REGINA -- Decades of old news stories on aging video tapes are being rescued and preserved in Regina.
CTV Regina has been on the air since 1954, filming -- on actual film -- thousands of news stories across Saskatchewan. Most of those news stories are on old Betacam video tapes stored in the back studio.
“Everything we used to do prior to digital was done on these tapes,” says assignment editor Nelson Bird. “We have more than 3,000 tapes."
Tapes in the CTV Regina archives
So how do you preserve this one-of-a-kind treasure trove of Saskatchewan history?
It’s a race to digitize the tapes before they deteriorate. That’s where Bird comes in.
“I take one off the shelf basically, we use this machine that has been in use for many years. I hope it lasts the duration of our archiving.”
As Bird plays back the old tapes, history comes alive in front of his eyes.
“I find it really interesting to see stories by people who no longer work here. Jason Matity, Manfred Johenck, Ryan Pilon, Dan McIntosh…he must have been fairly new here…Claudia Jones.”
The archive stories also contain older images of familiar faces, such as former Saskatchewan Liberal Leader and Federal Cabinet Minister Ralph Goodale, and also a glimpse of gas prices not seen since the 1980s.
Ralph Goodale
Regina's gas prices in the 1980s
To get to the old tape storage area, Nelson must head deep into the bowels of CTV’s back studio. It's a place where few humans venture and dust bunnies run rampant.
At its current pace, the process will take years, but CTV is looking at ways to speed it up.
The goal? To preserve Saskatchewan news history for now and future generations.
