized. I have so many from TBS, FAM, AMC, and TNT that it feels like saturation. It has also lessened the weight of my tubs in storage too ;-)
I'm going to let the eBay buyers decide how they want to digitize that content, as I am mostly focused on broadcast TV, local newscasts, and other types of programming.

That sale in Columbus is a collector's dream indeed. Forget the Cleveland sales, I'd drive the 2 hours down there if I lived in Cleveland. When was the last estate sale, anywhere in the U.S., that sold Quadruplex 2" tapes, a Panasonic TV camera, radio carts and more than a few FM/AM bumper stickers? It looks like the Quad tapes came from WBNS, so I guess that's where he worked?
In that kind of sale, early VK-250s or Betas are a possibility.

Might be heading back to Montana before the end of the month for two major highway yard sales stretching over a total of 200 miles (Sanders County 100-Mile, on MT Hwy 200, and the Bitterroot 50-Mile sale on US-93 between Lolo and Hamilton). Stay tuned.

 

[pannoni1]

The quads look to be from the 1980s, based on the Scotch/3M logos found on them, so it doesn't look like you'll find any K-60 Betas here. Still, this looks like a fun sale to attend that has a hodgepodge of items ranging from a 1940s Philco radio, a Lava Lamp with its original package, a mid-90s MMPR plastic lunchbox, a midcentury manual typewriter, vinyl, TMNT and Ghostbusters action figures, a '60s-early '80s Sears Craftsman toolbox, 1996 Olympics pins, Silver/Bronze Age comics, holiday decorations, apparel including a Proud N-era NBC Studio 66 shirt, OMNI magazines, high school yearbooks (from my parents' era), and much more. I'm probably a few weeks away from my next set of eBay sales, but I keep very few tapes in order to preserve space if you don't know already. I did find a lot of mid-80s Columbus content on a Beta lot back in 2020 (see post #1394), of which I've still got a couple tapes remaining from that lot to convert.

A bit unrelated, but I recently received in a trade the first episode of The Tonight Show from 9/16/1980 where the show length was decreased from 90 minutes to an hour, and notably during the monologue, Johnny mentioned that he personally recorded part 1 of the Shogun miniseries off presumably KNBC from the previous night on a Beta. For me, it's earliest instance on TV where there's evidence about someone using a VCR to tape something off the TV.

 

[crainbebo]

I have a monologue where he joked that the Santa Ana winds "blew his satellite dish into his moat". Johnny bypassed cable on the Malibu beach and went right to C-Band, probably to monitor his own network's feeds ;-)
I wonder how many celebrities were C-Band owners back in the day? A complete system, VCII deciphers and a VCR were worth chump change for some of them.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Johnny bypassed cable on the Malibu beach and went right to C-Band, probably to monitor his own network's feeds ;-)

NBC mostly used Ku-Band for its satellite feeds back in the 1980s. CBS and ABC were C-Band.

 

[Scott2013]

That's why I am selling some tapes unsearched and undigitized. I have so many from TBS, FAM, AMC, and TNT that it feels like saturation. It has also lessened the weight of my tubs in storage too ;-)
I'm going to let the eBay buyers decide how they want to digitize that content, as I am mostly focused on broadcast TV, local newscasts, and other types of programming.

That sale in Columbus is a collector's dream indeed. Forget the Cleveland sales, I'd drive the 2 hours down there if I lived in Cleveland. When was the last estate sale, anywhere in the U.S., that sold Quadruplex 2" tapes, a Panasonic TV camera, radio carts and more than a few FM/AM bumper stickers? It looks like the Quad tapes came from WBNS, so I guess that's where he worked?
In that kind of sale, early VK-250s or Betas are a possibility.

Might be heading back to Montana before the end of the month for two major highway yard sales stretching over a total of 200 miles (Sanders County 100-Mile, on MT Hwy 200, and the Bitterroot 50-Mile sale on US-93 between Lolo and Hamilton). Stay tuned.

My cousin and his wife and two kids live just outside of Columbus in Hilliard, and I saw some memorabilia from the local school district in at least one of those photos. I seriously doubt he'd be interested in stopping by though. He and his clan are very much a modern family when it comes to technology, i.e. swapping out traditional cable for YouTube TV, subscriptions to multiple streaming services, SiriusXM in their cars, and to top it all off, a movie theater in their basement. He's said before that he does have a VCR but hasn't used it in a long time. Knowing how big streaming is now, there's a chance their DVD player probably hasn't been used in a while either.
Meanwhile, I did come home with a few tapes from that Parma estate sale as I predicted I would, along with three unmarked tapes from a garage sale in Brunswick. Saw some things like "Maury Povich," "Phil Donahue" and "CNN" on the labels on some tapes from the former, along with some movie titles.
We'll see how I end up faring in Richfield tomorrow.

 

[Scott2013]

Meanwhile, I came across this article posted to the website of Goodwill's Omaha division pertaining to VHS collecting. The writer even acknowledges that people do collect home-recorded tapes of TV recordings, even though it's obvious they're next to impossible to find at Goodwill stores these days.

Do people really buy VHS tapes from Goodwill? You might be surprised. - Goodwill Omaha

Do people really buy VHS tapes from Goodwill? You might be surprised. Have you ever visited a Goodwill and wondered why we still sell VHS tapes? Sure, they’re only 39¢, but it seems like most people are getting rid of... Read More »

goodwillomaha.org

Based on what I've read in previous postings on this thread, there actually was a time when home-recorded tapes were easier to find at Goodwill stores. In my freshman year of high school in 2004, I can remember my mom and I going to our local Goodwill to look for clothing pieces for the costume I was going to wear for the school's spring musical that year, Annie Get Your Gun. Man, if only I would have thought to peruse through the media section while we were there!

A quick first look at a few of the tapes I found today showed that the three unmarked tapes I got from the Brunswick garage sale appear to be mostly DVR dubs of various shows from 2007 (The Nine, Brothers and Sisters, Oprah, etc.), although the commercials seem to be intact based on what little I looked at. One of the tapes from the Parma estate sale, also unmarked, has a recording of the A&E movie Tess of the D'Urbervilles on September 13, 1998 with commercials. Still got a lot of catching up to do.

 

[crainbebo]

There's Goodwill Outlets in Akron and Canton, by the way. Have you checked those out? Every time I go to Pasco or Spokane, I go to the outlets there, and usually have a little luck.

 

[Scott2013]

I've been to the one in Akron but no luck when I went there. I don't plan on going back anytime soon, it's not in the best neighborhood. I can't even remember the last time I've been to Canton.
Since I had to go back into Parma this morning for a work assignment, after I was finished with that, I ended up caving into my urge to go back to that estate sale from yesterday and grab most of the rest of the recorded VHS tapes that were in that box. Not only that, I also got four audiocassettes that are supposed to contain recordings of early '90s radio talk shows (Gary Dee on WERE, Lee Kirk on WWWE and Dr. Dan Allender on WCRF). As far as what I've found in taking a quick first look at some of the VHS tapes, a lot of early to mid '90s talk shows and newsmagazines relating to false memory syndrome and other similar mental health matters (Geraldo Rivera, Maury Povich, Jerry Springer in his first season, Phil Donahue, Prime Time Live, 48 Hours, The 700 Club, Sonya Live, etc.) along with some other miscellaneous shows here and there and a couple of movies.
Went into Richfield for a bit as well and came up with two more unmarked tapes from one of their garage sales. One started with a scrambled signal of some movie on Viewer's Choice Pay-Per-View, and the other started with the end of a Family Matters rerun guest starring Naya Rivera before the start of a Boy Meets World rerun, recorded from WUAB.
Looking ahead a couple of weeks, the village of Chippewa Lake is holding its community garage sales on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before Father's Day, and the nearby village of Seville is holding theirs that Friday and Saturday. Let's see how much content I end up getting converted and uploaded before that time.

Would be interesting to find out how much merchandise remains at that house in Columbus after tomorrow, the last day of that estate sale. I just hope whoever ends up grabbing all the VHS tapes, cassettes, Quad tapes and the machines that play them put them to good use and we end up seeing some vintage Columbus TV and radio artifacts that are new to YouTube in the not too distant future.

 

[Scott2013]

That's why I am selling some tapes unsearched and undigitized. I have so many from TBS, FAM, AMC, and TNT that it feels like saturation. It has also lessened the weight of my tubs in storage too ;-)
I'm going to let the eBay buyers decide how they want to digitize that content, as I am mostly focused on broadcast TV, local newscasts, and other types of programming.

That sale in Columbus is a collector's dream indeed. Forget the Cleveland sales, I'd drive the 2 hours down there if I lived in Cleveland. When was the last estate sale, anywhere in the U.S., that sold Quadruplex 2" tapes, a Panasonic TV camera, radio carts and more than a few FM/AM bumper stickers? It looks like the Quad tapes came from WBNS, so I guess that's where he worked?
In that kind of sale, early VK-250s or Betas are a possibility.

Might be heading back to Montana before the end of the month for two major highway yard sales stretching over a total of 200 miles (Sanders County 100-Mile, on MT Hwy 200, and the Bitterroot 50-Mile sale on US-93 between Lolo and Hamilton). Stay tuned.

What made you think the Quads were from WBNS and not from WCMH or WTVN/WSYX?

 

[crainbebo]

I saw a picture in the estatesales.net listing that had the 10TV logo on one of the Quad tape labels.

 

[pannoni1]

I've just finished searching that large lot out of Charm City, more than a month in the making. Similar to last year's Craigslist lot around this time, which involved a local pickup, this had more of an inner-city vibe to the content and finds provided, with more films starring black actors than usual. Like that other lot, there was quite a bit of rental dud junk found with numerous labels having three or even four movies written on the label, with only about one out of every four tapes worth keeping, but still, 31 keepers is nothing to complain about when the only expenses are gas money. Unlike last time, when the purchase price included a Betamax, this lot had a number of tapes with mold, and after hunting, despite trying some alcoholic solutions inside my JVC HR-S3600U VCR along with some cotton swabs, the result was that the audio heads have Beethoven syndrome now except for one of the two Hi-Fi heads, so it will become relegated for my rewinding/searching VCR, while the other two machines, including one that I had purchased a little over a month ago, becomes my primary DVD converters. I did improve my skills though for a few snapped tapes in this lot, including one from a hard to find public access cable station, as well as for manually rewinding the moldier tapes so that much of the scum comes off, much like what I've done with a few Beta tapes from those two Yardley, PA lots. Most tapes were recorded in SLP/EP mode, with a small minority in SP or LP. Not suprisingly, with the pickup location just three miles from Television Hill in Woodbury, everything recorded is off Baltimore stations (WBAL for CBS/NBC, WJZ for ABC/CBS, WMAR for NBC/CBS, WBFF and for FOX. For the stations with multiple networks from Big Three, the recordings came off the former affiliate for pre-1995 recordings, and for 1995-up, the later of the two networks listed. Surprisingly, almost no PBS content was found, with just one tape containing a Malcolm X documentary from 1994, but it was incomplete and had no promos. A few tapes were off of WNUV, but they were either zapped from the ads or from 2000s The WB recordings that I passed on. There were a few more 2000s recordings off of cable (Encore, Starz, AMC, and Showtime) that I also omitted. I did find my first ever pre-2000 content off BET though, which is VERY hard to find outside of the black community.

TAPE 1: Starts with a short family movie of a girl's tap dancing gib for being an aspiring ballerina that so few eventually achieve to be, followed by approximately a dozen In Living Color episodes from 1990, most of them without commercials and even a couple being "highlights only", although a little more than half of the 5/17/1990 and the entire 9/2/1990 episodes contain the commercials.

TAPE 2: The two-hour TaleSpin pilot from 9/7/1990 off WBFF with commercials (missing just the closing with the recording ending after The Disney Afternoon launch promo), followed by House Party (1990) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) copied off rentals, then it cuts back for a portion of the NY Giants-Washington Redskins NFL game, starting near the end of the third quarter as well as the first ten minutes or so of 60 Minutes from 10/14/1990 with commercials. I've got part of that football game already, but from earlier in the game, and most notably, was one of my very first VHS finds back in 2014. Even though the TMNT cartoon premiered on CBS Saturday Morning a day after TaleSpin did, as you probably expect, you won't be finding any Rocksteady or Bebop if you see "Ninja Turtles" on the label, even though I've found a couple of 1993 Saturday morning broadcasts in the past.

TAPE 3: I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), Twins (1988), and Without A Clue (1988) copied off rentals, followed by about half of an ABC News Nightline clip with Madonna on 12/3/1990 with no commercials and the video oddly in black & white (the recorder probably took the then-current "Justify My Love" video a bit too seriously), followed by about half of Peter Pan and the Pirates and Tiny Toon Adventures off WBFF in November 1990 with commercials, then it jumps to about half of Morning Stretch off WJZ on 7/7/1989 with a few commercials.

TAPE 4: Approximately the first two hours of the 1991 American Music Awards off WJZ on 1/28/1991 with commercials. The tape snapped while searching at somepoint along the way, so look for a short skipped portion when I come across converting this copy. Most of the 1987 and part of the 1988 AMAs were found on a couple of the other tapes in this lot, but the ads were paused out on them. Too bad this was recorded in SP.

TAPE 5: Three more rental copy films (I can't recall since the label for them was done on a highlighter and has mostly worn off), followed by most of Geraldo and the first few minutes of the midday news off WMAR on 5/13/1992.

TAPE 6: Starts with more family recordings including a school play, then it jumps over for Game 6 of the 1992 NBA Finals off WMAR on 6/14/1992 with commercials, missing only the pregame, but does include the halftime. Sure the Bullets may have stunk (and still do), but like so many, you couldn't deny the magic of Michael Jordan in what was inarguably the best summer of his career.

TAPE 7: Do The Right Thing (1989) copied off a rental, followed by a rerun of the Uptown Comedy Express (1987) special off HBO with no intro or close, then in jumps to the second half of the 1993 NCAA Men's Basketball title game, the WBAL 11 PM News, the Arsenio Hall Show (a rerun of a 1992 episode with the Olsen Twins among the guests), followed by most of a syndicated rerun of Who's The Boss?, recorded on 4/5/1993 with commercials. This is the second late newscast that I've found off WBAL following an NCAA basketball championship game, with the other being from 1985 that remains my oldest full Baltimore newscast find.

TAPE 8: Most of Martin and Living Single off WBFF on 11/14/1993 with commercials, followed by part of In Living Color also off WBFF on 10/14/1993 with a few commercials, followed by most of another episode of Martin and Living Single off WBFF on 10/24/1993 with ads (I've already got a copy of those broadcasts off KNDL), then it cuts back for just over half of another episode of Living Single (which the original owner called it "Being Single" according to the label on the tape) from 10/17/1993 with commercials, which is another episode that I've got off the St. Louis FOX affiliate.

TAPE 9: A full 6+ hour aircheck off WJZ from 1/7/1995 with commercials, starting with an NCAA basketball doubleheader between Florida State and Wake Forest, followed by Virginia and NC State, followed by the WJZ 6 PM News, the CBS Evening News (the first Saturday edition ever on Channel 13), and about half of the weekend edition of Entertainment Tonight. The basketball games came from an independent broadcaster rather than CBS.

TAPE 10: Marked "Daily Soaps" on the label, this tape begins with a movie off a rental before cutting for about half of One Life To Live, General Hospital, and a little over half of Oprah Winfrey off WMAR on 4/27/1995 with commercials.

TAPE 11: Another tape with "Soaps" marked on it, this time on the top of the tape, this actually starts off with a rerun of ER off WBAL on 5/25/1995 with commercials, then it becomes more true to the label's promise with episodes of Loving, All My Children, and One Life To Live along off WMAR on 5/26/1995 with commercials, then it rounds itself with the same triplet of ABC soaps of WMAR on 6/9/1995 with commercials, along with the first ten minutes approximately of General Hospital.

TAPE 12: Begins with a bunch of Looney Tunes shorts, mainly starring Sylvester & Tweety off of rentals, followed by A Thin Line Between Love And Hate (1996) copied off a rental, then it finishes off with around 75 minutes worth of footage for the Cal Ripken, Jr. parade for breaking Lou Gehrig's streak for consecutive games off WMAR on 9/7/1995 with a couple commercial breaks.

TAPE 13: This was that tape I described with the "basketball" label previously, but as it turns out, it was likely taped over. This tape begins with a couple of movies copies off of a rental, then it cuts over for around 55 minutes of coverage from the Atlanta Summer Olympics off WBAL on 7/28/1996 with commercials and an extended local newsbreak, then it jumps over for part of a syndicated airing of Tales From The Crypt, The Outer Limits, and the first few minutes of American Gladiators off WJZ from around April 1996 with commercials.

TAPE 14: Starts with an old movie off WBAL as part of a "dramatic special" with no commercials, followed by Michael Jackson In Concert: The Dangerous Tour (1992) off VH1 in June 1997 with commercials.

TAPE 15: Begins with two more rental dubs, followed by part of The Godfather Sagea off USA on 7/26/1997 with commercials, then it wraps up with a portion of a weekend Wheel of Fortune rerun (the 10/5/1995 episode) off WMAR in July 1997 with some commercials.

TAPE 16: Othello (1995) copied off a rental, followed by documentary on Sankofa off a rental, then it jumps for most of Jazz Central off BET on 2/25/1998 with commercials. My first ever find off BET from the 1990s!

TAPE 17: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995) recorded off Sneak Prevue PPV, with over four hours worth of promos afterwards.



MORE TO COME

 

[pannoni1]

TAPE 18: Tales From The Crypt (1972), Brother From Another Planet (1984), and Cotton Club (1984) all copied off of rentals, which would led some to pass up on this tape if it wasn't free, but then it jumps for approximately the last 22 minutes of the WJZ Saturday morning game show Kids Baffle from 5/18/1985 with commercials, along with the first few minutes of the WJZ afternoon movie The Caine Mutiny! As far as I know, except for a promo of the show's debut in 1981, nothing else exists about this show outside of a few recollections and photos. It lasted from 1981 to 1988, a year before the long-running Baltimore version of It's Academic moved from WBAL to WJZ took over as the Saturday daytime game.

TAPE 19: The Jewel of the Nile (1985), House (1986), and Howard The Duck (1986) copied off rentals, followed part of some boxing match off the ABC Wide World of Sports, a ten-minute clip of an NCAA basketball game, and about another ten minute clip of All My Children from early 1986 with some commercials

TAPE 20: Doin' Time (1985), Commando (1985), and Back To The Future (1985) off rentals, followed by approximately the last ten minutes of New Music City USA and part of The Savage Curse off WMAR on 9/12/1986. Since the family was black based off the home videos and lived in the inner city at the time, I doubt they actually were country fans as this was just left on overnight, but too bad this would have meant a lot of great primetime/late night stuff was taped over.

TAPE 21: Invasion USA (1985) and Death Becomes Her (1992) copies off rentals, followed by a full episode of Guiding Light and the first few minutes of Divorce Court off WBAL on 9/30/1986 with commercials. I've already got that full episode of Divorce Court anyways.

TAPE 22: Begins with most of Loving and part of All My Children off WJZ on 1/26/1987 with some commercials, followed by most of Super Bowl XXI off presumably WBAL on 1/25/1987 with no commercials or halftime, followed by most of the 29th Grammy Awards off WBAL on 2/24/1987 with no commercials, intro, or closing, followed by select highlights from the 1987 AMAs on 1/26/1987 with no ads of course.

TAPE 23: Begins with the 117th edition of the Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey Circus off WBAL on 5/1/1987 with some commercials, followed by Mary Poppins (1964) off WJZ on 5/3/1987 with no commercials (I've already found a broadcast copy with ads for this airing), followed by Burglar (1987) copied off a rental

TAPE 24: Rental dubs of The Cat and the Canary (1978), The Stuff (1985), and Weird Science (1985), followed by the last few minutes of Good Morning America, People Are Talking with Richard Sher, and the first few minutes of Hour Magazine off WJZ on 5/15/1987. It's strange seeing that MIX 106.5 commercial back when the slogan was "The Greatest Hits of the 60's, 70's, and 80's" when your modern Classic Hits station skews about a decade newer on average. The slogan was "The Greatest Hits of the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's" for most of the Bush 41 years, then "The Best Hits of the 70's, 80's, and 90's" for much of the Clinton years, then for over two decades was simply "The Best of the 80's, 90's, and Today/Now" for the 2000s and most of the 2010s.

TAPE 25: Great find! Starts with The Chipmunk Adventure (1987) copied from a rental, then continues with a 90+ minute block of afterschool cartoon programming off WBFF on 1/19/1988 with commercials, starting with the last few minutes of Smurf's Adventures, then episodes of Dennis The Menace ("A Visitor From Outer Space"/"Genie Madness")/Scooby-Doo (from the Scrappy era despite the "Where Are You?" billing), and DuckTales. The tape rounds up with another episode of DuckTales from January 1988 off WBFF with commercials. Unfortunately per the station practice at the time, the local Captain C segments with interesting local news and trivia pre-empted all of the intros and closings for each show. But who's complaining when those intro/outro sequences are readily available.

TAPE 26: Rental copies of Cinderella (1950), Hellraiser (1987), and Big Shots (1987), followed by the last 45 minutes of Hour Magazine and the first few minutes of the WJZ Noon news on 4/7/1988 with commercials.

TAPE 27: The second half of the 100th annual Baltimore City College vs. Polytechnic football game recorded off Baltimore City's Cable 44 on 11/24/1988 with a few commercials. The tape snaps about ten minutes in, so when I convert this, there will once again be a small gap, but its still neat to discover footage from the now-demolished Memorial Stadium.

TAPE 28: Starts with two more movie rental dubs, then it jumps to most of the fourth quarter of a New York Nicks/Orlando Magic game off WMAR in March 1994 with no commercials, then it jumps back to about half of LifeQuest: Mysteries of the Mind and most of ABC World News Saturday on 12/11/1988 off WJZ with commercials

TAPE 29: Lean On Me (1989) and Disorganized Crime (1989) copied off rentals, followed by The Best of Eddie Murphy recorded off HBO circa 1989 with no promos, then jumps for about the last ten minutes of the 49ers/Buccaneers NFL on CBS game, 60 Minutes, and about the first ten minutes of the premiere of Major Dad (part of the CBS Premiere Party special) off WBAL on 9/17/1989 with commercials

TAPE 30: Begins with a bunch of animated rental dubs including Heathcliff and Enchanted Forest, then it jumps to about a half hours worth of footage from Good Morning America off WJZ on 10/13/1989 with commercials and a local newsbreak, followed by the second half of The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game (from the short-lived stint with Paul Rodriguez), Divorce Court, and part of The Judge off WJZ on 6/30/1989 with commercials

TAPE 31: The Godfather: The Complete Epic off of a rental, followed by the last eight minutes of As The World Turns and around the first 15 minutes of Guiding Light off WBAL on 12/12/1989 with commercials

A few other finds included demo videos for Home Haircutting With Wahl (1994), Visual Perfection: 24 Minute Video Guide to Auto Detailing (1992, with an As Seen On TV bug), and Winner International's home security system (1994). The last tape revealed the address where the recorder lived at the time, and it certainly is/was the "hood": just a block from Baltimore's Pennsylvania Ave. (Pennsy) corridor, although it turned out to be in a relatively new rowhome as part of urban renewal efforts. And yes, there was one tape that featured an episode of The Wire off HBO with no promos (go figure). Still, I've got some unloading to do with some tapes I've accumulated, so my posting on YouTube/IA may be slowing down temporarily, but still, as they say, some of the best things in life are free!

 

[crainbebo]

Have that Mary Poppins broadcast from KTVM/Butte already. Found Super Bowl XXI recently from KIRO-7 with all commercials and halftime included. This was on the same tape as a full 1986 newscast and most of Johnny Carson from WBZ Boston.
I still haven't found any episodes of Loving, and here you find two full episodes. Drat! I've had no luck with Ryan's Hope, Capitol, or The City either.

I will update soon with a full listing from the last month or so, I've been wrapping up substitute teaching for the year, applying for teaching jobs for next year, and preparing for ANOTHER trip to Montana at the end of the month.

 

[ltm1997]

Has anybody by chance found any tapes with episodes of The Young and The Restless on them from 1978-1980, 1983-March 1984, and late June-November 1987 or does anyone know where I can find any??? I’m especially looking for stuff from 1979, 1980, and 1983. If so, please let me know!

 

[Scott2013]

This will have to be done in multiple posts, but at long last, here's what I've found from multiple garage sales and estate sales in the last few weeks.

Litchfield, OH garage sale
TAPE 1: Four hours of clips of Gulf War news coverage taped from CNN, Headline News, C-SPAN, ABC (WEWS) and CBS (WJW) in January and February 1991, then ends with CBS News coverage of George H.W. Bush's post-war address to Congress taped from WJW on 3/6/1991. Memorex T-120.

TAPE 2: Last few minutes of Game 6 of the 1995 American League Championship Series taped from WKYC on 10/17/1995, then cuts to a partial special edition of Channel 3 News with Jim Donovan interviewing the Cleveland Indians in the locker room as they were celebrating going to the World Series, shown minus commercials; then goes to some miscellaneous Indians celebration clips from The Ten O'clock News on WUAB and Newscenter 8 on WJW (mere days before the latter changed its branding to "Ei8ht Is News"). Maxell T-120.

Four duds found here as well--Mulan (1998) copied from a rental tape with opening previews included and three tapes of Hogan's Heroes episodes taped from WOIO in the late 1980s minus commercials. I saw a few more at this sale that looked like they were mostly HBO movie recordings, so I left those behind, particularly given the fact that the guy was charging $2 a pop for these tapes.


Middleburg Heights, OH estate sale--tapes were found not just in the basement but in the master bedroom as well!
TAPE 3: Inside the U.S. Mint taped from the Discovery Channel on 12/27/2000 with commercials; partial episode of Beverly Hills 90210 taped from WJW on 12/17/1997 with commercials; partial episode of Martha Stewart Living and The Gayle King Show ("Secrets to Supermarket Savings") taped from WJW on 1/12/1998 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 4: End of Biblical Mysteries: Sodom and Gomorrah (one of the least likely shows you'd expect to find on NBC) and partial broadcast of Dateline NBC taped from WKYC on 3/11/2001 with commercials; partial broadcast of The Founding Fathers taped from the History Channel in July 2001 with commercials; partial broadcast of Gone with the Wind (1939) taped from TCM in July 2001 with promos, black-and-white signal with staticky audio, possibly due to a loose connection to the receiver--the homeowner had Americast at the time. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 5: Some miscellaneous clips from BBC World News taped from WNEO/WEAO in January 2001; partial broadcast of Larry King Live (with guest Bill Maher) and partial broadcast of CNN Tonight with Bill Hemmer taped from CNN on 1/5/2001 with commercials, poor signal and staticky audio due to a bad connection to the Americast receiver; partial episode of Modern Marvels (The Internet) taped from the History Channel on 1/10/2001 with commercials, poor signal; 30 minutes of blank signal; then cuts to speeches from Howard Dean, Al Gore and Colin Powell (the latter is incomplete) taped from C-SPAN in 2004. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 6: End of Paula Zahn Now, Larry King Live (with guest Bill Maher) and start of Lou Dobbs Tonight taped from CNN on 7/23/2004 with commercials, all are overnight encore presentations from the previous evening. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 7: Eureka! The 20th Century's Top 15 Inventors taped from A&E on 8/29/2002 with commercials; partial broadcast of The Big Band Sound of WWII and start of Reach for the Sky: Inside the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds taped from WVIZ on 8/5/2001 with pledge breaks and promos. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 8: Partial episode of Perry Mason and The Streets of San Francisco (1972) taped from TBS on 4/21/1993 with commercials; end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Eight O'clock Movie presentation of Bullitt (1968) and partial broadcast of The Ten O'clock News taped from WUAB on 4/23/1993 with commercials, part of the latter program is taped over with a few minutes of 20/20 taped from WEWS on 5/7/1993 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 9: Back to the Future Part II (1989) taped from USA on 11/9/2001 with commercials; end of The Source All Access (includes a partial music video of "Can't Deny It" by Fabolous and Nate Dogg playing over the end credits) and partial episode of Soul Train taped from WKYC on 11/17/2001 with commercials; partial broadcast of Great Performances (The College of Comedy with Alan King) and partial broadcast of Duke Ellington's Washington taped from WVIZ on 2/21/2001 with promos; end of In-Fisherman TV, My Classic Car and start of Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World taped from TNN in February 2001 with commercials; partial episode of The View and partial broadcast of News Channel 5 at Noon taped from WEWS in March 2000 with commercials (the former shows the ladies talking about two Old Navy commercials Lisa Ling did at that time); partial episode of Oprah and start of Live on Five taped from WEWS on 1/27/2000 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 10: First six episodes of Bull taped from TNT on 8/15/2000, 8/22/2000, 8/29/2000, 9/5/2000, 9/12/2000 and 9/19/2000 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 11: Four episodes of Bull taped from TNT on 9/26/2000, 10/3/2000, 10/10/2000 and 10/17/2000 with commercials; History's Mysteries taped from the History Channel in October 2000 with commercials; Bull taped from TNT on 10/24/2000 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 12: 2000 Super Chevy Series (don't remember which round), MotoWorld, NBA 2Night and partial broadcast of SportsCenter taped from ESPN2 on 11/9/2000 with commercials; Larry King Live taped from CNN on 11/10/2000 with commercials; partial broadcast of Walking with Dinosaurs taped from the Discovery Channel on 12/25/2000 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 13: Nation of Islam Annual Convention with keynote speaker Louis Farrakhan taped from C-SPAN on 2/26/2002; partial broadcast of Doctor Zhivago (1965) taped from WVIZ in March 2002. Maxell T-120.

Left a LOT more tapes behind at this sale (I saw some things like "Twin Peaks," "X-Files," "CNBC") and various movie titles written on the labels. One tape I did pick up ended up being nothing but late night adult fare on Cinemax taped in 2003 with promos. One prerecorded tape I spotted there was the Real Stories of the Highway Patrol "Car Crashes" VHS release, which I already have a copy of, so I wonder if any episodes were recorded on any of those tapes I left behind (the show aired on WUAB in its first season before being picked up by WJW in the midst of becoming a Fox affiliate).

More information to come.

 

[Scott2013]

Garage sale--Medina, OH
TAPE 14: Partial broadcast of Bob Hope: 100 Years of Hope and Humor (NBC special) taped from WKYC on 4/20/2003 with commercials; then the tape reverts to home video footage of a California vacation recorded in 1991 copied from another tape (Disneyland, some movie studio tours, etc.) and also includes an appearance by Jay Leno! I'll have to take a better look at that one! TDK T-120.

TAPE 15: Partial episode of The Golden Girls, Bob Hope's Christmas Cheer from Saudi Arabia and most of Channel 3 News at 11 taped from WKYC on 1/12/1991 with commercials; end of A Current Affair, Inside Edition, The Cosby Show, A Different World, Cheers and Wings taped from WKYC on 1/10/1991 with commercials; Knots Landing taped from WJW on 1/10/1991 with commercials; partial broadcast of The Knife and Gun Club (failed ABC pilot) and most of Eyewitness News at 11:00 taped from WEWS on 7/30/1990 with commercials.

TAPE 16: Partial episode of Biography (Bob Hope) taped from A&E in summer 2003 with commercials; then the tape strangely enough reverts to the same home video footage found on Tape 14! TDK T-120.

Some duds found here, including one tape that I thought would have been of a Bob Hope special from 1983 but turned out to be home video of a wedding and the reception that followed. Also found another tape with a couple of episodes of Out of the Box on the Disney Channel/Playhouse Disney circa 2000 but no promos.


Garage sale--Brunswick, OH
TAPE 17: The Nine taped from WEWS on 8/8/2007 with commercials, copied from a DVR recording on a Cox Cable DVR; The Closer taped from TNT on 8/13/2007 with commercials; partial broadcast of News Channel 5 on the Nightbeat taped from WEWS on 5/23/2007 (so now I have three recordings of ABC from the Lost season 3 finale, one of them being from my mom); end of Grey's Anatomy, two episodes of Notes from the Underbelly (the first being a replay of the pilot episode) and partial broadcast of News Channel 5 on the Nightbeat (top story was the termination of a Plain Dealer columnist over an entry regarding Don Imus's Rutgers University comments) taped from WEWS on 4/12/2007 with commercials; ER taped from WKYC on 4/12/2007 with commercials, copied from DVR; partial final episode of Will & Grace taped from WKYC on 5/18/2006 with commercials. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 18: Brothers and Sisters taped from WEWS on 11/4/2007 with commercials, copied from Cox Cable DVR; last few minutes of an episode of Heartland taped from TNT on 7/16/2007, digital cable box then switches over to the remainder of the Cleveland Indians game against the Chicago White Sox and part of the Conrad's Postgame Show taped from SportsTime Ohio on 7/16/2007 with commercials; partial episode of Brothers and Sisters and start of News Channel 5 on the Nightbeat taped from WEWS on 4/8/2007 with commercials, then the recorder uses the Dish Network program guide (must have done a lot of switching TV providers) to flip over to Seinfeld on WJW for a few minutes, then, after navigating around the guide for a few minutes, flips over to the east coast feed of HBO2 for a partial broadcast of The Bad Boys of Comedy (hosted by P. Diddy) and a partial broadcast of Walk the Line (2005); finally, just after midnight, the Dish Network receiver flips over to a partial broadcast of 16 Blocks (2006) on the west coast feed of HBO2. Maxell T-120.

TAPE 19: Oprah and first couple minutes of Live on Five taped from WEWS on 1/17/2008 with commercials, copied from WOW! DVR; then the recorder goes to the DVR playback menu and watches episodes of Babies: Special Delivery and Birth Day (recorded from the Discovery Health Channel on 1/15/2008), fast-forwarding past the commercials; then goes back to the DVR menu and watches a partial episode of The View recorded from WEWS on 1/16/2008, once again fast-forwarding past the commercials. Maxell T-120.

More tapes were found in the same box at this sale, but many were too dirty or dusty for me to want to grab. One of them was of the 2005 History Channel documentary Ape to Man.


Richfield, OH garage sale--during the town's community garage sales, and this was the only one that had anything I wanted
TAPE 20: End of Family Matters (guest starring Naya Rivera), Boy Meets World and most of Sister Sister taped from WUAB on 4/7/1999 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 21: Out to Sea (1997) taped from Viewer's Choice Pay-Per-View in January 1998, shown as an All Day Movie Ticket presentation, with promos, found three times on the tape, the latter being incomplete--scrambled signal throughout. Kodak T-120.


Saving the largest estate sale haul of these last few weeks for the third post!

 

[Scott2013]

Estate sale--Parma, OH--not just several VHS tapes, but also four cassette tapes of radio talk shows--eerie vibe from this haul, as there are a lot of talk shows and newsmagazines relating to false memory syndrome pertaining to child sexual abuse...and one of the cassette recordings shows what sounds like a personal connection the homeowner had to the topic...
TAPE 22: Part one of Tess of the D'Urbervilles (A&E miniseries) taped from A&E on 9/13/1998 with commercials; part two of Tess of the D'Urbervilles taped from A&E on 9/14/1998 with commercials; partial episode of Biography and encore presentation of part one of Tess of the D'Urbervilles taped from A&E on September 13-14, 1998 with commercials. Gemini T-120.

TAPE 23: Episodes of Mobil Masterpiece Theatre (episodes of the third season of Bramwell) taped from WVIZ on November 16 and 23, 1997 with promos. Gemini T-120.

TAPE 24: The Maury Povich Show (Tom Arnold opens up about being sexually abused as a child) and partial episode of Donahue (cast of The Young and the Restless) taped from WKYC on 5/25/1993 with commercials; partial episode of Sisters and partial broadcast of Channel 3 News at 11 taped from WKYC on 5/22/1993 with commercials. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 25: America Behind Closed Doors (failed CBS pilot) taped from WJW on 8/6/1992 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 26: Donahue taped from WKYC on 3/4/1993 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 27: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) taped from WJW (The Wonderful World of Disney on CBS) on 11/26/1991 with commercials. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 28: Two episodes of The Struggles for Poland (PBS docuseries hosted by Roger Mudd) taped from WVIZ in 1988; partial episode of The Facts of Life taped from WKYC on 2/15/1986 with commercials, poor aerial signal; partial episode of The Love Boat taped from WEWS on 2/15/1986 with commercials. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 29: Clip from The 700 Club presumably taped from the Family Channel circa 1994; partial episode of The Maury Povich Show taped from WKYC in May 1994 with commercials. Memorex T-120.

TAPE 30: Justice Files taped from the Discovery Channel in July 1998 with commercials; partial episode of Mobil Masterpiece Theatre taped from WVIZ in April 1997; end of Channel 3 News at 11 and partial broadcast of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw (false memory syndrome is the subject of the "In Depth" segment) taped from WKYC on 4/14/1997 with commercials; General Hospital and partial episode of Oprah (loss of sexual desire in women) taped from WEWS on 1/15/1998 with commercials; The Adventures of Wallace and Gromit, station sign-off and quite a bit of blank signal taped from WNEO/WEAO in 1997 with promos. Gemini T-120.

TAPE 31: Clip from Power Lunch taped from CNBC in February 1996 (mere months before Neil Cavuto joined the then-new Fox News Channel), then reverts to almost two hours of blank signal, I suspect they just forgot to leave their cable box on; partial broadcast of Columbo Goes to College taped from the Family Channel in October 1995 with commercials; part one of Kidnapped (Hallmark miniseries) taped from the Family Channel on 11/5/1995 with commercials; part two of Kidnapped and partial episode of Rescue 911 taped from the Family Channel on 11/6/1995 with commercials. JCPenney T-120.

TAPE 32: Partial broadcast of The Morning Exchange (discussion with incest survivors and a promotion for the ABC movie Not in My Family) taped from WEWS on 3/2/1993 with commercials. Scotch T-120.

TAPE 33: 48 Hours ("I Can't Remember"), Newscenter 8 at 11:00 and partial broadcast of Eye on the Earth (CBS News special) taped from WJW on 6/10/1992 with commercials; partial broadcast of the 1992 Winter Olympic Games (skiing competitions) taped from WJW on 2/20/1992 with commercials. Certron T-120.

TAPE 34: Sally Jessy Raphael taped from WJW on 7/21/1992 with commercials (the show moved to WKYC in the fall of that year). Sony T-120.

TAPE 35: Geraldo ("Nightmare Shrinks: Confessions from the Couch") taped from WJW on 6/25/1992 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 36: The Wizard of Oz (1939) taped from WJW on 3/19/1991 with commercials. Fuji T-120.

TAPE 37: Peter Pan (1960 NBC made-for-TV movie) taped from WKYC on 3/31/1991 with commercials; partial broadcast of Newscenter 8 at 11:00 taped from WJW on 2/7/1986; partial episode of The Golden Girls taped from WKYC on 2/8/1986 with commercials, poor aerial signal. Unknown brand T-120.

TAPE 38: Partial episode of Design Invasion and partial episode of Maury ("I Had Sex with Two Men...Which One Is the Daddy?") taped from WJW in February 2005 with commercials; partial broadcast of The Magnificent Seven (1960) taped from TCM in February 2005 with promos. JVC T-120.

TAPE 39: Alias taped from WEWS on 1/26/2003 with commercials (shown after Super Bowl XXXVII), audio cuts out about 20 minutes into the episode, maybe the cable box got muted somehow?; partial broadcast of the 2003 NFC Divisional Playoffs taped from WJW on 1/12/2003 with commercials; partial episode of General Hospital taped from WEWS on 12/30/2002 with commercials, then the cable box flips over to the last couple minutes of Closing Bell on CNBC, then to WJW for the first couple minutes of Judge Judy. JVC T-120.

TAPE 40: Polka Passion and partial broadcast of Ideas (local program hosted by Rick Jackson) taped from WVIZ in March 2005 with promos; partial episode of General Hospital taped from WEWS on 3/20/2003 with commercials, includes a News Channel 5 "Making the Grade" spot recognizing my seventh grade English teacher! JVC T-120.

TAPE 41: Jerry Springer (back when he was still working in Cincinnati as a WLWT news anchor) taped from WKYC in May 1992 with commercials. Sony T-120.

TAPE 42: Donahue, Channel 3 News at 6 and partial broadcast of NBC Nightly News (Stone Phillips fills in for Tom Brokaw) taped from WKYC on 8/29/1994 with commercials. Universal T-40.

TAPE 43: Prime Time Live and start of News Channel 5 at 11 taped from WEWS on 7/2/1992 with commercials; partial Eight O'clock Movie presentation of Overboard (1987) and partial broadcast of The Ten O'clock News taped from WUAB on 2/19/1992 with commercials. Certron T-120.

This time I actually did grab the majority of the home-recorded tapes that were at this sale, some on the Friday this was held, others on Saturday. As I speak, I'm digitizing a Memorex T-120 containing a few hours of CNN programming from May 3, 1993 with commercials, including a Sonya Live broadcast on false memory syndrome, as was written on the label. Now here's what I found on the cassettes.

Supertape XR-90
TAPE 1, SIDE A: Partial broadcast of The Lee Kirk Show taped from WWWE on 3/1/1993 with commercials and local newscasts, this program also mentions the ABC movie Not in My Family; partial broadcast of The Bob Henderson Show taped from WWWE on 2/18/1993 with commercials and a local newscast, lot of discussion on Clinton's economical address from the previous evening.
TAPE 1, SIDE B: Strange home recording, the man had his recorder rolling for 45 minutes as he was making phone calls and watching TV.

Memorex DB-90
TAPE 2, SIDE A: A few more minutes of The Lee Kirk Show taped from WWWE on 3/1/1993, Side B is blank.

Memorex DB-90
TAPE 3, SIDE A: Partial broadcast of Hot Talk with Gary Dee (at a time when he evidently was more subdued and wasn't constantly berating everybody) taped from WERE in 1992 with commercials and local newscasts. Strangely, this sounds like they used an external tape recorder to record their radio as this was playing rather than using a traditional radio cassette recorder.

Supertape XR-90
TAPE 4, SIDE A: Partial broadcast of Midday Connection ("Healing from Sexual Abuse" with in-studio guest Dr. Dan Allender) taped from WCRF on 2/18/1994 with commercials. Like the last tape, this appeared to have been recorded using an external tape recorder placed next to the radio, and some dialogue between the couple who recorded this could be heard at times, along with the phone ringing on a couple of occasions. Here's where it gets eerie. At one point, you can hear the woman recording this say, "You want to call in?" and a few minutes later, the host mentions getting a call from a WCRF listener and the male caller tells a story about being falsely accused of sexually abusing a child.
TAPE 4, SIDE B: Another strange home recording, this time of phone conversations made by both the husband and the wife on a few occasions. Analysis of the male homeowner's voice verifies that this is the same guy who called in to Midday Connection. The first two phone conversations show him notifying a couple of people about an upcoming episode of Rush Limbaugh's TV show on Channel 3 (WKYC) in which Rush briefly mentions the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and reads from a piece of the foundation's literature. According to him, Rush's TV show not only aired at 1:30 AM, but also reaired at 11:30 AM at one point. Most of the rest of the phone conversations on this side appear to be with relatives, i.e. they can be heard talking about plans for Thanksgiving.

Now to see what may or may not await me in Chippewa Lake and Seville during their community garage sales this weekend.