• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

cart machines

There might be some of the smaller stations still using them, but for the most part, it's all on a hard drive these days. I used to have a couple of old Gates machines that were given to me by a station I worked at..big, heavy boat anchors! A lot of stations used the ITC triple-deckers, Deltas, etc....mostly antique by today's standards. Given the fact that the machines required a lot of maintenance and carts would jam, hiss, and go in and out of phase, (not to mention that occasional missed cue tone or a jock that would pull the cart out of the machine BEFORE it was cued) it's probably a blessing they've gone by the wayside.
 
What Mike Turner said.

I haven't used a cart machine since 2001 and even then I used it because the computer automation crashed.
 
I think the last time I used one was in 1998. FMS switched to ENCO that Aug. Good bye to cutting edge technolgy circa 1961
 
It sounds like EEEEVEN if everything blew up, you'd still be able to wire up a laptop with MP3's on it and stay on the air until the new board or whatever arrived.

Seems like only yesterday that the only "back-up" systems were dirty old cart machines and reel-to-reels.

Good donation material for the local high schools and sneaky pirate radio people soliciting equipment for a start-up, right?
 
Lafayette Unplugged said:
Good donation material for the local high schools and sneaky pirate radio people soliciting equipment for a start-up, right?
Click to expand...

While I've used them occassionally since, the last time I did use a cart machine with any regularity was at WEDM (Warren Central's station).

Pretty good experience in all honesty.
 
Just for the appreciation of the past, every student, college or otherwise, should still be forced to learn editing with a razor blade and the intricacies of putting a song on a cart.

I know it's all antiquated, but it shouldn't come so easy for people who are just getting started.

"You're just jealous, Unplugged!"

Um...yes...yes, I am.
 
Lafayette Unplugged said:
Just for the appreciation of the past, every student, college or otherwise, should still be forced to learn editing with a razor blade and the intricacies of putting a song on a cart.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree it would be a good learning experience, but after dealing with it personally (razor blades and grease pencils), and knowing what's available now, I think I would rather have my fingernails ripped out with pliers than be forced to deal with editing that way. Anyone here ever wind their own carts? We're talking some real fun there!
 
Yeah, I think it was somewhere around 1998 that I last used a cart machine. Now that I think about it, that was also the last time I played music that WASNT on the harddrive...
 
Things got easier, but they didn't get better.
Another rarity exclusive to the radio industry. Hmmmm...

Winding your own carts, knowing how to work a reel-to-reel, cart machines, cueing up a cut on vinyl, CD's, hitting the post, etc.
It's not just the TASK part of it. It's all part of appreciating where radio has been.
Know your history.

Youngsters who come into an air studio (with no human beings in sight) should know why all the songs are now on a computer and people aren't needed for broadcasting anymore.
It's too simple to just teach someone how to use software and hope they can put two words together to read a spot or the (pre-recorded) forecast.
 
Start-Trek

At least with cart machines you could do an honest-to-goodness segue. Try that with your automation system.

I don't miss carts, I don't miss vinyl, I don't miss reel-to-reel, I don't miss razor blades & splicing tape. I would, however, happily go back to CDs and rotating index cards in a bunch of categories instead of letting the computer create transitions that make no musical or contextual sense.

Someday there will be an automation system that will let the jock choose from among 3 or 4 songs so the element of taste can be reinserted back into the presentation. If you don't make a selection, there will be a default song played. If you replace the default song, that goes back to the top of the list in that category. If you reject it twice, you no longer get a choice on that song in that category. You'll also be able to choose go through all the choices ahead of time and pick your music before you hit the studio. Lastly, you'll be able to manually control each cut on an individual audio channel so you can create segues easily.

C'mon, Mr. Scott, make it so!
 
I think that was the basic premise behind RCS Master Control. I know that ClevelandHits.com was using MasterControl combined with Selector to do that and also incorporate web-site voting into the playlist. Clevelandhits.com was probably about 10-15 years ahead of its time.
 
Meistro will do that....... when it works. Come on Google, make the crap Computer Concepts put out really work instead of being a P.O.S. The interface is kinna nice if it actually would work a month without failing.

Damn drawbacks.

;)
 
I know a few small market stations that are still on cart machines....

im 22 years old and I can edit using razor blades...cue records and rebuild carts
 
EncSpy said:
I know a few small market stations that are still on cart machines....

im 22 years old and I can edit using razor blades...cue records and rebuild carts
Click to expand...

If you learned that at a small market station, at least you can say that you know how to do those things. It's not often a person your age knows how to do any of that. I haven't cued a record, spliced or rebuilt a cart since 1994, and I haven't used a cart machine since 2002.

I've found quite a few stations in the midwest and deep south still are in the cart and vinyl era. I've spoken to the owners, and they've told me that they're comfortable with the profit that they're making by not changing a thing (how often do you hear that?) so why bother?
 
This is a funny conversation...

I've been in radio now 10 years, and started in a small market. To this day the only reel to reel tape or cart I've ever cued up was in a college production class. I learned to do everything digitally at the radio stations I worked at.
 
Countrykev said:
This is a funny conversation...

I've been in radio now 10 years, and started in a small market. To this day the only reel to reel tape or cart I've ever cued up was in a college production class. I learned to do everything digitally at the radio stations I worked at.
Click to expand...

You came into the business when digital audio was becoming the industry standard. The technology, when you think about it, isn't all that new. Right around 1990 was when Computer Concepts came up with their first DOS-based hard-disk system which was really not user-friendly to say the least. Then Arrakis came up with Digilink (my very first experience in 1993) two years later, and then others afterwards. What system did you use?

Prior to 1993, it was a grease pencil, splicing tape, a "frankenstein" reel, and a dull razorblade in that production studio!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom