Tape Cartridge History

Dave Hultsman, Continental Electronics, 27 November 2006

I am certain that many folks have some history on the largest jump in broadcasting in many years, which was the move from 3 inch reel-to-reel and ET's (Electrical Transcription) playback of radio station commercials, to the more modern tape cartridge in late 1957. The Viking company had manufacturered a background music transport called a Viking 35 that could be used for background music playing. Several companies took this machine, and later on, the Viking 36 cartridge machine and adapted them for broadcast comerricials and jingles.

The tape cartridge used was the Fidelipac Model 300, 600 and 1200. The had a continuous loop tape which fed from the inside of the hub. Since the machines were designed for background music the were no solenoids for starting.

Collins had audio equipment at WJBC-AM-FM in Bloomington, IL and the salesman was very interested in the new tape cartridge machines that Ted Bailey, the CE, had developed using the Viking 35 Deck and a solenoid for starting the tape. The initial units used foil sensing tape for cuing. They later modified the cueing to a 60 Hz, burst at the beginning of audio on the tape on another channel.

Several guys including Andy Rector can probably relate this story better than I, but Collins entered into an agreement with WJBC for them to build three units for the 1958 NAB show in Washington, DC. The built two playback machines and a combo Record-Playback machine. Collins set up an audio console at the NAB and sold a bunch of the Model P-150 and the P-190 playback units. The P-150 was a 15 inch wide machine and the P-190 was a 19 inch rack mount machine.

The people at WJBC formed a company that became ATC Automatic Tape Control, These first machines were modular using tube electronics on plug-in cans. Collins had a marketing agreement to market them under the Collins name exclusively for two or three years. Jack Jenkins and Ted Bailey quickly refined the first models and came out with the PB-150 and the PB-190 series using new electronics and moving to the larger hystersis synchronous motors with a three belt drive and heavy flywheel and a direct pull solenoid. They also added the cue tones of roughly 1 kHz and 150 Hz on the control track. Collins sold a bunch of these units. Later on Collins and ATC both sold the same deck with different names on the front panel.

Collins later developed their first 642 tube type cart machine. And later on the 642E solid state "Twin-Tape" Cartridge machine.

There are many other early pioneers in the business, Ross Beville at WWDC began the Spotmaster brand (Broadcast Electronics) using the Viking Decks, Bill Moulic began the McCarta company and later on SomoMag. Sparta and its early 200 Series based on the Viking desk and later on their 300 series using a later Viking deck. Others include Tapecaster and others.

Prior to the cartridge the McKenzie company had helped the Walt Disney Company in 1955 with their 5 section metal cannisters with tapes recorded on an Ampex 350 and used foil tape for cuing. A common capstan ran the five decks. They were great for jingles and special effects and intros. They migrated to radio stations. KHJ in Los Angeles had four of the McKenzie cartridge players allowing the engineer to load uo 20 items in advance. Much better quality than ET's and auto cueing..

Gates had the ST-101 Spot Tape which was a 13 Inch wide belt of audio tape slightly over 90 seconds long. A photo of the ST-1010 can be seen on Barry's http://www.oldradio.com under Gates Audio equipment.