Instant Replay was the first magazine-format, direct-to-video program for home-video consumers. Established by Miami, Florida, entrepreneur Chuck Azar in 1977, and released on VHS and Beta-format videocassettes through 1982, it contained segments devoted to live music performances, reports from technology and electronics conventions, interviews, bloopers and other off-air content from network- and cable-television satellite feeds, and home-video hobbyists' contributions, among other content. It was predated by a direct-to-video trade magazine, Videofashion, sold to fashion-industry professionals on industrial U-Matic videocassettes.
| Format | VHS and Beta-format videocassette |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Chuck Azar |
| Founder | Chuck Azar |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Final issue | 1982 |
| Company | Instant Replay Video Magazine Inc. |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Miami, Florida |
| Language | English |
| Website | irvm |
History
editInstant Replay was established by Miami, Florida, entrepreneur Chuck Azar in 1977 as the first magazine-format, direct-to-video program for home-video consumers.[1][2] Based in the city's Coconut Grove district, the namesake company, Instant Replay Video Magazine Inc.,[3] produced numerous editions of its magazine-format video, which ran two hours each[4] and retailed for $59.95 initially[2] and later $80 through 1982.[4] Yearly subscriptions sold for $1,000 and included access to a 10,000-hour library of recorded video.[4] Instant Replay was available both by mail order and at a small number of retail outlets.[5]
While the magazine-format video program ceased production in 1982, the company itself continues to exist as of at least 2016, as a video library of over 30,000 hours.[6]
Previously, a direct-to-video trade magazine, Videofashion, from the New York City-based Videofashion Inc., was sold to fashion-industry professionals on industrial U-Matic videocassettes, beginning in 1976.[2] It became nominally a consumer magazine in 1979, with one-hour videocassettes available through the Time-Life Video Club for $395 each.[1]
Content
editEach edition of Instant Replay contained approximately 10 regular segments. The "First Anniversary Issue" included:[7]
- Video News
- Video Art
- Commercial Potential,[4] consisting of commercials from other countries, not otherwise available in the U.S. at the time
- Sports Spot,[4] generally in the form of sports footage set to music, in the manner of proto-music videos
- Illustrated Music, including David Bowie's "Space Oddity" set to NASA footage or Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" set against footage shot from a roller coaster[4]
- Did You Miss This?, consisting of "odds and ends from broadcast TV, HBO and elsewhere,"[7] such as "Saturday Night Live's Bill Murray popping a Polaroid flash on the Weekend Update set, thereby burning a hole in the sensitive lens of a $10,000 TV camera and giving viewers a brown spot on their screens for the rest of the show whenever that camera was used."[4]
- Technical Corner
- Satellite News, focusing on home satellite dishes and including non-aired footage captured by hobbyists recording the continuous satellite feeds.
- Segments featuring clips sent in by "correspondents"
- Interviews, including with Jack Valenti,[7] head of the Motion Picture Association of America; telecommunications mogul Ted Turner;[4] television pioneer Vladimir Zworykin.[4]
Editions
editTwo hours each unless otherwise indicated. Source:[8]
- Video Art Issue
- Budokan video concert, Ron Hays' Odyssey, computer artist Saul Bernstein, 1980 Consumer Electronics Show, more, including "Technical Corner" with video artist Skip Sweeney on creating visuals using video feedback.[9]
- Video Music Issue
- Billy Preston interview, segments featuring Devo and The Doors, more.
- First Anniversary Issue
- Ron Hays' Star Wars concert, Jack Valenti interview, reports on Magnavox videodisc player, backyard satellite dishes, and Anthony Quinn, more.
- Flight Issue
- Bob Hoover "video stuntride", Evel Knievel biography, Cliff Robertson interview on film The Pilot, more.
- Funkausstellung Issue
- Report from the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin.
- Special editions
- International Air Race & Show (90 minutes)
- Reports on stunt pilot Bob Hoover, author Martin Caidin, The Amazing Sonic Acrojets
- C.E.S. 1979 (40 minutes)
- C.E.S. 1980 (60 minutes)
- Reports from the Consumer Electronics Show
- Ecological Jazz Band (45 minutes)
- Concert featuring band including Duffy Jackson of Count Basie's Orchestra and trumpeter Frankie Man.
- SPTS '80 (60 minutes)
- Report from the National Conference of Home Satellite Pioneers
- 1980 Bacardi Speedboat Race (30 minutes)
- Report from the Florida speedboat competition.
- Madness Takes Its Toll (30 minutes)
- Richard O'Brien interview, report from a The Rocky Horror Picture Show event.
- Test Tape (running time n.a.)
- Color bars, grids, crosshatches, patterns and other tools for testing VCR and TV quality
- IR Sampler (running time n.a.)
Critical analysis and legacy
editMagazine-format video programs, which one writer in 1980 dubbed "videozines,"[10] became common by the mid-1980s, running the gamut from McGraw-Hill's Aviation Week[1] to Karl-Lorimar Home Video's Playboy Video Magazine.[2] As one journalist wrote in 1988,
Although this is a concept that's now starting to gain widespread attention, the notion of a true magazine on videocassette is hardly new. More than a decade ago … Chuck Azar founded the form with Instant Replay, a one-hour [sic] magazine that provided information about the latest video equipment, along with tips and techniques for the home consumer. Issued sporadically, the video magazine was … way ahead of its time.[1]
Azar remained active in the video and electronics industries, serving on the policy-making council of the RIAA's video division,[11] and through his company produced the pre-MTV half-hour weekly music-video program Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Vision on the Miami, Florida, TV station WPLG.[12] He invented a multi-standard VCR, branded as the Instant Replay Image Translator, that could play and record both US-format NTSC and international PAL-format videocassettes.[13]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Trost, Mark (August 14, 1988). "Curl Up on the Couch and Watch Your Favorite Magazine". Boca Raton News. Los Angeles Times Syndicate. p. 8E. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
- ^ a b c d Lovece, Frank (November 15, 1986). "Magazine-Related Product is Growing, Innovating". Billboard . p. 60.
The first true consumer videozine was 'Instant Replay', produced by the same-name company beginning in 1977. The $59.95 'Instant Replay' continued to be issued sporadically until 1981 [sic; 1982].
- ^ "Instant Replay Video Magazine, Inc". FloridaCorp.org. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Sonsky, Steve (April 9, 1982). "A Seer with a Video Vision". Miami Herald. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
- ^ Lester, Wendy Jo (September 1980). "Video Wars". Miami Magazine. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
- ^ Instant Replay Video Magazine official site.
- ^ a b c "Program Reviews: Instant Replay "First Anniversary Issue"". The Videophile. n.d. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
- ^ "Zen and the Art of Video Feedback, The Instant Replay Update
- ^ Lovece, Frank (November 1980). "Birth of the Videozine". Comic Times. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
- ^ "RIAA Video Elects Mort Fink". Billboard. July 3, 1982. p. 35. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
- ^ "Video Takes". Billboard. July 12, 1980. p. 44. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
- ^ "What's News? TV Standards Converter for Video Recorders" (PDF). Radio-Electronics. Vol. 53, no. 2. Gernsback Publications. February 1982. p. 6. ISSN 0033-7862.