These Were the Carts of Our Lives - A History of the Broadcast Cart

[57sputnik]

These Were the Carts of Our Lives - A History of the Broadcast Cart

Feel free to read this article at 7.5 inches per second

From Radio World: https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/roots-of-radio/these-were-the-carts-of-our-lives

For nearly 30 years, audio tape carts were essential to radio station operation, first for spots and later for music. Their initial development is a fascinating story with many loops, er, twists and turns. In the early 1950s, George Eash of Toledo, Ohio, experimented with loops of tape in a bin and a device to apply graphite to the back of the tape to lubricate it as the tape slid on itself during playback. He was granted several patents for his inventions and initially was dismissive of new back-lubricated tape from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing and Reeves-Soundcraft. However he quickly changed his mind. His patent for a cart shell to hold the tape loop would become the standard. A Chicago company was licensed to manufacture the cartridges using the Fidelipac name. Several manufacturing companies followed.

I hope none of the sarcasm-intolerant find this to be controversial or political...

 

[Rusan]

I wish I had a dollar for every time I played a cart when I was a weekend DJ at a local station back in the 90s. A fellow DJ from back then is now the manager of a radio conglomerate that simulcasts six stations of different formats from the same building, and everything's 100% different. All the ads that were then manually played on carts are now digitally pre-programmed, as is the music.

Back then, you were constantly watching and doing everything by the clock; selecting and cueing music and carts, muting and unmuting channels, reading the weather, recapping local news and sports and announcing upcoming local functions, checking the Telex, taking requests and other calls, occasionally doing live ads/mini-interviews in the studio with local business owners and organization leaders, all while trying to sound like a cool, cocky, suave fighter pilot on the air without messing up. Now, everything is prerecorded, programmed on software, and plays automatically. Makes me feel like the ancient relic that I am.

 

[Spiritworks]

Back then, radio was good. Now it's homogenized crap.

 

[fazer]

I still have a cart machine that’s set since the 90s. Built like brick shxt house.

Back then, radio was good. Now it's homogenized crap

Rant to follow:
Radio was about humanity back then. Music crossed the race gap. If it sounded good, felt good, it is good. More automation, less human. Reagan deregulated media/radio ownership. It Let Wall Street get its mitt into something run by individuals and turned it into a conglomerated segregated marketing campaign. Digital automation took the humanity out of the programs. “Never turn your back on digital and now we can add AI.
Rant over:

 

[57sputnik]

Actually most of it occurred during the Clinton administration with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which lifted ownership caps forming large radio groups. I was working in broadcast, as well as recording, during that era.

And yes radio sucks today and is completely unlistenable. I rarely turn it on except during bad weather. In Dallas we have an NPR AOR station, KXT, which is actually pretty good. That's about it however.

https://www.fcc.gov/general/telecommunications-act-1996