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Seeing this brings back a vague recollection of touring a radio station -- I'm going to guess in the early 90s -- and seeing a bank of VHS machines they used to

Seeing this brings back a vague recollection of touring a radio station -- I'm going to guess in the early 90s -- and seeing a bank of VHS machines they used to record everything they broadcast. I think I (or someone) asked about them, as it was weird to see video cassettes in a radio station, and so I'm fairly sure it was actually VHS and not DAT or something proprietary. It definitely didn't look like machine in this video. I don't remember what the radio station was anymore, but it's very possible it was a college station. Was this a common thing, or am I just misremembering this? Maybe just a hack a college station would have done to use commodity hardware/tapes and get 6 hours of recording time per tape?

DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
VHS could store gigabytes on a typical tape, so it’s a good media for storing a day’s worth of audio output from a radio station.
jccalhoun 6y ago
There was definitely a phase where individuals would record music to vhs - as Techmoan mentions towards the end, some vcrs could record quite good quality audio -- but I don't know if it was done by radio stations or just individuals.
- extra88 6y ago
  Around 1990, a classmate made a “mixtape” on VHS to play at a party for hours of continuous music that no one had to stop or mess with.
MrRadar 6y ago
They were probably VHS HiFi decks used to record the day's broadcast so that they could prove to advertisers when/how often their ads played in case they were asked. You could fit up to 8 hours on a VHS tape in the slowest speed mode with extended-length tapes.
roywashere 6y ago
At my local radio station at the end of the 90s they used the longest length VHS tapes to record the shows on long play to 'prove' to the musicians rights organisation which songs were played how often. The choice of medium had not much to do with the audio quality but mostly with the length of the tapes.
- ljf 6y ago
  I was going to post the same - I worked at a community station briefly in the 90s and they used a standard home VHS recorder that had audio (and video) component in on the front. A 4 hour tape and long play mode you could cover 24 hours with just 3 tapes. It was all a bit diy and remembering to change the tape if it fell in my show was pretty stressful, at least for a 17 year old. I also understood that it was a term of our (short) license that we had proof of what was said in air, should anyone make a complaint etc. since all our shows were played live.
  - zbuf 6y ago
    Yeah this was hugely common in the UK, as you could fit 8 hours of Nicam digital stereo on a VHS tape at long play, for your license obligations. And as a bonus the security cameras as well if you need it. All using readily available consumer gear with built-in timer. It would wear out every year or so. Some stations used the same VHS trick as a play out system to cover overnights as well. I recall one of the problems is the fire hazard of keeping 8 weeks or so of tapes.

DaiPlusPlus 6y ago

VHS could store gigabytes on a typical tape, so it’s a good media for storing a day’s worth of audio output from a radio station.

jccalhoun 6y ago

There was definitely a phase where individuals would record music to vhs - as Techmoan mentions towards the end, some vcrs could record quite good quality audio -- but I don't know if it was done by radio stations or just individuals.

extra88 6y ago
Around 1990, a classmate made a “mixtape” on VHS to play at a party for hours of continuous music that no one had to stop or mess with.

MrRadar 6y ago

They were probably VHS HiFi decks used to record the day's broadcast so that they could prove to advertisers when/how often their ads played in case they were asked. You could fit up to 8 hours on a VHS tape in the slowest speed mode with extended-length tapes.

roywashere 6y ago

At my local radio station at the end of the 90s they used the longest length VHS tapes to record the shows on long play to 'prove' to the musicians rights organisation which songs were played how often. The choice of medium had not much to do with the audio quality but mostly with the length of the tapes.

ljf 6y ago
I was going to post the same - I worked at a community station briefly in the 90s and they used a standard home VHS recorder that had audio (and video) component in on the front. A 4 hour tape and long play mode you could cover 24 hours with just 3 tapes. It was all a bit diy and remembering to change the tape if it fell in my show was pretty stressful, at least for a 17 year old. I also understood that it was a term of our (short) license that we had proof of what was said in air, should anyone make a complaint etc. since all our shows were played live.
- zbuf 6y ago
  Yeah this was hugely common in the UK, as you could fit 8 hours of Nicam digital stereo on a VHS tape at long play, for your license obligations. And as a bonus the security cameras as well if you need it. All using readily available consumer gear with built-in timer. It would wear out every year or so. Some stations used the same VHS trick as a play out system to cover overnights as well. I recall one of the problems is the fire hazard of keeping 8 weeks or so of tapes.