We had an 8 track player in our house in the '70s. So I'd go to Jack Cullen's record store in the Brentwood Shopping Mall and I'd buy 8 tracks of The Shadow and Superman.
Jack Cullen actually had his own booth at the back of the store where you could see him recording his radio program--the Owl Prowl. You could hear this late at night and on the program, after playing big band music, he'd play many of the classic radio programs from his vast archive.
I got a do it yourself crystal radio for one birthday, so I'd lay in my bed and dial up Jack Cullen. Cullen had been around for some years by then, so he knew people like Frank Sinatra and Jack Benny, who he'd meet and interview whenever they came to town.
The 8 tracks didn't hold up well. By the '80s, when I'd try to play them there was lots of ghosting as the sound from one track had transferred over to another track. And most of the tapes fell apart as the bit of silver tape that spliced the tapes together fell off (sometimes when the cartridge was still in the player).
I still have an 8 track player (not the same one, but another one I got for free from a friend when she moved); however, I don't have any tapes in usable condition.
