Sunday Times Travel Podcast | Time Travel - Who's dumb enough to make a travel podcast on cassette tape?

--:--
Sunday Times Travel editor Paul Ash has always travelled with a tape recorder. Long after cleverer people dumped clunky tapes for the brittle efficiency of solid-state flash-memory recorders, pundits have been shouting "Tape is dead!" from the rooftops.

Yet, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of tape's death have been greatly exaggerated. The National Audio Company of Springfield, Missouri, USA, makes about 10 million cassette tapes a year for tapeheads and artists as different as Pearl Jam and Arianna Grande.

Those musicians have helped ensure that there's life the old dog yet.

In this episode, veteran tapehead Ash speaks to Sunday Times colleagues about the considerable punishments and slow-burning joys of cassettes and making mix tapes for the objects of your heart's desire.

The interviews were recorded on a Marantz PMD-420 two-head cassette deck, using a Rode M3 "direct fire" condenser microphone. Field audio was recorded on a Sony WM-D6C Professional Walkman and an Akai micro-cassette dictataphone.
18 May 2019 English South Africa Places & Travel · Society & Culture

Other recent episodes

Sunday Times Travel Podcast | Lisbon in Four Voices

Paul Ash speaks to some Lisboetas - people born and raised in Lisbon - about what makes their city so magical. The original hang drum music was composed and performed by Lisbon-based musician Nuno Moreno. The track "1116" is from his album Groove A Zen Sound, available directly from Nuno,…
12 Aug 2018 13 min

Sunday Times Travel Podcast | Where the wild things walk

In this podcast, iSimangaliso Wetland Park's lead wilderness trails guide, Mandla Buthelezi, tells Paul Ash about buffaloes and lions, the warning snarl a leopard makes - and what you should do if you get charged by a hippo.
4 Aug 2017 5 min

Sunday Times Travel Podcast | How to run away to sea

Paul Ash boards a traditional square-rigged sailing ship for a voyage from Cape Town and speaks to the crew about life on the ocean wave. Sea shanty sung by Ordinary Seaman Dikembe Dio, aboard the Picton Castle in February 2015.
3 Sep 2018 16 min

Sunday Times Travel Podcast | Shots Fired

The game rangers and guardians of South Africa's Kruger National Park are engaged in a bitter and dangerous struggle against armed gangs of rhino poachers. Paul Ash spent three days in the world-famous wildlife reserve, listening to their stories.
24 Sep 2018 13 min