There was a time when a reporter’s tape recorder looked like a tape recorder. This is no longer the case, says RIDZWAN A. RAHIM.

I GET questions all the time when I go for an interview, which is funny because, as a reporter, I am supposed to be the one asking the questions. But yes, nine times out of 10, my interviewee will be asking me questions — not about me, but about my “tape recorder”.

You see, I use an iPod to record my interviews. People are curious about it because it looks like a strange contraption. It has a little microphone that I can point in any direction, like an antenna. If the weather is good, I can even use it to make contact with “Mars”.

My iPod doohickey also has only one visible button so people often wonder how you actually use it.

This then becomes a subject of conversation. Often, my interviewees will remark about how fast technology changes and how difficult it is for them to keep up.
iPods are not the only way to record interviews these days. I know of some colleagues who use their handphones or pen-sized digital voice recorders for work.

But there was a time when life was a lot simpler and a reporter’s tape recorder looked like, well, a tape recorder, with a mic, play, rewind and record buttons and a compartment for cassette.

And it used to be bulky.

NST specialist writer Annie Freeda Cruez, who began her career in 1979, remembers how she and her fellow reporters had to carry their tape recorders in special carrying cases because of their sheer size.

These recorders used standard-size audio cassettes and four AA-size batteries. They went very well with the equally unwieldy ATUR “mobile phones” that reporters used to carry.

By the early 1990s, the newspaper business gradually shifted to recorders utilising micro cassettes which are still very much in use today.

“The smaller recorders were easier to carry as I could just chuck it into my handbag. But we also liked the big recorders because the tapes were easier to find,” says Annie.

She adds that recorders in those days were quite an investment.

“They were not cheap. And because of that, we tried not to use the rewind function too much to make sure they lasted as long as possible.”

What the reporters used to do was to “manually rewind” the cassettes: by driving a ballpen into one of the two holes and swinging the cassette around.