BBeM: Home Entertainment Item

Home Entertainment

8-track tape cartridges
(introduced in 1964)
8-track tapes

There are 12 comments for this item.

Posted by twozillas at 8:48 pm (PDT) on Thu August 13, 2009
In 1973 a friend lent me an 8-track player. I rigged it up but we only had one tape to listen to during the whole 250 mile round trip to Ocean City, MD and back. At least it was a good one, Deep Purple "In Rock". I later had a Radio Shack "Realistic" 8-track recorder. Wow, that was state of the art for the time!
Posted by Katbear at 5:59 pm (PDT) on Sun August 16, 2009
I have a 1970s Wood stereo- one of those that you could use as a coffee table or knick-knack shelf when it wasn't in use as a record player, 8 track player, or AM-FM radio.
Posted by dtdavis2012 at 1:17 am (PST) on Sat January 21, 2012
I hated 8 tracks from the get-go. If you had one favorite song, you had to let it play through so you could listen to it again. Thank God for cassettes and, eventually, cds!!
Posted by Duff at 11:42 am (PST) on Sat January 21, 2012
Having worked at my college's radio station, I was familiar with "carts" and their operation, saw no benefit whatsoever in the 8-track variety, and thus never had a player. But a friend recently gave me three "blank" 8-track tape cartridges. I have no idea what's on them; it's a tantalizing mystery. I'm torn between offering them, unplayed, on eBay, and hunting down a player to check 'em out first.
Posted by paktype at 10:48 am (PDT) on Tue March 13, 2012
My friend's father had a '77 Ford Granada that came with one of these. Within a few years, cassettes had completely taken over from 8-track tapes.
Posted by GlenEllyn at 1:08 pm (PDT) on Sat June 16, 2012
I worked for a small music distributor in Arizona in the mid-1970s and oh, how I remember those bright blue GRT 8-tracks and cassettes.
Posted by Duff at 1:03 pm (PDT) on Mon July 30, 2012
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall anyone having an 8-track recorder. You couldn't make your own mix tape, as you could with cassettes. Cassettes definitely preceded 8-tracks, but their quality and that of their players was not good enough for hi-fi music reproduction. Cassettes -- their formulation, mechanical construction, noise reduction, wow/flutter,, etc., all underwent significant improvement until they were eventually overtaken by CDs (which, again, hardly anyone could record themselves for several years).
Posted by Alan at 1:57 pm (PDT) on Mon July 30, 2012
In 1966 I had a Lear 4 track car tape player, the predecessor to 8 track. There was no way to fast forward or reverse. There was one electronics store in town, St. Louis, that had a 4 track recorder and sold blank 4 track tapes. I went there several times with a stack of LP's that I transferred to 4 track tape. Eventually my unit was stolen and a few months later, so was its replacement. By then I gave up.
Posted by ozarkbob at 8:50 pm (PDT) on Mon July 30, 2012
I had an 8 track in a couple of my vehicles, and at one time had 8 track recorder, My wife and I still have 8 track players, and cartriges, cassettes came after 8 track, I don't know if I still have the recorder, I was into 8 tracks in the 70's
Posted by ozarkbob at 8:52 pm (PDT) on Mon July 30, 2012
I once had a 8 track that would fast forward, you couldn't them because of mechicanal design
Posted by dtdavis2012 at 5:19 am (PDT) on Tue September 25, 2012
One thing I never could justify was the price of pre-recorded 8 Tracks and Cassettes being the same.
Posted by GlenEllyn at 5:45 pm (PDT) on Tue September 25, 2012
When I worked for a music distributor back in the 70s there was a price difference between 8-tracks and cassettes. The cassettes were a couple of dollars less, but at that time the cassette format was less popular.

Registered users can log in to post comments or submit items for the galleries.