Was High Band even around in the 80’s? My college didn’t have any such machines, nor do I recall seeing any at the local cable company where I took my first tv production course.
One of my instructors in college actually preferred the older top loading decks, as you could simply “pop the hood” for head cleaning and minor maintenance. But boy, did all of the U Matics break down a lot. Can’t recall where they were sent for repairs, (probably somewhere in L.A.) but we were down to one deck when they were backlogged or something. If that dropped dead, we were essentially “off the air”.