#super avilyn

[vaultofvhs]

TDK SUPER AVILYN T-120 VIDEO CASSETTE VHS Tape

[vaultofvhs]

TDK Super Avilyn T-120 VHS Video Cassette Tape, “Family Vancouver, Washington”

[vaultofvhs]

TDK Super Avilyn HS T-120 VHS Video Cassette Tape

[vaultofvhs]

TDK Super Avilyn HS T-120 VHS Video Cassette Tape

[firehazardmedia]

I intend for this blog to feature home-taped cassettes I wouldn’t otherwise upload, but right now, none are as exciting to me as this VHS.

I always have high hopes for recorded VHS tapes with black covers. They usually predate their rainbow/color-striped sleeved friends, and the older a tape’s programming is, the rarer and more exciting it is to find.

If you feel the same, you’ll agree with me that this TDK Super Avilyn tape really lives up to its “Super” name. The quality is great, too!

It was recorded in 1980. 1980 is the oldest year I have found programs from, and it really thrills me to bring them to light, partly because I have a particular fascination with the year.

The tape begins with a report about Alexander Godunov. I think it’s actually from ‘79, when he defected! He was a Soviet dancer who briefly made a hot news story. This is followed by several dance programs from PBS in early 1980. Besides the age, they weren’t my favorite, but I will revisit them eventually. I was settling into the next PBS program, “Reminiscing”, about Buddy Holly, when the broadcast cut off.

Here’s where things got exciting: The tape had been used for multiple recordings- 8 times in fact- each time for a shorter period. I was an archaeologist at an excavation. Each layer of dirt took me further into the past.

I cheered (I might have literally cheered, don’t judge) when the tape switched to part of an episode of Three’s Company and a special about the Winter Olympics (Dan Fogelberg’s “The Power of Gold” is still playing in my head). I was disappointed when it ended, only to cheer again when news from a different, earlier date appeared out of the harsh static. I eventually saw news from four different days over two months before the tape sadly reached its end and began auto-rewinding.

All of the news focused on the Iran Hostage Crisis, which is just so classic. I tried to explain it to several people and they couldn’t understand why I was cheering over Americans being held hostage. Guess you either get it or you don’t.