The first tape recorder I received as a kid was not a cassette machine. It was bit a older than that.

It was a small Radio Shack reel to reel tape machine. It was capable of recording with the provided corded microphone. I don't think wireless microphones were around back in the 60s, but what do I know.

I think it was that tiny reel to reel tape recorded that stared my interest in working at a radio station. I would spend lots of time recording the local AM station on those little reels, which probably contained about 10 minutes of tape recording time on them. I bought several, since they were quite flimsy and would tend to break a lot.

I would do my own talking between the songs, pretending to be the DJ. I eventually wore the tape machine out. It got to the point that the rewind would no longer rewind. Fortunately by that time, the cassette and machine had been invented, and that was to begin my next adventure in the future of tape recording. Even though I enjoyed tinkering around with reel to reel tape machines as a kid, I'm glad that we've graduated to the technology of today with MP3 and beyond. Did you live through the reel to reel tape machine era? What did you use it for?

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