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Fidelipac? I Wonder if Fidel Knew?
September 5, 2007

As I shall momentarily prove, this was a day when I had little to do — well, actually much to do with little motivation to get it done. 

When that happens I find ways to distract myself, often silently telling myself that I really needed to be doing whatever it was I chose to do instead of what I should be doing. But today I am so glad I did what I wasn’t supposed to, but am now glad I did.

Do yourself a favor and go to the Welcome to 8-track Heaven Web site and just click on everything clickable. Now before I go any further, if you don’t know what an 8-track is, shame on you, one, for being in the CE industry, and two, particularly for reading TWICE, both while not knowing. 8-tracks are part of the bedrock of CE history both for the car and home, and it simply will not do to not know about them. 

I really like people who are passionate about whatever interests them, and here we have a group who are so about a CE technology that has not been commercially available apparently since 1983 or 1988 if you count the tape clubs such as RCA and Columbia who continued to offer them for five years past the time they ceased to be available in stores (I learned that in the “Frequently Asked Questions” section of the Welcome to 8-track Heaven Web site.)

And I also learned things like:

• the origins of 8-track were actually as a continuous loop point-of-sale advertising device as opposed to the successful music playback product it ultimately became.
• that in the early ’60s a man named George Eash developed what was then one of two competing cartridge systems for 8-track, his called Fidelipac (with no apparent concern about possible confusion with the then newly anointed leader of Cuba. Hmmm … it kind of sounds like a Latin American communist political action committee doesn’t it?).
• that 8-track’s unquestionable success as an aftermarket car stereo product ironically owes much to Ford’s decision to offer 8-track players as an OEM option on many of their 1966 models.

Why does this matter? It probably doesn’t in light of the long list of things you really must get done. Like the stuff I will do, ahem, tomorrow. I just couldn’t resist and thoroughly enjoyed my trip through this CE time portal. And if you take the trip, make sure you check out “Program 4, 4-track tapes where it all started” and “Program 2, Current 8-track Releases.” Fidel would love it!

Bill Matthies is the president of Coyote Insight (www.coyoteinsight.com) and can be reached at (714) 726-2901 or wmatthies@coyoteinsight.com 

Posted by Bill Matthies on September 5, 2007 | Comments (0)