About This Tape
January 22, 1989. Joe Robbie Stadium, Miami. The Cincinnati Bengals versus the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII. Someone in the Cincinnati market recorded the entire WLWT broadcast onto a Nippon Ultra HQ High Grade T-120 — and nearly four decades later, that tape ended up in a bin at the Goodwill Outlet on Brice Road in Columbus.
This is one of the most famous Super Bowls in NFL history. Joe Montana engineered a 92-yard game-winning drive in the final 3:10 to beat the Bengals 20-16. The tape captures the full broadcast in excellent quality — SP speed on a high-grade Nippon tape from a clean WLWT signal. If you’re a Bengals fan, this one still hurts. If you’re a football historian, it’s essential.
Lost Media
The game itself is commercially available. You can find it. What you cannot find are the local Cincinnati market commercials from this broadcast — and this tape has them.
Commercial Inventory
Local Cincinnati ads (likely unique surviving copies):
- Tri State Chevy Dealers — “34 dealers dedicated to low prices.” Regional dealer group ads from 1989 are almost never preserved.
- Mikita at Denny Lumber — Local Cincinnati hardware/lumber retailer. Commercials from businesses like this simply don’t survive.
- WLWT Station Promos & IDs — Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate branding from 1989. Important for local broadcast history.
- “USA Today on News Channel 5” — WLWT partnership promo. Documents a national/local brand tie-in that no one thought to archive.
- Nightingales — Possibly a local Cincinnati business. Needs further research to confirm origin.
Rare national commercials:
- Michael J. Fox – Diet Pepsi “Android Clone” — A $5 million celebrity endorsement that ran during this Super Bowl. Documented but rarely seen in circulation today.
- Pepsi “Soviet Union” — “There’s been a lot of positive change since they got Pepsi.” A fascinating Cold War-era advertising artifact.
- Diet Coke 3D Commercial — The first 3D ad ever aired during a Super Bowl. Pioneering stuff, and hard to find clean copies.
The full commercial inventory reads like a time capsule of 1989 America. All four parts of Bud Bowl I are here — the complete mini-game narrative. McDonald’s celebrating Big Mac’s birthday at 99 cents. Federal Express running a flight simulator bit where a van jumps into the ocean. Master Lock’s classic “tough under fire” spot. Dodge Spirit landing a space shuttle. The Noid zapping ordinary pizza for Domino’s. Gillette’s “the best a man can get.” Dristan with Mike Ditka. And Wendy’s dropping their Quarter Pound Single to 99 cents.
Billy Joel sang the national anthem in the pre-game — that’s on here too.