In 2019 I was invited by Afonso Simões to take part in the recovery and digitization of a great deal of tapes belonging to the archive of Rádio Nacional de São Tomé (RNST). The task had to be accomplished in situ so after a couple of months of preparation, we packed out bags and set to build a temporary lab at the radio station’s headquarters. We tried to prepare as best as we could for the artifacts’ possible bad conditions, bringing with us a trustworthy Revox A77 mkIV, some lab gear for calibration and maintenance and a good amount of cleaning equipment.
Digitizing the tapes was a time consuming process with each spool having to be carefully prepared for the job and the whole process involved prioritization, labelling, conditioning of the tapes in an extra dry environment prior to unspooling. Ampex and Scotch tapes were some of the most problematic. Most suffered from aging issues such as shedding of the back coating, sticky-shed syndrome and squealing, some depositing a considerable amount of oxide along the tape mechanism, which had itself to be maintained and cleaned in between tapes, sometimes between tracks…
On our arrival at RNST, the radio personnel presented us with a beautiful looking Tascam BR-20 that after some maintenance was ready to be used. In fact, we ended up using the Tascam for the majority of the work due to its heavy duty transport mechanism, a true workhorse for the job.
Among the tapes filled with decades old good music from São Tomé, some of which recorded at the actual radio station, were tapes of “África Negra” a cult band which originated in the early 1970s in the island. We were fortunate to have one of the founding members of the band, Leonídio Barros visiting us and watching us work on some of these tapes. Surely a day to remember.
