When you make a tv commercial what does the local tv station do with it when you don't use it anymore?

Question

My grandpa owned a meat store in Detroit from 1969 to 1989 and made several commercials in the 1970's on the old auction theatre show and the scene which aired on WGPR now Cbs 62 in detroit but in the 70's it was WGPR a black run station. I am trying to find his old commercials just to have a memory i was told they are thrown away but I don't know how commercials work.

Answer 1

Usually we destroy them after a year or so.  Videotape deteriorates with time.  Also there are problems with storage space.  Commercials are rarely reused after their initial run so there is no reason to keep them.  Advertisers usually want fresh new commercials.

Any commercial from the 70s would be on 2 inch videotape.  I haven't seen a 2 inch VTR since the late 80s.  So, even if they did keep the material, and it were still playable, I doubt if they would have a machine that could play it.

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