Just learned about this recently. So, 'wiping' is when they literally wiped the tapes clean to record new stuff on them. It's bonkers to think so many shows were just erased. Still, it's a pretty cool piece of TV history to dive into!

Not just BBC, lots of other broadcasters did the same thing. Tape was super expensive, and nobody had the foresight to think these shows would be important later on. They saw no value in keeping them, so zap, they recorded over them to save money. There's always hope that copies turn up though. It's happened before!

Imagine your fav show just poof, gone forever. That's what happened with a lot of BBC stuff. They'd record over the old programming with new stuff. Guess they didn't think anyone would care about it years later. There's been some success in finding old copies though, which kinda feels like you're bringin' history back to life!

I've got this massive collection of old media, and it breaks my heart every time I think about all that wiped content. Back in the day, the idea of a secondary market for shows wasn't a thing. They thought once it was broadcast, that was it, end of life cycle. Nobody considered the potential historical or cultural value. It's a golden rule for collectors like me now - never throw anything away!

They wiped because they couldn't see the future, duh! No one had a magic crystal ball to say 'Hey, in 50 years people will go bananas over black and white TV shows'.

Oh, wiping refers to BBC or other studios erasing tapes of shows. They did it to reuse the tapes and because they didn't think the shows had any rerun or syndication value. This was before home VHS/DVD, so yeah. Nowadays, we're always on the lookout for any old recordings that might pop up. It's super exciting when a lost episode is found!

Wiping was mainly done to save $$ and space - video tapes were pretty pricey back then. BBC wiped a lot of stuff, including some classic 'Doctor Who' episodes. There's been a push to recover what's lost by using off-air recordings and stuff from overseas broadcasters. It's a bit of a mishmash now, but the recovery effort's been pretty fun to follow.

Ah yeah, wiping's a classic case of short-sightedness. Back then, the BBC had no idea stuff would be worth keeping. They reused tapes to save cash. Loads of old shows, especially from the 60s and 70s, got lost coz of it. Sucks big time, but on the flip side, it's made finding those lost episodes kinda like a treasure hunt for us nerds haha.