Old Cassette Tape Brands

[CrystalBall]

Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

Just remembered - Agfa! The same firm that made camera films and which was eventually bought by BASF. Quite popular in the late 70s/early 80s although not as widely available as TDK, Maxell and Sony.

[CrystalBall]

Re: Old Cassette Tape Brands

That's (mid-80s to mid-90s) deserve a mention as they were the best cassettes on the market. EMI and Philips were very popular in the late 70s/early 80s but gradually fell out of favour as they did not keep up with the Japanese competition. BASF, Fuji and JVC all made very good cassettes and had a presence in the market from the 1970s to the 2000s, although the latter pair were not volume sellers like BASF. Memorex and Scotch were at the budget end of the market but some of their cassettes were OK nonetheless.

[George 1978]

Many of us remember the transparent cassette tapes in the later half of the 1980s and 1990s that were made by TDK, Sony, Maxell and others, but what about the brands that were around in the 1970s and early 1980s?

One brand that springs to mind was Contek which I often saw around the house, and in one or two early 1980s Argos catalogues as well. My mother used to have at least three of the C90s but there was also a C60 version as well.

And there was also Sakura which only did C60s as far as I know. I remember playing some of them and found a 1980-1981 Top 30 chart recorded from Radio Trent.

Also, as we didn't have a VCR until the end of the decade, we did the "National Health" thing of putting the radio cassette recorder next to the speaker of the portable upstairs, and recording the sound off the TV, using the Sakura brand tapes. Found at least three tapes like this - one had TOTP from 1979-1980 - (can't remember the presenter, sadly). Another one had an hour or so of Charles and Diana's wedding on it; and another had the start of Channel 4, and by implication the very first episode of Countdown.

There were other brands, but I can't think of the brand names - there was one that did C60s, had white plastic and had orange-coloured logo label on it. Found some things like a Top 10 from 1977 on that one. And there was another brand that has black plastic and black and brown label on them. My sister used to record Paul Young tracks on her tape.

I know it sounds like an odd thing to ask, but does anyone remember these obscure brands of cassette tapes? And does anyone still have them? I am certain that I still have a Contek C90 in my home, somewhere...