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ULTRA RARE! 3M’s 1976 “20 Years Of Videotape”

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Eyes Of A Generation.com


This is one of only 2 or 3 surviving copies of 3M’s 1976 NAB tribute video called ’20 Years Of Video Tape’ and covers, in amazing detail, the history of video tape starting even before the unveiling of the VRX 1000 at the 1956 NAB convention and goes all the way to 1976. This was the 20th Anniversary of the introduction of videotape.

This is historical in every way and this is the only place you will see it, so please share this with your friends! You will see and hear things here that you’ve never seen or heard before!

This is 20 minutes long, so sit back, enjoy and remember to share this! It’s the only way your friends can see it. Thanks to Neil Gjere for sharing it with us! -Bobby Ellerbee

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23 responses to “ULTRA RARE! 3M’s 1976 “20 Years Of Videotape””

  1. Duane Allison

    Thanks for this share Heather. I want to see the next in this series. The transition from tape to cds to dvds to hard drives is certainly as exciting, don’t you think?

  2. Ross Kestin

    At first I thought he was saying “illegal” formats. Then I realized he was saying “helical” formats. DOH!

  3. Ross Kestin

    I never had to use a microscope, but I remember the operators using tailor’s chalk to mark the edit points and then hoping for the best. It usually worked out fine. This was about 1976 at KTTV. I miss the sound of those old machines too, but I don’t miss the seven second rolls when I was directing.

  4. Heather MacKenzie

    Wow. I remember when some of the machines were brand new. It is very meaningful to see the doc. Thanks for sharing this! Brings back lots of memories from Telecine/VC at ABC on Prospect Studios in LA. Worked in that area from 77-80. We worked closely with Video Tape and had small recorders and one 2 inch Ampex Tape machine in our area. Amazing how technology changes so rapidly.

  5. Chris Jones

    I interviewed 3M chemist Mel Sater in the early 90s. He said when Ginsberg played back that first recording, his exact words were. “Holy shit! It really works!”

  6. Dennis Martin

    Amazing to me that the cell phone I watched that on has more video capabilities than those giant VTRs.

  7. Eric Temple

    What a trip down memory lane.

  8. Richard Sigurdson

    Would the narrator on this tape be Jim Lawless?

  9. Mark Carey

    I remember quads very well.. Audible count down cues.. Banding.. Clogged heads.. Heavy reels.. Ten second pre-rolls.. Ahh those were the days..

  10. Neil Gjere

    I can confirm that David. And storage was not by audio cart, but by a data tape cartridge created by?

    3M

  11. Michael Biel

    I was there when this video was shown at the NAB luncheon. Somewhere I have a slide taken of me and the machine Ampex displayed at NAB, the first VR-1000 that was sold to a non-network-owned-and-operated station, WFIL-TV, and which later had been used by the University of MisssouriColumbia. At WFIL it had been used to record our Temple University video class projects when I was a student, and when I was teaching at UM-C it was used for the video class projects I taught. This picture is of a similar machine on display in the Science Museum in London England.

  12. Charlie King

    OK, so I am a little strange, but this actually brought tears to my eyes. I remembered times, and people from so many years of such happy times. The parts about 3 M reminded me of an ad in Broadcast Magazine from the mid 60’s which stated, “Finding a dropout in 3-M tape is like finding a grapefruit on a coast to coast Interstate Highway.” Thank you Bobby for the Memories.

  13. John Schipp

    The presentation mentions the Ampex AVR 1 for creating MIMs – mirror image masters for the ADR 150 – the high speed duplication VTR. EUE Screen Gems had one of these VTRs and I often made MIMs for shows in syndication. Still have not located a photo of one of these. If I remember correctly, we could make 3 copies of a 30 minute show in about 6 minutes.

  14. David Shugarman

    What an outstanding story and great history of something that really changed TV production.

  15. Debra Oliver

    I didn’t get into TV production until 1975. I never realized the TCR was that old, and I never had heard that they used to manually had to literally splice the tapes for editing! I miss the sounds of the quad machines!

  16. Mark Yannitell

    This is the greatest Facebook page ever

  17. Pat Alder

    wow!!! fantastic!!

  18. Jay F Dortzbach

    I just watched this on my phone, in my bathroom. That would have blown their minds 57 years ago. Thanks for sharing!!

  19. Dan Evans

    And just like that, the kinescope was dead. RIP (we don’t miss you)

  20. Vance Piccin

    This is awesome. I didn’t start TV as profession till about 4 years after this was shown at NAB, but I used a bunch of these machines. RIP videotape.

  21. Leon Zetekoff

    Fills in more if the blanks

  22. Charlie Iglesias

    Thanks Bobby..

  23. Tim Stepich

    Very cool!

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