Radio Cassette Players

Author
Discussion

Keep it stiff

Original Poster:

1,762 posts

172 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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What year did cassette playing functionality get added to car radios? I'm guessing mid 70's.

Did their introduction cause much of a change with drivers replacing their 60's/70's radios to radio/cassettes or did radio/cassettes players only really get their foothold as manufacturers started to put them in as standard?

RichB

51,434 posts

283 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
quotequote all
I was about 16-18 when the 8 track vs Cassette war was one. This would have been around early to mid 70s. Many owners replaced their push button Radiomobiles with a tape player depending on which side of the debate you were on.

Stuart70

3,910 posts

182 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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Hi

I remember helping my Dad wire in a cassette player to our family Hillman Hunter estate in about 1978. I doubt if we were early adopters!

Grandfather's Rover SD1 had a cassette player as standard, my grandmother's metro only had a radio. That must have been late 70's and ealy 80's respectively.

Seems like only yesterday and yet a lifetime ago.

Edited by Stuart70 on Saturday 22 November 10:27

Rob Dicky

206 posts

222 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
quotequote all
Fitted a second hand Philips radio cassette player in to my 1972 Spitfire in mid 72 this was a mono player stereo came years later.

dpp

221 posts

138 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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My 76 Vauxhall 2300s came with a radio cassette as standard which they marketed as a big thing.
The first owner of my car had the dealer remove this and fit an 8 track as he didn't have any cassettes.

P5Nij

675 posts

171 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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Reading through my '71 Motorsport mags there are numerous ads for radio / cassette players ;-)

lowdrag

12,869 posts

212 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
quotequote all
Strange that. The London Show edition of Autocar has only mention of 8-track. I know that my 1976 Golf had a radio cassette though.

TonyRPH

12,963 posts

167 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
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According to Car & Driver - the history of car radios the first radio cassette units appeared in 1970.


grumpy52

5,565 posts

165 months

Saturday 22nd November 2014
quotequote all
I fitted units for a living from 72 , more eight track combi units than cassettes initially then swung to cassettes as people recorded their own tapes .
They were expensive bits of kit back then , over £100 if I remember correctly.
We were cheaper than having a factory fitted unit .

XJ Flyer

5,526 posts

129 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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The combined radio and cassette player was a rare and expensive item during most of the 1970's.Even FM stereo radios weren't that common either.Having said that the Blaupunkt Bamberg was a combined stereo radio and cassette player/recorder which provided the unusual ability to record from the radio in a car system.In general the usual most common choice in the day was the push button MW/LW Motorola and a seperate PYE auto reverse stereo cassette player.Which at least provided the ability to make stereo recordings from the radio at home and then play them back in the car.While in most cases it was usual to remove the radio/cassette when selling the car and therefore find none in it when buying often even factory fit options were removed when selling unless advertised with it all left fitted and priced accordingly.

Edited by XJ Flyer on Sunday 23 November 02:27

StuntmanMike

11,671 posts

150 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Well thanks a lot guys, I've got a lot on today and have ow wasted 3 hours looking at old radio cassettes.
Found the one I had in my first 2 or 3 cars, pioneer kp 4800, looking at that brought back some memories.

P5Nij

675 posts

171 months

Sunday 23rd November 2014
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Read a period review of the Series 1 XJ6 in the Brooklands road test book this morning which mentioned the cost of fitting a radio cassette player in one of these fine machines... £146.00!

Spottedlaurel

461 posts

168 months

Monday 24th November 2014
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A problem back then would have been fitting a combined unit into a slot designed for a push-button radio. I remember back to 1988 and having to hack bits of plastic out of a panel to fit a unit into my 1981 Datsun Cherry. People also had them slung under the dash somewhere.

My current 1980 Datsun Laurel (I don't progress much do I?!) was a bit posher and had a radio and cassette player as standard. However, these are actually separate units, the radio playing through a mono speaker in the dashboard and the stereo cassette (with auto-reverse!) hooked-up to a pair of speakers in the rear parcel shelf. There is no link or cut-out between them, so it's possible to play the radio and listen to a tape at the same time...

I found several boxes with old radios and cassette players just recently when I was sorting out the garage and I picked-up quite a nice period, boxed Sanyo set-up from an autojumble for a very modest price. I was pleased to find that my recently acquired 1996 Lexus LS400 still has a tape player in it.

Another question might be to ask when did people start fitting graphic equalisers?

lowdrag

12,869 posts

212 months

Monday 24th November 2014
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The date of 1972 seems a trifle uncertain judging by my research. Here is a Pye advert from Autocar show edition 1974.



The price is equivalent to about £575 today, so extremely expensive. However, in the three sections of this show edition there was only one advert for a radio cassette, so it must have been a pretty new thing then. In the October 1973 edition I found this one:-



Sanyo were also advertising radio cassette and separate cassette player as an option. But going back to the 1972 show edition I can find no adverts at all for cassette player. But it would be a "wrench" if I didn't share this advert cool





Edited by lowdrag on Monday 24th November 15:48

RichB

51,434 posts

283 months

Monday 24th November 2014
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It must have been around that time though because I fitted one of the Pye Auto Reverse Cassette players to my MGA in 1974 which I bought 2nd hand in a electronics shop in Turnham Green for about £25.
I remember it would occasionally chew up the tapes when it did its auto reverse trick! Most annoying...

Yertis

18,016 posts

265 months

Monday 24th November 2014
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I first saw one factory fitted to a 1973 Audi Coupé. As an eight year old who usually rode around in a van I thought this the apex of human achievement, and started a love affair with Audi that lasted until I had dealings with their dealer network.

52classic

2,446 posts

209 months

Monday 24th November 2014
quotequote all
AIRC, throughout the 70's most British and European cars came without even a radio. You would spec the level of sounds you wanted (as an optional extra) and then the equipment was fitted at dealer level.

As a 'user chooser' of my company car at that time I had 2 Capris, Mk 3 Cortina and a Dolomite, all supplied without a radio in order to get the car I wanted within the budget I had available. That would have been 1973 - 79.

Aftermarket ICE was big business then! People like Pye and Radiomobile offered cassette players from about 1970 and combined units a little later. Then Binatone and Elpico lowered the price point.

The big revolution was Datsun and Toyota having a radio, usually with a cassette player, built in to the dash even on the basic models. From say, 1972 Radio cassette was more or less universal in Japanese cars.

In 1970 I recall buying a gadget which fitted under the dash to enable a Philips 3300 series, MONO cassette player to output via DIN plugs, through the amp of the car radio.


Nigel Worc's

8,121 posts

187 months

Monday 24th November 2014
quotequote all
I seem to think that you were into the 80's before these started to become standard fit, because the Japs did on their cars.

I remember my dad having a new GL trim Ford Cortina estate, the GL meant you actually got a radio, just a radio, and mono at that.

Mr Tidy

22,065 posts

126 months

Tuesday 25th November 2014
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I bought a 1978 Granada Ghia in 1981 and it had a standard-fit push-button FM radio cassette with the Ford joystick to balance sound to the front/rear and left/right speakers, so probably late 70's was when they began to appear as standard.
Sometimes it helps to be old!getmecoat

The Surveyor

7,576 posts

236 months

Tuesday 25th November 2014
quotequote all
The first ones were around in the late 1960s.

Here is an advert from the August 1968 issue of Car magazine:-






Yours for 38 gns , the new Philips radio cassette player.

Also includes an advert for this little chap, anybody seen one on an old car ?



Paul




Edited by The Surveyor on Tuesday 25th November 17:49