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Storm of the Century — Stephen King ABC Miniseries (WSYX Columbus, February 1999)

TAPE ID: VHS-2026-263

The tape sat in a mismatched MGM sleeve. Fuji T-120 HQ inside. Six hours in EP mode. The content was Stephen King’s Storm of the Century — the full original ABC broadcast from WSYX Columbus, February 1999.

Tape Details

Tape ID VHS-2026-263

The miniseries is fine. The commercials are what make this tape worth talking about.

The Tape

Tape ID: VHS-2026-263. Picked up from the Goodwill Outlet on Brice Road in Columbus. Fuji T-120 HQ cassette inside an MGM Studio Grade sleeve — the sleeve and tape don’t match. Somebody just grabbed whatever was nearby when they recorded it. Recorded from WSYX, ABC6 Columbus. February 14, 1999 recording date.

The Miniseries

Stephen King wrote Storm of the Century as an original screenplay — not adapted from a novel, which makes it a slightly different animal in the King catalog. A stranger arrives on a small Maine island during a massive blizzard. He knows things about everyone. He has demands. The show aired over three nights on ABC in February 1999. It’s available on DVD and streaming. The broadcast version is the archive-worthy piece.

The Commercials: What Got Found

This tape went through a deep research pass in March 2026 against Internet Archive, YouTube, and ad archives. Several of the commercials are not findable anywhere online.

  • Lay’s WOW Chips (Whoopi Goldberg) — Olestra chips pulled from market due to side effects. Product is well-documented in articles. The actual TV spots are not found on YouTube or Internet Archive. Confirmed lost.
  • Mandalay Bay “opening soon” — Pre-opening teaser ad before the March 2, 1999 launch. iSpot.tv only has Mandalay Bay content from 2014 onward. Not found online. Confirmed lost.
  • Aerial Communications — Regional cell provider serving Columbus, Houston, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Pittsburgh. Acquired by VoiceStream (later T-Mobile) in 1999 for .5 billion. Brand completely vanished. No TV ads found anywhere. Confirmed lost.
  • go.com — Disney’s internet portal launched December 1998, shut down 2001. Dot-com bubble artifact. No specific ad video confirmed online.
  • Strange World ABC promo — Sci-fi series that lasted three episodes. Promotional material for a show that died in three weeks is rarely preserved.
  • Nightbeat ABC 6 News Columbus promos — Local news promos from 1999. Confirmed lost.

More from the Break Log

  • Intel Pentium III “coming Feb 28” — Pre-launch ad, pins the recording date to mid-February 1999
  • Surge ad with Smalls — Coca-Cola’s Mountain Dew competitor, discontinued and revived, cult following
  • Cadillac Escalade “Bad to the Bone” — First-gen Escalade launch ad, 1999 debut
  • Chunky Soup with John Elway — Aired weeks after Elway won Super Bowl XXXIII on January 31, 1999
  • 10-10-321 — Dial-around long distance service, quintessential late-90s product
  • E-Trade — “Where are you on your broker’s speed dial?”
  • Jerry Seinfeld for American Express
  • Domino’s HeatWave bag — The insulated delivery bag launch
  • Drew Carey Show promo / Home Improvement promo — Prime-time ABC lineup, 1999
  • Ameritech Yellow Pages — Baby Bell absorbed into SBC/AT&T
  • Buick, Sprint PCS, Wendy’s Monterey Ranch Chicken, Saturn, NicoDerm, Zyban, Dale Jr. AC Delco

Stream Notes

Streamed over two sessions — started January 25, 2026, finished January 27. Six hours of tape takes a while to get through.

Catch the next stream live on Twitch.

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