A Global Shortage of Magnetic Tape Leaves Cassette Fans Reeling
Brisk demand from old and new fans prompts a Missouri company to return to a long-paused business
By Ryan Dezember and Anne Steele
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—Steve Stepp and his team of septuagenarian engineers are using a bag of rust, a kitchen mixer larger than a man and a 62-foot-long contraption that used to make magnetic strips for credit cards to avert a disaster that no one saw coming in the digital-music era.
The world is running out of cassette tape.