Originally Posted by
DougRNS
prolly to advance the tape past the leader so it will not miss any of the recording.
I have a bunch of TDK SA90 cassettes. I still can play them too. Going on 40 years old, that is unimaginable. Good thing I recorded them when I was 2.
Actually, the main reason for the pencil, despite my desire to say that one would use the cassette to sharpen the pencil, is that when one has one of those accidents that happen with those tapes, and 18 feet of tape are sticking out of the shell, you use the pencil to carefully windd it back in (making sure to not let it get twisted).