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COUNTDOWN IS BACK THIS JANUARY, 2019 ...  ON rage !!!!!
Stay tuned below with regular Countdown full archival information for each Countdown episode rage shall be airing every Saturday throughout January ...

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Re: Lost Countdown

I assume that home video recording equipment would have been majorly expensive back then, compared to now. It was probably out of reach for most people, or at least not terribly common.

Plus, tapes are clunky and take up a lot of space. I can't imagine someone having hundreds of tapes of Countdown recorded form TV lying around, which they've still kept 45-ish years later, and not said anything about them to the ABC archives department - being that big a fan of Countdown and surely knowing many of the 70s episodes are lost - until recently.

VHS home recordings, especially those that are decades old, are never "close to" broadcast quality. That doesn't mean they couldn't be aired; just they are nowhere near the quality of a broadcast tape. It doesn't seem like this Rod person knows what they are talking about.

Re-dubbing the audio for Countdown episodes doesn't really work, because you've got audience cheer, voice over, and the presenters speaking, throughout. You can't re-dub any of that; just the music.

Re: Lost Countdown

Jason is correct, and you have all totally missed the point as well - it is not possible to have a VHS "off air" recording of any missing Countdown prior to 1980, as the recorders were not available in this country...only Betamax, U-Matic, Phillips N1500 and National Cartridge were available in the 70s and were out of the price range for 98% of the population. And the other 2% sure as hell were not recording Countdown every week, even if they could have afforded the huge cost of blank tape..most people had to re-use them out of necessity, and there was no thought at the time that the TV stations wouldnt be able to keep older material, such knowledge was restricted to the "inner workings" of the TV industry and wasnt even a thought for the rest of us.


As to the assertion that "I am *reasonably* sure the ABC archive has a complete collection" lol

I am absolutely sure they dont

Two "off air" recovered episodes have been sent to the ABC, one from July 1978, incomplete and not in broadcast quality, and a July 1977 hosted by Jon English which was in good enough quality to have been re-screened on Rage a couple of times now - with the opening titles cleverly added in from a "Breakers and Titles" Segment tape the ABC archives had..other than that, only segments from missing shows have been located and returned to the ABC.

Never rely on social media for reliable information, even from someone who has worked in the archives and really should know better than to engage in guesswork just to give people a sense of excitement, and ultimately false hope.....

Re: Lost Countdown

Brett (2)
Jason is correct, and you have all totally missed the point as well - it is not possible to have a VHS "off air" recording of any missing Countdown prior to 1980, as the recorders were not available in this country...only Betamax, U-Matic, Phillips N1500 and National Cartridge were available in the 70s and were out of the price range for 98% of the population. And the other 2% sure as hell were not recording Countdown every week, even if they could have afforded the huge cost of blank tape..most people had to re-use them out of necessity, and there was no thought at the time that the TV stations wouldnt be able to keep older material, such knowledge was restricted to the "inner workings" of the TV industry and wasnt even a thought for the rest of us.


As to the assertion that "I am *reasonably* sure the ABC archive has a complete collection" lol

I am absolutely sure they dont

Two "off air" recovered episodes have been sent to the ABC, one from July 1978, incomplete and not in broadcast quality, and a July 1977 hosted by Jon English which was in good enough quality to have been re-screened on Rage a couple of times now - with the opening titles cleverly added in from a "Breakers and Titles" Segment tape the ABC archives had..other than that, only segments from missing shows have been located and returned to the ABC.

Never rely on social media for reliable information, even from someone who has worked in the archives and really should know better than to engage in guesswork just to give people a sense of excitement, and ultimately false hope.....
Only the richest of the rich would have had a U-Matic machine to record anything and prior to 1980, even the richest wouldn't even have thought to record full episodes of Countdown.

The fact of the matter is, that the ABC executives wiped what can never be restored again! Most of 1975 to 1978 is forever GONE. You just have to read my interview with Gavin Wood who made it very clear that some of them there who didn't wasn't a whole wall wiped, were grabbing some tapes and running with them to put them in their cars.

He made it very clear, as did Molly ..... That the executives who made the decisions literally said 'See that wall there of tapes, wipe them' .... In that, was a good whole three years gone. The fact that most of 1979 exists is a wonder to me!

Re: Lost Countdown

talking of lost episodes. how were the john paul young/sally boyden/ bay city rollers interview 1975 found? looks like u-matic tape. was it recorded off-air in 1975 or by someone when the masters were wiped in the 1980's and taken home and kept for years?
odd how the full story has not been told and if these were found then there could well be more out there.

Re: Lost Countdown

The footage from all three of those performances were from a home recording (on a National Cartridge recorder) made by Sally Boyden's family back in 1975. They made recordings of much of Sally's career, mainly on Young Talent Time, but in this case Countdown. Sadly, not the entire show was recorded, as the family just wanted certain performances, mainly of Sally herself. The other songs/interviews are a bonus. It was digitally recorded and is now safely kept in the NFSA and made available to the ABC for rage.

Re: Lost Countdown

What was a national cartridge recorder? An early video recorder?

Re: Lost Countdown

Gary
What was a national cartridge recorder? An early video recorder?
Yes, it would appear so: (back in those days, Panasonic products were branded as National in Australia)

Re: Lost Countdown

Thanks..