VCR Day to Celebrate Video Cassette Recorders

Back in the 1980s and 1990’s, video cassette recorders were “the” home recording and playback format. The VCR cassette contained magnetic tape, which you could record on and erase over and over again. Just about everyone had a VCR player. You could tape TV shows and movies for playback later. The marketplace offered VCR cassettes with recent movies. VCR Day, a June 7 holiday, celebrates the VCR tape cassette players.

While VCR usage peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, the very first VCR available for commercial sale was released in 1956, by Ampex Corporation in the United States. It did not come into widespread use until the late 1970s. For a short period, the VCR format competed against the Betamax (Beta) tape format. Near the turn of the century, compact discs and DVDs arrived with better quality and longer storage. They quickly replaced VCRs in the marketplace.

During its heyday, VCR cassettes also were used in recording movies in home video cameras. They largely replaced long popular 8mm and Super 8mm movie films, for the average amateur user.

If you are a younger reader, ask Mom and Dad, or Grandpa and Grandma about VCRs. Chances are they have a VCR recorder, and some cassette tapes buried somewhere in their basement. You may even find that you are on some of those cassettes, recording a childhood birthday, dance recital, or graduation.

Like so many other formats, it became outdated as new, better formats are invented. As time goes by, fewer and fewer people are celebrating Video Cassette Day, as this outdated technology fades from memory. Kids growing up today, have no idea what it is. For at least a few more years, those of us old enough to remember the popular VCR will continue to celebrate this day.