Very interesting article.

I guess the same could be said for Television as a lot of TV shows were taped over.  I know for instance, WNEW TV during the 1970's, I used to watch "Wonderama" with Bob McAllister and I heard that WNEW recorded over all the episodes so this program won't ever be released on DVD.  I loved this program when I was younger.  It was a little like Bozo The Clown, because it had a live audicence and games for the kids to play and they also showed cartoons.

I belive a few short video-clips have survived, but the program itself has been taped over.  It's such a shame as I'm sure that they did it with other programs like Your Show of Shows" and just so many more classics.

I know storage space can be a problem, but they didn't have the foresight that people would still be interested in these great programs and music.

I used to buy cassettes from Woolworth's in 3-packs a few times a month and tape music off the radio and even some onto -8-track,  I have a lot of cassette tapes that were poorly made and after a couple of plays, they would tighten up and it they were a sealed case, I had to pry them apart, but some had screws holding the 2 sides of them together, and by opening them up and reclosing them, that freed them up so they would play. but some of the cheaper tapes fade in and out but at least I am able to listen to some old radio programs from you younger years.

It's a shame that even Network TV station taped over shows like The Tonight Show and some of their old game shows.   Concentration would be a wonderful game show to be broadcast on the Game Show Network.  It would also be nice if some of the affiliated had recorded these programs and kept the tapes, but most networks usually just retransmitted the program from the network feed so they weren't really broadcasting it from tape themselves.

I remember if Jr. High School that we hat VTR's and they were the 2 inch tapes or maybe a little wider but were on large reels and they would have programs that could be transmitted to all classroom or just to 1 particular room and even in the library, you could watch certain programs that the school had taped, but I'm sure those are long gone.  I remember a few times there was a Network Movie or something and the school would tape it and we could watch it in class along with the commercials, but then I belive in 1972, when they stopped allowing Cigarette Commercials to be on TV, any more Network Movies had the commercials edited out of them because they were recoreded before the law went into effect.

Is so sad because there were some great game shows and other programs that are gone forever because the general public didn't have any way of recording video back them other than 8mm or 16 mm film, and sound wasn't available until a few years later or you had to also use an audio tape recorder if you wanted the sound.

Too bad we couldn't go back in time and mark on all of the old shellac, metal and tapes for both Records and TV, "Under no circumstances, get rid of these.  Do not reuse them for other recordings, and do not get rid of unmarked boxes of tapes.  Also make sure they are stored in the safest places possible", but alas, we can't go back and change things.  So we only have an occasional video clip of these programs that someone has posted on YouTube.

Also, Netflix has The Dick Van Dyke Show and I belive it's available on DVD, and a few of the episodes show the actual commercials from when the program first aired, but they are done by the cast of the show.  But still it is an original commercial.

Even on some of The Honeymooners DVD collection, the contrast and video quality are so poor, but at least the entire series is there as far as I know.  But it is a shame there wasn't any way to correct them, but being the images are so distorted, they would just end up making them worse.

I wish some more people would come forward with unmarked boxes of tapes and find they are from original recording sessions that the record companies had destroyed or recorded over but somehow these other tapes survived.

Tommy Evergreen, If I'm not mistaken, the tracks on The Golden Age of Light Music: Christmas Celebration were actually from vinyl and expertly remastered, much like the 1970's American Top 40 programs were all remasted from vinyl, as Casey Kasem's Watermark didn't keep their tapes of the show - only vinyl copies exist!

Jinglero,

I have both the 1959 MONO and Stereo release of MOC.  I had other copies of them, but didn't know about reissues initially, and with "Chip's" help, I was able to determine that the first ones I had were not the original releases and he explained to me about the "6-Eye" and "2-Eye" labels and when I found several listing for MOC on eBay, they all listed them as 1959, so I had to send them pictures of both the "6-Eye" and "2-Eye" labels to see if that is what was the label on the vinyl itself because they were going by the catalog number to determine the year.  The reason I mention the "2-Eye" is I also had a reissue of "Give Me Your Love for Christmas" by Johnny Mathis and all the vendors were saying it was "The Original Release" so I had to send them the images too.

Being a "Collector" you always want the originals, and yes, though the artwork is often the same, and the music is the same, the average person just wanting to have that particular album it wouldn't matter.  But not one person on eBay knew what I was talking about when I asked them if it was the "6-Eye" or "2-Eye"

Though I can't explain your anomaly, I have 2 copies of "Snoopy and His Friends The Royal Guardsmen" on Laurie Records SLLP-2042.  On side 2, song 6, on the Jacket it lists the song as "It Kinda Looks Like Christmas" but on the label on the vinyl itself, it lists the 6th. song as "I Needed You"  But, on the vinyl, it is "It Kinda Looks Like Christmas.  I have seen other Laurie releases of this album and the label on the vinyl is correct, but to have 2 albums purchased over 40 years apart, with the same anomaly, is probably a 1 in a million chance.  I've seen reissues on ether Harmony or Mistletoe Records, and the artwork is the same, including the tear off Snoopy inside the wreath wearing a cap and carrying a candle, but the songs are correct on the jacket and labels.  I did a post about this several years ago.

Then there was another anomaly, on MOC2,  The artwork for the front was correct, but somehow, the label from MOC ended up on the back or something, but the songs listed were from MOC and not MOC2 or Hallelujah!  I don't remember this particular one exactly and I think I had mentioned this in a previous post too several years ago.

I have seen a few times where the label on the vinyl was on the wrong side and I guess somehow when they were pressing the records, normally, they have a machine that has side a and side b labels, then the vinyl that is maybe an inch thick and about the size of a hockey puck are aligned and the metal plates that has the reverse image of the recordings is heated very hot and under high pressure, it presses and melts the vinyl to the 12 inches and the image is transferred onto the vinyl and the labels are melted to the vinyl too.  Then when the vinyl has cooled, they trim any excess vinyl off and smooth the edge.  After so many pressings, they use a new set of plates because dust particles and vinyl residue could get pressed into the new batch or pucks so that is why they change the plates after pressing so many albums.

I am by no means an expert in this area, but I did work for a Professional Sound Company as a Secretary in the 1970's and we had a recording studio and did sound systems for High School and College Commencement Ceremonies, we did the sound systems for the Rock and Roll Revival Concerts in NYC and a lot of other things and I learned a lot from them, and I have seen videos too of how they press a record.  It's a similar process for CD's and that is why when you burn a CD, you can get different results from the original being the original was pressed.

Dave,

Thanks for explaining the Classic 39 Episodes of The Honeymooners.  I have seen video of a person sitting at a computer, and when the video is played back on TV, the image on the computer screen appears to be moving almost like the waves on the ocean, but that has to do with the Refresh Rate for the Computer Monitor and the TV's refresh rate is different, but everything else is shown to be normal.  It's similar to watching Ellen, or Letterman and the camera is aimed at one of the monitors that the audience can see, and the image you see in the camera monitor is doing the same thing.  I believe that the cameras still use CRT Monitors, but I could be wrong.

Also, being your vinyl recording of MOC isn't scratched or anything, it will definitely sound better than a CD, but you would have to listen to it on a good high quality stereo system.  CD's aren't capable of reproducing the frequencies that Analog recordings could, so especially in an album such as this beautiful Christmas music or just about any Classical record album, on CD, you can't hear the high and low frequencies.  Also anytime you digitize something you lose quality.  It may not be immediately noticeable, but for instance, if you scan a photograph and save it on your computer and had the time to open and close it a few thousand times.   The last image wouldn't be as sharp as the first time you looked at it.

That is also a huge problem with having to go Digital for TV.  Unless you live within 20 miles of the transmitters and there aren't any hills or tall buildings between you and the transmitter, you will have trouble picking up your local channels, and if you are able to, they often pixelize and if you pay close attention, you will notice that the lip are moving after you hear what they said.  It has to do with how they compress the video and sound before it's transmitted and then it doesn't decode exactly the right way so you have problems.

Also I don't know of any Digital TV Station that is transmitting higher than 1000KW's but when they were Analog, they were transmitting in the 400,000KW's range visual and aural on 2 slightly different frequencies but then they got combined into one in the tuner on your TV and also the Analog Antennas were several feet taller than the Digital Antennas.  So most people are forced to pay either a Cable, Satellite or Phone provider to get their local channels.  In my area, we have 1 channel that is about 35 miles from me, and they are transmitting under 30KW's and they have 3 sub-channels but we can't get them because the Cable, Satellite and Phone TV providers only have to give you the actual local channel.  I used to be able to pick up stations over 150 miles away with just a set of rabbit ear antennas inside, but now to get a fairly good signal you have to use an outdoor antenna and it has to be at least 30 feet above sea level.   Digital signals don't bend with the curvature of the earth either, so you lose signal that way and if you walk near your indoor antenna you can interfere with the digital signal and lose your picture.

Sorry for getting slightly off-topic, but talking about CD's being Digital and Vinyl being Analog, it reminded me of the same thing for TV and before I forget, we were told it was to free up frequencies for EMS, but it was more for the cellphone providers to use the frequencies to give you 4G speeds instead.  So there are people out there that can't get any TV at all either because they live too far from where Cable TV will run their cables or they are in Valleys that are blocked from satellites and also Digital Transmitters, so all they have to depend on for news updates in radio.

Chip,

As you know, I have an original "6-Eye" release of Music Of Christmas CL 588, well I was out running errands and being I was in an area I don't usually get to very often, I stopped into a Goodwill Thrift Store and lo and behold, I saw the familiar cover with, I believe, Percy Faith dressed as Santa and the little girl sleeping,  I then wanted to see if the vinyl was any better than mine at home, not that mine skips, but sometimes you can find a slightly better copy and this one ended up being the Columbia label before they started with the "6-Eye"  The vinyl does have a few scuffs, but I think it will play without skipping.

The front of the jacket is basically the same as the "6-Eye" but on the "6-Eye" jacket on the top right, there is an orange box with black lettering "A High Fidelity Recording", but the non-"6-Eye" jacket doesn't have that to the left of "COLUMBIA"

The back of the jacket appears identical in every way except on the lower right under the black area with the COLUMBIA in it, but underneath that it reads "Columbia", then the Circle LP then AND then Circle Musical Notes and then another Circle with a symbol I can't make out, then TRADE MARKS REG. U. S. PAT. OFF. MARCUS REGISTRADAS. then the Columbia symbol that is in the first "O" of Columbia, then TRADE MARK. PRINTED IN U.S.A. but the "A" is filled in so it's hard to tell it's an "A" but on the "6-Eye" jacket it shows ®"Columbia." then the Circle LP then the Columbia symbol that is in the first "O" in Columbia then Marcus Reg.  Printed in U.S.A.

Do you know if there is any significance for the difference between the two jackets?, being they are the same, except for what I tried to describe.  I know you are familiar with how the jacket looks, but I was curious why the older Columbia Label, Reddish Brown with gray lettering jacket would be different than the "6-Eye" jacket.