Selected Firing Line Programs Available on Amazon.com

August 13, 2008

Firing Line 2-inch videotape preservation Click on the image to start the slideshow. Once the slideshow has begun, mouse over the right/left side of image to see the next/previous buttons

Preservation work begins with an assessment of the videotape's physical condition. The splotches on this videotape are glue that has migrated from the reel on which it was stored. The glue deposits must be carefully removed before it can be played.

Edge damage, also identified during the assessment process, is usually the result of previous playbacks in which the videotape gets stuck in the tape transport mechanisms, creating the ragged edge seen here. This portion of damaged videotape represents about 2–3 minutes of program time. If the damaged edge passes through the playheads, loss of audio or picture breakup may result and, in worse-case scenarios, further tape damage and shredding could occur.

Damage to videotapes is not limited to the edges. The wrinkle in this videotape probably occurred during a previous playback.

This image distortion is caused by wrinkled videotape.

After the assessment is complete and any necessary physical treatments have been performed, the videotape is exercised, meaning that it is fast-forwarded on a take-up reel without being threaded through the playback mechanism. This ensures smooth transport and optimal image transfer during the next step, the actual playback and simultaneous transfer to a modern videotape format.

With the videotape threaded through the playback mechanism, the tape is carefully played and the contents recorded onto Digital Betacam videotape. The 2-inch videotape playback machine is as big as several refrigerators. In the central area, a reel of videotape feeds through the four playheads onto a take-up reel as multiple monitors display program content and technical data. Playback occurs in real time; thus after the physical assessment and exercising, it takes 60 minutes to play and transfer a 60-minute videotape. A video engineer watches the monitors and makes technical notes concerning playback quality. Because 2-inch quad videotape was replaced by 1-inch open reel tape in the 1970s, few 2-inch machines remain in working order. Skilled video engineers who can operate the machines are equally scarce.

During every playback, each videotape loses oxide particles, as seen on this video playhead.

The engineer cleans oxide shed from the video playheads after each videotape is played. Oxide particles detract from playback quality, hence the frequent cleaning.

The dirt on this cleaning cloth contains the oxide particles cleaned from the video playheads after a single playback. With the heads clean, the next videotape can be exercised, played, and transferred to a modern videotape.

DVDs of fifty programs of William F. Buckley's Firing Line television series are available for $10 each at Amazon.com. Most of the programs date from 1966 to 1968, with such guests as Allen Ginsberg, Dick Gregory, Hugh Hefner, Timothy Leary, Clare Booth Luce, Malcolm Muggeridge, Ronald Reagan, and Dame Rebecca West. A list of the fifty titles is available.

Firing Line was broadcast from 1966 to 1999, first as an hour-long show and later as a half-hour program. The Firing Line collection at the Hoover Institution Archives includes videotapes of about 1,500 shows, as well as transcripts, still photographs, program preparation materials, and other items. A searchable database of all Firing Line programs is available.

Most of the fifty programs on Amazon.com were remastered from obsolete 2-inch open-reel quad videotapes, the original broadcast masters. Each tape was cleaned, stabilized, and transferred to a modern, broadcast-quality digital tape format at a specialized laboratory. Grants from the Mericos Foundation and the National Television and Video Preservation Foundation supported this work. CreateSpace, an Amazon.com subsidiary, then digitized these programs and will create DVDs as orders are placed through either CreateSpace or Amazon.com.

The Hoover Archives hopes to make more programs available through this service. Meanwhile, for Firing Line programs that are not available through Amazon.com, please contact Janel Quirante to purchase copies from the Hoover Archives.