The Magic of Audio Cassettes

For the past few years, I've read one story after another about how audio cassettes are on the way out. You can't even find them at large music stores. The same is true of audio cassette tape decks that you connect to your home stereo system.

In the early 1970s, I looked upon audio cassettes as a welcome replacement to 8-track cartridges. Remember 8-track? I still have my cartridges, but I can't remember if I still have an 8-track player buried among my boxes in my storage closet.

I haven't listened to cassettes very much in recent years. They didn't sound very good anymore. I had read about cassettes losing their quality after ten years or so, and most of my cassettes were older than that.

One day, I counted how many cassettes I have--about 400. Probably a fifth of them are cassettes of The Saturday Swing Shift, a big band radio show I hosted in Chicago between 1976 and 1981.

Two months ago, I took my two cassette decks to my local repairman, Ned. He can fix almost any electronic product. And he is honest, too. Ned phoned me the next day to say my cassette decks were not worth fixing because they were simply worn out. Both decks were about 25 years old. Ned suggested I buy a new cassette deck, but he cautioned me to choose wisely, because they aren't made as well as they used to be. He suggested Sony as a good brand. I gave my old decks to Ned to use for spare parts.

Last week, I visited my neighborhood Best Buy store. They only carried one brand and model, a Sony TC-WE475. The price: $149.95. I had seen it for less online, but a bird in the hand.... And no shipping charges, to boot!

I bought it and connected it as soon as I got home. At first, I play a few pre-recorded cassettes by a variety of artists, such as Anita Baker (one of my all-time favorite vocalists), Count Basie, Tears for Fears, and some of my old radio shows. I've never heard them sound so good!

I know how to transfer LPs to my computer, but I did a Google search to see how to transfer from cassettes to my computer. I ended up purchasing an inexpensive program from Microsoft called Plus! Digital Media Edition. It works beautifully! With a cassette deck, the trick is to run a cable from the deck's output jack directly to your computer's linein jack. You'll need a "Y" stereo adapter cable with a pair of RCA-style, left- and right-channel connectors (male) at one end and a single line-in, 1/8-inch (3.5 millimeter) mini-connector at the other. Don't have one lying around the house? Just write down the description and drop by an electronics store.

For example, at Radio Shack you can get a six-foot patch cable (Catalog #42-2352 at $5.99), add a Y adapter (Catalog #: 274-879 at $5.99), and you're ready to go. Or go upscale at Monstercable.com and get a 10 ft. Computer Stereo Audio to Stereo Receiver Connector (Model JM REPC M HP-10 at $24.95), which is all you'll need.

Would like like to hear how it sounds! That's easy. Just click the Play button to hear a show I did about Stan Kenton on Feb. 7, 1981:

Smoke Dreams

Sometimes a song comes along that really grabs us. We can't hear enough of it. Time passes, but the song lingers amidst our memories and feelings. When it comes to surface, perhaps as we sing or whistle or hum the song, it might evoke a certain time or place or person, most likely a loved one.

One of the first songs to hit me that way is called Smoke Dreams. I heard it when I was a boy in the mid-1940s. "Smoke dreams from smoke rings, while the Chesterfield burns...." I hadn't heard that song for many years, but once in awhile, after all this time, I would still find myself humming it. I couldn't remember who played it or sang it.

I thought of Smoke Dreams a couple of months ago when I was working on my new podcast blog, The Palomar. I was transferring a Chesterfield broadcast from 1947 featuring Tex Beneke and his Orchestra. As the broadcast came to a close, the band played its theme, Moonlight Serenade and suddenly segued into Smoke Dreams.

What a wonderful surprise! A few minutes later I was searching Amazon to see if they had any CDs with Smoke Dreams on them. They only had a couple, both by Jo Stafford with Paul Weston (her husband) and his Orchestra. That rang a bell! I checked through my CDs looking for my only one by Jo Stafford. Sure enough, Smoke Dreams was on it!

You can hear both versions on The Palomar, but why wait?

Just click the Play button to hear "Smoke Dreams"....

Postscript: Eddie Hubbard is the announcer on this Chesterfield Show from 1947. He became one of the most popular radio personalities in Chicago a couple of years later. My family listened to him every morning on WIND for many years.