This is old technology from my industry.
We called this contraption a "cart" which was short for tape cartridge.
The continuous loop of magnetic recording tape was used to record sound clips to be played during a news update on radio.
When the record feature was activated, a cue tone was generated at the point when the tape began moving to record the clip you wanted.
The tone also acted as a stop signal so the recording wouldn't play through a second time while you were on the air.
As a presenter is was key to leave just a short gap of no sound at the beginning so you could activate the tape while saying the last word of the
introduction, so the listener didn't hear the "clunking" sound made when the tape started.
Stations I worked for we're still using this technology in the early 1990's before migrating to digital recording and playback.
Note the hand written identification label. I was on shift January 28, 1986 and had prepared this blank cartridge in advance, to capture the launch of the shuttle Challenger - "Teacher In Space" program. An event we thought would mark the beginning of an era of routine space travel. The recording was supposed to be used in the top hour newscast. That recording was never played for that purpose since the coverage of the launch failure continued live on radio and television for many hours.
I have transferred the audio to digital to preserve it, but keep the tape version to remind me how such a simple device was used to capture a small piece of our history.
AA
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