Christine Chubbuck Tape

^Thank you guys. It took a long time to do but it was worth it to me. There is another photo of her from the same photoshoot that I’d like to eventually colorize too.

I’m also of the opinion that any discussion about Chris regarding lost media should focus on footage of her while she was alive. I feel like the whole “search for The Tape” thing is disrespectful and distasteful. The poor woman felt so sad and alone that she used her last moments to try and connect with others, as morbid as that is. At least that’s what I think she was trying to do, in her own way. The conversation around her now should be about mental health, helping others, and preserving footage/photos of her while alive (without contacting the bereaved). I don’t think anyone should have ever been searching for the suicide footage in the first place, personally. I don’t mean any disrespect towards anyone in this thread by saying that, but it’s just how I feel. Especially now that the audio was posted last year.

Here’s my guess as to the origin of the audio: the audio which was posted on YouTube last year is a transfer of the original cassette made by police. The police, in order to obtain her last words for the police report, sat down and recorded the audio of them playing the video footage. That’s why you hear the gasps - the police are sitting in front of the ampex machine (or whatever was used to play back the reel of video tape) and they reacted to what they saw on the videotape. The audio starts in exactly the same place as what’s written in the police report. The jamming of the tape and the exchange between Chris and the camerawoman is cut out because they didn’t need that audio for the transcript. As far as to how someone obtained the audio from police evidence… I’m not sure about that one. Maybe extras were made and someone smuggled it out of the station. Then it sat around for 40+ years until someone decided to upload. That’s my best guess.

Yes, I obviously did listen to the audio a while back. Don’t know why I decided to, but I did. Again, I feel the discussion should be about finding footage/photos of her while she was alive. But I’ve seen a lot of speculation online about the audio and I wanted to give my thoughts.

Any archived footage is probably either on a 2” (quadruplex) tape reel or on a u-matic cassette. It’s my understanding that the reels were often reused. But if you wanted a long-term copy, or were making a master tape, then it would be on u-matic. Both of those formats obviously need specialized equipment, especially the videotape reels. There are only a few functioning machines (and people who can use/service them) left to get footage from VT reels. Not as sure about u-matic.

So even if that footage remains in storage, if it’s stored in the original format, that presents the problem of getting it converted to digital so it can be preserved permanently.

I’d also be interested to know if ABC or the Sarasota affiliate has any archived footage of Chris’ show.

Edit: I also want to add that I remember the creators of the 2016 Christine movie saying they had access to a 15-minute clip of her show. E! Network must’ve had access to that footage as well, because part of it is used in the 2006 short documentary. Don’t know if they got it from Steve Newman or somewhere else.

Very cool, tape. Thanks for this. Can’t wait to see what fruits your research bears!

Looks pretty good. I’ve watched some old b&w movies that someone did this with and they look about the same. So judging by that, looks great!

I don't think the audio is from Pat Dyer.  If you look at his DX TV logs from 1974 (https://www.qsl.net/pjdyer/1974tvdx.htm) he only lists WXLT-40 for March 30th and 31st 1974. Christine died that same year on July 15 

My guess is that the source of the WXLT-TV 40 Sign On comes from one of these days. And it was just a coincidence that Sarah Boucher uploaded on Youtube the audio of that Sign On around the time Christine's audio leaked. 

This doesn't rule out other DXer as the source of the audio, however, I'm also more inclined to the "police cassette" theory as the most likely source.