Like what the funk I've just seen? :yikes:
I'm curios if they where ever used for video juking.

Doubtrul. Too expensive to buy, way too expensive to maintain, and too valuable as on-air ad spotbox machines. And too soon ... I don't think that particular trend started until the last 2" tape decks were long dead and buried. Although, we did a lot of 2" to 1" transfers and edits for MTV type reels.

Yes you are correct! I ran master control and the pit for years with a TCR. Later in it's life it developed some quirks, one of which was to not eject the first cart in the break and then it would keep playing the first two carts over and over again. Another quirk was the arms would come down but then wouldn't pull the cart into the tape threader. So if we were quick we could eject the first cart from the machine, while the belt was on the move (tricky) and then "help" the belt move forward and load the next cart. For the problem with the arms we could literally push the arms down a bit and then stuff the cart in to load it. I left the door open in master control so I could "listen" to the TCR. We had the speaker on so we could hear the machine tones as it cycled. If I heard it doing something wrong I could fly down into the pit and fix it quickly. We didn't need a second machine for short spots in the breaks, like ID's, because the company bought the accessory in-machine recording editor. That thing was great, we could edit FRAMES! So if we had a couple of 10 sec spots and an ID back to back we could edit a single cart with the three spots and the ID.

I recall the RCA TCR-100
 

I worked with the TCR-100 at 2 different stations in the 70's. The first one in 1974 would occasionally loose a drive belt and when it did it would often destroy the innards ( tape ) of the cart that belt was controlling.
The second one I worked with wasn't as bad . . . that was 1975.

I recall AMPEX came out with a similar machine , that used AIR to suck the tape out of the cartridge or something like that. It pulled the tape out it seemed by AIR. I never worked with one but did see it in operation in the late 70's.

Al

I think the Ampex cart machine was the ACR25. If memory serves it did use vacuum to help in tape handling. It also used a vacuum guide for proper headwheel contact with the tape. The vacuum, and the curved shape of the guide, would hold the tape in proper contact with the rotating headwheel.

Ahh the good old days. I wonder if anyone ever got their tie caught in one of these things ......... and lived to tell the tale. :)

My boss at station WFMJ-TV, in 1971, told me he once had his tie go through the headwheel assembly on their TR-70. Left a series of diagonal slits in his tie, and cost the station a headwheel.
But getting a tie caught in a TCR-100 would be really bad!

There's probably some old comic that made the rounds back then showing some tech's legs sticking out of a machine flailing around, and a caption like: Keep all loose clothing away from machine" lol.

Small world syndrome... a Post house I worked for in Cleveland was owned by WKBN Broadcasting out of Youngstown, but a little later than 1971. We were heavily into 1" and Beta by that time. But I had two quad machines for dubs still that had to be kept running. One RCA, one Ampex, just to keep things interesting. And a room full of VPR2 1" decks with CMX editor... oy

It is a small world... I live just over the PA line, about 30 miles from Youngstown; when I was a field engineer, I used to service a couple of theatres out there.

I do remember seeing one of those dual cartridge machines running, at a visit to WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh. That was back in the 80s; I don't recall the brand.

Love those 1970 era hairstyles and clothes on the girls; was that really 50 years ago??