Our Crowdfunding Groups
Our crowdfunding campaign has ended, but you can still Save The Betas by clicking here.
Thanks to our donors! Here's a blast from the past to highlight the importance of this collection. If it's 1996 and you want to find the best person to interrogate Bill Cosby about his problems with a female costar and damaging stories in the news, of course you'd choose Charlie Rose. It's a 4-minutes of meta-#MeToo.
So why did UCLA buy Betamax VCRs instead of VHS machines? How could we not, with powerful advertising like this. Vampires, men in hats, and robots clearly know their consumer electronics!
For $10, we can digitize the content of one Betamax tape, preserving its content for future generations. (fully tax deductible)
Is there a special day in history or your own life? For $50, you can sponsor our digitization of that day's news so it will be preserved forever. We will include your name and that date (between 1980-2005) on our honor roll of timesavers and on our next social media shout-out. (fully tax deductible)
For $250, we can buy a solid, low-end Betamax VCR from eBay and digitize lots of tapes. When it eventually dies, we can use its parts so others may live. We'll also include your name on our donor honor roll and on our next social media shout-out. (fully tax deductible)
For $350, you can sponsor our digitization of an entire week of news so it will be preserved forever. We will include your name and that week (between 1980-2005) on our honor roll of timesavers and on our next social media shout-out.
With your donation, we can purchase a guaranteed refurbished, higher-end, new(ish) Betamax VCR. In addition to including you on our honor roll of donors, we will use a fancy Dymo adhesive label to identify you as the donor and include an action shot of the machine working in our lab online and on our next social media shout-out. (fully tax deductible)
For $1,000, we can digitize 2/3rds of an entire month of news. You will be invited for a tour of our lab, including a pizza lunch with our student workers. We would also include your picture on our next social media shout-out. (a tax deductible donation amount of $989)
The highest level of contribution would fund the permanent preservation of an entire year's worth of television history. For $18,000, you can ensure that future generations are able to see and learn from their past. In recognition of your generous contribution, you would be invited to join Prof. Tim Groeling and our student workers for a tour of our lab and a lunch at the Luskin Conference Center. (a tax deductible donation of $17,974).