The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » Bell Media Digitizing "Thousands Of Hours" Of Content To YouTube

RadioActive · May 11, 2026 11:19 am

It's a huge project that will get a big boost from A.I.

Bell Media has annouced it plans to digitize some 400,000 tapes collected over the years and make them available on YouTube.

"Spanning an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 physical tapes dating back to the early 1960s, the Bell Media archive represents a rich record of Canadian news, music, and entertainment. Through a large-scale digitization effort, Bell Media will convert more than 100,000 tapes by the end of 2026, preserving and reactivating legacy content for modern audiences."

So what kind of programming will you be able to see? One will be "MuchRewind," a gold mine of interviews from the one time Nation's Music Station, featuring stars such as Madonna, Eminem and Britney Spears. A collection of W5 stories will also appear, as well as years of Etalk content. And they promise a huge collection of doumentaries the network has shown over the years. Not to mention a massive collection of news and sports.

Bell Media Partners with YouTube to Unlock 60 Years of Canadian Culture for a Global Audience

ED1 · May 11, 2026 12:06 pm

Hope they throw in some old newscasts from their local stations...

RadioActive · May 11, 2026 1:04 pm

ED1 wrote:
Hope they throw in some old newscasts from their local stations...

That would be great. But it would only show how many cuts there have been to their newsrooms over the years.

Take a look at how many people are on the news set in this Retrontario clip from 1986.

paterson1 · May 11, 2026 1:11 pm

Good on Bell. There will be a lot of old shows that will be great to see again. Even Trouble With Tracy!! I thought I would put that in before someone else did. I'll let RA bring up about the cheap prizes on the CTV game shows. Gotta keep it negative somehow...because hey...it's Bell..

Hansa · May 11, 2026 1:12 pm

Can't wait for 70s Cancon classics like the Trouble with Tracy and Starlost.

paterson1 · May 11, 2026 1:16 pm

Hansa wrote:
Can't wait for 70s Cancon classics like the Trouble with Tracy and Starlost.

Well, that didn't take long...Pig & Whistle anyone??

RadioActive · May 11, 2026 1:29 pm

I wouldn't count on seeing much Trouble With Tracy. I think I read somewhere that most of them have been erased.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 · May 11, 2026 2:06 pm

Please post a link to the youtube channel this content will be on.
Will it be on bell media's youtube channel or ctv's?

Aytononline · May 11, 2026 2:12 pm

I read the press release a few times very slowly. Its only talking about the interviews from Much Music, and bringing all ( I would hope) of the W5 shows to YouTube. They must feel there is a way to make some money from this. Or they have a good deal with Google.

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 · May 11, 2026 2:15 pm

To bad, hope they put some old newscasts and shows on the ctv website and youtube.
I miss ken shaw.
Even if they put the old CITY pauls newscasts up, that would be great.

RadioActive · May 11, 2026 2:39 pm

Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:
To bad, hope they put some old newscasts and shows on the ctv website and youtube.
I miss ken shaw.
Even if they put the old CITY pauls newscasts up, that would be great.

As far as I know, there is no link as yet, because they're just getting started. I'm sure they'll publicize this when it gets underway in earnest.

As far as CityPulse newscasts are concerned, those are in the possession of Rogers, which bought Chum Television in 2007. CTV/Bell would not have access to those. But you can find some great samples of them on Retrontario and on YouTube.

Here's a sample:

Paul Jeffries · May 11, 2026 4:16 pm

RadioActive wrote:
I wouldn't count on seeing much Trouble With Tracy. I think I read somewhere that most of them have been erased.

Well, that's a travesty.

PJ

MJ Vancouver · May 11, 2026 6:45 pm

RadioActive wrote:
ED1 wrote:
Hope they throw in some old newscasts from their local stations...
That would be great. But it would only show how many cuts there have been to their newsrooms over the years.

Take a look at how many people are on the news set in this Retrontario clip from 1986.

It would be nice if they did. I’ve seen some US stations post entire old newscasts on their YouTube channel. WNEP 16 in Scranton, PA has posted a sizeable number of newscasts, and KFMB in San Diego has posted a bunch going back to the late 1960s. (One actually included a long-form interview with former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who was visiting San Diego.)

Shorty Wave · May 12, 2026 7:48 am

Back in 2023 when 299 Queen, the MuchMusic doc premiered, Bell mentioned that they were going to digitize programming from their archives and now they’re getting around to it, which is great! I hope they digitize some of the year end specials, which would be excellent time capsules, remember MuchMusic’s Fromage, where they played the year’s cheesiest videos? It would also be great to see some of the Intimate & Interactive shows, which featured live to air performances, some amazing artist came through back in the day, and also The NewMusic, excellent show! I say, go Bell, and thanks in advance!

67GreenRambler · May 12, 2026 10:15 am

The music interviews I am looking forward to are Jeanne Beker discussing sobriety with Roy Buchanan at a picnic table outside The Brunswick House, Denise Donlon with Southside Johnny where he pokes fun at Springsteen for being 'so rich and so cheap' (confirmed by Bruce in his book) Donlon again with a surly, mean and drunk Ron Wood, Michael Williams excellent interview with Gladys Knight. And perhaps Teresa Roncon holding up against Ted Nugent's condescension.

g121 · May 12, 2026 10:27 am

Shorty Wave wrote:
.. and also The NewMusic, excellent show! ..

Yes, yes, yes .. The New Music was a fantastic show .. would love to see !!

I missed too many New Music episodes as there was only one single TV (in our lounge) in our university dorm & some were more prone to favour Saturday Night Live.

ig · May 12, 2026 10:31 am

RadioActive wrote:
ED1 wrote:
Hope they throw in some old newscasts from their local stations...
That would be great. But it would only show how many cuts there have been to their newsrooms over the years.

Take a look at how many people are on the news set in this Retrontario clip from 1986.

Only person missing from that set is Condredge Holloway.

Just a Radio Fan · May 12, 2026 2:34 pm

This seems to be a complete 180 degree turn for Bell. About 25 years ago after they took over CHUM they began shipping hundreds of video and audio tapes to CKVR in Barrie for storage in the basement.. There were racks and racks of tapes from MUCH and airchecks from CHUM and CHUM FM, as well as hundreds of tapes from CTV as well. They sat in storage for a number of years and then were all tossed into the garbage. I was in there a few times and was shocked by what was there and how much there was. What a loss.

markow202 · May 12, 2026 5:47 pm

Just a Radio Fan wrote:
This seems to be a complete 180 degree turn for Bell. About 25 years ago after they took over CHUM they began shipping hundreds of video and audio tapes to CKVR in Barrie for storage in the basement.. There were racks and racks of tapes from MUCH and airchecks from CHUM and CHUM FM, as well as hundreds of tapes from CTV as well. They sat in storage for a number of years and then were all tossed into the garbage. I was in there a few times and was shocked by what was there and how much there was. What a loss.

Was in storage at CKVR then tossed?

markow202 · May 12, 2026 5:47 pm

Looking forward to MUCH Rewind! I already hit subscribe on youtube and appears there is many videos already going up.

RadioActive · May 12, 2026 6:00 pm

markow202 wrote:
Looking forward to MUCH Rewind! I already hit subscribe on youtube and appears there is many videos already going up.

URL?

Chrisphen · May 12, 2026 6:09 pm

The Corpse digitised their radio archive a few decades ago. I'm surprised they haven't been released to general availability in a similar manner.

RadioActive · May 12, 2026 6:14 pm

Chrisphen wrote:
The Corpse digitised their radio archive a few decades ago. I'm surprised they haven't been released to general availability in a similar manner.

CBC has an archives page, but it's mostly video and it's almost all short clips.

CBC Archives

AspectRatio · May 12, 2026 6:47 pm

Just a Radio Fan wrote:
There were racks and racks of tapes from MUCH and airchecks from CHUM and CHUM FM, as well as hundreds of tapes from CTV as well. They sat in storage for a number of years and then were all tossed into the garbage.

Seems that anyone the least bit educated or passionate about the medium (then again, we ARE talking Bell exec decisions, here!) would realize the historical value of anything and not toss them, though that was common in decades past for movie studio elements too. Is it possible they already had an earlier standard def digitization process that had been completed on them, or these tapes were merely secondary "safety" copies or dubs/dupes housed off-site for the recommended archival process of not everything being in one physical location (fire, flood, etc.)?

torontostan · May 12, 2026 7:42 pm

Shorty Wave wrote:
remember MuchMusic’s Fromage, where they played the year’s cheesiest videos? It would also be great to see some of the Intimate & Interactive shows, which featured live to air performances, some amazing artist came through back in the day, and also The NewMusic, excellent show! I say, go Bell, and thanks in advance!

You can't upload music you don't own, so I'd be tickled pink

torontomike · May 12, 2026 9:23 pm

AspectRatio wrote:
Just a Radio Fan wrote:
There were racks and racks of tapes from MUCH and airchecks from CHUM and CHUM FM, as well as hundreds of tapes from CTV as well. They sat in storage for a number of years and then were all tossed into the garbage.
Seems that anyone the least bit educated or passionate about the medium (then again, we ARE talking Bell exec decisions, here!) would realize the historical value of anything and not toss them, though that was common in decades past for movie studio elements too. Is it possible they already had an earlier standard def digitization process that had been completed on them, or these tapes were merely secondary "safety" copies or dubs/dupes housed off-site for the recommended archival process of not everything being in one physical location (fire, flood, etc.)?

If you caught the 299 Queen Street West doc, as I did, you'd see that the older MuchMusic footage was actually courtesy of Retrontario and not Bell Media. That's because Bell doesn't have the good stuff from the 80s.

RadioActive · May 12, 2026 9:47 pm

AspectRatio wrote:
Seems that anyone the least bit educated or passionate about the medium (then again, we ARE talking Bell exec decisions, here!) would realize the historical value of anything and not toss them, though that was common in decades past for movie studio elements too.

This kind of thing infuriates me. There is no video copy of the very first "Tonight Show With Johnny Carson" because it was not saved - only the audio was preserved for some reason, and that's tough to show on a TV retrospective.

Almost every daytime episode of the original "Hollywood Squares" on NBC is lost to history, because no one wanted to save the tapes. As I recall, they were dumped in a landfill somewhere and disappeared forever. No one had the foresight to imagine a Game Show Network or that they might be worth something one day. Only the syndicated night time shows survive,

So much has been lost due to cheapness that can never be brought back. That's a tragedy.

AspectRatio · May 12, 2026 10:52 pm

RadioActive wrote:
So much has been lost due to cheapness that can never be brought back. That's a tragedy.

Yes. And "Dr. Who", as an example, has been running for so many decades that not all of the show's archives exist. But at least it's a prominent and beloved enough series that it's gotten attention - there's been a collective archaeology push over the years to try to obtain footage from secondary sources. In fact, there's an entire fascinating Wikipedia article on missing episodes and the reasons and details:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodes

I found the below video quite interesting.

In 2013, 9 lost episodes were returned to the BBC by the archive recovery organisation TIEA. This is what then happened to the films.

The film starts with the remedial work required to get the film on the film cleaner, then the film cleaner at work.

The film cleaner works by immersing the film in a bath of specially engineered inert fluid which acts as a transmission medium for the powerful ultrasonic waves which shock the dirt on the surface of the film and loosen it to allow it to be gently scrubbed off by rotating lambswool rollers submerged in the bath. Hot air knives dry the film as soon as it leaves the bath.

Then we see the first of the film watched for the very first time since it was lost.

Shorty Wave · May 13, 2026 6:54 am

torontostan wrote:
Shorty Wave wrote:
remember MuchMusic’s Fromage, where they played the year’s cheesiest videos? It would also be great to see some of the Intimate & Interactive shows, which featured live to air performances, some amazing artist came through back in the day, and also The NewMusic, excellent show! I say, go Bell, and thanks in advance!
You can't upload music you don't own, so I'd be tickled pink

One day you’ll actually post something positive, and we’ll all be tickled pink

markow202 · May 13, 2026 1:56 pm

RadioActive wrote:
markow202 wrote:
Looking forward to MUCH Rewind! I already hit subscribe on youtube and appears there is many videos already going up.
URL?

Much Rewind - YouTube