The Fidelipac or as we called it a “cart” was similar to an 8-track. Do you remember the 8-track? My first 8-track was Barry Manilow’s Greatest Hits. When you use a cart for radio there was only enough magnetic tape on the cart for whatever song you wanted to play. Say you wanted to record “Please Don’t Go” by KC & the Sunshine Band. That song is 3 minutes and 43 seconds so you would want a cart with about 4 minutes of tape on it. But this new invention had its problems too. I can’t tell you how many times I was playing a song on the air and the machine ate the tape. Gobbled it right up. I raced to find another song and jam it into the machine and hit play. Sometimes the carts wouldn’t fit tight in the machine making the sound go in and out of phase. That’s okay … just take a pencil or matchbook and shove it under the cart. Yes, those were the days when some DJ’s actually smoked in the studio so matchbooks were easy to find and use as a quick fix. We needed better technology. Something more dependable. Introducing the Compact Disc.
use as a quick fix. We needed better technology. Something more dependable. Introducing the Compact Disc.
Compact Disc’s or CD’s became very popular in the radio industry. No more cue burns! They were small. I could play one over and over and it would never lose quality. We used them for many years. Recordable CD’s made things even easier. But wait they can get scratched or heaven forbid you get a speck of dust on there. It can cause your CD to skip or jjjjjjjjam wwwwwith aaaaa rrrrroooobotic vvvvvoice. We needed better technology. Bring on Digital!