# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/41 "2011-07-04T01:33:13Z")
I taped songs I liked when I was a teenager from the radio, but when I was a younger kid, I’d record from the tv with my boombox all the songs from Jem. They’re showing it again on The Hub now and it kind of made me sad thinking that if I were a kid now, how easy it would have been to have all those songs. In the late 90s, I got a stereo that I hooked up to my tv/vcr for stereo sound. It came in handy when there were televised concerts. I’d record with both the vcr for later viewing, but also to cassette tapes to listen to in the car. Now I capture streaming audio and put it on my iPod. Technology is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/42 "2011-07-04T03:42:21Z")
Lord, yes. I recorded Barefoot Jerry’s Ain’t it Nice In Here because I couldn’t find it anywhere else. I eventually got to hear them play it live at Nashville’s famed Exit/In. I recorded a song that I think was called You Owe it to Me, that I’ve never been able to find since. Don’t know the artist, but this was a Nashville station in the late 70s. I had a cassette recorder/AM FM radio combo and kept my finger poised over the record and play buttons. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Quercus\_alba](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quercus_alba/32/4061_2.png) [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/43 "2011-07-04T03:47:38Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > Any chance it was [this?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDNlSpKLEEo&feature=related) > And don’t make fun of yourself for your childhood skits, that’s a sign of great imagination! Way better than staring at video games for hours like today’s kids. Yep–that was it. “Mr. Jaws”, huh? I was racking my brain and couldn’t come up with anything from that era except (Og help me!) Ray Stevens’ “The Streak”… Oh mercy…my kids are SOOOO fortunate that they’ll only have Justin Bieber and Hannah Montana to live down! ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/44 "2011-07-04T18:03:44Z")
Oh, yes. I spent countless hours sitting with my tiny tape recorder pressed up against the tv, recording all the songs from musicals – the one that really springs to mind is “Blue Hawaii”, a classic Elvis glurge that I adored. And then my siblings and I would sing along in the car to all these scratchy, muffled songs. Ah, childhood. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/45 "2011-07-04T22:28:12Z")
Remember when while recording someone would come into the room and start talking! No!!! ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/46 "2011-07-04T22:30:24Z")
I used to record a few theme songs from TV shows. The two I liked best were _CHiPs_ and _Unsolved Mysteries.__CHiPs_ had a theme song for season 1 and an updated version for seasons 2-6. The pilot episode had a prolonged version of the season 1 version, so I had three songs to listen to. Thrice the fun! I also used to play a card game on my Atari ST computer. I religiously wrote down the results after each session, with a session consisting of 25 hands. (The results were in the same format as baseball standings.) After this, I recorded a radio show where all I did was read the standings from first to last place, along with a little commentary. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/47 "2011-07-04T22:42:38Z")
In the early 70’s I occasionally recorded in front of the radio speakers. I only recorded off the air regularly from 1980 on, as all stereo’s I owned had two tape decks and direct from the amplifier recording of records or whatever you amplified. All the duel decks let you dube tape to tape. ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/48 "2011-07-04T23:12:41Z")
Ah, the good old days of AOR…I recorded a few Led Zep albums directly from the radio – no breaks, no commercials. When I was growing up, a kid in my neighborhood was a baseball fanatic. He had his own fantasy league (this was 1972-75 time frame). He’d record the opening of the ball game of the week, then play that as he tossed a wiffle ball in the air, hit it, then wrote the result (single, homer, etc) on a paper on a clipboard. I, on the other hand, recorded songs and later, albums. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/49 "2011-07-05T02:58:45Z")
Yep, for crude “mix” tapes of various TV themes when I was a kid. And a few years later, with an actual stereo setup hooked into the TV/VCR, I made a few recordings of MST3K episodes, mostly for long car trips. Even _Manos_ was fun. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/50 "2011-07-05T03:10:35Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > Any chance it was [this?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDNlSpKLEEo&feature=related) > And don’t make fun of yourself for your childhood skits, that’s a sign of great imagination! Way better than staring at video games for hours like today’s kids. Actually, there were dozens of them, mostly by this guy: > **[Dickie Goodman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickie_Goodman)** > > Richard Dorian “Dickie” Goodman (April 19, 1934 – November 6, 1989), was an American musician and record producer. He is best known for inventing and using the technique of the "break-in", an early precursor to sampling, that used brief clips of popular records and songs to "answer" comedic questions posed by voice actors on his novelty records. He also wrote and produced some original material, most often heard on the B-sides of his break-in records. > Dickie Goodman's first known release came ... ---
**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 5, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/51 "2011-07-05T12:35:41Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > Remember when while recording someone would come into the room and start talking! No!!! Just reading this post made me want to punch my brother. 😃 ---
**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 5, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481/52 "2011-07-05T20:39:01Z")
When I was in college, WBCN in Boston would have a rare tape night, where they played their collection of bootlegs, no longer possible to get singles, live versions, and other rare stuff. (This was ~ 1970). Lots of it has since been released. I (and many other people in Boston and Cambridge) spent all evening with our my tape deck recording nearly everything of interest. The record stores had a special tape sale for this event. I recently moved these from 30 year old cassette tapes (recorded from 10 year old reel-to-reel tapes) to CD. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-record-tv-radio-to-audio-tapes/587481.md?page=2)