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John Moore Recalls The Days Of Radio Station Carts & Tape Editing
It's not often you hear someone recalling the glory days of old radio tech on the air, but after their morning newscaster accidentally played the wrong clip on the 6 AM news, CFRB host John Moore came back on and started talking about the days when radio stations used carts and noted that kind of thing happened all the time.
He then went on to describe what they were, what they looked like (picture an 8-track shape cartridge) and how you'd come into the studio with a ton of them stacked up and then accidentally trip and see them go flying onto the control room floor - and completely out of order.
He also took note of the days when we edited tape with a grease pencil and a razor blade, now something of a lost art, taking out the "ums" and "uhs" after an interview, to either make the discussion sound more coherent or just to get the thing down to the proper time. Been there, done that, more times than I can count! (Did anyone else have a piece of 7" tape constantly lying on their leg as they attempted to make sure the edit sounded OK, just in case they needed to put it back in and try again?)
An unusual moment for radio to discuss itself, but it while it was brief, it brought back a lot of memories for those of us who toiled before everything was digital - or should I say "digical?"
- mic'em
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Re: John Moore Recalls The Days Of Radio Station Carts & Tape Editing
I started in radio in 1974 at age 18, walked in off the street at a 250 watt blowtorch in Summerside P.E.I, anything not turntable related, was on reel to reel. When they finally did a get cart machine, a three slot unit, it was like going to space in an Apollo. 
- paterson1
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This brings back memories. I used to love editing with the blade and grease pencil, especially on interviews taking out unnecessary off topic rambling from either the guest or myself. I wish more podcasts did this. Many podcasts are too long IMO simply because all of the boring chit chat is too often kept in. Or the host interrupts too much with one of his or her stories.
Carts and cart machines were great, the ones I used in my career overall were pretty reliable. My first on air job, where I worked evenings, I would play a longer song to gave me a chance to run to the newsroom and gather up my next newscast.
The song was Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel. When I returned to the control room, the song was skipping. What? It was recorded on cart! It skipped three or four times and then proceeded to continue. Whoever recorded the song in production, left for a few minutes and during that time the song skipped on record and was all recorded on the cartridge.
Guess I was the lucky one to first play the newly dubbed and slightly longer version of the Simon and Garfunkel classic. 
- Skywave
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Re: John Moore Recalls The Days Of Radio Station Carts & Tape Editing
While CKGB in Timmins was one of the first to have a McCurdy SS1000 console complete with three 16" turntables and two Ampex 351s arranged in a horseshoe configuration, it did not have cart machines at the outset. The Ampex machines were augmented by a Magnecorder, and commercials were all on reel-to-reel tape. Not only did the DJ have to race around loading the three machines for each commercial break, but there were multiple cuts on each tape. You had to fast forward and count the gaps between cuts.
Those who remember the Magnecorder know that it rewound at warp speed, and was a dangerous beast.
Even CFRB resisted going to carts for quite a while, and transferred commercials to acetate disc using a professional Scully lathe. Those were the days.
- mike marshall
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Re: John Moore Recalls The Days Of Radio Station Carts & Tape Editing
RadioActive wrote:
It's not often you hear someone recalling the glory days of old radio tech on the air, but after their morning newscaster accidentally played the wrong clip on the 6 AM news, CFRB host John Moore came back on and started talking about the days when radio stations used carts and noted that kind of thing happened all the time.
He then went on to describe what they were, what they looked like (picture an 8-track shape cartridge) and how you'd come into the studio with a ton of them stacked up and then accidentally trip and see them go flying onto the control room floor - and completely out of order.
Reminds me of a feature that we ran in Edmonton in the mid ‘60s. Bob McCord brought it back from one of
his gigs in Texas (KLIF Dallas, KILT Houston).**
A couple of times per show, we’d take a caller who’d get to choose an oldie she/he’d like to hear from the
CHED Golden Wheel.
On a lengthy ‘loop’ cart, there were a fair number of heavies, couple of seconds long, each separated with the sound of a clicking casino wheel.
Two turntables, one on each side of us, would be in motion. From a master stack of 45s, as the tape played,
we’d place (without cueing) the matching record on one of the turntables.
When the listener hollered “Stop, Golden Wheel!” we’d hit a jingle, cue the single, then fire the tune out
of the logo.
Imagine the horror when an earlier jock left the stack of 45s OUT OF ORDER!! Talk about living on the edge.
** Noticed the voice of Bob McCord on a recorded Rolling Stones concert promo on the Chuck Dunaway
1966 KILT aircheck this week at Dale’s RR Scrapbook.
- RadioActive
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Re: John Moore Recalls The Days Of Radio Station Carts & Tape Editing
A few interesting memories:
March 1973:
May 1965:
Carts were no good without a place to put them all:
Sept. 1971, the one most of us remember:
And finally, the real thing, which I saved many years ago and still have upstairs. It supposedly contains the "Good Morning" opening Jim Brady used to use on CFTR. Can't play it, though!
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