Sony U-Matic VO 2630

[radiotvnut]

That Sony U-matic machine brings back memories. When I was in elementary school, from '83-'88, they had those Sony U-matic machines connected to early '70's RCA 23" CTC39 tube type color TV's. These were commercial grade TV's that had a jack panel on the rear for connecting various pieces of equipment to them. All of this equipment was housed on a roll around metal cart and if a teacher needed the "ETV", he/she had to reserve it a day or two in advance. Most of the programming was stuff from PBS. Stuff like cold war era safety films, tornado safety films, films on how to read and write, etc. Sometimes, if we were real good, they'd show a recording of "Sesame Street" or some animated cartoon. I think they only had two or three of these TV/U-matic set-up's for classroom use. Then, there were 2 or 3 in the library. One was an older RCA tube TV / Sony U-Matic pair. The other two were Zenith System 3 sets connected to Panasonic U-Matic machines (I think these were bought around '84 or so). Then, around '87, the Coca-Cola bottling plant donated a VHS machine to the school and we thought we were on cloud nine. Around '89, some company furnished 19" Magnavox TV's that were wall mounted in each classroom and connected to a master station in the library. In exchange for the TV's, the school system was to show a daily 12 minute "news" broadcast called "channel one". Now, our school district has come into the 21st century and all that cool old equipment has been dumped. If I found one of those old Sony U-matic machines or one of those old CTC39 commercial TV's, I'd probably grab them for sentimental reasons.