Stereo-Pak - History

History

The endless loop tape cartridge was designed in 1952 by Bernard Cousino of Toledo, Ohio, around a single reel carrying a continuous loop of standard 1/4 inch plastic oxide-coated recording tape running at 3 3/₄ inches/second (9.5 cm/s). Program starts and stops were signalled either by a conductive foil splice or sub-audible tones. The tape was pulled from the center of the reel, passed across the opening at the end of the cartridge and wound back onto the outside of the same reel. The spool itself was freewheeling and the tape was driven only by tension from the capstan.

George Eash, also of Toledo, an inventor who had rented space in Cousino's building in the 1950s, later revised Cousino's design (1954, receiving a patent in January 1957) and marketed it under the name Fidelipac. These cartridges were first used in radio stations (broadcast cartridges) from 1959 on to program commercials and single song hits.

Entrepreneur Earl "Madman" Muntz of Los Angeles, California saw a potential in these broadcast carts for an automobile music tape system, and in 1962 introduced his "Stereo-Pak 4-Track Stereo Tape Cartridge System" and prerecorded tapes, initially in California and Florida. He licensed popular music albums from the major record companies and duplicated them on these 4-track cartridges, or CARtridges, as they were first advertised.

Previously, music in the car had been restricted mostly to radios. Records, due to their methods of operation and size, were not practical for use in a car, although several companies tried to market an automobile record player — that is where the Motorola Corporation derives its name (motor + Victrola = Motorola).

Notable celebrities such as Frank Sinatra had 4-track players installed in their cars. Music was released on 4-track tape for automobile enjoyment and later for home use.

Muntz manufactured 4-track tape players and pre-recorded 4-track cartridges until approximately late 1970, by which time the Stereo 8 8-track tape had become the dominant format. Columbia Records was one of the few major record labels to release music recorded on 4-track cartridges on a widespread basis.

The Stereo-Pak cartridge had four monaural or two pairs of stereo tracks. To switch back and forth between the two program tracks, a manual lever is engaged, which physically moves the head up and down mechanically. The Stereo-Pak did not switch tracks automatically, unlike the later Stereo 8 cartridges.

The tape was coated with a slippery backing material patented by Cousino, usually graphite, to ease the continuous slip between the tape layers. This coating sometimes also caused the pinch roller to slip, leading to poor speed control and tape flutter. Due to these problems, 4-track cartridges were never popular with audiophiles. While the design allowed simple and cheap players, unlike a two-reel system it didn't permit winding of the tape in either direction. Some players offered a limited fast-forward by speeding up the motor while cutting off the audio but rewinding was impossible.

After taking a ride with Muntz in a 4-track player-outfitted car, Bill Lear, maker of the Lear Jet, modified the 4-track technology to create the Stereo 8 cartridge, widely known as the 8-track. Most notably, eight tracks were squeezed onto the same ¼" tape, reducing potential audio quality, but allowing twice as much music to be put onto the same length of tape. The pinch roller was also an integral part of the 8-track cartridge, although many early rubber rollers would suffer from deterioration because the rubber had not been fully cured. Once this was discovered, all later rubber pinch rollers were "fully cured" (hard) rubber, or plastic rollers (introduced by RCA in 1970) were used instead. Thanks to his connection to Motorola, which made radios for Ford Motors cars, Lear was able to ensure that 8-track players would be included in many Ford cars, and they became popular mainly during the early- to mid-1970s. 4-track tapes gradually faded away and were gone by late 1970, as most people switched to 8-tracks, although players compatible with both 4-track and 8-track tapes were sometimes made. Inexpensive adapters were available that permitted 4-track tapes to be played in 8-track players. The adapter was a rubber pinch roller attached to a small metal plate that would clip into the opening in the 4-track cartridge. 4-track tapes are still in-demand by collectors.