I've just gone through that lot of seven Betas from Aurora, Colorado, with a lot that's a mixture of good news and bad news in terms of finds. The bad news is that for the most part, the commercials were zapped, which is understandable given that this is more common on content associated with music programming, especially for earlier recordings. The good news is that every tape considered something worthwhile saving, given that so much content from the late 1970s and early 1980s can be hard to find regarding concerts and black-oriented programming.
TAPE 1: Begins with Stevie Wonder Comes Home (a concert from his native Detroit) taped off Showtime in June 1984 with no promos, followed by about 30 minutes worth of footage of a New York Hot Tracks episode circa summer 1984 with no commercials (some of the songs, such as Madonna's "Borderline" were edited out apparently due to the performer being white and not due to being hated, although it does include part of an interview with dance-pop artist Shannon) followed by about 19 minutes worth from an episode of Hit City circa summer 1984 with no commercials, followed by a short clip from the end of Entertainment Tonight in April 1984 (interview with Ashford & Simpson right after Marvin Gaye's death including the credits), followed by excerpts from an episode or two of Solid Gold circa spring 1984,
followed by about 40 minutes worth of BET's Video Soul from late 1983 or early 1984 with no commercials except for a promo entitled "Black Film Classics". The setlist includes Cheryl Lynn's "Encore", Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", Diana Ross's "Piece Os Ice", Cameo's "Alligator Woman", Lionel Richie's "All Night Long (All Night)", The Pointer Sisters "Slow Hand" and "I'm So Excited", Mtume's "Juicy Fruit" including an interview, Odyssey's "Inside Out", Stephanie Mills "Pilot Error", and the S.O.S. Band's "Tell Me If You Still Care", making for a great representation of what a Hot Urban Contemporary station would have sounded like, and even scoped BET content from this era is rare. The tape rounds out with a couple more random videos off another New York Hot Tracks episode (Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do" and Diana Ross's "Mirror, Mirror") and about 30 minutes of footage from High Velocity (1976), the Cinema 7 Late Movie taped off KMGH on 4/9/1983 with three commercial breaks. My oldest BET find so far. Sony L-750, BII mode for the Stevie Wonder concert and Cinema 7 Late Movie portions, BII for the rest.
TAPE 2: Excerpts of an episode of Dinah! episode featuring performances of Marvin Gaye, Chaka Khan, and Alicia Bridges from March 1979 with no commercials, followed by about 50 minutes worth of the Kraft Pearl Bailey Tribute taped off presumably KMGH/CBS on 3/14/1979 with no commercials, followed by about 25 minutes worth of an episode of a Midnight Special episode presumably recorded off KOA/NBC on 3/16/1979 with no commercials, featuring performances from Evelyn "Champagne" King, Cheryl Lynn, Rick James, and Linda Clifford (along with Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" video), then it rounds out with various clips from Merv Griffin with appearances by Chuck Mangione, Sarah Dash, Natalie Cole, and Isaac Hayes circa spring 1979 with no commercials. Sony L-500, BII mode
TAPE 3: Around an hour's worth of footage from the 2nd Annual Rhythm & Blues Awards recorded off an unknown station (presumably KBTV) circa March 1979 with no commercials (presumably , followed by about a 15 minute of a show called "Over Easy" circa March 1979 with no ads, followed by about 45 minutes worth of footage from an episode of Don Kirshner's Rock Concert featuring appearances by The Trammps, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Tennille, and B.B. King taped off an unknown station on possibly 3/24/1979 (based on when WNBC aired this set of acts) with no commercials. No video footage exists of that special (taped 2/15/1979 at the Bonaventure Hotel in LA) that would be the last known televised special of an R&B/Soul-oriented music show until the Soul Train Awards in 1987. Sonly L-500, BII mode.
TAPE 4: Most of "A Tribute to Satchmo" (Louis Armstrong tribute taped at the 1970 Newport Jazz Festival) taped off KRMA/PBS circa 1979 with no promos, followed by an episode of Soundstage featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Zoot Sims, and Roy Eldridge recorded off KRMA/PBS in 1979 with no promos. Sony L-750, BII mode
TAPE 5: Begins with Michael Jackson's "Thrilller" music video off an unknown station, followed by about an hour's worth of footage from the 26th annual Grammy Awards taped off KMGH/CBS on 2/28/1984 with no commercials, followed by about 45 minutes worth of the Big Band Bash taped off presumably KRMA/PBS circa March 1978 with no promos, then another award show rarity:
about 25 minutes worth of footage from the first annual Rhythm & Blues Awards from 1977 taped off an unknown station with no commercials. This special, taped at the Sheraton Park Hotel in Washington, DC in February 1977, was shown on 53 stations and aired on WTTG on 4/23/1977 in DC. This was probably a spring 1978 rerun given the Big Band Bash preceding it on the tape and the recording starts right after the intro, and given the second R&B Awards special was in 1979. Here's a Washington Post article on the special:
To show how long ago that was, this first aired the same day Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way" topped the Billboard charts, and the video includes a performance of Johnny Taylor's "Disco Lady" from the previous year.
TAPE 6:
Starts with about 31 minutes worth of footage of an episode of Soul Train taped off KWGN presumably on 12/23/1978 based on the label with no commercials (guests: Barry White, Danny Pierce, and the Lester Wilson Dancers), followed by 42 minutes worth of footage of what appears to be a rerun of a 1975 episode of Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (guests: B.T. Express, Natalie Cole) also recorded off KWGN circa late December 1978 or early January 1979 (probably due to being winter break) with no commercials. That DKRC episode circulates which also included Barry Manilow in that show, but that Soul Train doesn't, and it felt like the set was under construction with a blank wall and a couple ladders below the Soul Train logo. I'd wish the Soul Train Scramble wasn't edited out, but you can't have everything. Sony L-750, BII mode
TAPE 7: The last 15 minutes Nancy Wilson In Concert taped off KRMA/PBS circa summer 1978 with no promos, followed by The Juggernaut Orchestra In Concert (featuring Ernie Anrews) also taped off KRMA/PBS in 1978 with no promos, followed by the last 15 minutes of an unknown movie taped off KBTV/ABC circa 1978, followed by about a ten-minute clip from Dinah! featuring Isaac Hayes circa late 1978 or early 1979 (after his "For The Sake Of Love" album was released and features his rendition of Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are"), then the tape rounds out with several minutes on an episode of The Mike Douglas Show featuring Dr. Samuel Janus with one commercial for "The Convertible" from around the same time, a direct marketing product. Sony L-500, BII mode
BTW, I have that same episode of The Simpsons you found, crainbebo that I found in a Beta lot four years ago. Regarding those soaps, I don't post Days/Y&R at all, although I do post B&TB and Santa Barbara as those aren't Sony-owned and are still up on my Internet Archive account. With that said, I did recently get a copyright strike on one of my YouTube accounts: a portion of the 3/17/1987 episode that claimed Dunk Dorf's basketball skills and Tim Conway's appearance, taken down by the estate of Mr. Carson itself. I soon deleted all remaining Carson episodes on my channels, so all future episodes with be heading over onto the I-A. Its still infuriating how in the age of AI, there aren't any protective measures to protect YouTubers like myself when some corporation, despite having some content on my channels for over a decade, after simply having "can't monetize" claims on some videos, suddenly can nuke it manually.
