MORE ON PACIFIC NORTHWEST WRESTLING TAPE LIBRARY STATUS
By
Mike Johnson on 2008-04-06 13:38:05
In today's PWInsider Q&A, we were asked about the status of the Pacific
Northwest Wrestling tape library from when Don Owen promoted in the territory.
Kurt Loyd sent the following addendum to our response:
You are correct in thinking that most of the PNW tapes were lost to time. I am
a producer in the Portland area and have made inquiries in to licensing what
footage remains. Here is what I found...
As was the case with a lot of programming in the 60's and 70's, video tape was
an expensive commodity and tapes were often reused. Most of what aired locally
on KPTV was taped over for the sake of cost cutting. Only a handful of the
betas remained, and those were given away or thrown out when television
operations moved to a new building.
Playboy Buddy Rose was able to get his hands on most, if not all, remaining
tapes and has them in his personal collection. If I'm not mistaken he has
either released or plans on releasing them on DVD through
his web site.
Inquiries as to licensing turned me back to KPTV, whose head of programming
made very clear that they own the rights and not Barry Owen, the Don Owen
estate or the Playboy.
Its a terrible loss for wrestling history. The names that came through this
territory are legendary.
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