Reel-to-reel collection

[Dave Crichton]

Hi all, A few years ago I went through my late Grandad's collection of audio material. This was in the form of hundreds of reel-to-reel and cassettes recordings, mainly from 60's through to the 90's. I emailed the BBC at the time and the response was pretty uninterested, though I must admit I didnt really have the time at that point to go throught the collection too thoroughly.

A few years on, I would like to look into this again. I realise the main span of missing radio is probably 40's-50's but I'm almost sure some of this stuff must be rare or missing. Whether anyone is interested is another matter.

A particularly helpful effort on my Grandfather's part was cutting out the relevant Radio Times section pertaining to the content of the reels. Though a lot of the collection is musical, a lot of classical and opera recordings from the BBC.

My question is, I know the obvious candidates to look for, ie Hancocks, but could anyone list a few gems that may be needed from the 60's- onwards so that I would know if anything interesting turned up?

Thanks
Dave

[Dan S]

It'd probably be easier if you listed the names of shows listed on the reels and people here could say whether anything is highly sought after.
You could also look up things on open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax

[Matthew K Sharp]

Dave said:

A few years on, I would like to look into this again. I realise the main span of missing radio is probably 40's-50's but I'm almost sure some of this stuff must be rare or missing.

There's an astonishingly large amount of radio missing from the 60s, 70s and even early 80s. If there's much comedy or drama in your collection, I'd say your chances of having something missing are pretty good.

INFAX is pretty lousy when it comes to radio programs - crucially, it doesn't include stuff held by the BBC's Transcription Service (and its successors) unless that show has been repeated from the TS recording. Even then it won't have the original TX date.

Having said that, in many cases an off-air copy could be valuable even if there's a TS version extant because it may contain material edited by TS. (There's a bunch of very good ISIRTA recordings circulating which are all more complete than the BBC's copies.)

If in doubt, list it here - someone'll know if what you've got is lost/incomplete/etc.

[Richard Harrison]

Hi Dave
If you wanted to contact me at [e-mail] I can help you much further.

Thanks,
Richard.

[Greg H]

So, did anything nice turn up then??

[Peter Courtenay]

I picked up a few reel to reels at a boot sale a couple of weeks ago,must be a good hundred or so.
Wether they are any good or missing or not I don't know.
The ones that I consider interesting,and they have been well catologued apart from one.

Jim Reeves interview at the BBC 27/12/1966
Round the Horn (stop messing about?)No date.
A play 'Hair' 12/04/1969
Hancocks 1/2 hour 15/12/1976
An 'ampex' triple play with Jim Reeves recorded at Mountain Park(might have recorded of record as far as I know.
Hancocks 1/2 hour(undated)The Television Set,Christmas-East Cheam Style,Agricultural 'ancock,A sunday afternoon at home and The Threatening Letters.
Now the tape that is tantalising,it's recorded on a sony 370m tape and just says on the box 'rare beatles at the BBC'

[Peter Chadwick]

Presumably the Jim Reeves interview was recorded at least a few years before 1966 - it would have been a hell of a scoop if it WAS from '66. Please let us know about the Beatles' stuff.

[Peter Courtenay]

The Jim Reeves interview consists of parts of a 1963 broadcast for the BBC,Duncan Johnson introduces.

I can tell you nothing about the Beatles tape save for what I have already said.
Although I can add that this particular tape is perhaps the most dissapointing of the box of tapes i.e.It looks as if it has never been taped and at some point a sticky label has been added and subsequently removed because the gluey residue is still there.ajaz

[Gary C]

keep us informed as you work through them then, Peter!

[Dan S]

Peter said:

I can tell you nothing about the Beatles tape save for what I have already said.

Have you tried listening to it?