No you can't!

Well, it only took:
--several double checks that everything was connected correctly according to the quick set up guide
--four rereadings of the quick set up guide.
--a page by page examination of the complete 87 page guidebook
--trial by hubby
--test by myself
--another test by hubby
--another look at the two guides
--an hour on the phone to customer service during which hubby had to spell his name again for each of three techs as well as explain that the number he gave is a cell phone  because no we don't have a land line and here is our street address but we don't have mail delivered to it and he had to write down a new transaction number for each tech and check the connections on the back of the unit and what the plugs they were plugged into the TV said and try everything the a each of the remote controls did when you pushed each button for the first two
...
before a tech who gave his name as JR (which we are quite certain from his accent is more likely to stand for Jawaral Rajeev than John Robert) said, "No, you can't record from broadcast TV with that model."
...
which was the only VCR for sale in our whole area yesterday.

So we will miss Survivor when we go to the Community Concert tonight.

No, don't tell us. We'll try to watch it on the computer's slow connection sometime before next week.

I wonder if that is why we couldn't record from the old new recorder, either.

Update:
And there were no questions asked when he returned it becasue he was the third person this week returning one for the same reason.

So why didn't the person who sold it to us mention that, since a lot of people in this area use broadcast TV--no cable--no whatever else there is?

Further update:
Wishing to change the station, he asked me where the remote was. Since he had handled it last I told him that it was wherever he put it.

Which, it turns out, is in the box that he took back to the store, since the one for the TV and the one for the VCR that won't record look much more similar than the one for the old VCR and the TV did.