Playing back the joys of tape From the Crates

Kelly McCoy

Kelly

McCoy

is a veteran Atlanta broadcaster who writes about the days popular music only came on vinyl records, which often were stored in crates.

Tape.

Not duct tape, electric tape, measuring tape, packing tape or any of the 790-or-so other types of tape. Recording tape. Lives were impacted by this wonderful invention … creation … label it as you wish. I was searching for old audio to assist a group of my friends who are on their adventure with a new group, Friends of Georgia Radio. That search gave me the idea for the subject of this article: audio tape.

In the 1890s, Alexander Graham Bell and some friends came up with the way to record audio on wax cylinders. Later, taperecording pioneers and engineers changed the world by capturing audio with a more durable and efficient technology than wax that could crack, or even melt.