Radio Station Broadcast CartridgesRadio Station Broadcast Cartridges
Images and text by Scott S., Halifax, Canada snarfdude@hotmail.com
The big cart (left) can hold a total of 31 minutes, and was used as a station emergency
backup tape These days we use a CD-R...but it's interesting to hear the thing, as
it's about 28 years old.....the music on it dates the early 70's....who knows how old the
actual cart is....it plays well in my old 60's vintage gates mono cart players.
The smaller cart (right) I still use at work in radio production on a regular basis...in
fact, I took it out of the studio to scan it! We still use carts to a degree, as they can
be more practical than our on-air computer system...and you know what happens when the
computer dies. This smaller standard....I forget the actual name...is pretty much the
standard for carts these days.....most newer machines won't play the big stuff.....I've
seen up to 8.5 minutes on one of these.....they come usually in 40 secs, 70 secs, 100
secs, 2.5 mins, 3.5 mins, 4.5 mins, 5.5 mins, 6.5 mins, and 7.5mins.... more then enough
for broadcast use.
Additional comments by Robert A. Farace, Jr.:
During my tenure at my college radio station (78-82) we not only had pre-loaded carts in lengths like those described, but we also had a machine for winding custom length carts. We had a carton of empty shells, and we'd take the spool, slip it onto a winding peg that resembled one side of a reel-to-reel, and wrap a turn or two of lubricated tape around it, which was fed from a pancake at the other end of the machine (which was maybe a foot by two feet in size). We'd then turn on the motor, which wound the tape onto the spool, and when the tape counter told us we'd reached the desired length, we turned it off, cut it, and spliced it. The spool then was assembled into the rest of the shell. Now I'm wondering if any of that equipment is still there.