This is VHS-2026-032, a Scotch T-120 High Standard tape recorded off WEWS ABC 5 Cleveland. One Life to Live, General Hospital, Oprah, the local news, and ABC World News Tonight. A full day of Cleveland TV from a very specific summer.
Lost Media
The Cleveland local broadcast material from August 2, 1996 is not archived anywhere accessible. The network programming is findable in pieces, but the local news cut-ins, the Cleveland ABC 5 presentation, the local commercial blocks — that’s gone. Cleveland TV in 1996 had its own flavor that isn’t captured in national recordings.
About This Tape
The Olympics bleeding into the news coverage is the thing that makes this tape interesting beyond the usual soap opera recordings. August 2nd was late in the Atlanta games — everyone knew the closing ceremony was coming. The Atlanta bombing had already happened. The news had a particular weight that week.
General Hospital and One Life to Live in 1996 are their own thing. If you were watching afternoon soaps in Cleveland that summer, this is what it looked like.
Streamed January 11, 2026 on Twitch.
