Mr. Pop History – Thanks Ted. For so many years, radio stations relied on reel-to-reel tape – especially for newscasts and cartridge machines to playback commercials and music. That all changed when, around 1992 – something called the D-Cart system began to replace tape at some networks – particularly ABC radio. Interestingly – D-Cart was made in Australia. This was the first such digital system for radio record and playback.