The history and passion behind the mission
The mission of <<rewind WV is to save, preserve and share old television broadcast recordings — especially those of local stations — before they become lost to time forever. Used videotapes are an endangered species. While the physical media itself is slowly degrading over time, extinction is being expedited by owners who see no value in these obsolete cassettes and opt to toss them in the trash in lieu of allowing them to continue to take up space. While it’s true that videotapes carry little practical value in the age of streaming, DVRs and digital media, it’s what might be recorded on those old tapes that potentially holds tremendous nostalgic and historical value to people like me, and why I want to save them!
I’ve always had a “thing” for nostalgia, even back when I didn’t really have enough years behind me to warrant such affection for the past. I recall in 1992, at age 11 or 12, coming across a tape of ALF episodes that had only been recorded a few short years prior, but treating my discovery with the same zeal as if I’d just been the first to step into King Tut’s tomb. It wasn’t just the old sitcom episodes that fascinated my young mind, but seeing the entire package frozen in time — the network promos, the newsbreaks, the commercials for forgotten products with jingles that had been stored away in my subconscious only to be unpacked after hearing them again — that made the experience akin to a moving time capsule in a way. And that’s sort of how I describe this weird hobby to those who question it now: It’s the closest thing we can experience to traveling back in time. I can’t physically go back to that October night in 1987 when my ALF recording originally aired, but as I re-watch the broadcast exactly as it was first seen on that night, I’m mentally transported. I think back to what I might have been doing in those same moments. Perhaps working on homework for my second grade class; perhaps in the company of loved ones no longer here. The elements of these original broadcasts give us a unique perspective — a slice of life from the era. The trends, issues and interests of society at the time come back to life in the entertainment, information and advertising that was being disseminated across TV airwaves. Sure, I can re-visit those same ALF episodes on DVD sets or through streaming services in far superior visual quality, but there’s a certain nostalgic euphoria that only fuzzy broadcast footage — old commercials and all — saved on an old videotape can provide.
As I grew older, and much farther away from those carefree childhood days of the 1980s, my passion for obtaining broadcast footage from the era only grew stronger. The advent of the Internet suddenly provided access to footage from across the country thanks to tape trading forums populated by others who shared my odd joy in finding commercials for defunct department stores and toys I wanted sprinkled throughout episodes of 1980s soap operas and Saturday morning cartoons, respectively. The nostalgia was in abundance. But, nostalgia factor aside, I didn’t come to truly appreciate the historic value such recordings held until I began working in the newsroom of my local TV station — the very same station those old ALF episodes originated from all those years ago. While employed there, I was saddened to discover the lack of care that had been given to local television archives by generations prior. Very little of the station’s history, which dated back to the 1950s, physically existed on any form of media. Tapes had been damaged, discarded or re-used over the years, leaving the only record of decades of local news, sports and entertainment programming existing only in the memories of the viewers who witnessed it as it originally aired. This troubled me. Years and years of video documenting important local community events — and the work of the on-air personalities who brought such stories into viewers’ homes — had been lost forever. Further research led me to believe that this neglectful approach to local TV archives was a common problem in the early decades of TV’s existence. Be it financial restrictions or simply a lack of foresight into the historic value of the work being done by local stations, saving footage simply wasn’t a priority.
This sobering reality gave me newfound appreciation for the many local broadcasts contained on the videotapes I owned, as I came to the realization that my recordings of specific newscasts, news anchors, and local commercials may indeed be the only copies of those particular moments that still exist anywhere! Being in a small market such as Southern West Virginia, as opposed to larger metropolitan markets, only adds to the likelihood of rarity of footage, as a smaller population obviously means there were far fewer VCRs recording programming here in the 1980s than there were in a Chicago or a New York City, for example.
This new desire to collect TV recordings not just for my personal nostalgic kicks, but as a duty to preserve local history has motivated me in recent years to scour as many local flea markets, yard sales and thrift stores as I can on a consistent basis in hopes of finding, saving and sharing as much vintage television as I can. I may not be able to go back and rescue that precious footage that came and went before home video recording was commonplace, but I am attempting to make every effort to save what still exists from the VCR’s 1980s heyday. I can’t do it alone, though. You can help by saving and sharing your old tapes! Click here to read more about the donation process!