By Frank “Smokin”
I was always fascinated with the 8-track tape player. The first one I ever saw was at my aunt and uncle’s house. They had one in their kitchen with a bunch of pre-recorded tapes popular in 1971. For those that remember the 8-track player, it played cartridge tapes that were either pre-recorded albums, or they were blank recordable tapes. On the good side, they were easier to play than reel to reel tapes and even cassettes as you didn’t have to flip over the tapes to play the other side. Simply push in the cartridge and you were off with continuous music as the tape would play over and over again until you ejected it. They were more durable and easier to handle than records and they were very portable.
Once the technology caught on, car radios began offering 8-track players and portable units could be taken on a picnic or simply out in the backyard. Of course, there were downsides to this technology too. One of the biggest complaints was that the tapes would occasionally jam in the machine. It was not a pretty sight and unless you had the patience and skill to disassemble the cartridge and untangle what seemed like a mile of tape, those tapes were headed to the trash. If your player was not cleaned with isopropyl alcohol for regular maintenance, the dirty pinch roller was usually the culprit that would “eat” your tape. An annoyance was the fact that the tape had to switch tracks 4 times in order to play all the way through. If this change happened during a song there would be a big drop-out in the song and that loud click from the machine. Many pre-recorded tapes would fade their songs down, wait for the switch and then ramp up the volume to finish the song.
Granted, it’s not the best way to hear your favorite songs. For me, the 8-track was a way to record my favorite songs or radio shows. When I was recording my own songs, usually from records, I would time them out so each track would end a few seconds short of the track switch. My first radio show at my college was recorded on a friend’s 8-track recorder up in his room. I still have that 3 hour show on those three 8-tracks. After replacing the pads on the cartridges, they play as fine as they did a little over fifty years ago. By the way, I’m not going to push my luck on that not so reliable technology, I did dub those tapes digitally from my original Sony TC-228 recorder onto an external hard drive, along with all my other 8-tracks so I can have them preserved for the future.
