# Ever record TV/radio to audio tapes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 1, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481 "2011-07-01T06:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/1 "2011-07-01T06:12:35Z")
[This entertaining thread](http://www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/ajax.html?t=9244193#page:showThread,9244193,1) reminded me that in my preteen years (early 80s) I used to record TV shows like “Three’s Company” on audio tape. You just stuck your tape recorder in front of TV and pressed “record”. I also taped songs off the radio (always missing the first few seconds) and also my own skits with my sister. Does anyone else remember doing this, and what did you record? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/2 "2011-07-01T06:20:08Z")
We used to record our own “radio” shows, with skits, songs, requests etc. Then another time my cousin and I had the idea of sending each other a tape that we’d each record a segment on. I found the tape lately and I was nearly in tears laughing at the stuff we came out with when we were 10. I also, when I was a bit older, used to tape songs off the radio. I loved when they’d play a whole live concert of a band I liked, I’d usually try to nab them. Once or twice, out of, I dunno, boredom, I recorded tapes of stuff off the telly. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/3 "2011-07-01T07:14:35Z")
Somewhere I have a 3-3/4"/sec, 1/4" reel to reel of a song I haven’t found since, despite the help of the SDMB, a version of “The Hesitation Blues,” recorded off WLS-FM around 1969. Youtube and album purchases have helped me find most of the rest of what I recorded. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/4 "2011-07-01T12:16:54Z")
I used to record a TV show on audio. _Carter Country_– I thought it was hilarious, at the time. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/5 "2011-07-01T14:14:17Z")
In 1977, when I was 15, we brought a cassette recorder into the theater and taped most of the soundtrack of “Star Wars”. We also recorded “Hard Day’s Night” onto cassette off the TV. Before we had a VCR, we set up our super 8 camera in front of the TV and recorded a show or 2, but I can’t remember which ones. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/6 "2011-07-01T14:26:13Z")
sure did, though i quickly went to using the headphone jack for better sound. early teen years would have been music from radio. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/7 "2011-07-01T14:30:59Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Somewhere I have a 3-3/4"/sec, 1/4" reel to reel of a song I haven’t found since, despite the help of the SDMB, a version of “The Hesitation Blues,” recorded off WLS-FM around 1969. Youtube and album purchases have helped me find most of the rest of what I recorded. It’s not [this](http://www.allmusic.com/song/hesitation-blues-t220364), is it? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/8 "2011-07-01T14:32:54Z")
I had a little Craig reel-to-reel tape recorder and amassed multiple 3" reels of tape of 60s TV theme songs. I had everything from Mannix to Garrison’s Guerrillas to The High Chaparral to Top Cat to the theme for The Great Escape. I still have the tapes, but the recorder is long gone. Good thing most of those songs are available on CD–my friend and I love singing along to them when we’re on the road. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/9 "2011-07-01T14:56:12Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Somewhere I have a 3-3/4"/sec, 1/4" reel to reel of a song I haven’t found since, despite the help of the SDMB, a version of “The Hesitation Blues,” recorded off WLS-FM around 1969. Youtube and album purchases have helped me find most of the rest of what I recorded. This is different from #23 “[The Hesitating Blues](http://www.amazon.com/James-Reese-Europes-Infantry-Fighters/dp/B000QZZVEO)?” Because I have two versions of that. Then “Hesitation Rag” is a different animal altogether. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/10 "2011-07-01T15:07:30Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > I used to record TV shows like “Three’s Company” on audio tape. I insist that you stop being me _right this second_. 😉 > [@](#): > > Does anyone else remember doing this, and what did you record? My clearest memories of TV I recorded to C60 audio cassette are _Smokey and the Bandit_ and _Grease_. However, for a while I did regularly record _Three’s Company_, _Soap_, and IIRC _Taxi_. And, as I have mentioned here [before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=433304), I still have a C90 full of jazz I recorded off the radio in 1986. I’m still looking for help identifying a mystery track off that tape, if anybody’s curious. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/11 "2011-07-01T15:40:04Z")
I remember using that method to make an acoustically-recorded cassette copy of my brother’s copy of the White Album. It even had him sneezing in the middle of “Revolution 1”. I also still have a copy of a cassette I made (sometime in the 1980s, I think) of a radio broadcast of material from the Monterey Pop Festival that wasn’t otherwise available. I recorded that directly, though, not acoustically. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/12 "2011-07-01T15:57:45Z")
I recorded a few TV theme songs that I really liked on audio tape. I remember that **Doctor Who** was one of them. I also recorded songs off the radio, but I usually got the whole song. I’d start recording every time a song ended, and if the new song wasn’t one I’d wanted to record, I’d back the tape up for the next one. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/13 "2011-07-01T16:21:38Z")
I used to record songs off the radio and usually got snipits of ads and djs before and after songs. You listen to them often enough and that becomes part of the song as you remember it. I still remember the recording I made of T-Pau’s _Heart & Soul_ and what the DJ said before the song: “…she used to make boomerangs for a living. T’Pau’s guitarist ron Rogers said ‘Carol used to burn through a couple of jobs a month, but of all her jobs that one was the weirdest.’ At number 5 this week here’s T’Pau with Herat & Soul.” ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/14 "2011-07-01T16:21:41Z")
Oh, hell yeah…there are episodes of _Mork & Mindy_ that I probably still know verbatim from the number of times I listened to those audiotapes. Tons of radio recordings as well – plus the live-action skits that one of my childhood friends and I used to make (the best ones were made when no parents were home, so we didn’t have to whisper the curses – which were the funniest parts, of course). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/15 "2011-07-01T16:27:51Z")
Back when I was in high school the girl who sat behind me in writing was a big Star Trek fan, and was going to miss one due to her parents dragging her to a movie. I audio recorded the show for her - which turned out to be the first run of “The Trouble with Tribbles.” We’ve recorded stuff from the radio also, when my wife was on a call-in show or Firesign Theater was on Fresh Air. But it strikes me that the standard car radio should have a DVR feature (DAR). It would require very little memory and, if on even when the car was off, let you hear that traffic report you got in the car just too late to get. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/16 "2011-07-01T16:52:56Z")
I have an audio recording from my high school choir on the radio, 1961. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/17 "2011-07-01T18:23:07Z")
Way back whenever, I’d record the Dr. Demento show as it was on at some inconvenient time like 1 AM on Monday. My cassette deck was designed for “delay” recording where if you set it to record (Simply press the Play and Record Smooth Touch Piano Key Action buttons!) with the power off, the pinch roller would not engage. Setting the recording start time was accomplished with a lamp timer. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/18 "2011-07-01T18:24:15Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Back when I was in high school the girl who sat behind me in writing was a big Star Trek fan, and was going to miss one due to her parents dragging her to a movie. I audio recorded the show for her - which turned out to be the first run of “The Trouble with Tribbles.” > > We’ve recorded stuff from the radio also, when my wife was on a call-in show or Firesign Theater was on Fresh Air. But it strikes me that the standard car radio should have a DVR feature (DAR). It would require very little memory and, if on even when the car was off, let you hear that traffic report you got in the car just too late to get. Mentioning the Firesign Theater reminded me: while I recorded some random songs off the radio, one of my major loves was recording comedy songs from the Dr. Demento Show, and from another comedy show hosted by Len Belzer (Richard Belzer’s brother). There are still songs that I heard on those shows that I’ve never heard again, and never been able to locate. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/19 "2011-07-01T18:44:13Z")
My grandma still has lots of VCR tapes with movies or shows we recorded in the eighties. We didn’t bother editing the commercials out, and now those are the most interesting parts! I also taped lots of good tunes off the radio. I remember that for some reason I could never “catch” GNR’s Sweet Child of Mine just right, and nearly started disliking the song after being thwarted several times. I had a friend make me an audio cassette of Pink Floyd’s movie The Wall, and it was better than having the actual album because it contained all the sound effects, pauses, and bits of conversation (not to mention When the Tigers Broke Free). One last thing I remembered: when we were around eleven or twelve years old, my brother, my cousin, and I made a full-cast audio book of Disney’s The Rescuers. Ostensibly it was for our younger cousins to use as a bedtime story, but really it was just for the fun of it. I’m not sure we ever even gave it to them! ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/20 "2011-07-01T18:48:07Z")
I used to record Dr. Demento, too. I got quite good at it. I’d start recording as soon as a song started playing, then if I decided I didn’t like that one, I’d stop, rewind it, and get it back to just the right moment before the next song started. And my kids are going to have no idea what I’m talking about. Also, I’ve heard that many of the “missing” episodes of Dr Who - the ones that the BBC tossed out way back when - exist only in audio form due to kids doing just this. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481.md?page=2)